The Republican House Hate Caucus-- The 53 Most Homophobic Members

Indiana bigot Mike Pence blew the whistle on this one. A couple weeks ago we looked at how the Republican obsession with openly gay people and the Republican obsession with "czars" was degenerating into a jihad against Kevin Jennings, the Assistant Deputy Secretary at the Department of Education for the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools. Bigot extraordinaire Steve King of Iowa wrote a letter demanding Obama fire Jennings and 52 other right-wing extremists signed it. This is really the worst of the worst when it comes to homophobia:

Steve King (R-IA)
Rodney Alexander (R-LA)
Robert Aderholt (R-AL)
Todd Akin (R-MO)
Steve Austria (R-OH)
Michele Bachmann (R-MN)
Spencer Bachus (R-AL)
Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD)
Joe Barton (R-TX)
John Boozman (R-AR)
Paul Broun (R-GA)
Henry Brown (R-SC)
John Carter (R-TX)
Jason Chaffetz (R-UT)
Mike Coffman (R-CO)
Tom Cole (R-OK)
Mike Conaway (R-TX)
Geoff Davis (R-KY)
Mary Fallin (R-OK)
John Fleming (R-LA)
Virginia Foxx (R-NC)
closet queen Trent Franks (R-AZ)
Scott Garrett (R-NJ)
Phil Gingrey (R-GA)
Louie Gohmert (R-TX)
Duncan Hunter (R-CA)
Darrell Issa (R-CA)
Jim Jordan (R-OH)
Doug Lamborn (R-CO)
Bob Latta (R-OH)
Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO)
Kenny Marchant (R-TX)
Tom McClintock (R-CA)
closet queen Patrick McHenry (R-NC)
Buck McKeon (R-CA)
Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA)
John Mica (R-FL)
Jeff Miller (R-FL)
Sue Myrick (R-NC)
Randy Neugebauer (R-TX)
Pete Olson (R-TX)
Mike Pence (R-IN)
Joe Pitts (R-PA)
Bill Posey (R-FL)
Mike Rogers (R-AL)
Tom Rooney (R-FL)
Paul Ryan (R-WI)
Bill Shuster (R-PA)
Chris Smith (R-NJ)
Lamar Smith (R-TX)
Zach Wamp (R-TN)
Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA)
Walter Jones (R-NC)

David Dreier must have been off in Fiji or Iceland-- or in a toilet with Aaron Schock. Uncharacteristically, neither right-wing closet case signed the letter. Oh, and here's the letter they sent, a reiteration of all the lies and twisted nonsense you can hear on Fox or on Hate Talk Radio any day, any time:

Dear Mr. President,

We respectfully request that you remove Kevin Jennings, the Assistant Deputy Secretary for the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, from your Administration. It is clear that Mr. Jennings lacks the appropriate qualifications and ethical standards to serve in this capacity.

As the founder of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), Mr. Jennings has played an integral role in promoting homosexuality and pushing a pro-homosexual agenda in America’s schools-- an agenda that runs counter to the values that many parents desire to instill in their children. As evidence of this, Mr. Jennings wrote the foreword for a book titled Queering Elementary Education: Advancing the Dialogue about Sexualities and Schooling. Throughout his career, Mr. Jennings has made it his mission to establish special protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students to the exclusion of all other students. The totality of Mr. Jennings’ career has been to advocate for public affirmation of homosexuality. There is more to safe and drug free schools than can be accomplished from the narrow view of Mr. Jennings who has, for more than 20 years, almost exclusively focused on promoting the homosexual agenda.

Equally troubling is Mr. Jennings’ self-described history of ignoring the sexual abuse of a child. In his book, One Teacher in 10, Mr. Jennings recounts a 15-year old student confiding in him that he had a sexual relationship with a much older man. Mr. Jennings’ only response was to ask if the underage boy used a condom. As a mandatory reporter, Mr. Jennings was required by law to report child abuse, including sex crimes. Mr. Jennings cannot serve as the “safe schools” czar when his record demonstrates a willingness to overlook the sexual abuse of a child.

As the “safe schools” czar, Mr. Jennings is also charged with ensuring our schools and students are drug free. It is clear that Mr. Jennings is unfit to serve in this capacity, as well. His own history of unrepentant drug and alcohol abuse indicates that he is of the opinion that getting drunk and high as a young person is acceptable. In his memoir, Mama's Boy, Preacher's Son, Mr. Jennings describes his use of illegal drugs, without expressing regret or acknowledging the devastating effects illegal drug use can have on a person’s life.

Everyone that deals with the education of the most vulnerable must be a positive role model. Our children are not blessed with the wisdom to discern and reject. Children presume the adults who educate them are approved by the larger society and their parents. Kevin Jennings cannot gain the approval of parents who want their children safe and their schools drug free. You should replace him with someone who has a record of educating children in a safe and moral environment.
Given these very serious issues with Mr. Jennings’ record, we urge you to remove him immediately.

Here's who they got their talking points from:

Tom Rooney-- The Worst Member Of Florida's Congressional Delegation

Rooney is well to the right of Czar Nicholas II

After Tim Mahoney, the corrupt Republican turned-quasi-Democrat who Rahm Emanuel had recruited 2 years earlier for Mark Foley's congressional seat was exposed as another sexual predator, reactionary Republican Tom Rooney took the seat (in 2008, an otherwise stellar year for Democrats). Since then Rooney has distinguished himself as the most extreme right-wing congressman in the state of Florida. His ProgressivePunch rating is a perfect zero-- more extremist than Adam "Howdy Doody" Putnam (0.81), Ander Crenshaw (0.97), John Mica (1.80), Jeff Miller (1.84) or crazy birther Bill Posey (2.38), Florida's 5 radical right fringe members.

Rooney beat Mahoney 60-40, but only because Mahoney got caught in flagrante delicto, politically speaking. McCain only managed 52% in the district (which has a PVI of R+4.56). One of Florida's poorer districts, with a median income of just $39,408 and over 85,000 home foreclosures projected over the next four years, the unemployment and health care situations are both abysmal. There are 172,000 uninsured people in Rooney's district. So is Rooney working his butt off to enable reform legislation? Are you joking? He's one of the worst obstructionists in the House.

This week, instead of working on his constituents' dire needs he was busy sending ridiculous mail to his constituents inspired by Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, a piece Rooney called "How Many Czars Are Enough?" He questions the constitutionality of President Obama's appointments, in lockstep with the anti-America crowd around the Hate Talk Radio hosts who determine his every move.

Since taking office in January President Obama has appointed at least 32 czars to help implement his agenda and to oversee various government entities. The President has appointed czars ranging from a Tourism Czar to a Guantanamo Bay Closure Czar. What is troubling to me is these czars are not confirmed by the Senate nor does Congress have any oversight over them unlike traditional Cabinet members.

The President's czars have a salary of up to $172,000 and that doesn’t include staff members or office and travel budgets. We don’t know what the total cost of all of the czars will be, but it’s become clear that the growing number of czars is a waste of taxpayer dollars. How many additional czars will the President appoint to circumvent the Senate confirmation process? Recent town hall meetings across the nation have demonstrated how the federal government is accountable to the people.

I oppose adding new layers of government intervention to an already bloated federal bureaucracy, and this issue is certainly no exception. The President’s Constitutional authority to appoint these individuals is dubious, their presence diminishes the role of the traditional Cabinet, and their immunity from Congressional oversight defies our longstanding system of checks and balances. The interests of democracy are best served in a climate of greater accountability and more transparent decision-making.

I am a cosponsor of a bill, H.R. 3226, which would withhold funding to any czar not confirmed by the Senate. The President claimed he would run the most transparent administration in recent history, if this is true he needs to have these czars appear before the Senate and go through the proper vetting of a Senate confirmation.

Past administrations have had czars but the Obama administration has taken it to a whole new level. Reagan and George H.W. Bush each had one czar, Clinton had three, and George W. Bush had four. In less than a year this new administration already has 32. It is difficult to understand how the President can continue to appoint czars when he has yet to fill all of the key Senate -confirmed positions in his administration.

None of that is true. It's all Republican Party talking points meant to discredit President Obama and anger people at the government. This video didn't make it into Rooney's silly talking points:



Rooney is on the team of loony House Republicans-- Paul Broun (R-GA), John Shadegg (allegedly once caught by a fellow congressional wingnut in bed with the man's wife), Mike Pence, Jack Kingston, Darrell Issa, and li'l Patrick McHenry who, unlike the other nuts who worry that the "czars" are taking over the country, claims that they are "simply figureheads, at which point they're collecting a salary for doing no work for the taxpayers."

Now if Rooney and his wingnut cronies weren't out making up lies about "czars" maybe he would have some time and energy to work on the problems facing his constituents in the 16th district. If the health care reform bill he is fighting so hard to kill, HR 3200, were enacted here's how it would impact his own district:

• Help for small businesses. Under the legislation, small businesses with 25 employees or less and average wages of less than $40,000 qualify for tax credits of up to 50% of the costs of providing health insurance. There are up to 18,500 small businesses in the district that could qualify for these credits.

• Help for seniors with drug costs in the Part D donut hole. Each year, 16,600 seniors in the district hit the donut hole and are forced to pay their full drug costs, despite having Part D drug coverage. The legislation would provide them with immediate relief, cutting brand name drug costs in the donut hole by 50%, and ultimately eliminate the donut hole.

• Health care and financial security. There were 1,100 health care-related bankruptcies in the district in 2008, caused primarily by the health care costs not covered by insurance. The bill provides health insurance for almost every American and caps annual out-of-pocket costs at $10,000 per year, ensuring that no citizen will have to face financial ruin because of high health care costs.

• Relieving the burden of uncompensated care for hospitals and health care providers. In 2008, health care providers in the district provided $74 million worth of uncompensated care, care that was provided to individuals who lacked insurance coverage and were unable to pay their bills. Under the legislation, these costs of uncompensated care would be virtually eliminated.

• Coverage of the uninsured. There are 172,000 uninsured individuals in the district, 22% of the district. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that nationwide, 97% of all Americans will have insurance coverage when the bill takes effect. If this benchmark is reached in the district, 149,000 people who currently do not have health insurance will receive coverage.

• No deficit spending. The cost of health care reform under the legislation is fully paid for: half through making the Medicare and Medicaid program more efficient and half through a surtax on the income of the wealthiest individuals. This surtax would affect only 5,750 households in the district. The surtax would not affect 98.3% of taxpayers in the district.

Czars

The forces on the far right dedicated to neutering the Obama Administration have a new rallying cry: czars. If you've been to any of the recent teabagger events, you've run into that strain of garden variety Republican Party (and fellow traveler) nihilism. I want to take this opportunity when czars are on the tongues of so many 'tards and, predictably, obstructionists-- and when Glenn Beck has just gotten his first scalp-- to come at the question of czars from a somewhat different perspective.

The House of Romanov took over Russia in 1613-- and held on for a smidge over three centuries, widely considered the most authoritarian, despotic and authoritarian of all the European ruling families. When the last czar, Nicholas II, inherited the throne in 1894 at age 26, he was ill-prepared to rule and Russia tumbled from Great Power status to economic and military basketcase. Having lead his country from disaster to disaster, he abdicated in 1917 and was executed the following year. All my life I've been fascinated with an historical incident that took place in January, 1905, midway through his reign and Obama's selection-- the first one he made-- of Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff, brought it clearly back into my mind. Bear with me.

Russia is my ancestral homeland and I've paid some attention to its history. There has always been this tradition-- more a myth, actually-- that if Russia's downtrodden could only get a petition past the czar's evil ministers-- "if only our little father czar knew of our troubles, then he could help us"-- their grievances could be addressed. By 1905 the myth of the benevolent father had worn thin but among enough peasants and workers it seems to have persisted-- with no evidence to have ever bolstered it-- so that it led to what is commonly known as Bloody Sunday.

A month-long strike of as many as 100,000 workers in St Petersburg culminated in a peaceful march to the Winter Palace by workers and their families to present their "little father" with a petition. No one thought of their little father as a vampiric butcher, although they had every reason to. When he first ascended to the throne there were some hopes that he might move Russia in a more Democratic direction. Those hopes were as silly as the ones anyone is harboring today that the Obama Administration will be any less in thrall to the corporate state than Bush was. "[I]t has come to my knowledge," hissed the little father, "that during the last months there have been heard in some assemblies of the zemstvos the voices of those who have indulged in a senseless dream that the zemstvos be called upon to participate in the government of the country. I want everyone to know that I will devote all my strength to maintain, for the good of the whole nation, the principle of absolute autocracy, as firmly and as strongly as did my late lamented father." He then embarked upon, among other disastrous and barbaric policies, a series of pogroms that led to millions of Jews leaving Russia.

When the workers-- some carrying crosses, icons and portraits of the czar and singing "God Save the Czar"-- marched to the Winter Palace, the little father was neither there nor even in town. Prince Sviatopolk-Mirsky, the Minister of the Interior, with the czar's knowledge, brought in extra troops from outside of St Petersburg. They opened fire on marchers all over the city. Over a thousand were killed. It was the beginning of the end of the autocracy; peasants and workers around Russia finally came to the conclusion-- and voiced it-- that "The Czar will nit help us."

I imagine that the feeling in the White House this weekend-- in anticipation of Obama's speech declaring that he's sticking with the corporate powers and abandoning the American people-- is something like what Nicholas' sister, the Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, expressed at the convocation of the Duma (as an advisory body) half a year after the slaughter.

"There was such gloom at Tsarskoe Selo. I did not understand anything about politics. I just felt everything was going wrong with the country and all of us. The October Constitution did not seem to satisfy anyone. I went with my mother to the first Duma. I remember the large group of deputies from among peasants and factory people. The peasants looked sullen. But the workmen were worse: they looked as though they hated us. I remember the distress in Alicky's eyes."

Nicholas' Minister of the Court (Chamberlain), Count Fredericks is remembered by historyfor only one pronouncement: "The Deputies, they give one the impression of a gang of criminals who are only waiting for the signal to throw themselves upon the ministers and cut their throats. I will never again set foot among those people."

Rahm Emanuel may be remembered for worse, throwing Van Jones under the bus, being only one small part of a pattern that is proving disastrous for American working families who had pinned their hopes for real change on someone as ill-equipped to rule as Nicholas II was.