Congress Honors a Really Dead Dude
by Holden Watch
This is just too much.
Amid the terrible problems of our times - mounting unemployment, a financial crisis, a declining dollar, two wars, and following the passage of massively expensive, ill-considered, unread and un-debated spending legislation - the United States House of Representatives found time to honor a dude who's been dead for 2500 years. That's right, 2500 years.
On October 28, 2009, the House passed a resolution marking "the 2,560th anniversary of the birth of Confucius and recognizing his invaluable contributions to philosophy and social and political thought."
Thought? Who thinks of this stuff? And who votes for it?
Timmy Holden, that's who votes for it. We have no interest in which member came up with this really swell idea.
What makes this boneheaded stunt stand out is a resolution from earlier in the year when the House voted to honor a staunch American ally who made a significant contribution to the fall of the Soviet Union and the communist sphere in Eastern Europe.
Five and a half months ago, on May 12, 2009, the US House of Representatives considered a resolution, "Recognizing the 30th anniversary of the election of Margaret Thatcher as the first female Prime Minister of Great Britain."
That resolution passed, too, but as we reported at the time:
"Among the 64 members, all Democrats, who opposed this apparently harmless, meaningless and non-controversial resolution was our Rep. Tim Holden.
"Holden voted with some of the most radical left-wing members of the House."
Now we we're wondering if Holden voted against honoring Maggie Thatcher because she hasn't been dead for 2500 years or because she isn't dead yet.
We wondered then how Tim Holden's vote could be seen as in any way principled when unashamed liberal members like Dennis Kucinich, Chaka Fattah and 162 other Democrats voted to honor Lady Thatcher.
What on earth is Tim Holden thinking? Does he think? How does he process things? And how can he possibly believe that the conclusions he reached and the votes he cast can be reconciled in any rational way?
If Tim Holden isn't embarrassed by these two votes, we are embarrassed for him.
We're already embarrassed BY him.