On this date in 2014, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled former Arizona Congressman J.D. Hayworth, who was elected back in the 1994 "Red Wave" election and after six terms, was booted by voters in 2006 for having ties to Jack Abramoff. After an unsuccessful bid to unseat Senator John McCain in the 2010 Tea Party wave by running to his right while enflaming anti-immigrant fears in the Grand Canyon State. Hayworth actually proved dumb enough to try to challenge John McCain's lack of support on "enchanced interrogation" techniques on prisoners taken in the War on Terror, somehow forgetting how McCain has quite a personal view of torture. After losing after a long, ugly campaign where he expressed some support for the Birther movement and even compared gay marriage to beastiality, Hayworth continued to parlay his former career as a conservative radio talk show host into a gig working for Newsmax, a news channel that leans so far to the right, it makes Fox News look like NPR. While Hayworth remains an utter nutter, and hosts some of the most radical members of the GOP on Newsmax to propagandize their message, he has not held or run for office for several years now.
It was in
2015,
2016,
2017, and in
2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day posted profiles of the U.S. House Representative from Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District,
Martha Roby, the current U.S. House Representative for Alabama's 2nd Congressional District. Roby was once interviewed about the “redistribution of wealth” in the United States, she came out hard against the concept, until the reporter asked then how she could supports farm subsidies and aid for banks, and THEN Roby angrily called the interview a “trap” before storming out less than a minute later with her press secretary demanding the recording to prevent it from being aired. Roby has also gotten on board more than one outrage train the GOP have launched, whether it was taking to the floor of the House to give a speech about the controversy surrounding the “sting” videos of Planned Parenthood and arguing that “
these aren’t specimens, they’re babies” or sitting on the Benghazi Select Committee to grill Hillary Clinton by asking whether she was “home alone” on the night of the attacks on the diplomatic compound in Benghazi. Hillary, in true alpha female form, laughed at her, before answering “
no”. Roby tried following up with a “
I don’t see what’s so funny” to not look like a dope, but that's an uphill battle for her, frankly. Roby also has participated in your typical GOP obstructionist voting record pattern, including votes against equal pay for women, LGBT rights, debt ceiling increases, keeping the government open (and trying to keep it shut at the end of the 2013 Government Shutdown), and even Hurricane Sandy relief funding.
In the current session of Congress, Martha Roby continues to vote along party lines almost every time:
- January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Roby voted against HR 648, because he was gleeully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
- February 28th, 2019: Roby votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.
- March 14th, 2019: Rep. Roby votes against HJR 46, which sane members of Congress voted for to reject Donald Trump’s “national emergency” regarding the U.S. border and his attempts to reallocate funds for a border wall without Congressional approval.
- April 4th, 2019: Martha Roby is one of 158 Republicans who choose to vote against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).
- May 17th, 2019: Roby votes against The Equality Act, which would have prevented discrimination towards Americans based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
- June 4th, 2019: Rep. Roby votes against the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
- July 16th, 2019: Martha Roby votes against a resolution to condemn Donald Trump for his racist statements that four people of color in Congress should “go back where they came from”.
Martha Roby
barely won the GOP Primary for her seat in 2018, requiring a run-off election to hang onto her seat in the House representing Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District, the second straight election cycle where she got a scare. That inherent risk of losing her seat, as well as Republicans reacting to the reality that they’re unlikely to be in control of the House for at least a decade seems to have given her enough of a reason to push the “eject” button, and
retire at the end of her current term in office in a year. This will most likely be the last time we profiler her, and at this time, we would like to also extend our finest of “good riddance” send-offs to her.