The Saints and The Sinner

For those of you following this blog (if there is anybody following this blog), the title of this post is reminiscent of an earlier post about my conflict between the last Saints preseason game and a gig I was playing. This is not a repeat, since this time there is a real, on-the-record sinner at hand with a schedule conflict with the Saints' opening game tonight.

Louisiana's own "Diaper" David Vitter (R-Hypocrite) has proudly announced he will attend a Saints' party instead of being present for President Obama's speech on jobs. At least one other LA House rep isn't showing either, but at least he was brutally honest: he didn't want to listen to Obama explain why TeaPublican rhetoric and policies on the issue of jobs is totally wrong. If those policies are such a good idea, why did job creation falter during the Bush administration's exercise in tax cuts/no new taxes/little government stimulus?

But back to my point. Given his public record as a client of the Washington madam, Diaper Dave is an embarrassment. His seeming glee at announcing his absence for the Saints' game is breath taking. Is his sports jones more important than a discussion of creating jobs in a faltering economy? Is his arrogance insulting to those who expect our legislators to attend to the people's business? At least others such as Rep. Landry (R-Idiot) state policy differences for their headline-seeking absences. At least they admit, although they don't know it, that they are petty, vindictive men who act like children who don't want to take their medicine.

Vitter has set a new standard for incivility and I, for one, am ashamed to be his constituent. As Norm Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute wrote in the article linked above, "I simply cannot recall a time in the past when lawmakers openly gave the finger to the president of the United States on a huge issue like jobs...It is frankly depressing." Yeah, tell me about it.