The folks at RealMorons.org may be a plague on America, but I must admit I’m sure going to miss their entertaining ways should they get ousted this November.

Which is to say, whose day wasn’t made when Congressional Republicans announced their “plan to mail $100 checks to voters to ease the burden of high gasoline prices,” which, as the New York Times reported, “is eliciting more scorn than gratitude from the very people it was intended to help.”

If Republicans were looking for a groundswell of reaction, they got it.

“Aides for several Republican senators reported a surge of calls and e-mail messages from constituents,” although the temperament of those calls and e-mails wasn’t exactly what the big-spending lawmaulers were anticipating. “The conservatives think it is socialist bunk, and the liberals think it is conservative trickery,” said one Republican aide.

Of course the proposal was neither socialist or conservative -- it was just classic pandering -- but at least the electorate was, for once, uniformly on the same page when it came to recognizing cheap political slop when they heard it.

Because more than a case of transparent pandering, it was even more transparently insulting.

We can all be bought, I suppose, but while Congressional Republicans insure the continuation of campaign bribery by oil companies with reciprocal billion-dollar subsidies, the webmasters at RealMorons.org thought they could save themselves by signing paltry $100 checks to individual voters -- even those who don’t drive.

In brief, the proposed payoff demonstrated what Republican pols really think of American voters -- that they’re as stupid and venal as the Grand Old Party itself. Yet given what GOP strategists have gotten away with in the past few years, it’s easy to see how this lulu of an idiotic idea came to them naturally.

Comments

[K. Ron Silkwood]

No doubt 30-34% of the country thought it a wonderful plan.

[spiiderweb]

I have a suggestion. Look at this.

http://spiiderweb.blogspot.com/2006/05/100-oil-rebate.html

[Robert Crawford]

Well, it worked with our tax rebates, back in 2001 or '02, when we got checks for around $300 with the declaration that "President George W. Bush and the Internal Revenue Service" wanted to give us back our money. Never mind that we were selling our infrastructure, our safety nets, our national security, and our Constitution--most of us cashed the checks and went on with life. Cheap at the price, huh?

[Jay Randal]

Never heard they proposed giving $100 to non-drivers too > lol. Why should people who do not drive or own a car get $100 rebate on buying gasoline? Hell just give the money to the rich!

[Arliss]

Frist wanted to borrow money from the Saudis, so we could turn around and give it right back to them.