To refresh your memory of this “issue” of utmost importance, recall that on July 30th, the conservative congressman from Texas 7 sent out several “SOS” tweets, imploring Twitterverse to “rise up agnst censorship by top US gov’t leaders”. Subsequently, in a move reminiscent of Nero fiddling as Rome burned, Harris County Republican Chairman Jared Woodfill sent out his own SOS, urging Republicans to stand behind Rep. Culberson in his fight against the evil Democrats.
As I noted, this was hardly censorship. It was nothing more than the majority party using the rules of the House to its benefit. No censorship was involved, Rep. Culbertson was free to mail out that piece from campaign funds but chose instead to rewrite it (7 times it turns out) and send it out on the taxpayer dime. Conservative that he is and all.
Fine, that is old news, right? Wrong. Bryan Thome and Beatrice Wilson scored an interview with him and there he goes again.
Notice in the video that he correctly states that the majority party stacks the franking committee with their own members. Imagine how then Rep. Chris Bell felt when he wasn’t even allowed to send internal communiques under a Republican controlled franking committee!
Now, overall, Rep. Culberson is a fine conservative, I just hate it when conservatives whine. Especially about something like this. Franking privileges, as they have evolved, are nothing more than a tool for incumbents to keep their seats. Conservatives should be in favor of strict guidelines, not crying for permission to send out campaign literature on the taxpayer dime.
Which brings me to a larger issue I’ve noticed about conservatives in general: they are huge whiners. I mean, really, really thin skinned whiners. If you don’t rah-rah their every mis-step, they cry and call you names and such. Take Rep. Culberson for instance. Shortly after I wrote that first piece about his SOS, he asked if I would put the original letter and response on the website for our readers to decide because obviously I was wrong. I replied that I would, no problem. Interestingly, I never heard back.
I followed up a couple of times but nothing. I also asked him why he would support Medicare but call current proposed legislation wrong because it was socialism. I mean, seriously, how can you support socialistic programs at the same time you claim to be across the board against them? Bad question, I suppose because again, no response.
But I’ve certainly heard from other channels. It isn’t good to criticize those on your side. If you do, you won’t get invited to the next big thing. Or something like that. Oh, and never, ever, characterize someone as being a “rhetorical conservative”. Not good. Guess it is a good thing I’ve never cared much about being invited to the next big thing.