Per commentor LAMH36, from CNN, “Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, congressional Democrats to commemorate Mandela in South Africa”:
.. House Speaker John Boehner tapped Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Illinois, to lead the official delegation of House members to South Africa for Tuesday’s service. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus, including Chairwoman Marcia Fudge, will join the official congressional delegation.
The group of 24 members of the House of Representatives and Senate will leave early Monday morning for the service Tuesday in Johannesburg at FNB Stadium.
Here’s a list, which is subject to change, of the other U.S. lawmakers who will join the delegation, according to a senior Democratic aide:
Rep. John Conyers, D-Michigan; Rep. Charles Rangel, D-New York; Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia; Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Washington; Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, Democratic delegate from D.C.; Rep. Maxine Waters, D-California; Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Virginia; Rep. Melvin Watt, D-North Carolina; Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas; Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland; Rep. Donna Christensen, Democratic delegate from the Virgin Islands; Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-New York; Rep. Barbara Lee, D-California; Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-North Carolina; Rep. Al Green, D-Texas; Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wisconsin; Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-New York; Rep. Karen Bass, D-California; Rep. Terri Sewell D-Alabama; Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio; Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Florida.
Cruz will join the delegation despite intense criticism of Mandela from some of his supporters responding to a respectful tribute the Texas Republican issued after the leader died Thursday…
First note, to be fair (because we are Democrats and that’s how we roll): Due to the Constitutional line of succession, Boehner is probably debarred or at least discouraged from a terrorism-ripe overseas public event that the President will be attending. (Anybody know if Biden will be allowed to attend?)
But appointing a guy best known for “not having a principled objection to torture” and “washboard abs” to lead the delegation in your place is the very definition of weak sauce. As a Democrat, I can’t help being proud that Reps. Conyers, Lewis, Norton, Cummings, and Lee will be representing our team.
As for Tailgunner Ted, he’s really appointed himself the Gingrich of his generation. Whether he understands, in his vast narcissism, the difference between “leader, perhaps, of the civilizing forces” (thank you, Mr. Pierce) and “lifelong celebutant grifter on the Wingnut Wurlitzer gravy train” — that’s the open question.
Nicole
Probably better suited to the thread below about the 60 Minutes segment, but since this is Open Thread- I saw a really neat piece about equine therapy for veterans:
http://saratogawarhorse.com
Video on the homepage. Cool thing they’re trying.
Villago Delenda Est
Gingrich pioneered that particular career. Ever since he was tossed out of the House on his ass for being a shitty leader, he’s been grifting full time. Well, “full time” being a relative term…just ask Snowbilly Snooki.
Aji
Nah, the “open question” is utterly irrelevant. Because even if one assumes that he does understand it, understanding it wouldn’t change his behavior one iota. The relevant point is that he doesn’t give a shit.
Schlemizel
Cheney should go. Not because he would be a decent representative of the US but just so the people of S could welcome him – hopefully with the warmth and humanity he demonstrated to them
Villago Delenda Est
@Schlemizel:
The Dark Lord dare not leave the confines of the United States.
Too many other countries would love to get their hands on him, and try him for his myriad crimes.
jl
What active GOP national office holder would not be weak sauce or actively offensive to send?
Maybe send some moderate retired GOPers from 20 years ago, if they’re not to old to travel.
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge
In the next election, every one of these people except Ted Cruz will be accused of “palling around with terrorists”.
Anne Laurie
@jl:
IIRC, both ‘former presidents’ and established RINOs from the Clan Bush have that demo covered already.
jl
Send Lil’ Newtie. For some reason, I won’t even try to guess it, he is talking more or less sense on Mandela. So, send him before he reverts back to his usual gibberish, or is excommunicated from the GOP by the base for being insufficiently racist and brutish.
Problem is the memorials are next week, and long before then Newt will run through all the history he knows and will start making things up. Oh, well, you have to go with the GOP you have, not the one you’d like to have.
jl
@Anne Laurie: Any Bush’s going? Dub?
lamh36
I’d rather have Tim Scott over Ted Cruz go any day. I read another tweet hat said Booker and Baucus are supposed to go as well, but if so why was Cruz announced with the House bunch and not with the Senate bunch.
I sure hope the Dems plan to send at least 1 Dem Senator as well
Keith G
@jl: GW and wife are flying over on AF 1.
Keith G
How did this double not get blocked?
Keith G
@lamh36: Just as the House, I imagine that the Senate will send a delegation.
lamh36
@Keith G: so then Ted Cruz ISN’T apart of the Senate delegation? Is it usual that the Speaker of the House sends Senators as part of their delegation?
ugh, I just dont’ trust the motives of Ted Cruz. In the spirit of how Mr Mandela tried to live his life here on earth, I want to “turn the other cheek” so to speak, but damn if my cynicism is jut not letting me.
Keith G
@lamh36: Hell if I know what is going on. Maybe there is a snafu in the way the names are being released. Usually, the protocol at times of high ceremony is that delegations from each body are chosen to go and represent their respectives houses.
lamh36
@Keith G: well as I said, I saw something on twitter that said that Booker and Baucus were also supposed to go, but I have no link for that one. Just the Cruz link
catclub
@jl: My guess is Lugar. I assume he voted to override Reagan’s veto – but do not know.
catclub
Also, I saw somewhere that 70 heads of state and 10 former heads of state will attend. Three of those ten are ex US presidents. I guess in most other nations, ex heads of state become unimportant very fast – or never exist.
TCG
Part of me is impressed that Cruz and Gingrich went against their base to give Mandela the praise he deserves and the other part of me is sick of giving GOPers credit for basic decency.
catclub
@Keith G: George Will is riding an Autofocus Camera?
Keith G
@catclub: He has not been focused for quite some time.
dmsilev
@lamh36:
Well, one could argue that during the shutdown debacle Cruz was more in tune with the House lunatics than the Senate semi-lunatics. He certainly sounded like he was trying out for the job of House Majority Whip.
Mike G
@jl:
No, he’ll throw another tantrum when he doesn’t get to sit in the AF1 Big Presidentin’ Chair and go to the flight deck to play with the control yoke while making jet engine noises.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/jan/25/newt-cry-baby-gingrich
Mike E
Yo Yo Ma just stopped by to say goodbye. As nice celebs go, he definitely gets a gold star…nice grip on that bow hand, too. Also.
Mike in NC
@jl:
Newt is an attention whore and maggot who knows his time has past, so by now he’s just grasping at straws to stay in the spotlight.
jl
@Mike in NC: What I said about Lil’ Newtie was a joke.
I guess Laura Bush is the best that can be done to rep the GOP, assuming she is still one. GW has to tag along too, I guess.
NotMax
The FNB in FNB Stadium, by the way, stands for First National Bank.
Links for several news sites in South Africa:
News24
IOL
SABC
scav
@Mike E: Just to officially declare my instant and abject jealousy.
Chris
@TCG:
That second part is the one that always wins out with me.
Someone on Facebook approvingly posted an “I was wrong about Mandela” article and said that he, like the writer, opposed Mandela’s release and thought he was a lousy stinking commie, but now admits he was wrong. Wonderful; except, in the here and now, he still supports regimes as nasty as the Apartheid one and shows the same contempt towards the notion of self-government in the Arab world or Latin America that he apparently once did towards South Africa. Most of the people who are now pro-Mandela Republicans are in that same boat, I think. So what have they learned, really? That, every now and then, twenty years after you’ve been proven so completely wrong that the rest of the world has canonized someone you hated as a saint, it’s good to cut your losses? I direct them to the Chris Rock routine…
lamh36
OT, but GO SAINTS and GO DREW B!!!!
Anoniminous
The fawning and toadying from the Right Wing about Mandela* is nauseating.
* Now that he is safely dead.
MikeJ
Edroso’s VV column this week is about what you would guess it would be about.
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2013/12/_when_nelson_ma.php
Peter
If Boehner’s barred from the ceremony, Biden BETTER be. I can imagine few scenarios more nightmarish than President Boehner.
Warren Terra
Sadly, and with some notable exceptions (John Lewis, John Conyers, likely others), the list of House Democrats is pretty darn heavily larded with hacks, cranks, wackos, and timeservers. Several of the people on that list I’d go out of my way not to listen to, and consider to be a waste of a good seat and of use only to the
Republican propaganda mill.
Also: why does this list of 24 American legislators lack senators? In particular, what kind of asshole does Tim Scott have to be that he’s not loudly heading the Republican delegation?
MikeJ
@jl:
I know it’s actually true, but if I were Obama there is no way on Earth I could pass up the opportunity to make Newt use the rear door on AF-1.
Warren Terra
@Mike in NC:
According to a comment I saw someplace, Newt voted to override when Reagan vetoed sanctions against Apartheid South Africa. Newt is a terrible human being, but it’s all relative. On this one point, he’s maybe better than average for his party.
Origuy
It’s unlikely that they would ever have the President and VP outside the country at the same time. Biden was in Seoul on Friday; I suppose he got back before Obama left.
MikeJ
@Warren Terra: If you want to be surprised about how good a truly horrible person can be, read Newt’s response to the rank and file republicans.
https://www.gingrichproductions.com/2013/12/what-would-you-have-done-nelson-mandela-and-american-conservatives/
He’s still a piece of shit, but on this one issue he is at a minimum pretending to be a human.
Hal
Anyone know any good cruising areas in South Africa? If so, forward locations and best times to Rep Schock.
Roger Moore
@Chris:
The Reich wing still believes that Those People can’t be trusted to govern themselves. As a rule they need either benevolent Europeans or one of the few of their own people competent to run a government set up as a strongman. They may accept that Mandela and South Africa prove the exception- or maybe not, given Zuma’s track record- but they still see it as the exception. Because their mistrust is racist, no number of exceptions will convince them to reconsider the rule.
Bmaccnm
@Mike E: Some time ago, my then 8 year old son and I went back stage to meet Mr Ma after a concert. My son told Mr Ma that he was the best character on “Arthur.” Mr Ma made little animal ears on his head while talking to my son, and signed an autograph “To Sam”with the same ears. I thought the man was a class act.
fuckwit
@Warren Terra: yep.mcconnell too, voted to override reagan. stopped clock,and all.
BruceFromOhio
Never forget, and never let them forget either.
rikyrah
There have to be more Senators going.
Mandalay
@BruceFromOhio: OT, but your link included a remarkable and chilling exchange from a White House Press Conference that mentioned AIDS that I had not read before (emphasis mine):
That exchange reminded me of this in a strange way.
There really is something wrong with many on the right, and I’m not even talking about the crazies on the far right; I’m talking about an ex-president and a White House Press Secretary. Even those “mainstream” politicos really are fucked in the head. Their values are sick and worthless.
Radio One
is anyone else watching Black Mirror? I was absolutely floored by the “White Bear” episode of the second season. Watching it reminded me of some of the very best Twilight Zone episodes of the Rod Serling era.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
jl:
I think Daddy Bush’s health is not good enough for him to travel, though they’re keeping it fairly quiet.
@lamh36:
IMO, it was more that Mandela was gracious in victory than that he turned the other cheek. And he stayed true to himself — he always said that his overriding goal was racial equality, not revenge, and he stuck by that. Since about 90 percent of us would go straight to revenge in the same situation, that was what made him a hero and an exceptional man.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
Also, too, for the Anglophiles, comments from Prince William and the Queen about Mandela’s death (Wills was at the royal premiere of the Idris Elba film when the news broke):
http://www.people.com/people/mobile/article/0,,20395222_20763444,00.html
Dee Loralei
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): bad link
Chris
@Roger Moore:
“Competent to run a government” here having the meaning of “taking their orders from Washington, Wall Street, or at worst the equivalent from one of our allies.”
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Dee Loralei:
Sigh. One of these days Cole will let me post from the freakin’ home computer again.
Try this one.
Dee Loralei
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Oh thanks for that. I’m with Idris Elba on this one, Mandela was one of the greatest people to ever walk the face of the earth.