Here’s a little Chicago-style politics:
President Barack Obama today followed through with his intent to nominate former Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle to a commissioner’s seat on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission that pays $155,000 per year.
By law, Obama has to nominate two Republicans to the CPSC, and Buerkle is, above all things, a Republican. In fact, she’s a foaming-at-the-mouth full-on teatard who beat Dan Maffei in a squeaker for NY-25 in 2010. After redistricting, Maffei pushed her out in 2012. If she takes this nomination, the next time she runs for Congress she’s going to have to explain how starving the beast is consistent with a $155K suckle at the government sugar teat. That’s how you solve a problem like Ann Marie.
(BTW, the outraged teahadi comments on that article are priceless.)
Origuy
They’re all upset about the pay scale, which is not out of line for a upper level administrator in the private sector. It’s less than a congress person makes, currently $174,000. I wonder how much that radio gig is paying her?
YellowJournalism
Hahahahahahaha!
MattF
The enemy of my enemy of my enemy of my enemy…
wenchacha
Good riddance.
Professor
@MattF: Abraham Lincoln once said: Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them? (paraphrasing).
AxelFoley
And some of you say that 11th dimensional chess isn’t real.
Violet
Is she greedy enough to take the job? Or is she one of those crazy purists that would refuse the job and then point out how she refused one of those high government salaries.
belieber
I gotta say the comments are pretty awesome. Made my day. Nice 11 dimensional chess move or whatever.
Brother Machine Gun of Desirable Mindfulness (fka AWS)
@Violet:
How many of these are there?
Keith
@Origuy: I like the comment that goes something like “How dare she make $150k a YEAR! I went to college for FOUR years, and I only make $50k!” Someone sounds bitter that a bachelor’s degree doesn’t guarantee six figures. I suspect the person’s been out of college for a couple of years…my company’s starting to get job candidates asking for six figures right out of college. F’n insane.
Keith
Editing is broken, but the above ‘quote’ was meant to be paraphrasing.
Violet
@Brother Machine Gun of Desirable Mindfulness (fka AWS): A few. There’s that crazy guy who announced on his blog that he was leaving the blog because Obama won and he was henceforth going to cut off all family members and friends who didn’t agree with him 100%.
Plus, people like this woman will do whatever is advantageous. If she doesn’t need the money then she can refuse the job and claim it’s on principle.
Emma
@Violet: I don’t think the President nominates anyone without vetting them and discussing the appointment with them. But I love the theater…
Amir Khalid
Okay, help me out here. Since Buerkle’s nomination is subject to Senate confirmation, and since Republican Senators tend to give Obama’s nominees — even fellow Republicans — as much grief as possible, will she face from her party colleagues what I suspect she might face?
Yatsuno
OT: Robbie’s coming back. Someone get Randinho.
Amir Khalid
@Professor:
I’ve always thought that quote was originally from Jesus.
MomSense
MUAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA!
The comments at that article are delicious.
Yatsuno
@Amir Khalid: Well Yertle put her up for it, so she’ll have at least his backing, theoretically. No doubt she’ll be stalled by Aqua Buddha and Señor Cruz and the like becuz gubmint is so ebil we work for it.
Corner Stone
Was she actually a problem of any sort?
Brother Machine Gun of Desirable Mindfulness (fka AWS)
@Emma: Very good point.
@Amir Khalid: The crazy recognizes the crazy. She’ll be approved by a large margin.
Comrade Jake
@Keith: That one made me laugh as well. He works REALLY HARD for that $50k, dontcha know!
burnspbesq
@Yatsuno:
It’s great that Robbie is coming back, but the G gave up an awful lot to get him. Magee was a major factor in the last two championship runs. And since he will be playing Beckham’s old wide right position, he has a bit to live up to. All G fans will be cheering for him to do well, but color us skeptical for the time being.
Word is that he’s not fully match fit, and won’t dress for tonight’s match vs. Sounders.
Howard Beale IV
Ahemm..Its by tradition that the minority party nominates majority party candidates to CPSC, as well as the majority party nominates minority candidates. Thinking that this is some masterstroke is nothing more than kicking the can down the road, especially since the Senate can’t even find their own asses with both hands when it comes to the nominee approval process.
IOW:
Corner Stone
I had to check the byline a couple times to make sure this wasn’t someone else’s OP.
Did Zandar steal your login info mistermix?
gf120581
@Corner Stone: Only as another annoying teabagger. Like Joe Walsh and Allen West, she only got in thanks to the 2010 wave and was pegged as a likely loser come the next election cycle. Which she was. Even without redistricting, Maffei would have reclaimed his seat from her.
But now we get to see what her real principles are and how much they’re worth. I’d say $155,000.
jackmac
@burnspbesq: It’s great that Robbie is coming back, but the G gave up an awful lot to get him. : The Galaxy won the attention and headlines but the Chicago Fire pulled off the steal by demanding, and getting Magee. Rogers is certainly a trailblazer, but that’s a heavy load to carry. And realistically he hasn’t played in a while, his fitness is lacking and after a disappointing run in England will be be able to match what he previously did in MLS? Remains to be seen.
Keith
@Comrade Jake: I was tempted to register just to reply to that comment. I would love to break it to a tea partier that salaries and wages are largely a function of the free market and subject to the principles of supply and demand. Just graduating from college doesn’t entitle anyone to anything except for a diploma. Next thing you know, one of them will post about how it’s not fair that their Social Security disability payments only amount to about $24k/year.
Elizabelle
WaPost article about North Carolina’s turn to severely conservative politics. Front page of Sunday paper.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/in-north-carolina-unimpeded-gop-drives-state-hard-to-the-right/2013/05/25/a9c9ccd2-c3c7-11e2-914f-a7aba60512a7_story.html
Know BJ has discussed this before.
Craptastic about the WP article: it’s only “liberals” upset about the conservatives’ takeover.
Got that? People and politics are libs and conservatives and nothing in between.
I see that a lot in fourth estate reporting. It’s so false.
JD Rhoades
Reminds me of the constant commenter on our local paper’s website who claims to be an “anarchist”, insists that “all government is tyranny, and all taxation is theft.”
He works for the Department of Transportation.
RSA
More of the backstory:
If this is 11-dimensional chess, Obama may just be responding to a ?? move by McConnell.
WereBear
Show me one who did that :)
Woodrowfan
Wait, didn’t Snowflake Snookie give up her job as governor because she thought it paid too much?////
Spaghetti Lee
I like the concept, but I was under the impression that she only won because of 2010-specific conditions and wouldn’t be much of a threat now. Could he have appointed a sitting GOP rep whose seat the Dems could contest in a special? Or would that be too obvious?
Fluke bucket
@JD Rhoades: I would love to know the percentage of libertarians / anarchists that work for the government. More times than not the louder a person bitches about government spending the more apt they are to be a government employee.
Yatsuno
@burnspbesq: From what I understand he had been doing workouts with the Fire but nothing as intense as when he was playing. So this:
is not a big surprise at all. He’ll bounce back though. He’s a young buck and it’s pretty clear he still has the fire in his heart.
YellowJournalism
@JD Rhoades: My grandfather was one of those people. He wrote in all the time about the tyrannical government, illegal immigrants taking over, and how welfare queens and liberals were bringing the country down. The entire time he was collecting check from the government, one of which was sent to him by mistake for ten years.
Before he died, he wrote about Jesus talking to him and the exact date of the end of the world. If he hasn’t been dead by the time Obama was elected, it would have killed him.
PsiFighter37
@Elizabelle: NC has only itself to blame. They’re getting the government they voted for.
FlipYrWhig
Yeah, OK, but I still don’t think it’s a great idea having a tea party scum-sucker in a position to affect consumer product safety.
NickT
@FlipYrWhig:
Buerkled may well be the new Borked, if she follows her usual path of corrupt duncehood.
Corner Stone
Her name was put forth by McConnell. She had been defeated soundly by the incumbent D she could have possibly challenged for the CD, or maybe moved to statewide politics.
Now she’s a previously unemployed nut who’s getting a free ride on govt largesse and still retaining her obnoxious tparty voice.
This is the strangest god damned cock crowing of 11-D I think I have ever seen.
Ted & Hellen
@Corner Stone:
Quit harshing on the Obot fantasy thread wherein Himself is taking no names by giving low level tea party types cushy jobs..or something.
Lurking Canadian
@FlipYrWhig: This. How is it a good idea having a “no regulations, ever!” nutjob making decisions about consumer safety? Do you really want Gerber to start shipping little jars of pureed tire rims and anthrax?
JoyfulA
@Fluke bucket: When there was still a Navy base in Philadelphia, a couple of suburban New Jersey residents sued against paying the city wage tax, saying they used no city facilities. When shot down for using city streets, they proceeded to boat across the Delaware River to the federal zone of the city and then sued again. They still lost, because city icebreakers cleared passage for them in the winter and city fireboats served the river rescue function for them year-round.
Some people, almost always government employees, will go to extreme measures of effort and expense to flout taxes.
Sir Nose'D
It is not for you or me to decide. The free market will work it all out.
FlyingToaster
@Lurking Canadian:
Pretty sure that’s what’s already in there.
I fed WarriorBabyGirl (now WarriorGirl) from fruits-n-veg that I pureed in the Cuisinart. Put the output into KidCo freezer trays and we were good everywhere except on a plane.
? Martin
@Corner Stone:
Yeah, I don’t get this one at all. If she’s got some history of actually being very good about consumer product safety, then I might go along, but typically teatards offer up “If that newborn had a 9mm, it could have shot out the slats in the crib and not been choked to death.”
The only thing that should matter is that the appointee is qualified.
I suppose the only 11-D that might make sense here is if Obama is convinced she accept the nomination, lobby for it, get a big embarrassing hearing, and then get killed by the Dems. No harm done in that case, but it’s a damn strange tactic. Strange either way, actually.
2liberal
the fact that mitch mcconnell recommended her puts her in a dffierent category. this is just a version of wingnut welfare.
Keith G
@AxelFoley:
I am wondering about these accolades in this case. Obama’s nomination was a bit proforma:
So…McConnell asked Obama to nominate this woman, the President did as suggested, and AL calls this action “sly” (and the crowd goes wild)?
Is the bar really that low?
Corner Stone
@Keith G:
I don’t blame you a bit here, as I had to check the byline a couple times to make sure it wasn’t Zandar’s post.
But actually mistermix put this …post…out.
Corner Stone
Nut cutting Huntsman when asked to be Ambassador – that was good shit. In any sane political/electoral environ, having the cred of diplomacy with a major trading partner on your CV would be a help. But in this topsy turvy BS, just acknowledging Obama isn’t made of pure Commie Hellfire seems to seal a politician’s fate. Which is a damn shame as Huntsman seems to want to serve.
But this whole AMB schlemiel. This is stupid to praise Obama in any way. Unless someone can tell us all how a defeated TP kook ass, no seat holding ex-leg in fucking NY state was somehow a threat to…anyone or anything. Anywhere.
TriassicSands
Ask yourself, Is Ann Marie Buerkle someone I want sitting on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission? Is she qualified? Is she the best Republican for this job?
If the answer to any of those questions is “No,” then nominating her is a mistake.
We criticize Republicans endlessly for their clown tactics, because government is supposed to be about governing responsibly, not playing games.