Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Maybe you would prefer that we take Joelle’s side in ALL CAPS?

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

This blog will pay for itself.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

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Reader Interactions

43Comments

  1. 1.

    Bobzim

    There should’ve been a 4th question: My congressman is a Teabagger sympathizer and a phone call would do no good.

  3. 3.

    The Ace Tomato Company

    Live in DC, so there’s no point. Man, it’s frustrating to not even be afforded the tiny pleasure of having a congressional representative (one, with a meaningful vote that is) to tee-off on.

    Maybe I should move to Virginia just so I can harass Webb’s office…

  4. 4.

    Winston Smith

    I would call Roy Blunt, but it’s so hard to narrow down WHAT to call him. Fuckstick? Penis wrinkle? So many options.

  5. 5.

    RoonieRoo

    I wish I could call. But my Senators are all teabagger wanna-be rethugs and it truly would do no good. I know some people think it is still worth calling repubs but when your critters are Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn and your rep has nothing but Pelosi bashing graphs about how many job have been lost under the Dems, calling serves no purpose other than to raise my blood pressure. But I am grateful for those that do have an actual thinking rep to call that are calling.

  8. 8.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Yes, similar to the above comments here too: my Senators are Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, and my Rep is John Linder. They basically have banners up proclaiming *Don’t Confuse Me With The Facts — My Mind Is Made Up!*

    Look, if someone can make a case that my calling could move the needle, I’ll do it. But right now it just seems like an exercise in frustration and futility.

  9. 9.

    Mothra

    A call to the teabagger Congresscritter does do some good. Please call. And please ask six other people to call. And tell them to ask six people to call.

  10. 10.

    HRA

    My senators and congressman are strong supporters of HCR. I support HCR as well. I do remember the anxiety of once not having health insurance and it’s not anything I ever wished on anyone.

    I specifically came here to congratulate Tim on his work for HCR in this blog. You have done a magnificent job, Tim.

  11. 11.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Actually I’d be okay with making calls to Congresscritters elsewhere in the country but I don’t want to lie about my residency status. I could just say that I know I’m not a constituent *BUT* , and then explain that I feel so strongly about it because passing HCR is important to the whole country.

    Yeah, I could do that. And will.

  13. 13.

    Incertus

    I haven’t called yet, but I will this afternoon. I live in a dark blue area, so I’m hopeful he won’t suck–Alcee Hastings.

    Meanwhile, I’ve got a few words on the James Wood op-ed in today’s NY Times about God and earthquakes, if anyone is interested.

  15. 15.

    Grumpy Code Monkey

    My local congresscritter is a Republican who has explicitly come out against the Dem HCR plan (and is going to be facing a primary challenge from the right because he’s not batshit crazy enough, whee fun), so calling him is waste of time.

  19. 19.

    AhabTRuler

    @Bill H:

    “My representative is already voting the way I want him/her to vote.”

    Call them anyway. It’ll help keep their spines stiff and it gives them something to take to the other pols.

  20. 20.

    keestadoll

    Well, the majority of the comments thus far answered my question as to why someone would elect NOT to call (futility of calling a tea bagger oriented rep, etc). But I would caution those of you who didn’t bother because their reps are in with HCR–that position is as fluid and up for purchase as any other agenda issue and, as we’ve heard from our administrators here on Balloon Juice, frustrated silence is enabling inaction.

  22. 22.

    aimai

    You know, I totally disagree with the idea that if your representative is a teabagger, or a conservative, or michelle bachmann even that you shouldn’t call him/her. Here’s why–naturally they won’t listen to you, and their staff won’t even record your individual phone call (perhaps) but if enough voters do call them they will slowly start to take notice.

    Take Scott fucking Brown, for example. Not only am I sure there’s no point calling him–I’m sure he hasn’t even gotten his staff in place yet. But on the other hand *he doesn’t know for sure who voted for him and who didn’t.* In fact, he’s under the impression that lots of people voted for him and he must know as well as anyone that lots of the people who voted for him were deceived, or thought he was going to work with Obama on health care, or you name it. He ran such an AC/DC anti DC campaign he probably cant’ remember what he did or didn’t promise. And he’s never been a senator before but most of what keeps a Senator in place is constituent services.

    In our case, here in MA, I think we should all be calling Scott Brown’s office every day and saying “I voted for you because I thought you’d be independent, unlike those other republicans and I want you to help get Obama’s health care reform through, or lift the debt ceiling,” or whatever else we want to see him do. I think we ought also to be encouraging marginal voters, like new citizens/immigrants, people in need, etc… to call Scott Brown to get his help every five seconds. You need home heating oil and you are too poor to get it? Call Scott Brown’s office and ask him whether he supports blah…blah…blah…

    The reason I make this argument is that our legislators are only as divorced from our real needs/wants as voters as we let them be. Republican governors are generally slightly more realistic and less wingnutty than Republican Senators on Taxes because they have to actually run their states and do those budgets. I can’t remember who this applies to but I seem to remember this is a constant function of Republicans moving from Senate/House to Governor’s house and back again or towards the White House. If lots of people call up a congressperson and demand help in exchange for votes the congressperson pretty soon gets the idea that government should serve the people and not the other way around. Ceding the phone lines to wingnuts and people who call up to cheerlead and say only “I loved your speech bashing gays and feminists!” instead of “why the fuck didn’t you vote to increase spending on my local police and teachers?” is a mistake.

    aimai

  24. 24.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Red Kitten: LOL

    Ackshully if you could spare some MPs for a few days I think we could get a pretty decent HCR thing going south of the 49th.

  25. 25.

    Donna Maderer

    I’m deaf, how can I contact my congresscritters? I live in MA. For that matter, how do I contact Brown every time I want to complain to him about the way he’s voting (which I expect will happen all the damn time)?

  27. 27.

    Shalimar

    WTF?

    Can anyone explain this in language that makes political sense? Hopefully Aravosis is overreacting because this sounds like the stupidest move I have ever heard. I can think of lots of ways congresscritters might want to make the bill worse, but this would be a straight sell out to the insurance industry and result in political suicide for Democratic office-holders.

    Seriously, I have to buy insurance or pay a penalty, but none of the insurance companies have to give me insurance because of some disease I recovered from a decade ago? How would that even work?

  30. 30.

    ominira

    @Shalimar: Seems like speculation/overreaction at this point – I read nothing in there that would lead me to believe that congress is actually planning to drop the part of the legislation on insuring adults with preexisting conditions.

  31. 31.

    2th&nayle

    My Congressman, par excellence, is Dr. Vic Snyder, who sadly, just announced he would not be running for re-election. (Having four boys under the age of 4 at home would do that.) The good news is, his vote for HCR is pretty much a lock. The bad news is (depending on how you look at it), it looks like the Repubs are going to run Tim Griffin (yes, THAT Tim Griffin) for the seat. Looks like the Democratic faithful in this district will have their work cut out for them in the up coming election to keep that Rovian shitweasel from sliming into office. Oh well, “Man the ramparts!”

  32. 32.

    Ellid

    Maybe calling Kerry would help, but my other senator is Mr. Sexy of 1982, so it wouldn’t make a goddamn bit of difference.

    :(

  33. 33.

    ominira

    @Ellid: Well, you could point out that he voted for universal healthcare in Mass and let him know you expect him to do the same nationally.

  34. 34.

    2th&nayle

    @aimai:

    Ceding the phone lines to wingnuts and people who call up to cheerlead and say only “I loved your speech bashing gays and feminists!” instead of “why the fuck didn’t you vote to increase spending on my local police and teachers?” is a mistake.

    Excellant point!

  37. 37.

    BillCinSD

    I keep waiting for Tim to drown in his panic pee.

    While hippie punching of the House progressives is still the rage, focusing on the House prior to or to the exclusion of the Senate is stupid.

  39. 39.

    Task Force Ripper

    @aimai:

    And he’s never been a senator before but most of what keeps a Senator in place is constituent services.

    I thought it was Corporate and Big Pharma dollars.
    Do Senators even know they have individual constituents?

  40. 40.

    wesindc

    How about us in DC that don’t have a congress/senate critter to call? I always feel left out :-(

  41. 41.

    mousebumples

    @wesindc: I believe this has been said before in other threads, but the Congressional leadership, in some sense, represents all Americans. So give Pelosi and Reid’s offices a call, perhaps?

  42. 42.

    Anne Laurie

    @Ellid:

    Maybe calling Kerry would help, but my other senator is Mr. Sexy of 1982, so it wouldn’t make a goddamn bit of difference.

    We don’t know that, because Senator Brown Number Two is such a lying shitweasel that he’ll vote for whichever side seems more popular… excuse me, he voted for ‘universal access’ in Massachusetts so he could do the same thing in DC. When I called the Congressional switchboard, I actually asked for ‘Senator Brown’, got switched to the office of Sherrod Brown (OH), and called back to verify that Cosmo Boy hasn’t been given phone privileges yet. But he will be, one of these days. I did call Kerry’s office to thank him for strongly supporting HCR, and the person who answered the phone managed to say they “were looking forward to working with Scott Brown to improve access to health care for all Americans” without bursting out laughing, so letting Scotty know where we stand will, yeah, be worth the effort.

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