Seriously, what is wrong with Thomas Massie? And a lot of other Ky. politicians?
It would be great if Kentucky’s Congressional delegation would stop embarrassing us nearly every week. Two weeks ago, Rep. Hal Rogers was anointed Kentucky’s most cringe-worthy politician, but then Thomas Massie got jealous.
It’s only Thursday and he has already voted against two pieces of legislation that you’d think were uncontroversial. The first was an anti-lynching bill, nearly a century too late of course, but we’re trying. Even Sen. Rand Paul, R-Blockheaded, has come around from his initial obstinance and agreed, yes, we should outlaw crimes in which some people kill others based on skin color. Massie was one of three representatives to vote no.
Then on Wednesday, Massie decided to vote no on a resolution to support Ukraine. It’s not even really clear why, as McClatchy’s Dave Catanese reported: While a spokesperson did not immediately respond to a question explaining Massie’s vote, the 4th District congressman has aggressively tweeted skepticism about mainstream U.S. policy toward Ukraine since Russia launched its incursion last week.”
So does he have a fanboy crush on Putin like Trump? Does he think civilian casualties are A-OK? The vote was 426-3. which would suggest there’s a bipartisan feeling that Russia shouldn’t march in wherever it wants.
Why is Massie even in office? To send flashy Christmas cards? To cause collective groans? As I’ve written before, he doesn’t do much except polish on his already stellar Outrage Twitter game. There’s not really any solid legislative there there. Probably he wasn’t jealous of Hal, he was jealous of those class acts Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene who heckled President Biden as he talked about his dead son at the State of the Union Tuesday night. (Another Kentucky congressman, Jamie Comer, did some cute verbal tapdancing on TV in distinctly not condemning them for this breach of manners.)
The bar to winning most cringeworthy gets higher and higher, which makes me dread what any of them might do next. Such as the entire Kentucky House of Representatives. Are they so steeped in anti-Semitism they don’t even know what it is? Last week, two statehouse members talked about “jewing down” prices on hot mics. Wednesday, Rep. Danny Bentley went on a bizarre rant about Jews and abortion Wednesday that is too embarrassing to recap here. Hey Kentucky GOP, your idiots are becoming less useful.
What a world. But here’s a serious question amid all these court jesters: Surely, like Eastern Kentucky and Western Kentucky, and Central Kentucky, too, the northern part of the state deserves just a little better than this?
This story was originally published March 3, 2022 at 9:25 AM.
