Michael Bersin’s post about his twitter exchange with Sarah Steelman concerning the views of American economists (although she has an M.A. in economics, Steelman strangely seems to know little about the range of economic opinion) brought to my mind the noise about Mark Reardon’s very rude treatment of Steelman last week. I know that I am getting to this encounter a bit late – it is old news by now – but I can’t stop thinking about the irony inherent in the situation.
In the unlikely case you missed all the bloggerly chuckling about Mark Reardon’s sharp dissing of Sarah Steelman directly after she gave him an interview on his KMOX radio program, you can hear the entire oration here (via FiredUp! Missouri). It is widely viewed as an opening salvo between the factions that are forming in relation to the various candidates for the 2012 GOP Missouri senatorial primaries.
FiredUp! Missouri‘s Sean notes that he “didn’t find Steelman’s interview to be any more vapid than the average guest,” and he’s right. If you saw the interview transcript without names attached, you could easily come away convinced that the responses were from Roy Blunt, or almost any GOP pol – they were nothing more than a cautious iteration of the GOP no-taxes-no way line. While Reardon was right that Steelman’s responses were intellectually “empty,” it hasn’t seemed to bother him when the same empty drivel is served up by other GOPers. Instead, he condescendingly noted that he had tried to help the poor nitwit out, implicitly compared her run for the Senate to that of the farcial Christine O’Donnell, and noted that “she isn’t the sharpest fork in the drawer.”
Whew! And here’s where the irony comes in. While I don’t know anything about Steelman’s intellect or lack therof based on her interview, this diatribe came from a media shill for the GOP in a state where a sadly all too typical GOP State Representative surveys his colleagues’ personal relationship with Jesus on the state dime; the incoming GOP House Majority Floor Leader is an “unapologetic” birther; the new GOP U.S. Representative from the 7th district is mostly notable, apart from some poorly digested crumbs of stale Tea Party rhetoric, for his cowboy hat; Rep. Todd Akin (R-2) thinks that the Pilgrims came to the New World to escape a socialist monarchy rather than religious intolerance of the type he espouses; and the entire GOP congressional delegation has decided, based on some imaginary authority, maybe the tooth fairy for all I know, that there is no global warming, and if there is, human beings bear no responsibility, either for causing it or fixing it. These are just a few examples of what we get daily from this confederacy of dunces.
And yet Mark Reardon doesn’t think Sarah Steelman is the sharpest fork in the drawer. Whoooeee!
Our friends at Fired Up heard Representative Cynthia Davis in an interview on a KMOX Radio show yesterday and put the audio up on their site.
KMOX Radio interview of Representative Cynthia Davis (r) via Fired Up.
The transcript:
KMOX: Cynthia, welcome. You, uh, you have ascended to national prominence in the last week or so. Tell the people what’s been going on.
Missouri State Representative Cynthia Davis: Well, I, I don’t know how to explain this except that there’s some people on the left who get offended when they hear right ideology expressed and, not to offend anybody, that really grieves me, I’m a nice person. And I love everybody on the left and the right. But, can’t we have an intelligent debate?
KMOX: Just the, uh, other day, well, a couple of times in the last week Keith Olbermann has mentioned your name and we’ve got just a little snippet. Can we play that very quickly, Cynthia?
Representative Davis: If you need to, go ahead.
KMOX: Here’s what Keith Olbermann, that miserable man, had to say…
…Audio of Keith Olbermann: …Cynthia Davis who represents the 19th District in Missouri’s State House of Representatives. The gold that is found off the beaten path. Representative Davis provides a few commentaries to a news release about the state’s summer food program which keeps feeding disadvantaged kids even while school is out. In short, Representative Davis does not get it.
She writes, “Who’s buying dinner? Who is getting paid to serve the meal? Churches and other non-profits can do this at no cost to the taxpayer if it is warranted. Bigger governmental programs take away our connectedness to the human family, our brotherhood and our need for one another. Anyone under eighteen can be eligible? Can’t they get a job during the summer by the time they are sixteen? 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… [original material cut]
Timeout, here’s the portion of what Keith Olbermann said which was cut in the audio played by KMOX:
“….’It really is all about increasing government spending, which means an increase in taxes for us to buy more free lunches and breakfasts.’
One in five kids in Missouri is already motivated by hunger Ms. Davis. And last year, because the meals are offered at churches, the nine and a half million dollars of federal money spent produced three million seven hundred thousands of meals at a cost of about two and a half bucks each.
It is embarrassing enough that Cynthia ‘Let them eat McDonald’s’ Davis is a public servant paid by tax dollars, but she’s also the chairwoman of the Missouri House Special Standing Committee on Children and Families. It would seem that her advocacy of hunger would disqualify her from that job and that we’d be better off if she was working at a McDonald’s. Although clearly she has used and is using hunger as a positive motivator because she seems to have been starving her brain of the recommended daily dosage of intelligence and humanity and oxygen…”
The KMOX interview transcript continues:
…Missouri State Representative Cynthia “Are there no prisons? Are there no work houses?” Davis, today’s Worst Person in the World…
KMOX: Now Michael, we’ve had in this studio, we’ve had Albert Pujols, the greatest baseball player in America today. We’ve, we’ve talked to Karl Rove. We’ve talked to people with the Obama campaign. We’ve had congressman, U.S. Senators, any manner of people, but we have never had in this studio [laughter] [two voices] the worst person in the world. Cynthia, your reaction to Keith Olbermann.
Representative Davis: Well, I, all I have to say is that doesn’t sound like a very nice thing for him to say. [laugh]
KMOX: Indeed. And you actually put out a newsletter, uh, very recently, where you outlined your response to this in some detail. I thought it was particularly good. Uh, share some of the thoughts that were contained in that newsletter.
Representative Davis: Well, I’m all about strengthening families and empowering parents. And it’s not, the question is not what shall we feed children, it’s who should feed the children and how shall they be fed. So, I mean, I’m all about what we can do to adopt public policies that make sense and that are gonna strengthen the families. And I don’t see that growing government bigger is going to solve this problem.
KMOX: But, Sen…, Representative, you can understand how people would interpret, when you say that hunger would be a good motivator and why are we buying lunches for these people in the summertime? These are people who don’t have access to food normally. You would understand how people might think, hey, that’s a little hypocritical from a person who’s talking about family values.
Representative Davis: You’re wondering how I can understand how somebody on the left who makes his living from mocking Republicans would want to take an opportunity to distort this? And put my comments out of context. Because it, I mean, think about your own life. Uh, were you ever a sixteen year old boy once and did it ever occur to you maybe you’d like to [crosstalk] be employed?
KMOX: In fact, eighteen years ago today [laughter][voice: “Exactly.”] he was a sixteen year old boy.
Representative Davis: And that’s the American wa…, and that, that comment was only made questioning why it goes up to such a high level when people by then ought to start assuming a little bit of personal responsibility. And you know the plight of those in poverty is very tragic and it does behoove us, all of us, everywhere, in every sector to ask what can we do that will strengthen the family? I happen to think that growing government bigger and using poverty as an excuse to grow government bigger and further intrude into families is not the right answer.
KMOX: Well there is Representative Davis…[apparent audio edit]
…KMOX: So we’re visiting with Representative Cynthia Davis. She’s had quite a week in the, uh, national press
with Keith Olbermann. So here’s your opportunity, if you had Keith Olbermann sitting here, what would you want to say to him?
Representative Davis: Well, the first thing I would say is, he does not understand who he’s even talking to. Because I am the one who cares about family values and compassion and doing what we need to do to make the community better, not to grow big government. So, I am a mother, of seven children. I know, I’ve lived with poverty, I’ve lived, um, in, through everything we’re talking about. I’ve been in the trenches. I’ve been there, done that. And so I come to this debate from first hand personal experience. And I’m a huge believer in education. And what I’ve done is I actually went to the WIC program last summer and volunteered to teach a cooking class. So that, it’s all about empowering parents. Now maybe Keith Olbermann doesn’t understand what it’s like to be father of seven. Maybe he has never lived with poverty, and maybe he’s never had to deal with some of the stresses that I’ve lived through. But, you know what? He, maybe he should [laugh] do a little research before he opens his mouth.
KMOX: She is the mother of seven. She’s also a four term state representative from St. Charles County, Missouri, in the O’Fallon area. Many of you in our listening audience may very well be represented in Jefferson City by Cynthia Davis. Uh, your term limits, uh, we have an eight year term limit in Missouri, that was passed by the voters back in nineteen ninety-two. Uh, your term limits come to an end, uh, next November of two thousand ten. You can’t run for reelection. Are you, do you have political aspirations beyond your current service?
Representative Davis: Well I, before I was a state representative I was a city alderman. And there in comes some of my champi[on]ing values of, of local government. And so if you combine local plus state it does add up to fifteen years. I’m grateful for every day. I love taking care of people. And it’s a calling. It is take, it is what we have to do to make the community better. And going back to this poverty issue, that’s why I feel so convinced that local government has the answers to our problems, not bigger government.
KMOX: And, uh, so you where a member, you were an alderman in, uh, O’Fallon, you’ve been a state representative. There’s been some talk, uh, I’ve heard out there, that you were looking at perhaps a statewide office. Is that’s something that’s in the offing for Cynthia Davis?
Representative Davis: Well, you never know. All I know is I bought myself a pair of cowboy boots and I’m learning how to say Missour-ah.
KMOX: [laughter] Well [laughter], yeah, Missour-ah and Missouri. Well that’s exactly right. So, mother of seven. How old are your kids.
Representative Davis: Well my oldest is twenty-seven and…
KMOX: You gotta be kidding. [laughter from Representative Davis] You’ve got a twenty-seven year old?
Representative Davis: Yes I do and I’ve got, my youngest one is six. He was born my first session. I got to Jefferson City. He is what they call a campaign souvenir. [laughter]
KMOX: Yeah, I think, I think that’s what I was in my house, too. But there was no campaigns going on. [laughter in background] Uh, well, that’s, that’s great and, uh, before you got into politics what did you, did you, did you work, what kind of profession did you have? What, what were you doing then?
Representative Davis: Well my husband and I own Back to Basics Christian bookstore in O’Fallon and we’ve run that for twenty years. And there is where I come up with my sympathy for the entrepreneur, for people in business. And for people who have to eke out a living during a harsh economy, especially when government is considering raising taxes on the business people.
KMOX: And you, I guess, never in your wildest dreams, when you got elected to the Missouri General Assembly in… What’s your district? Seventeen?
Representative Davis: Nineteen.
KMOX: Nineteenth Legislative District. You probably never imagined that your name, twice in one week, would be mentioned on national television on MSNBC by somebody like Keith Olbermann.
Representative Davis: Well I’m proud of the fact that we’re talking about personal responsibility. I’m proud that we’re talking about family values. And I’m proud that we get to talk about limited government. Those are all of our favorite subjects for the Republican Party. And I believe we’re the party that actually has better ideas. I believe we can solve our problems in a local manner and I’m real confident that if we can have a discussion based on logic, rather than sling, slinging insults we will achieve more progress. So, somebody actually called my house yesterday, and talk about how uncivil the, the left can be, he, and my daughter answered the phone and said I was not home. And he said, well, would you give your mom a message for me? Would you tell her, I, I, that, your mom, tell your mother that she’s an idiot. And so my daughter thanked him for his comments and then they said good bye. So, I mean, this is, I don’t like this childishness. I don’t like being mean spirited. I think we can talk about things logically and have a good, rigorous, intelligent debate.
KMOX: Intelligent debate is extremely important. Term limits are in the news of late. Uh, they were passed by the voters in nineteen ninety-two. Over thirty states have adopted term limits. The Missouri Republican Speaker of the House has said recently that he, uh, believes we might want to rethink term limits. You’re a term limited legislator. Do you have thought on term limits? Are you, are you for ’em. Do you think they ought to be revised? Do you think they ought to be abolished? What’s your feeling about term limits?
Representative Davis: I, if only we had inserted one word, consecutive, I think it could have been more livable because that breaks the power. If you take a, take a term out for two years. Even when I tell people in other states that I’m permanently stricken from ever running for this office again they think that’s a little harsh. Because what happens if you’re good? You, you have to do what you gotta do to try make the world a better place and I’m gonna find another way to make things better wherever I go.
KMOX: Well Michael and I wish you well on that pursuit Cynthia Davis, State Representative Cynthia Davis, though she be stricken from office, she’s still gonna be a resident of our…
“…You’re wondering how I can understand how somebody on the left who makes his living from mocking Republicans would want to take an opportunity to distort this?…” Ah, the republican cult of the victim. Look, Representative Davis, it’s the world your republican party created, the rest of us only live in it.
“…And I’m a huge believer in education….” All together now: what kind of education?
“…Now maybe Keith Olbermann doesn’t understand what it’s like to be father of seven. Maybe he has never lived with poverty, and maybe he’s never had to deal with some of the stresses that I’ve lived through. But, you know what? He, maybe he should [laugh] do a little research before he opens his mouth…” Uh, Mr. Olbermann, I think she just threw down the gauntlet. Your response?
“…Well, you never know. All I know is I bought myself a pair of cowboy boots and I’m learning how to say Missour-ah…” Yep, that’ll go over really well in out state Missouri.
“…He is what they call a campaign souvenir. [laughter]…” Uh, that’s a little more information than I really wanted to know.
“…So, somebody actually called my house yesterday, and talk about how uncivil the, the left can be, he, and my daughter answered the phone and said I was not home. And he said, well, would you give your mom a message for me? Would you tell her,
I, I, that, your mom, tell your mother that she’s an idiot…” Uh, did the caller actually identify himself as a foul mouthed vituperative blogger of the left? If not, how do you know he wasn’t a republican?
The interview took place on a show with John Hancock, a former Executive Director of the Missouri republican party, and Michael Kelly, an individual with extensive Democratic Party experience.
