Who are the worst national politicians?

[Blue3]

Which congressmen/governors/senators do you think, in a nonpartisan way, simply should be purged from government for the good of the country?

(It can't be someone retired or retiring... and assume they'd be replaced by someone of the same party)



Congressmen:
*Charlie Rangel (D-New York)
*David Ciccilline (D-Rhode Island)
*Eric Cantor (R-Virginia)
*Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin)
*Paul Broun (R-Georgia)
*Steve King (R-Iowa)
*The Democrat who was afraid Guam would capsize with too big of a military base
*The family-values, pro-life Republican/doctor who had sex with his patients/mistresses and forced them into abortions
*Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota)

Governors:
*Rick Perry (R-Texas)
*Nathan Deal (R-Georgia)
*Paul LePage (R-Maine)
*Rick Scott (R-Florida)

Senators:
*Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky)
*David Vitter (R-Louisiana)
*Ted Cruz (R-Texas)
*Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin)


Honorable mention:
*Cory Booker (mayor/future senator)

[publicunofficial]

Congressmen:
*Charlie Rangel (D-New York)
*Jim Cooper (D-Tennessee)
*Maxine Waters (D-California)
*John Conyers (D-Michigan)
*Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin)
*Steve King (R-Iowa)
*Louie Gohmert (R-Texas)
*Steve Stockman (R-Texas)
*Scott DesJarlais (R-Tennessee)

Senators:
*Ted Cruz (R-Texas)
*Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin)
*Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)

Governors:
*Rick Perry (R-Texas)
*Paul LePage (R-Maine)
*Rick Scott (R-Florida)
*Sam Brownback (R-Kansas)

Mayors:
*Rahm Emanuel (D-Chicago)
*Michael Bloomberg (I-New York)

[King]

Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan are the worst because they have the potential to be better but have chosen to go the way of smug assholery.

Most of these other guys are just are stupid.

[memphis]

The entire Repiblican party is breathtakingly awful. They all vote the same so there's not much point in making distinctions between them. Personality in politics is meaningless.

[anvi]

Are there good national politicians??  If so, I wish they'd let us all know who they are.

[Warren 4 Secretary of Everything]

Cory Booker

[All Along The Watchtower]

Personality in politics is meaningless.

You might as well say that American politics is meaningless, then.

[memphis]

Personality in politics is meaningless.

You might as well say that American politics is meaningless, then.

Not at all. Countless important issues everywhere. Votes are what counts.

[Lief 🗽]

Eh, some Republican governors are better than others. But yeah, all Republicans in Congress are basically equally awful.

[Paul Kemp]

What's with the Booker hate?

I understand why he may rub some the wrong way but to put him alongside some of these other names and think that he's one of the nation's "worst" is preposterous.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

What's with the Booker hate?

He's a Wall Street crony with a good PR team.

[Paul Kemp]

What's with the Booker hate?

He's a Wall Street crony with a good PR team.

Just like all major American politicians, including 98% of the Democratic Party?

[King]

Eh, some Republican governors are better than others. But yeah, all Republicans in Congress are basically equally awful.

Governors actually have jobs to do while our gridlocked Congressmen are just FOX News pundits with fancy offices.

As for Cory Booker, he's a cool guy, if a bit overrated.  Gavin Newsom is the better example of a phony "man of the people."

[bballrox4717]

Eh, some Republican governors are better than others. But yeah, all Republicans in Congress are basically equally awful.

Governors actually have jobs to do while our gridlocked Congressmen are just FOX News pundits with fancy offices.

As for Cory Booker, he's a cool guy, if a bit overrated.  Gavin Newsom is the better example of a phony "man of the people."

I don't see a reason for Booker hate either. Connections to Wall Street is more criticism of the political system than individual politicians.  I'm totally with you on Newsom though. He's an example of a guy that seems to have the right positions but he's just....slimy. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up like Weiner.

I can't really comment on a lot of the religious Congressional Republicans being bad, as they are basically extensions of their constituencies. If you're looking for bad, I'd say Paul Lepage, Rick Scott, Rick Perry, Mark Sanford, Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, and Ron Johnson. Mitch McConnell probably beats them all though. The Senate was already polarized before Democrats came to power but McConnell's made the working environment toxic, and he gains my biggest ire when it comes to campaign finance. Ugh.

I'll also note Harry Reid is on the list of worst Democrats. If he runs again in 2016 and the opponent is Brian Sandoval or not crazy, I'd support the Republican just to get him out of Majority Leader. The fact that Biden had to step in for him in negotiations is appalling. Ehmanuel, Rangel, Quinn, Weiner and Cooper are pretty bad as well. This is more towards independents, but Bloomberg is horrible.

[TNF]

Mayors
*Michael Bloomberg
*Rahm Emanuel
*Cory Booker
*Michael Nutter
*Pretty much any neolib Democratic Mayor
*Pretty much any Republican Mayor, though I can't name a single one of the top of my head

Governors
*Pretty much any Republican governor
*Lincoln Chafee (D-RI)

House of Representatives
*John Barrow (D-GA)
*Jim Matheson (D-UT)
*Mike McIntyre (D-NC)
*Bill Owens (D-NY)
*Collin Peterson (D-MN)
*Kurt Schrader (D-OR)

The rest of the Blue Dog caucus is fine, if you ask me. At least the rest of them didn't vote down an increase in the minimum wage, and overall have a pro-labor voting record. These sonsofbitches should be primaried and/or expelled from the party for opposing an increase in the minimum wage.

Oh, and...

*The entire Republican House delegation

Senate
*The entire Republican Senate delegation
*Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), too conservative for a California Democrat
*Tom Carper (D-DE), too conservative for a Delaware Democrat

Administration
*Eric Holder (D-DC)
*Janet Napolitano (D-AZ)

Penny Pritzker also shouldn't be confirmed, like, at all.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan are the worst because they have the potential to be better but have chosen to go the way of smug assholery.

Most of these other guys are just are stupid.

I'm with you on Cantor, especially.

[Torie]

It seems this little grading process is mostly ideologically driven. That kind of makes it an arid exercise doesn't it? 

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

It seems this little grading process is mostly ideologically driven. That kind of makes it an arid exercise doesn't it? 

Not really.  You don't think Cantor and McConnell are total assholes, ideology aside?

[Torie]

It seems this little grading process is mostly ideologically driven. That kind of makes it an arid exercise doesn't it? 

Not really.  You don't think Cantor and McConnell are total assholes, ideology aside?

Cantor more than McConnell. I consider McConnell a very skilled and savvy technician, who works very effectively behind the scenes. He's a work horse, rather than a show horse.

[memphis]

It seems this little grading process is mostly ideologically driven. That kind of makes it an arid exercise doesn't it? 

Would you rather grade politicians on the firmness of their backsides?

[Torie]

That's one measure that might be more interesting (thanks for the little dig there, I appreciate it). Perhaps more interesting still, would be to focus on who [does not] work hard rather than being an attention whoring show horse, [does not] know the issues, [or] present their case well, [lacks]  a reputation for fairness and honesty, is [not] creative, [fails to] comes up with solutions and compromises others miss, is [not] respected by their peers, and so forth.

Edits made per Grumps' comment that I was driving in reverse here as it were. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.  

[memphis]

That's one measure that might be more interesting (thanks for the little dig there, I appreciate it). Perhaps more interesting still, would be to focus on who [does not] work hard rather than being an attention whoring show horse, [does not] know the issues, [or] present their case well, [lacks]  a reputation for fairness and honesty, is [not] creative, [fails to] comes up with solutions and compromises others miss, is [not] respected by their peers, and so forth.

Edits made per Grumps' comment that I was driving in reverse here as it were. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.  

I apologize for the backside comment. That was uncalled for. Still, being honest or creative or fair is all wonderful but it doesn't matter much in Congress. The legislature exists to pass laws. Not judging a pol on ideology is like not judging an American Idol contestant on her singing. It's great if contestants are nice looking too, but that's not really what the show is about. And the right loves to harp on how much moral they are as they vote to cut off people's access to healthcare and give zillionaires and big companies huge tax cuts. It's an absurd side show but a purposeful one. And it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Although I'm as annoyed by attention whores as anybody else, there's no substantive difference between Michele Bachman and a generic GOP House member nobody has heard of because they both vote identically.

[bballrox4717]

It seems this little grading process is mostly ideologically driven. That kind of makes it an arid exercise doesn't it?  

I tried to make mine more based off personality, corruption and actual job performance than to go on a tirade on how I don't like Republican politics. Any politician that is making the dysfunction in Washington worse attributed to the list as well, though I can't really criticize Tea Party type Republicans for doing exactly what their constituencies want. I'm harsh on the Senate leadership because they do a piss poor job of setting the example for actual work to be done. The roots of the Senate hyperpartisanship started with Reid during the Bush administration and were fleshed out with McConnell's one term comments. I'm not much of a fan of Cantor or Boehner, but they generally aren't responsible for what happened in the House as Reid and McConnell are for the Senate. Boehner and Cantor also have a much larger, hostile faction in the House, and I'm not in envy of their jobs to keep things working. I can't imagine who would actually do better than them right now. The Senate would work better if Schumer and Thune were Majority and Minority Leader tomorrow.

[Blue3]

On Booker...

1. He's trying to turn himself into a hero, literally. He publicizes his good deeds, and probably just does them for the publicity and to gain political power. He's basically a Marvel supervillain.

2. Building on that, he wants to become Senator very badly (after realizing he can't become Governor). He was willing to primary the existing Democratic senator, on which he has no policy differences, just because he wanted more power. Again, almost like a supervillain out of a comic book.

3. I saw an interview with him on Maddow once. He was totally disrespectful, wanted to be taken extremely seriously, humorless guy, wanted to only talk about what he wanted to talk about (and that of course being his good publicity) even when Maddow was just playfully trying to get him to mention his Senate ambitions. He just came across as awful and extremely self-centered.

4. There's also siding with Wall Street over Obama.