Mr. Speaker, You Are a Joke

(This is my latest Daily Kos blog and is a reworking of a Turner Report post from Saturday.)

Missouri Speaker of the House Tim Jones, battling back from the ridicule he received after telling St. Louis reporter Charles Jaco that a "very personal constituent" talked him into signing on to Orly Taitz' birther lawsuit against President Obama, send out a fundraising message earlier this week trying to capitalize on how the elite liberal media is picking on him.

“Friends,  I need your help.  The national liberal media, including The Huffington Post and Chris Matthews of MSNBC, are attacking me for standing up to the dangerous Obama agenda."You can help me send a message to these liberals that Missouri will not back down in the fight against federal overreach, taxation and tyranny.Please contribute $10, $25, $50, or any amount you feel comfortable giving to my campaign by the end of this week.”

To that message, I respond as follows:

As usual, Mr. Speaker, you are sending a misleading message to your supporters. First, no one attacked you for standing up to President Obama's agenda. Mister Speaker, you were attacked because you admitted in a televised interview that it all takes to convince you to sign on to a frivolous lawsuit is a "very personal constituent" whispering in your air.

You are also misleading your supporters when you say that it is the "national liberal media." I wrote the Huffington Post article you are using for your fundraising and I was a Missourian before you were even born.

I am proud to have been born and lived my whole life in a state that is the Show-Me State, not the hit-me-in-the-head-with-a-sledgehammer state so I won't sign on to any and every outlandish conspiracy theory that comes down the chute.

Missouri is a state that has been the home of Harry S Truman, Stuart Symington, John Danforth, Kit Bond, and so many others, from both parties who have represented us with integrity and decency, and who would have resigned with embarrassment before putting the whole state up to ridicule as you have done.

So please, the next time you feel like you have to use your foot-in-mouth disease to justify another mealy-mouthed fundraising pitch- don't pretend it is just Chris Matthews and the national media types who are ridiculing you.

I have no doubt that I am not the only Missourian who considers you to be a joke.

Hopefully, some day, some "very personal constituent" will have the decency to let you in on the joke.