Rep. Roy Blunt (MO) is not intimidated by accusations of racism. To prove this he told a joke at the Values Voter Summit last Friday that characterized the government as a bunch of golfers chasing around a golf-ball-stealing monkey.
Here's the punch line, in Blunt's own words:
Almost from the day the first ball was hit on this golf course something happened they didn't anticipate: monkeys would come running out of the jungle and then grab the golf balls.
And if it was in the fairway, they might throw it in the rough. And if it was in the rough, they might throw it -- they might throw it back at you!
And I can point to great and long detail about how many things they tried to eliminate the monkey problem, but they never got it done.
So finally for this golf course and this golf course only, they passed a rule and the rule was, you have to play the ball where the monkey throws it.
And that is the rule in Washington all the time.
I keep hearing how conservatives are pushing back because they feel intimidated. But what's behind that intimidation? What's really fueling the vitriol to attack the president and the administration by promoting racist stereotypes? What, if not the fact that Obama is black?
I know that's not the only issue. But I, being a citizen of reality know that it's inextricably linked to the irrational fears of some conservatives who might characterize the President as a witch-doctor for example.
I also know there are plenty of people on both sides of the aisle who want to hear the issues and concerns with Obama's policies sans the race debate. But stunts like this just fuel racial flames and keep the real issues buried in the national dialogue.
Link to audio: http://www.firedupmissouri.com/content/audio-roy-blunts-monkey-joke
Listen to the crowd's reaction to Blunt's joke. At first, they're not so sure it's funny or appropriate. And then, they just say eff it, and start laughing their asses off.
More facts about Blunt from dailykos.com:
1. He is supposed to be writing the Republican proposal for health care reform. So far, he hasn't come up with anything.
2. When discussing health care reform recently with two Missouri newspapers, Blunt was caught in big, stupid lies. First he claimed that in Canada, people his age (59) can't have hip-replacement surgery. Actually, two-thirds of Canadians who have this operation are over age 65. When reporters at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch researched this and asked Blunt about his mistake, he lied to cover up his lie, claiming he was just repeating something he heard during his committee's hearings on health care reform. Actually, transcripts of the hearings showed no testimony saying anything like that, and records show Blunt didn't attend most of the hearings, anyway.
3. Blunt regularly criticizes the whole idea of government having
anything to do with health care. But when he personally needed kidney
surgery in 2002 and prostate surgery in 2003, he had the operations at
Bethesda U.S. Naval Hospital -- a government-owned, government-run
health care system.
4. Actually, he gave interviews after his prostate surgery saying he had the very best care at Bethesda.
5. Also, he urged everyone to see their doctor early and often, so they could beat cancer like him. Kind of hard to see a doctor like that unless you have health insurance, right?
6. After he got to Washington, he divorced his wife and married a tobacco lobbyist.
7. Blunt will introduce Rep. Joe "You Lie" Wilson at a gathering of ultra-conservative Republicans in Blunt's hometown, Springfield, Mo. Blunt and Wilson will speak Oct. 3 to the Missouri Republican Assembly, a group that describes itself as the "Republican wing of the Republican Party."
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