The Daily Sandwich

"We have to learn the lesson that intellectual honesty is fundamental for everything we cherish." -Sir Karl Popper

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Location: Boston, Massachusetts, United States

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Friday, February 23, 2007

The same old face of the Republican party

Lessons learned from being thrashed in the November elections? Eerily similar to Bush's Iraq plan-- the exact same failed strategy, just more of it.

On January 10, freshman Republican Bill Sali got up to speak at the House debate on the minimum-wage increase. The measure was sure to pass, and the debate was so stultifying that even Alcee Hastings, languorously draped in the speaker's chair, looked bored. Gripping the podium, the burly Sali began with the customary boilerplate. Then he paused and, as a smile spread across his silver-goateed face, continued: "Mr. Speaker, I have asked my staff to draft a measure I call the Obesity Reduction and Health Promotion Act. Since Congress will apparently not be restrained by the laws and principles that naturally exist, I propose that the force of gravity--by the force of Congress--be reduced by 10 percent. . . .

Last April, in the midst of his primary campaign for the First District's open congressional seat, Sali made a speech in the Idaho state legislature that linked abortion to breast cancer in front of a colleague who'd battled breast cancer. The Republican speaker had to shut the session down, and he later railed to reporters that Sali was an "absolute idiot" who "doesn't have one ounce of empathy in his whole fricking body."


Sali was recently elected president of the Republican 'freshman class.' Recommended reading.