House Republicans Continue Their 'Insult Fest' Over Easter Weekend
From Sooner Politics
We published a brief anecdote last Thursday, of the growing animosity within the legislative Republican members. Sadly, the problem is only getting worse. It seems a House leader (Chris Kannady) took Rep. Mike Ritze to task for wondering if freshman representative Josh West's brutish behavior (persistent screaming at Ritze in the hallways) was associated with a Post Traumatic Stress condition. It seems that a physician legislator like Ritze is considered by leadership to be offensive when asking the agitator if his rage is medically-related, even while West was persisting in his verbal tirade.
But West took to the internet to continue his insults later in the week. He sat down to type a dissertation of of most of those associated with the House Platform Caucus. For their part, the Platform Caucus and former Senator Tom Coburn have limited their dissent to the actual process and generally mentioned no one by name.
Not one of the Republicans who opposed the February Tax Package returned the insults when Rep. Leslie Osborn stood on the House floor and told them that "they don't love children or old people" because they wouldn't pass the bloated taxes to be imposed on the working poor.
Speaker Charles McCall stood at the diaz for his speech following Osborn and refused to reprimand the damaging words. Nor would he reprimand her for using the govt. microphone and state auditorium for a campaign speech, calling for the primary challenges to each 'no' vote on yet another tax plan.
Josh West, by contrast; continued a written series of very caustic disparagement, which he published on Good Friday. Here's part of what he said:
Tom [Coburn] is hot air and feels the need to armchair quarterback everyone else. ....Rhonda Smith from the Tulsa 912 group, ...Tin hat wearing crazies. I don't know what else to say.[Platform Caucus] They love to talk but in reality, they haven't done anything, yet year after year, the voters keep sending them back.Rep. Jason Murphy - THE Martyr for small government and no taxes....Rep. Kevin Calvey - ... Oh yes, he loves to talk about smaller government but he can't get out of it.Rep. Mike Ritze - maybe we should have gone with the Ritze plan to fund education by removing Hispanics from our schools?Rep. John Bennett - John's been here 8 years, what has John done, other than give a good speech? What has he passed in 8 years to get rid of the waste?Rep. George Faught - 10 years and he can't find all of this fraud, waste and abuse?Rep. Jeff Coody - he runs some great gun bills but how come he can't find the billions in waste??Rep. Shawn Roberts - Shawn won't even look me in the eyes because he has no intestinal fortitude.Rep. Chuck Strohm - Great at anti-abortion bills, not so great at finding waste.I can go on and on. These Representatives are the real waste of tax dollars and are all talk. If I went to my district and spouted about all of the waste year after year, but never did anything or found any but kept getting elected...that is the real problem.
