January/February 2010 Issue

Capitol Hill’s Most Unhinged Republicans

Fools on the Hill: A scorecard.

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Read the quotes behind the chart here. See a list of the 111th Congress’ dumbest bills here.

MEMBERS OF
CONGRESS

 Health Care Obama Hysteria Flirting with Birthers Red Baiting Nazi Baiting Climate Cluelessness Writing Dumb Bills

IN HIS/HER OWN WORDS

Rep. John Shimkus
(Illinois)

 X         X  

“If we decrease the use of carbon dioxide, are we not taking away plant food from the atmosphere?…All our good intentions could be for vain.”

Rep. Joe Barton
(Texas)

 X         X X

“Wouldn’t it be ironic if in the interest of global warming we mandated massive switches to [wind] energy, which is a finite resource, which slows the winds down, which causes the temperature to go up?…It’s just something to think about.”

Rep. Bill Posey
(Florida)

     X     X X

“I could easily fill up a page listing all the activities an American needs to show their ID for…everything from playing youth soccer to getting a driver’s license, buying cigarettes and alcohol, to opening bank accounts and even playing Little League.”

Sen. Chuck Grassley
(Iowa)

 X     X      

“You have every right to fear…We should not have a government program that determines if you’re going to pull the plug on Grandma.”

Rep. Trent Franks
(Arizona)

 X X X X  
 

“Barack Obama could solve this problem and make the birthers, you know, back off by simply showing us his long-form birth certificate…There’s some other issue, I don’t know what it is, that he doesn’t want people to see the birth certificate on.”

Sen. James Inhofe
(Oklahoma)

 X X X     X  

“President Obama is obsessed with turning terrorists loose in America…Those of you who think like I do hope this country can hang on another 16 months.”

Rep. Louie Gohmert
(Texas)

 X X X X X X X

“I would hate to think that among five women, one of ’em is gonna die because we go to socialized care.”

Rep. Paul Broun
(Georgia)

 X X   X X X X

“You have to remember that Adolf Hitler was elected in a democratic Germany. I’m not comparing [Obama] to Adolf Hitler. What I’m saying is there is the potential of going down that road.”

Rep. Michele Bachmann
(Minnesota)

 X X X X
X X

“What we have to do today is make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers on this thing [health care]…We are looking at reaching down the throat and ripping the guts out of freedom. And we may never be able to restore it if we don’t man up.”

Rep. Steve King
(Iowa)

 X X X X X X X

“American patriotism is not imprinted on [Obama’s] mind or in his heart, because he wasn’t raised as an American.”

 

 

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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