thismanlegislates

[thismanlegislates]

Larry Pittman is a state legislator in North Carolina. This is Larry commenting on his own Facebook page. 

[thismanlegislates]

Rep. John Shimkus’ constituents in Illinois must be so proud. 

[thismanlegislates]

And we’re back! 

[thismanlegislates]

“The grievance in their minds – the animus, the anger – they hate white people because white people are successful and they’re not,” said Pittenger, who then went on to criticize people who receive welfare.

“It is a welfare state. We have spent trillions of dollars on welfare, and we’ve put people in bondage, so they can’t be all they’re capable of being.”

- Rep. Robert Pittenger

[thismanlegislates]

Texas State Rep. Dan Flynn doesn’t understand how abortion works. But that doesn’t stop him from legislating on it!

[thismanlegislates]

Idaho State Rep Pete Nielson:

"Now, I’m of the understanding that in many cases of rape, it does not involve any pregnancy because of the trauma of the incident," Nielsen said Thursday, according to the Spokesman-Review. "That may be true with incest a little bit.”

Nielsen stood by his remarks when questioned about them after the hearing.

"That’s information that I’ve had through the years. Whether it’s totally accurate or not, I don’t know," he said. "I read a lot of information. I have read it several times. … Being a father of five girls, I’ve explored this a lot."

[thismanlegislates]

State Senator: Real victim of Flint Crisis is Gov. Snyder

“I have a lot of respect for Gov. Snyder. I consider him a friend. I want to believe he has no malice in his heart,” Casperson said.

“But I sense there’s an attack on him almost to crucify him, to get him. And I would just caution all of us that there’s more than just the man. His wife. He has children as well. Can you imagine what they’re thinking hearing what they’re hearing about their dad?”

-Michigan State Sen. Tom Casperson

[thismanlegislates]

Canadian City Councillor wants to ban Beyonce from Canada

Welcome to our first International edition of This Man Legislates! Today’s story comes from our great neighbor to the north, Canada. 

Toronto City Councillor Jim Karygiannis apparently isn’t a Beyoncé fan. In an interview with a Toronto paper he all but called for Canada to ban her from entering their country!

“Perhaps Immigration Minister John McCallum should have [Beyoncé] investigated first?…If someone wore bullets and supported (a radical group) here, they would not be welcomed in the United States—that’s for sure.”

Karygiannis was speaking about Beyoncé’s Super Bowl halftime performance.

When asked to comment Beyoncé responded with this GIF.

[thismanlegislates]

State Senator on KKK: “It Made A Lot of People Straighten Up”

It’s not uncommon for people to try and claim that the Civil War wasn’t fought over slavery. They’re wrong but that doesn’t stop them. Georgia State Rep. Tommy Benton however has taken this to a whole new level by claiming the the Klu Klux Klan wasn’t about racism.

Really:

The Klan “was not so much a racist thing but a vigilante thing to keep law and order,” he said.

“It made a lot of people straighten up,” he said. “I’m not saying what they did was right. It’s just the way things were.

In the same interview Benton called one of his colleagues, State Rep. Vincent Fort, a “fanatic” for sponsoring legislation that would prohibit Georgia from formally celebrating holidays honoring the long defunct Confederacy. Benton also compared Fort to ISIS. 

[thismanlegislates]

Ohio Senate Majority Leader Says Primary Opponent Shouldn’t Run Against Him Because She’s a Young Mother

Tom Patton, the current Ohio Senate Majority leader is running for the Ohio House. He is clearly not worried about getting women to vote for him.

Check It: (emphasis mine)

"The gal that's running against me is a 30-year-old, you know, mom, mother of two infants," said Patton, a 62-year-old Republican from Strongsville, in a recent radio interview. "And I don't know if anybody explained to her we've got to spend three nights a week in Columbus.  So, how does that work out for you? I waited until I was 48 and my kids were raised, and at least adults, before we took the opportunity to try."

Patton referred to Herold as a "young gal" and, while talking about his role in bringing additional school funding to his area, said, "I want to tell her, 'Hey Sweetie, I just got 27 percent of the pie in just my district, which is nine times what should have been done.'"

Later on, Senator Patton’s communication staffer excuse me, Senator Patton clarified his remarks.

In a statement, Patton said his comments "appear to have been misunderstood."

"As a widower who raised five daughters, it was not my intention to suggest that a young mother couldn't serve ably in the legislature," he said. "I used a poor choice of words to express what I know first-hand - raising young children and working is tough. Millions of women do just that every day, including my own daughters. I would ask to be judged on my hard work and advocacy for working families. I sincerely apologize if my words were misplaced on this matter."

His daughters must be so proud of him right now. 

[thismanlegislates]

Washington State Rep. Slut Shames Young Women on Teen Lobbying Day

Most elected officials probably get excited when actual teenagers come to visit their offices. For all we hear about how young people don’t get involved in civics it must be nice to have young people take an interest in legislative work.

Well, unless you’re Washington State Rep. Mary Dye. She’s apparently interested in turning young people (or perhaps just young women?) off from the  process of governing entirely. 

The Seattle Times has details:

After the students — part of a Pullman-area teen council chapter of Planned Parenthood visiting their lawmakers — advocated for bills that propose to expand insurance coverage for birth control, Dye did some advocating of her own.

Dye asked if the students were virgins and suggested one was not, according to the students and Rachel Todd, a Planned Parenthood worker accompanying the kids.

“After she made the statement about virginity, all of my teens looked at me,” said Todd, an education specialist for Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho. “And I said, ‘You don’t have to answer that. You don’t have to answer that.’”

Perhaps instead of griping about young people not being involved we should blame elected officials like Mary Dye for their apathy instead. 

[thismanlegislates]

Wisconsin State Rep. flips off colleague in the Assembly Chamber

Wisconsin State Rep. Bob Gannon seems nice. And professional.

Minority Democrats in the state Assembly are enraged after a Republican representative made an obscene gesture toward their leader on the chamber floor.

Senate Minority Leader Peter Barca, a Kenosha Democrat, rose on Tuesday to argue with Rep. Bob Gannon over a news release Gannon issued last week complaining about Milwaukee's homicide rate and how more homicides occur in black neighborhoods with high unemployment rates.

Gannon, a Slinger Republican, made an obscene gesture toward Barca. The minority leader looked shocked and demanded Republican leaders reprimand him. (Source: NBC15, Madison)

[thismanlegislates]

State Legislator Heckles Hillary Clinton.

When State Rep. Katherine Prudhomme O'Brien isn’t legislating she likes to heckle Presidential candidates apparently. I suppose everyone has hobbies, even state legislators!

Fun Fact: Prudhomme O’Brien’s heckling is bipartisan. In 2007 she heckled then Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani. And the New Republic named her “New Hampshire’s Most Annoying Voter!”

[thismanlegislates]

Top Ten in 2015

This Man Legislates isn’t even a year old but it already has 102 posts documenting some of the most outrageous behavior from elected officials across the nation. I started this blog after years of frustration over legislators doing and saying things that should disqualify a person from holding an elected office, but somehow don’t. And I’m glad to see that it’s caught on. We’ve had more than 20K page views and nearly 10K notes!

Outrageous statements and actions will always garner some media attention, but no one seems to cover this broadly. These aren’t isolated incidents, and while I enjoy poking fun at terrible legislators, what I’m really trying to show is that these individuals are merely symptoms of a much bigger problem with our electoral system. My hope is that those who visit this blog come to laugh but leave outraged that our tax dollars pay their salaries.

Below are my top 10 favorite posts from 2015. Enjoy!

10: NH State Rep: Women Deserve Less Pay Then Men

“Men, by and large, make more because of some of the things that they do,” he said. “Their jobs are, by and large, riskier. They don’t mind working nights and weekends. They don’t mind working overtime or outdoors.”

9: Idaho Rep: ‘Slave Owners Were Good People Who Made Bad Decisions, Like Gays’

“Slave owners were very good Christians and good people,” he said, adding that he disagrees with slavery itself. “They weren’t terrible, rotten, horrible people. And that’s how I see gay people.”

8: New Hampshire Legislators Kill Fourth Graders’ Bill, Dreams In Front of Them

But the nine and ten-year-olds were in for a brutal lesson in realpolitik. At the start of the day, legislators turned and applauded to children for coming to the statehouse. When lawmakers began to consider the bill, however, Republican Rep. Warren Groen—who has devoted his career to combating abortion and marriage equality—took the floor to denounce the Red Tail Hawk. “It grasps [its prey] with its talons then uses its razor sharp beak to basically tear it apart limb by limb,” he explained as the children watched. “And I guess the shame about making this a state bird is it would serve as a much better mascot for Planned Parenthood.” (Slate, emphasis mine)

7: Texas Legislator Doesn’t Want Texas to Take Syrian Refugees Because it’s too Easy to Get a Gun in Texas

It should be noted that Tony Dale is a Republican and a proud recipient of an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association!

6: Wisconsin Senator: The Lego Movie is Part of an “Insidious Propaganda Campaign Against Business Owners”

“I actually called a gentleman, it was a couple months ago, he was so upset, he took his children to an animated movie … guess who the villain was? Evil Mr. Businessperson. It’s insidious. That propaganda starts very early,”

5: California Assemblywoman Shannon Grove: Abortion Causes Droughts

“Texas was in a long period of drought until Governor Perry signed the fetal pain bill,” she told the audience, presumably referring to HB 2, the omnibus Texas abortion bill that included a 20-week ban based on junk science. “It rained that night. Now God has His hold on California.”

4: Oklahoma Rep. Kevin Calvey Threatens to Set Himself on Fire over Abortion 

He loudly said that if he were not a Christian, he would go across the street to the state Supreme Court building, douse himself in gasoline and set himself on fire to “protest the evil in that building.”

3: North Dakota State Rep. Randy Boehning Votes for Anti-gay Bill, Gets Caught Sending Dick Pics on Grindr

“Scrolling through the conversation, however, Smith found more than sexually suggestive messages. He found an unsolicited picture of the public servant’s not-so-public parts.” (WaPo)

2: New Mexico State Rep. Ken Martinez: Rape Is Sometimes 'Just Drunken College Sex'

Thanks Ken for being one of a small, but real, minority of Democrats who’ve made this tumblr. You are proof that horrible legislators are a bipartisan phenomenon! 

1: Texas State Representative Matt Schaefer Wants Women to Carry Deceased Fetuses To Full Term

With 8,754 notes, this was our most popular post of 2015 by a wide margin. You might ask yourself, why would Matt Schaefer want to legislate this? Of course he has an answer.

Schaefer said that suffering is “part of the human condition, since sin entered the world.”

There you have it. Thanks so much for reading, supporting, and sharing this tumblr in 2015. Can’t wait to see what our favorite elected officials do next year!

[thismanlegislates]

Texas Legislator: Rape is Non-Existant in Marriage

Via Raw Story:

Using the profile name “Stick,” Stickland responded to a question about sex with his wife in a comment posted to a fantasy football discussion forum in 2008.

“Rape is non existent in marriage, take what you want my friend!” the lawmaker reportedly wrote to another forum user who complained that his wife would not perform the “reverse cowboy” position during sex.

When will they learn? Sigh. They’ll never learn.