"Read the bill" advocate didn't read the bill

My apologies for the source. :hide:

http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/1109/Read_the_bill_advocate_didnt_read_the_bill.html


"Read the bill" advocate didn't read the bill


Former Rep. Dick Armey testified before the House Oversight Committee Thursday morning about the "stinkin' dead cat" he believes was the economic stimulus bill—only problem? He's never read the legislation.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) had a heated exchange with Armey—who chairs the tea party organizing Freedomworks known for its "Read the Bill" campaigns—after it became more clear that the former Representative hadn't read the bill being discussed.

"You've been commenting an awful lot both here and in the press about the economic recovery bill. We ask members of Congress to read it when they vote on it, and are considering it, so I'm a little surprised you haven't read it," Van Hollen said.

Armey retorted that he had "no reason" to read the legislation.

"If my neighbor's got a dead cat stinkin' up his yard, I don't have to know how it got there to know it's stinkin' up the yard."

we'd have a 1900 page bill where repubs would lambaste dems for even thinking of wanting to read it...

:hi:

...or sometimes even the entire salt shaker.

Now you on the other hand, in my humble opinion, are one of the best of DU. I checked your post count the other day and say that it was over 100,000, and I reflected on how much you bring to DU. Thank you.

Anytime you talk to a teabagger, it seems like their only comeback to your points is, "Read the bill!!!" I've found that most of the people who implore you to read the bill............haven't read the bill. It's a device that people use when faced with conflict where they figure if they come off as aggressive as possible, the other person will assume they know something the listener doesn't. Angrily challenging someone to read the bill implies that you yourself HAVE read the bill and that you know what's in it. But the truth of the matter is that the vast, vast, VAST majority of teabaggers haven't, so you can really nail them on it.

That's why I've been proposing for several months that some news organization go "into the field" and have a conversation with some teabaggers, and when they implore you to "read the bill" (which they ALWAYS will), just whip out a copy of the bill from a backpack and ask them to flip to the page and/or cite specifically where the bill says what they say it does. They, of course, won't know, and will look like a fool on TV. I think this would be a perfect segment for "The Daily Show" or for someone who wants to make a wildly popular viral video.

At DESTROYING Right-Wingers or ANYONE who comes on his show spewing nonsense.

Cause unlike them, he actually READS, PROCESSES and UNDERSTANDS the information he consumes very quickly and completely. So he can pick apart BS when even the author of their own book tries to get one over.

Like the recent Right-Wingers Stewart has eviscerated this year, I watched a YouTube, just yesterday, of the beloved Chris Matthews got a dose himself a couple years back when he came onto Stewart's show.

Anyway, I say that to say...you're absolutely right.

Ignorant railing against the hobgoblins infesting one's little mind is so much easier and more immediate. In the ordinary course of events, this embarrassing failure on the part of Mr. Armey would rule him out being taken seriously ever again on this issue. However, since we're talking about a made man in the Inside Washington culture, being made out to look like the prize chump that he is will only serve to make him more in demand as a "serious" commentator on the political scene.

They can just make up shit about it and not get caught.