Is there a better poster child for all that’s wrong with teahadism than this clown?
Freshman U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh, a tax-bashing Tea Party champion who sharply lectures President Barack Obama and other Democrats on fiscal responsibility, owes more than $100,000 in child support to his ex-wife and three children, according to documents his ex-wife filed in their divorce case in December.
Update. Kay already posted on this, sorry.
shortstop
Um, Kay posted this hours ago.
ETA: Not that FPers don’t often post on the same subject, but they usually add some new commentary.
ETA: Could I sound more like a deluxe asshole? Keep it coming. This issue really resonates with people who aren’t themselves deadbeat parents, so keep it front and center.
JGabriel
Yeah, Kay already hit that note this morning, about 5 hours ago.
No biggy, it’s good note.
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Pillsy
How the hell is Joe Walsh an even bigger jagballs than I thought?
Hunter Gathers
Why can’t his ex and her 3 lazy kids get fucking jobs and leave this Real American Hero alone so he can go fuck his new wife in exotic locales? They’re nothing but moochers and looters. They might as well be black or hispanic. LEAVE DEADBEAT DADS ALONE!
Dexter
There may very well be others and much worse. We just don’t know about them yet.
Moik
Slashing Medicare and other government programs is cutting off support to those who depend on us. This guys is just demonstrating how doing so is consistent with the Republicans’ message of running government like family finances.
JGabriel
@Pillsy:
Because jagballs have big-ass hidden roots.
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My Truth Hurts
To be fair, that money was appropriated from his previous martial status. His current marital status has taken a hard line on spending.
BGinCHI
Do what he says, not what he does.
Everybody knows that.
dmsilev
Nice guy. Still, it’s clear that he follows the principles of Tea Party economics very closely (“lie about everything”).
JGabriel
Hunter Gathers:
I’m reminded of the Objectivist who tried to get his daughter to declare herself an emancipated minor, so he could stop paying child support.
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ppcli
@shortstop: The Republicans have learned that you need to repeat the message of the day over and over and over and over and over and over…
I can’t complain if the forces of good happen to stumble occasionally onto the tactic by inadvertence.
shortstop
And the icing on the cake is that they’re slashing the public programs their kids will need when their private sector-loving deadbeat dads refuse to take care of them.
ppcli
@My Truth Hurts: I was working on drafting a snark point to that effect, but I see you have hit the note better than I could have. Well done.
Pangloss
He was also sued by his former campaign manager for non-payment of salary. So when he advocates for the US to default on its debt, he has plenty of experience to draw from.
4tehlulz
Harry Reid is a G
shortstop
ppcli: Yes, I revised my ill-advised initial view above.
Don’t forget the mortgage he also defaulted on. I imagine there’re many more examples, also too.
JGabriel
@dmsilev:
Yes. Votes Republican too!
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Stillwater
@Hunter Gathers: Exactly right. He’s a member of the productive class now. What the hell did she ever produce to deserve that money?
In a race against caricature these guys always seem to stay one step ahead of the Onion.
cleek
child support is an undue restraint on his fiscal liberty!
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
You will be shocked (or perhaps not) at the number of people who will take his side on this.
Just like Carl “My Pretty Pony” Paladino showed his support for family values by having TWO at the same time.
Redshirt
It’s becoming clear most Republicans can be summed by some form of childhood slogan:
“Do as I say not as I do” seems apropos here.
“I’m rubber, you’re glue” seems to describe to default media narrative regarding Repugs and Dems.
“I know you are but what am I” aptly applies to Repug tendency to do whatever it is they’re attacking the other side for.
Mojotron
Holy crap, I thought this was a joke or exaggeration, it isn’t.
JGabriel
@shortstop:
If those kids were strong, they’d take care of themselves. If they’re not, who needs’em? Little parasites!
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Gin & Tonic
Why these campaign types don’t demand to be paid in cash on no less than a weekly basis is beyond me. I’m reminded of a story I read quite some time back, not even sure what campaign it was, but the candidate and some staff were taking a helicopter somewhere in NH, and the pilot wouldn’t start the engine until they gave him the agreed-upon amount, in cash. Caused quite a scramble, but clearly that pilot had been stiffed before.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
Yeah, I’ve been in court during CS hearings. Judges will regularly tell the non-paying parent who use that excuse to work fast food, dig ditches, ANYTHING, but make the damn payment (which is adjusted based on income).
Admiral_Komack
I guess his family value is letting his family starve to death.
WOLVERINES!
JGabriel
@Mojotron: Thanks for finding the link. I didn’t remember where I’d read it.
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jacy
It’s okay, Walsh’s lawyer can explain the problem:
See, he’s just an everyman deadbeat douchebag, why are you picking on him!
gnomedad
No true Tea Partier …
Carnacki
Those deadbeat kids should pull themselves up by their baby booties’ straps.
Nutella
@Carnacki:
This has been going on so long that the youngest is 16. I’m sure his next line will be that they don’t need support any more so he doesn’t have to reimburse what he owes from the past.
eric
I hope he goes back on the Chris Matthews Show.
JGabriel
via jacy:
Joe Walsh: lockin’ down the asshole dad vote.
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scav
In the equally too ironic for any decent editor to let past draft one, there’s now evidence that News of the World targeted phone of Sarah Payne’s mother, (another murder case) a phone given to her by one Rebekah Brooks and the mother wrote an editorial in the very last NOtW edition. We practically have enough yetis now to do a chorus line.
shortstop
Something tells me that after nationally outing him trying to get her to legally emancipate herself so she could work at his law office and pay him rent in lieu of him paying child support, Alyssa Bereznak no longer receives chain emails from her father, who is apparently patent lawyer Bradley J. Bereznak of Mountain View, CA.
I mention this so that if any of you inventive West Coast BJers are in need of a patent attorney, you know who to stay far the fuck away from.
Yevgraf
Been doing quite a bit of this sort of work for the past 20 some odd years. I can say that a six figure arrearage is a helluvalot more of a problem than “the average guy” suffers.
Nutella
@scav:
Yes, Brooks and NotW used Sara Payne and her daughter’s murder to push for “Sarah’s Law” to publish addresses of sex offenders. Brooks is still using that campaign as an example of the good NotW did. Payne thought Brooks and NotW were friends and allies. Now she knows better.
C.S.
She should’ve known he was rolling in it. He brags about it.
srv
Hey, I’m $ matching the first $250 on the Wisconsin Recall bleg and we’re only up to $170 after an hour.
Cough up some dough on that thread.
kd bart
But does this Joe Walsh’s Maserati do 185?
celticdragonchick
I just posted this over at my LGF page. Charles put it on the featured pages sidebar, fwiw. The more people know about this slime, the better.
Martin
Always thought that child support deadbeats should be forced to work off their obligations collecting trash on the side of the interstates at the national minimum wage with a big neon vest that says “I’m Joe Walsh. This is how important my kids are to me.”
Something nice and visible for the neighbors to see.
kay
No juvenile court would ever go along with emancipation in that case.
They have heard every single scheme to dodge child support that is imaginable. Courts see this issue very clearly. To them, the parent pays, or the state ends up supporting the child, and it is not going to be the state.
There’s a lot of…clarity there. One entity is walking out paying, and it’s not going to be them. It isn’t parent v parent.
It’s parent v public, and it’s not personal:)
shortstop
kay, I get that no court would go along with it. I’m just marveling at the balls the size of watermelons this guy had at trying it — while, let’s not forget, attempting to get free labor out of his minor daughter at his law firm so she could pay him “rent.” Unfuckingbelievable. If there’s a Hall of Fame of worthless parenting, I submit this guy for induction.
I note that I do not know for sure that Bradley J. Bereznak is her father. He’s the only Bereznak Martindale yields and googling him produces records of a drawn-out child support battle in which the years match up with Alyssa Bereznak’s story.
catclub
G&T @ 25 I have also read that any organization that has Christian in its name should pay cash up front.
I wonder if this includes the Christian Science Monitor?
Anyone hired by Gingrich should definitely be in the faliure to learn category.
scav
@Nutella: Oh, that Sara. It really does only get better. Another chance to bring up the danger paediatricians posed to Cro-Teatards.
Bruce S
“kay already posted this. sorry”
Hey – it bears repeating. This guy has his face all over my TeeVee.
PS – I’m sure some other jokester already hit this, but maybe Walsh is trying to improve the economy of his wife and kids through painful spending cuts.
kay
Oh, I agree. I’m almost sad he didn’t try it, so the judge could shoot him that narrow-eyed, smirky look they get when they have to listen to the umpteenth crack pot scheme that always ends with “it’s not about the money”.
What a sad story. I can’t believe the assholes sat her down to “negotiate” the contract. That’s fair! Two adults on one side, and the child on the other. Even-steven.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
So when he was making less money he would have had lower CS payments so the 6 digits in arrearages are a sign he is a COMPLETE asshole.
In addition, I have yet to see a definition of average that includes shirking obligations to one’s offspring. Must be in the New WingNut Webster’s.
celticdragonchick
The freeper wingnuts are bust calling his ex a liberal slut etc etc for daring to impugn their manly wet dream-boat.
Villago Delenda Est
This asshole needs to be made an example of.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
This shit was posted last night if ya’ll want to get all snippy about it.
scav
And just to take a slight note of how weird things are, here’s another story that’s been up at the Guard for an hour and isn’t front page news in the US yet as far as I can see.
US soldier arrested near Fort Hood ‘with bomb-making material’
Truly, these are strange new times.
NonyNony
@Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
Ah the nice thing about Tea Party Zealots and Deadbeat Dads alike – they all think that they’re the “normal ones”.
I’ve known Deadbeat Dads and they’ve all been assholes – giant gaping assholes. And every fucking one of them says the same thing – some variant on “if you were in my position with my crazy-ex-wife and my ungrateful monster children you’d do the same thing”.
They think everyone is as hateful and awful as they are – and no evidence to the contrary will sway that belief.
shortstop
OT, am I the only one who still keeps reading NotW as “Not W,” the would-be slogan of all post-Bush GOP candidates?
gex
Why am I not surprised one of the Tea Partiers owes 6 figures in child support, didn’t pay his campaign manager, and defaulted on a mortgage? Fiscal responsibility and family values all rolled into one giant turd.
rachel
scav
@shortstop: OT-replay No, I’ve struggled with it too, but NOW, NoW, NOWT (sort of a Yorkshire “none” if I’ve got my dialects down), nothing seemed to work 100% and at least Not W is a giggle.
rachel
FYWP! >_<
Mark S.
I’m beginning to wonder if maybe these guys are idiots:
Perhaps you should start. Shit, maybe this isn’t going to be passed after all. I can’t see a bunch of teabaggers voting for the Reid Job Killing Debt Ceiling Sellout Bill, even if it’s practically the same thing they just passed. They just won’t vote for anything proposed by a Democrat.
shortstop
I’m not remotely objective on this subject. After a very nasty divorce from their mother, my father-in-law abandoned my husband and his brother (emotionally: more or less; financially: totally). Two days after my husband’s mother died, my father-in-law called us up and informed us that she’d had an affair that had been the cause of the divorce, a charge that she was, under the circumstances, unable to address at that point.
How we do enjoy hearing Dad criticize Democratic/liberal fathers’ parenting skills on a regular basis. My favorite is Bill Clinton (“I can’t believe he was so selfish he didn’t think having an affair would have a negative effect on his daughter!”). Asshole.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
Don’t need to tell me. My mom once worked with a national child support advocacy group and death threats were a normal part of the leader/founder’s day. Her car was fucked with several times and her house set on fire once.
Another thing the DBDs share with the TPers/WingNuts (And I suspect the Venn Diagram of the two groups has a fair amount of overlap) – Intense outrage when anyone even suggests the consequences of their actions may not always be to their liking.
Joseph Nobles
I’d like to point out that Rand Paul posted a picture via his Twitter account in response to some people using the apparent insult “Tea Party Hobbits,” saying that he would rather be a hobbit than a troll.
I have used a hobbit name as a pseudonym on the internets for a long time, having fed my real name into a hobbit name generator back during the blessed event of the Fellowship film. I got Bolo Boffin, and so for one am insulted that hobbits were associated with the Tea Party (even though, admittedly, hobbits are insular and backwater and probably would populate a Tea Party rally quite handily — at least those fucking Sacksville-Baggins would).
However, the picture Rand Paul posted was NOT of a troll, but of Gollum. Gollum, of course, was formerly named Smeagol, and he was very hobbit-like before the One Ring twisted him into the wraith thing we saw during the course of events than ended Middle Earth. In other words, Rand Paul, in posting he’d rather be a hobbit, posted a picture of the most demented, stunted hobbit ever, filled with bile and possessiveness, caring only about his Precious Ring of Power.
In other words, a perfectly appropriate image of a Tea Party Hobbit. A moment of reflection on how nicely some things manage to work out, and #NerdOut!
Gin & Tonic
The word “arrearage” makes me think of Sonia Braga. I know, I’m a bad human being (and an old one.)
shortstop
Indeed. In kay’s thread, I suggested that the single thing that threads the teabagging mindset together (and of which the blatant racism, desire to turn back the historical clock, refusal to admit personal participation in enabling the Bush disaster, etc. are all subsets) is wanting what they want when they want it/flatly refusing to do anything they don’t want to do. And yeah, do they ever scream about the “tyranny” and “injustice” of the consequences when they don’t do it.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
WTF? I actually looked (‘cos I too am a nerd) and it looks like he thinks Gollum is a troll.
Whatevs. No matter how you slice it it comes up FAIL.
NonyNony
@shortstop & @Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen –
Both of these stories ring true. I cannot stand Deadbeat Dads – and I swear of the ones I’ve known in the past when I found out they were Deadbeats who hated their kids almost as much as they hated their ex-wives my response wasn’t “wow – what a surprise” but rather “Of course you do”. Because these guys aren’t charming wonderful people to the rest of the world either – they’re hateful and spiteful and mean and just … assholes.
Sly
Why do you think they call it the nanny state? Children are the ultimate parasites. Rep. Joe Walsh is merely maximizing his potential as a rugged individualist, and doing so with undeviating purpose.
Joseph Nobles
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen:
Yeah, that’s it. He definitely thinks Gollum is a troll. Or some wag in his office did some passive-aggressive stuff. Anyway, the Aqua Buddha moves in a mysterious way.
J
Love the Lauryn Hill lyric in the title. Doo Wop is a great, great song.
I also cannot believe 70 comments went by without anyone else noting it. Great song and great post title Doug.
Dee Loralei
@Joseph Nobles: John McCain was on the senate floor yesterday accusing the Tea Party of being Hobbits. Of course we all know they are really Orcs, and their mouthpieces are the Urak Hai and Ring Wraiths are their wranglers like Phil Gramm. Their owners are Sauron and Sauruman, the Koch brothers, etc.
My guess is Rand was accusing John McCain of being a troll, because I can kinda see the resemblance to Gollum, he is a twisted soul, (and war hero!) He just assumed Gollum was a troll and not a river folk. And that’s because, to steal from the inestimable John Rogers, when Rand was 12, he read the book that had imaginary supermen in it and not the book with the orcs.
Dee Loralei, nerd, explains it all. LOL
Calouste
@NonyNony:
My explanation for those kind of things is that a significant part of the Americans have never got over the fact that their mom told them to finish their brocoli or clean up their room. Really, emotionally these people are 5 year olds.
Arclite
Well, remember what the Original Teatard (Gingrich) said when confronted about this hypocrisy by his ex wife: “It doesn’t matter what I do, only what I tell others to do”
aimai
I love that one of his lawyer’s claims is that he doesn’t owe the entire 100,000 plus from 9 years of fighting paying support because he “has an email” offer from the wife to “settle” for a mere 10,000. The email exchange is identical to the ones my divorced neighbor has with her ex husband–the entire exchange is predicated on an MRA fantasy that (kind of like a Sovereign Citizen fantasy) if you can just get the wife on record making what can be construed as some kind of “offer” and you can send her a quickie email saying “I agree to your offer” that magically the entire legal edifice behind the divorce settlement and the child support crumbles.
aimai
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Dee Loralei #72:
Excuse me, I have a gentleman on line# 1 holding for you. He claims to be the attorney for somebody named Shagrat of Cirith Ungol. Something about a defamation of character lawsuit. He says that Orcs may have indulged in cannablism and torture, and occasionally left one of their wounded comrades hung up on a wall to be devoured alive by a giant spider, just for a laugh, but they never deliberately tried to sabotage the Mordorian economy. Even Orcs weren’t that stupid.
chopper
reminds me of the statue in springfield in honor of deadbeat dads, a guy smiling as he shows his empty pockets with the saying ‘i just don’t have it’ underneath.
Chyron HR
Bear in mind that the context of the LOTR reference is that the Tea Partiers fantasize about being legendary fantasy heroes like Frodo and Sam (and to a lesser extent, Merry and Merrier), but instead of halflings they’re just halfwits.
So, yes, he would rather be a Hobbit. But he’s not. That’s the entire point.
Ol' Dirty DougJ
One of my very favorites of the past 20 years.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
NonyNony – I don’t know if they do this in your neck of the woods but Montgomery County regularly has/d something called Father’s Day. That is, the cops round up EVERYONE who was behind on child support. They’re taken to court to be yelled at by a judge and make a payment before they can go. If they do it in your area, you’d probably get a kick out of it.
My mom used to go to the local courthouse on FD, partially in hopes they’d finally caught my step-dad, but I think mainly just to laugh.
What’s intresting is deadbeats represent a complete cross-section of str8 American males. Rich, poor, black, white and everything in between. Mom liked the rich guys best. They were more likely to have tantrums, which is not a good idea when under arrest.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
The rest of your excellent comment aside, the fact that he didn’t pay even that amount means … Well, for starters it means his attorney needs to StFu. (And I have to wonder if the lawyer expects to get paid.)
On a more serious note, not a few spouses have attempted to coerce similar settlements through threats and physical violence. They tend to be surprised when the judge doesn’t agree with their theory of contract law.
Dee Loralei
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: Tell Shagrat’s attorney that I will cease and desist, he has convinced me that I have unfairly slandered Orcs. Teapartiers are the Urak Hai, they can run in daylight, were born of environmental destruction and have a preference for man-flesh.
To revise and correct my previous statement @72: Teapartiers are Urak Hai, their leaders are Shelob and all her off-spring.Phill Gramm et al., are still ring wraiths and the Koch’s etc., are still Sauruman and Sauron.
Please forgive me Shagrath and your brethren. Because let’s face it, orcs were once Elves and there is no way on God’s Own Green MiddleEarth the fucking Teapartiers were ever elvish folk!
Julie Raffety
I called his office this morning to bemoan his complete incompetence to have anything to do with our country’s money when he can’t pay his own debts. I felt a little, only a little sorry for his secretary. She said she would pass it on. Sure.
Ruckus
Julie Raffety
She probably will pass it on. Maybe with a questioning look, like am I going to get paid this week?
harlana
And so he tells his wife he doesn’t have money and then, I assume, took out a loan he could not afford without telling his then-wife and he’s screaming about spending? Oh and the having kids you can’t afford thing, that uncomfortable little truth, also. But a pro-lifer of course, doesn’t have to take responsibility for all those kids he spawns. He’s doing it cuz God told him to spread his seed. Ain’t that something?
gloryb
Maybe someone with more knowlege of that particular area of the law could weigh in, but isn’t it true that child support can’t be settled away by a parent because it’s actually owed to the kids?
shortstop
Probably not — the loan, I mean. Credit’s super tight now and his rating’s gotta be in the basement. More likely the little weasel’s got a certain amount of unreported income he’s hiding from her and the children he brought into this world and now will not help feed and clothe.
You’re goddamned right I’m melodramatic. Parents like this make me CRAZY.
marginalized for stating documented facts
He’s not late with $100,000 of child support payments, he’s gone Galt! He’s witholding his productiviteeeeeeeeee…