Shame On You!

Well it’s that time of the month again. No, not that. It’s time for the monthly Shame on You awards. As always, narrowing down the field to three was tough, but this month’s nominees have earned their spot by going above and beyond. In honor of the Winter Games in Vancouver, I thought I’d go with an Olympic format. Game On!

The Gold goes to Senator Richard Shelby who has decided to place a blanket “hold” on all presidential nominations until a pair of billion-dollar earmarks for his home state are fast-tracked. At least 70 nominations are being held up, many non-political, by the Senator, who himself blasted Democratic efforts back in 2005 at blocking the appointment of John Bolton to the post of UN ambassador. Funny how selective his memory is. Shelby is no stranger to controversy. Last February, the Alabama senator seemed to question the citizenship of Barack Obama by commenting on a rumor that spread like a cancer throughout the campaign.

“Well his father was Kenyan and they said he was born in Hawaii, but I haven't seen any birth certificate,” Shelby said. “You have to be born in America to be president.”

Whether Shelby is an actual member of the Birther movement, or just another political hack looking to garner favor among a myopic element within American society, this much we do know: all impromptu misstatements notwithstanding, this latest stunt has earned him a place atop this month’s list. You can’t call for transparency within the Administration and an end to wasteful spending, while grandstanding for earmarks and holding the government hostage. Shame on you, Mr. Shelby.

The Silver goes to the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. Three major Native American reservations in South Dakota, particularly the Cheyenne River Reservation, have been buried under snow and ice with major power failures for weeks during what can only be described as the worst winter in recent memory.

On a “Worst Persons” segment on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Olbermann ripped the Committee. “Power lines down, thousands of other Lakota and other tribes people, already face 75 to 85% unemployment, before a blizzard and an ice storm that added six inches of ice weight to utility poles hit. Two weeks since those lines were knocked down and most of the electricity went with it. They managed to get the water turned back on at Cheyenne River, unfortunately most of the water goes into a pipe system that failed during the storm. The pipes are broken. With the wind chill it was minus 19 there today. What did we find out about this on the Senate Committee of Indian Affairs – some means of donating to the affected tribes, means of underwriting the energy companies now distributing propane tanks by hand? An emergency hearing on a crisis there? Nothing. There’s a committee meeting Thursday to discuss regular business.”

Now in the Committee’s defense, Senate rules do prohibit solicitations of aid of any kind “even in circumstances like this.” And since the Olbermann piece, the Committee has responded to the emergency by allocating funds for the removal of snow, rebuilding of roads, and the repair of power lines and water pipes. But why did it take so long for the Committee to act in the first place? And why only a paltry $300,000 in aid, with total costs projected to be two to three times that amount? More damaging was the fact that for almost a month, while thousands of native-Americans needlessly suffered, the very agency charged with being their advocate was virtually silent and inactive. Inexcusable!

But the Bronze goes to a surprise entry: Keith Olbermann. Last month’s special election in Massachusetts was about as divisive as they come with plenty of hyperbole to go around on both sides of the political aisle. But Olbermann went above and beyond when he went on a tirade against the newly elected Scott Brown in one of his Special Comment” segments last month.

“In short, in Scott Brown we have an irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex-nude model, teabagging supporter of violence against woman and against politicians with whom he disagrees. In any other time in our history, this man would have been laughed off the stage as unqualified and a disaster in the making by the most conservative of conservatives. Instead, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is close to sending this bad joke to the Senate of the United States.”

Now you’d think that would be enough for even Olbermann, but the following day, he dug the hole a bit deeper by adding, “I need to apologize for comments made here last night about the Republican candidate. I’m sorry, I left out the word sexist.”

So over-the-top was Olbermann’s tirade that Jon Stewart mocked him on The Daily Show the following day, by doing a parody of his Special Comment segment, to wit, “How far, sir, how far will you fall?...But now, you're just kind of calling people names. To wit, you said this of Joseph Isadore Lieberman, Democrat Connecticut: "a Senatorial prostitute." Of Roger Ailes, "fat ass." Chris Wallace, "a monkey posing as a newscaster." Rush Limbaugh, a "big bag of mashed up jack-ass."...And of Michelle Malkin, you said, "a mindless, morally bankrupt, knee-jerk, fascistic...mashed-up bag of meat with lipstick on it." That my fine, feathered friend sounds a lot more like violence against women than anything Scott Brown ever said. You can't resort to childish attacks as hominem as they are nauseam. You've ceded the high ground, and now you wallow in the fetid swamp of baseless, of baseless name-calling, and as we both know, sir, that's my thing. It is beneath you, it is next to me. A man of your intellect need not be me: petty, pompous, pusillanimous, or poopy-head.”

http://vodpod.com/watch/2908316-im-falling-in-love-with-john-stewart-all-over-again

Now whether one agrees with Olbermann’s viewpoints or not, and I have on most occasions agreed with them, the fact is that engaging in such displays debases whatever validity one wishes to bring to the forefront. As Stewart succinctly pointed out you can’t resort to childish attacks and name calling which cede the high ground. By doing so you undermine your credibility and give the wingnuts on the Right that much more ammunition with which to shoot you down. Shame on you, Keith!