By FITSNews || Gresham Barrett is a U.S. Representative … except he’s done precious little “representing” lately as he campaigns for governor of South Carolina.
And while we understand that it’s cool to “hate on” Washington D.C. these days, shouldn’t you at least spend a little time in the city if people elected you to do a job there?
Seriously … is Barrett going to take a year off from being governor to run for some higher office if (God forbid) we elect him in 2010?
Anyway, we did a poll back in December on Barrett’s abysmal voting record (not a single lawmaker in America missed as many votes as he did in 2009) and a whopping 83 percent of FITS readers found his spotty attendance “inexcusable.” Only 17 percent classified it as “understandable.”
That’s why we found Barrett’s announcement Thursday that he was heading to Washington to do his job (for a change) so surprising:
… I am about to get on a plane headed for Washington instead. Late yesterday, I learned that the House GOP Conference is holding a key vote this morning on banning earmarks for one year.
Wait, so that big abortion vote Barrett missed last December wasn’t worth getting on a plane for?
Look we hate “earmarks” as much as the next pro-transparency fiscal conservative, but this showboating strikes us as nothing more than fodder for more of Barrett’s taxpayer-funded propaganda.
Frankly, given the tremendous amount of time he’s spending on the campaign trail, Barrett should have followed the lead of other politicians and resigned his office a long time ago.
By Ynotfirst March 11, 2010 at 6:12 pm
gresham barrett sucks
By Matt March 11, 2010 at 9:37 pm
Yet we can still point out that while a growing number of Republicans from across the party such as Jim DeMint and John Boehner have actually bee walking the walk on earmarks by not requesting them in the firstplace, Barrett has his name on $13.8 million worth of earmarks for FY 09. Makes you wonder if that whole “second-most conservative member of Congress” that Barrett keeps repeating over and over on his latest ad is actually more of a “self-proclaimed” thing. He’s basically now voting against earmarks because his caucus tells him to.
By Jimmy March 11, 2010 at 9:55 pm
Boeing Bill–Haley Not Voting
Tort Reform — Haley Not Voting
Who cares if you vote every other day if you don’t vote for the big things..
By hold tight March 11, 2010 at 11:02 pm
Yawn.How much did this post cost?
By Charles March 12, 2010 at 7:22 am
Barrett’s only ability or talent is asking others to give him money, airplane rides, etc. He never tires of it. and people that ask for stuff so freely are, generally speaking, worthless pieces of crap.
He is shameless.
By Toyota Kawaski March 12, 2010 at 10:20 am
Yes Darling Nikki we will continue our (weak)ly drive by media shots but 4th place is all it will get u.
By Del II March 12, 2010 at 11:09 am
You’re wrong — DeMint asked for earmarks at least up until 2007…
http://reason.com/archives/2007/06/20/hawks-and-hogs
“Shortly after the midterm elections, as his fellow Republicans lay moaning on a row of hospital stretchers, South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint made a decision: He wasn’t going to stick earmarks for his state into any more spending bills. If some greedy constituent expected him to bring some pork back home, that was just tough. He was through with earmarking—with one caveat. “There should be some very limited earmarks in defense spending bills,” the senator says.”
By Gillon March 12, 2010 at 12:50 pm
I was just listening to WVOC-AM radio in Columbia and caught a Barret ad that extolled him as one of the most conservative of U.S. Congressmen, had fought the Obama economic agenda, etc.. Fine, but at the end, a voice-over stated, “Paid for by Barret for Congress.” Question: Since Barret is not running for re-election to Congress, and since I don’t think that you can pick up a Columbia radio station in his Third District, how can you get away with using Congressional campaign funds to pay for the ad? Explanations, anybody?
By No Name March 12, 2010 at 1:29 pm
Bailout Barrett will run as an Independent for his old seat as part of the Lindsey Graham Dixiecrat Ticket when he misses the run off.
GOPers that get pushed out in primary battles will run as Dixiecrats and probably win by knitting together status quos and middle Dems that are against Obama….hell in some districts that are so uncompetitive these new players will grab some afro-american votes.
It is a new world.
By Old Bike Dude March 12, 2010 at 5:18 pm
Who is the woman riding with the Pimpstick? Never seen him with her before.
By g dog March 13, 2010 at 1:33 am
barrett is as good as the next governor. it doesnt matter what hes done, all that matters is how he appears, superficially, to the SC voter. he’s got all the qualifications: military man, conventional/mainstream conservative record, national political officeholder, he has those “prettyboy” looks (for a politician at least), and he knows exactly what to say and how to say it to the SC voter. and the fact that he’s less well known than mcmaster and bauer, his only compettion at all- and the fact that both of those dudes are clowns- will make the average SC voter see him as an “outsider” in a year when they’ll want to justify to themselves that they arent choosing another mark sanford-type disgrace to SC (since of course they would never vote for a democrat). and the fact that this site is going after him the way you are makes it pretty obvious that you guys thinks he’s the most dangerous threat to your vested interest in this race. Unless someone else who’s not currently running joins this race, he’s going to win. the only 3 people with a chance of winning are bauer, mcmaster, and barrett. by sheer process of elimination barrett is an obvious shoo-in. whoever can refute that logic, do your best.
By Western Wilds March 13, 2010 at 9:53 am
Gillon, because of a HUGE tactical error by Haley’s team and their front group! (in order to attack Barrett through that front group, they did it as a congressman. his ads were responding to that ad.) there are a bunch of articles running on it in some of the papers.
By southernmapart March 14, 2010 at 1:54 pm
The Barrett campaign management is messin’ up, at least in the Upstate where people know him.
An ad is running showing Barrett with a former County Councilman who resigned office. The resignee is one of the “made over” Yankees who got a little money from selling his house at a high price up North, then came down here, made himself into a new man to show us what a big deal he was. He didn’t last through his first term of office before he hit the road … and Gresham is sitting with this blow hard quitter in an ad?