Arizona can’t rid itself of this fool soon enough

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Looks like Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) has been hitting the Kool-Aid pretty hard of late. The Hill blog reports Tuesday: Five hours of debate on 'cut, cap and balance' this comment from Franks on Monday night:

House Republicans spoke on the floor Monday night in favor of the bill, and continued to express their frustration at the Obama administration's threatened veto of the legislation.

"The president has the hubris to tell conservative Republicans to take a balanced approach and eat our peas," said Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), referencing President Obama's comments last week.

"If there is anything more catastrophically out of balance than our federal budget, it is the arrogance-to-competency ratio of this White House," he said.

Franks has been in Congress since 2003. If I recall correctly, he supported the reckless and fiscally irresponsible policies of George W. Bush and his Republican cohorts who went on a spend-and-borrow binge when they were in control of Congress and the White House, responsible for this:

When you point a finger there are three pointing back at you, as they say. "Personal responsiblity" has always been a talking point and not a principle in the GOP.

Franks was just getting warmed up apparently. Here is what The Hill blog did not report. Political Animal – Don’t speak for the fallen:

It’s tough to keep track of all the instances in which Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) has been an embarrassment to himself. Remember the time he said African Americans were better off under slavery? How about the time he described President Obama as an “enemy of humanity”? Remember when he asked the House Sergeant at Arms to start looking for Muslim “spies” on congressional committees? And who can forget Franks’ talk about impeaching the president over defending the Defense of Marriage Act in court?

But even for Franks, this kind of garbage is cheap and classless.

“You know, there are a lot of people that have sacrificed profoundly for this nation. There are people lying out in Arlington National Cemetery tonight, and I wonder what their perspective would be if they could come back among us for just a few moments. And while none of us knows that, Madame Speaker, I would suggest to you that they didn’t die so that we could spend our country into bankruptcy, so that we could weaken our nation on all fronts simply because we weren’t fiscally responsible. And they didn’t die so that we could put ourselves so deeply in debt that we sent tens of thousands for each little child born today so that they would have to carry that the rest of their lives.”

Honestly, where does Franks get the nerve to speak for fallen American servicemen and women? What kind of arrogance leads a dimwitted, right-wing hack to think he’s justified lecturing the rest of us on what they might have wanted in terms of federal economic policy?

On a substantive level, Franks obviously has no idea what he’s talking about. We’re not going bankrupt. The debt isn’t weakening the nation. If Franks were so concerned about fiscal responsibility, he shouldn’t have spent much of the last decade supporting a Bush/Cheney agenda without trying to pay for it. All of Franks’ policy claims are just gibberish.

But putting substance aside, the real offense here is the audacity of a man — who never even served in the military — suggesting that men and women died in support of Republican economic policies.

If Trent Franks were still capable of shame, now would be a good time for some.

Sorry Steve, the man is shameless. Arizona can't rid itself of this fool soon enough.