When RollingStone isn’t busy glamorizing the drug and gangster cultures, encouraging kids to drop out of school, or unabashedly bashing the men and women of our military, they like to pretend that they know about something other than music. Like politics.
RollingStone Issue 1012, (November 2, 2006) includes another anti-Republican hit-piece in the guise of a Top 10 Worst Congressmen list.
Not surprisingly, the list includes 9 Republicans and only 1 Democrat. Frankly I’m surprised they even bothered to list the one Democrat.
Danny at Beltway Blogroll has another criticism of the list:
Rolling Stone also picked only House members, leaving the impression either that: a) the magazine’s editors think the Senate is squeaky clean, or b) that Rolling Stone doesn’t realize the Senate is part of Congress. I vote for the latter.
Now, I’m not saying that there aren’t bad, corrupt, and ineffective Republicans in Congress. Nor am I claiming that some of the Republicans on this list don’t deserve to be there. But this list by RS magazine is joke at best, a partisan political hit piece at worst.
Besides Rep. Williams Jefferson (D-LA), the only Democrat on the list, I would have included these three as well:
- Alan Mollohan (D-WV)
- Maxine Waters (D-CA)
- John Murtha (D-PA)
Which, along with Rep. Jefferson, would have left the list at 6 Republicans and 4 Democrats, which sounds like a much more honest assesment of the 10 Worst Congressmen than the 9-1 that RS came up with.
____________
Here’s the RS list (along with their cute little title for each), along with my comments:
1) Dennis Hastert (R-IL) — the Highway Robber
For selling land that he owns for a profit. Granted the claims are that Hastert used his political influence to sway decisions that assured his profit. Sounds exactly like what Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid is doing. Except that Reid gets a complete pass from the Left. Hypocrits anybody?
2) James Sensenbrener Jr. (R-WI) — The Dictator
For having an “iron-fisted rule of the judiciary committee”, which I would call strong leadership. And so would the Dems, if it was their boy that was the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Rollingstone hates that Sensenbrenner is strongly against illegal immigration and against adults selling drugs to children (seriously, the Rollingstone article criticizes Sensenbrenner on this point — but then again, RS does have a track record of endorsing, condoning, and promoting illegal drug use, even amongst it’s mostly-teen readership).
3) Don Young (R-Alaska) — Mr. Pork
Isn’t every other building, park, and road in West Virginia named after Sen. Robert Byrd? Using his position as ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, Sen. Byrd has brought home more pork than Rep. Young could ever begin to dream about. Plus, Mr. Young wasn’t ever a Keagle in the Klu Klux Klan. Porkbusters.org has this to say bout Sen. Byrd:
Senator Byrd’s diligence in bringing home taxpayer dollars to his home state earned him the title King of Pork from Citizens Against Government Waste, and we must humbly agree, and therefore grant the good Senator our Lifetime Achievement Award.
If RS was serious about tagging someone as one of the Top 10 worst Congressmen based on Pork…the only logical explanation for putting Young ahead of Byrd is their notoriously blind anti-Republican bias.
4) William Jefferson (D-LA) — The Bribe Taker
The token Democrat in the RS list. Frankly, I’m surprised that RS included even one Democrat—despite the fact that Jefferson should be the clear #1 on any list of “worst Congressmen”. Ever. The man had $90K of bribe money hidden in a freezer at home, for Christ’s sake.
If that’s not bad enough:
Equally shameful were Jefferson’s antics after Katrina struck: He commandeered a Coast Guard helicopter to gather personal effects from his home in New Orleans — at a time when his constituents were literally drowning in their attics.
Rep. Jefferson: Morally and ethically bankrupt. And yet he’s sailing to relection. Go figure.
5) Jerry Lewis (R-CA) — The King of Payoffs
This guy deserves to be on this list.
6) Tom Tancredo (R-CO) — Mr. Bigotry
Why does RS lable Rep. Trancredo a “bigot”? Because the RS is pro-illegal immigration and pro-illegal immigrant. Rep. Trancredo has the gall to be against illegal immigration, and the enforcement of US Law against illegal immigrants. If being against illegal immigration and illegal immigrants makes one a bigot, then I’m a bigot, too.
7) Dick Pombo (R-CA) — Enemy of the Earth
I have no idea why RS put Rep. Pombo on this list, except maybe for being the chairman of the House Resources Committee (the Sierra Club thinks Rep. Pombo is the most dangerous person in Congress).
Curt Weldon (R-PA) — The Conspiracy Nut
The same people who think that 9/11 was an inside job, the same people who believe that our own government blew up the World Trade Centers…the same people who invent a new conspiracy about Karl Rove and world domination on a daily basis…these people have the audacity to call a Republican a “conspiracy nut”. Puuuuhlease.
9 ) Hal Rogers (R-KY) — Bin Laden’s Best Friend
Rep. Rogers is a typically corrupt politican. He’s guilty of bringing govn’t contracts to his home state and then seeing that friends, family, and associates get those big contracts. This happens so frequently on both sides of the aisle that it’s sickening (but business as usual). But to call him “Bin Laden’s Best Friend” is such a stretch as to be laughable.
10) Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO) — The Christian Soldier
Sigh. Why am I not surprised that the anti-Christian values RS magazine lable a Congresswoman one of the worst in Congress for … well, having strong Christian values. The pro-drug culture, pro-promiscuious life-style, pro-gangster culture magazine shows it’s true colors once again.
A bunch on both sides that I’d like to add to the list, I’m afraid. A shorter list would be all the congresscritters who aren’t stupid, corrupt, immoral, greedy, or all of the above. However, I’ll disagree with you on “Don Young (R-Alaska) — Mr. Pork” — he really should be on the list. He has admitted to pork for the sake of pork, basically stealing from the taxpayers in order to create jobs in Alaska to build things that even the Alaskans say that they don’t need. Dump him.
Heck, dump ‘em all.
Wow – Roy Blunt (R-Mo) missed the list? It’s tough to remain corrupt enough to stay in the top ten in this Republican culture of corruption.
Maybe you should reconsider giving RS so many links, especially with link text of their selections’ names. See the recent googlebomb proposals for the reason why.
Rep. Jefferson: Morally and ethically bankrupt. And yet he’s sailing to relection. Go figure
The rankings might not reflect much upon the political neutrality of Rolling Stone but they put the Democratic Party in a pretty good light: contrary to your claim, Rep. Jefferson has been repudiated by both Democratic Congressional leadership and his own constituents: Jefferson will be forced into a runoff and will lose.
Quite a difference from Dennis Hastert and Tom DeLay where the ethically questionable Congressman was the leadership.
I think Alcee Hastings deserves a mention here.
Not many congressmen have the dubious honor of being impeached, convicted, and removed from the Federal bench for corruption.
[...] Tim Dickinson of Rolling Stone offers his list of the 10 worst Congressmen. As you might expect from that publication, it’s biased (9 of 10 are Republicans) and their complaints consist mainly of lightweight analysis and smears. Let’s take a look at their entry on Rep. Tom Tancredo. It includes a great deal of name-calling, and it starts with a quote from the Council for Conservative Citizens supporting him; the reader will note that the recommendation is not reciprocated and this is thus the logical fallacy of Guilt by Association. (RS readers: did Dickinson not know this argument was fallacious, or did he think that you wouldn’t know it was fallacious?) [...]
What? No nomination for Cynthia McKinney Rolling Stone?
Ohhhhh I understand…she’s going to make yet another comeback a couple of years from now and promises to wear her Capitol badge and cut a record for you with that rockstar Harry Belafonte.
Gotcha
What? No nomination for Cynthia McKinney Rolling Stone?
Yet another Democrat repudiated by both Democratic voters and leadership. The more examples we dig up the better off the Democrats look.
I would have put the list 5 GOP and 5 Dems…Yup, Taliban Cindy should have been on it.
Glad that cuckoo Musgrave is on it though.
What about Nancy Pelosi? This is the same woman who helped the “Nightstalker” escape when she was mayor in San Fransico. How many did that man murder?