A New Entry for 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America

Back in 2005 I wrote a book called 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America – and Al Franken is #37.   It was about the chuckleheads in our culture and politics who were, well, screwing up America.

At number 100 were Paris Hilton’s parents for raising such a twit. Paris was “hot” at the time so I figured, what the heck, and wrote this about her parents: “If they gave Nobel Prizes for the mom and dad who raised the most vapid, empty-headed, inane, hollow, vain, tasteless, self-centered, useless twerp in the entire country – maybe in the entire world – Rich and Kathy Hilton would be on their way to Stockholm to pick up the medal.”

The others who made the list were serious people who were causing real trouble.  There was Congresswoman Maxine Waters, at number 47, for her general hatefulness.  Bill Moyers made the list, at number 34, after he said  – in his oh-so-earnest way – that “right-wing wrecking crews” were out to bankrupt the government in order to enrich the corporate interests, and that, “I think this is a deliberate, intentional destruction of the United States of America.”  Conservatives were intentionally trying to destroy America?  Come on, Bill!

Moyers’ intellectual soul mate, Noam Chomsky, came in at number 11, for his own anti-American brand of intellectualism.

At number two, was a no-brainer:  Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr, the publisher of the New York Times, which was once a great newspaper – before Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr. took over.

And at number one, was our favorite hefty lefty, Michael Moore, who was in the news a lot back then for saying dopey things, like this about his fellow Americans:  “They are possibly the dumbest people on the planet…”

If I were updating the book now, in 2012, there’d be a lot of contenders for the list – almost everybody on MSNBC, for example – but no one would deserve to be there more than the new Democratic National Chair … Debbie Wasserman Shultz.  She would make the list – maybe even topping it at number one – if for no other reason than she’s breathtakingly obnoxious.  Every time she opens her mouth, you have to figure that it’s a vote for some Republican – ANY Republican.  What were the Democrats thinking when they picked her as the face and voice of their party?  Never mind:  these are the same geniuses that picked Nancy Pelosi to speak for the party. By the way, I’m not ruling out the possibility that’s she’s a mole for the GOP, that she’s there because of some really, really cool Republican dirty trick.

We all know that politics isn’t for sissies, that it can get pretty rough.  But Ms. Wasserman Shultz is just plain nasty.  Take the recent Mitt Romney gaffe.  By now we know the dumb remark that Romney made about how he likes to fire people.  Yes, he meant he likes to fire insurance companies that aren’t doing their job the way we, the consumer, want them to.  Debbie Wasserman Shultz knows exactly what he meant, but that didn’t stop her from saying, “In a shocking and apparent moment of true honesty, Mitt Romney said, ‘I like being able to fire people who provide services to me.’ That’s precisely the approach he took at Bain where his business model was to put profits over people.”

She’s not the only one who knew better.  A few desperate Republicans joined the mud slinging.  But unlike the others who can be decent from time to time, Wasserman Shultz is an attack dog who can be counted on for nasty stuff any time she’s awake.

Just the other day, she linked the Tea Party to the 2011 massacre in Tucson – despite the fact that the shooter, Jared Lougner, is so crazy that a judge has ruled him unfit to stand trial.  There’s not a shred of evidence that he ever went to a Tea Party rally or that he even knew what the Tea Party is. That didn’t stop Debbie Wasserman Shultz from saying:

"We need to make sure that we tone things down, particularly in light of the Tucson tragedy from a year ago, where my very good friend, Gabby Giffords [was shot]. ...The discourse in America, the discourse in Congress in particular . . . has really changed, I'll tell you. I hesitate to place blame, but I have noticed it took a very precipitous turn towards edginess and lack of civility with the growth of the Tea Party movement."

Nice touch, Deb … saying “I hesitate to place blame” … right before you place blame.

Jonathan S. Tobin nailed the Wasserman Shultz hypocrisy in a piece on the Commentary magazine Web site:

"Many liberals initially tried to blame the Tea Party or Sarah Palin or anybody else they could think of on the right for the shooting. But once it was established that the perpetrator was an apolitical lunatic, they quickly dropped that ploy though few, if any, apologized. It takes a special kind of chutzpah to dredge this nastiness up a year later and to do it while calling for more civility in politics."

That’s not the only time she used the Tucson tragedy to score political points.  Once she actually dragged her 11-year old daughter into the mud, alleging that the young girl said things I’m not at all sure she really said.  “After my daughter heard that, you know, Gabby had been shot, the first thing she asked me was, you know, ‘Mommy, are you gonna get shot?  Does that mean you're going to get shot?'”  After Wasserman Shultz supposedly said, "No, of course Mommy will be O.K,” her daughter supposedly said,  “But Mommy, Florida's going to pass an immigration law like Arizona and then people are going to be mad at you.”

Really?  An 11-year old girl said, “Florida’s going to pass an immigration law like Arizona ….”  Maybe.  But I don’t believe it.

And when Republican Congressman Paul Ryan came out with his plan to control government spending, Debbie Wasserman Schultz was at it again.

“We see a clear attempt for the government to back out of its commitment to seniors,” she said.  “As a result, many seniors in America will be forced into poverty, and worse.  Some seniors will end up dying because they are forced to put off getting that pain checked out due to huge out-of-pocket costs that will skyrocket for them.  … This plan would literally be a death trap for some seniors.”

When Sarah Palin talked about “death panels” the so-called mainstream media went wild.  When Wasserman Shultz, a liberal not unlike the reporters who cover politics, says the Ryan plan “would literally be a death trap for some seniors” we get virtually nothing from the lame-streams in the way of outrage.  I'm shocked!

You know who else should be on an updated 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America?  Debbie Wasserman Shultz’ parents – for raising Debbie Wasserman Shultz.  All Paris Hilton's parents did was raise a twit.  The Shultzes raised an attack dog who gives politics a bad name.

But I’m still not ruling out the possibility that she might be a Republican dirty trick.