Bill Straub: For Thomas Massie here’s a ‘no’ vote, there’s a ‘no’ vote, everywhere there’s a ‘no’ vote

A bit earlier that same day, the House passed, in a 403-25 vote, legislation designating the El Paso Community Healing Garden as a National Memorial, thus honoring the victims and survivors of the Aug. 3, 2019, domestic terrorist attack  that resulted in 23 deaths and 22 serious injuries. The perpetrator told police he intentionally targeted Latinos in the massacre.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-SomewhereorotherLewisCounty, voted against it.

On Thursday, in due recognition of the war crimes Russia is perpetrating on neighboring Ukraine, a tragedy fueled by Vladimir Putin’s blood lust for power that already has run up thousands of civilian casualties, including children, the House voted 424-8 to withdraw Russia’s most-favored trade status.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-SomewhereorotherLewisCounty, voted against it.

It’s been an interesting few weeks for Massie, the MIT Wonder Boy who just can’t seem to help himself when it comes to favoring guns, his favorite play-pretty, expressing his admiration for war criminals, and opposing any legislation that might help people. Some forward-thinking lawmaker should introduce legislation designating the Whiz Kid as a National Embarrassment, a measure everyone should get behind, save for one nay vote, of course.

A few days before flipping off these three bills, Massie spent his copious free time joining only two others in voting against a House resolution declaring that “the United States stands fervently with the Ukrainian people,” and further urging open-ended military aid to Kyiv in its fight against Russia.

Oh, and on Feb. 28 he was one of three opposing the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act of 2022, which, as you may have deduced, makes lynching a federal hate crime.
But wait! There’s more!

Massie has joined a handful of other lawmakers of dubious wisdom, including that perennial all-star, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Bowling Green, in a lawsuit against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, seeking to overturn its rule requiring passengers to wear masks on airplanes and other forms of public transportation as part of the battle to limit the spread of COVID-19.

This comes just as researchers are expressing concern over the spread of a new variant of the disease that has killed almost 1 million Americans. No one has ever said the old Wonder Boy’s timing was all that great. And apparently traditional methods, like convincing fellow lawmakers to address the issue statutorily, failed to enter into his considerations. The current mandate, by the way, ends April 18, meaning the entire mess could be moot by the time it reaches the bench.

Oh, by the way, in regard to another lawsuit filed by our wildly litigious hero, Massie recently lost his case against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, who fined our boy $500 for refusing to wear a mask on the House floor. The federal judge declared she was within her right to do so.

Are you getting the feeling that the 4th District congressman is little more than a whiny child?

Of course these items constitute only Massie’s most recent assaults on the body politic, not to mention reason. There was the disgusting and indefensible e-Christmas card showing our boy and his kin armed to the teeth with weapons that would be better served in the arms of the Ukraine army, along with a note asking Santa to bring ammo.

And there was his strange admonition, odd even for a flake of Massie’s tremendous stature, declaring, “Over 70% of Americans who died with COVID, died on Medicare, and some people want #MedicareForAll?” That led Rolling Stone magazine to pose, “It took nearly two years of batting back competition from hordes of right-wing commentators and conservative lawmakers, but the Republican from Kentucky appears to have devised the single dumbest take on the  COVID-19 pandemic, which has  now killed nearly a million Americans.”

Good lord! Almost forgot. It’s only been six weeks since the whole Voltaire rigmarole.

Massie elected to hop on the right-wing bandwagon excoriating Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical advisor and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — better known as the man leading the nation’s anti-COVID campaign — with a tweet depicting a giant hand crushing a group of small people with the legend, “To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.”

The poor boy misattributed the quote to Voltaire, a renowned 18th-Century Enlightenment writer and philosopher. It actually came from Kevin Alfred Strom, a neo-Nazi who once pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography. And the hand illustration had anti-union origins.

Now we could go on, believe you me, but in deference to those who suffer migraines or have weak stomachs, let’s end the lengthy indictment here.

It would be justice if anyone were to assert that Massie is an ass and a boil on the nation’s backside who has no business coming within 500 miles of the nation’s capital.

But, sadly, it would be going too far in this day and age to maintain that our homegrown Wonder Boy is the worst member of the 117th Congress, which tells you all you need to know about the current state of politics in this country.

Congress over the years has attracted its share of weirdos, nut jobs, and worse. You may recall guys like Jim Traficant, a Democrat from around Youngstown, OH, who wore his hair (actually a wig) like the top of a green onion and wailed nonsensically on an almost daily basis in the well of the House.

Traficant was harmless, crooked but harmless. He would hardly stand out in today’s Congress that features folks like Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-CO, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-GA, who tell wild tales of dubious veracity and do so with a degree of nastiness seldom heard in the hallways of the Capitol.

While Boebert has exhibited sympathy for the Jan. 6 Capitol insurgents, Greene has managed to nonetheless separate herself from the rest of the dunderheads, aping Russian talking points regarding its invasion of Ukraine, heckling Biden with Boebert during the State of the Union address, attending a conference sponsored by a white supremacist outfit and disparaging gay and trans folks.

There exists an unusually large crop of these folks in the current Congress, perhaps because former President Donald J. Trump lowered the bar well below sea level when it comes to truth and civility in political campaigns. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-TX, is the grandaddy of this bunch and includes folks like Rep. Paul Goshar, R-AZ, with a lengthy history of ties to White nationalists, and Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-NC, who is confined to a wheelchair and uses it to carry a veritable armory with him.

Now, before you point it out, this confederacy of dunces is solely populated by Republicans, ’tis true. The GOP has tried to paint Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, under the same rubric, insisting that she’s stupid to boot. The problem is Ocasio-Cortez is far from dumb – she graduated cum laude from Boston University with a bachelor’s degree in international relations and economics — and can more than handle herself in a debate.

Regardless, Massie is a party to this crew assiduously turning American-style democracy into a bad joke. The fact that he isn’t the biggest nutjob in the House is a disturbing proposition indeed. How anyone in good conscience can vote for this man, given his extensive list of inanities, is one of the great mysteries of the universe.