Congressman Shames Park Ranger For Doing Her Job While He Won't Do His

Impact

You have to hand it to congressional Republicans. It takes serious balls to demand that as a precondition for performing the essential duty of funding the government, the President of the United States agree to indefinitely defund his signature piece of legislation, and then when the government shuts down as a result, blame him and his party for being unwilling to negotiate. Add to this the fact that the Affordable Care Act was upheld by the Supreme Court and then by the American people when they decided not to elect the guy who was running on a campaign pledge to repeal the law, and you've got yourself a party whose balls are so big, they have to sit like this on the subway. 

As if all that weren't impressive enough, on Thursday Congressman Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas) took things up a notch by publicly shaming a park ranger at the World War II memorial in Washington, which has been shuttered as a result of the government shutdown. Here's a woman doing her job — however unpleasant — to try to make sure the memorial stays off limits. 

Look, it's silly to cordon off an open-air memorial, but this behavior from Neugebauer, whose party is making ridiculous demands to the point of making it impossible for the government to function, is just shameful. While this might play well back in his district and in the conservative blogosphere where the only good government job is one that's been cut, it just goes to show how perverted Republican thinking is on this issue.