Representative Cynthia Davis, O’Fallon, who chairs the Special Standing Committee on Children and Families, must be delighted at all the free publicity she’s getting over her newsletter opposing free meals for poor children during the summer. At first it was only on Fired Up!, whose audience is, well, healthy but not huge. Then the Post-Dispatch, whose readership is considerably larger, picked up the news and wrote a humdinger of an editorial that started off this way:

State Rep. Cynthia Davis, R-O’Fallon, is staking out a strong position on child hunger: She’s for it.

Now the story about Cynthia’s Scrooginess has gone national–OK, it’s not in the New York Times, but still, AlterNet–though a left-wing rag–is national.

Meanwhile, Fired Up! tweaks her daily with a cartoon in the right hand column showing a witch grinning wickedly at an apple and saying: “I get the apples, my little pretties. You get the McNuggets with fries–but only if you work for ’em.” That’s a reference to this from her newsletter:

   Anyone under 18 can be eligible? Can’t they get a job during the summer by the time they are 16? Hunger can be a positive motivator. What is wrong with the idea of getting a job so you can get better meals?

   Tip:  If you work for McDonald’s, they will feed you for free during your break.

(By the way, McDonalds feeds its workers for half price, not for free.)

Perhaps you thought I was being satirical when I said all the publicity would delight her. Not at all. Who loves to be victimized more than Republicans? Proof that she’s enjoying her victimhood lies on her website: it’s all still there, including the tip about working at McDonalds.

Update: Now the story has also made Think Progress.