It’s easy to make a fool look foolish
As I mentioned earlier the other day, Michigan Congressman Gary Peters pledged to donate his salary to charity if Republicans were successful at shutting down the government.
The story took an interesting turn when, earlier this evening, Luke Russert tweeted this little tidbit about Texas Senator Ted Cruz:
Ted Cruz will copy the Rep. Peters (D-MI) and will donate any salary during a government shutdown to charity.
— Luke Russert (@LukeRussert) September 30, 2013
Yup, Senator Cruz, the man who read Dr. Suess’s Green Eggs and Ham on the floor of the Senate, is going to “do the right thing” and copy a Democratic Congressman’s good deed after being nearly single-handedly responsible for causing the shutdown and all the hardship and suffering that goes along with it. The same shutdown that led the need for a “good deed” in the first place.
The story doesn’t end there because Congressman Peters responded with one of the best tweetslams I’ve seen in a long while:
.@sentedcruz joining me to donate pay to charity, but not to stop shutdown. I urge you to drop politics. Irresponsible to do anything less.
— Senator Gary Peters (@SenGaryPeters) October 1, 2013
Well played, Congressman Peters. Well played indeed.
UPDATE: It appears that Cruz was, at least in part, shamed into doing this by a fellow Republican, as well, after saying he had “no intention of doing so” just last week:
Republican Rep. Blake Farenthold said Monday that he intends to give up his salary if Congress fails to avoid a government shutdown on Monday night, and also called on his colleagues to do the same, including fellow Texas lawmaker Ted Cruz.“I’ve already composed and written a letter to the House administration telling them to withhold my paycheck in the event of a lapse of appropriations,” he said.
“Ted, put your money where your mouth is,” he added. “I would consider it to be immoral to take a paycheck when the people in the federal government are not.”
Late last week, Cruz said he had no plans to give up his own salary.
“I will confess it is a question I have not given a significant amount of thought. At the current time, I have no intention of doing so,” Cruz said when pressed by a reporter.
UPDATE 2: Seems Congressman Peters started a trend. You can find a list of all of the other legislators who are forgoing their pay HERE. Some are donating to a charity, others are simply returning it to the treasury.
[Photo credit: Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog]
