For those who aren't familiar with her and think perhaps I'm being a tad bit unfair, here's a few of her dumbest statements, uttered on the House Floor:
During a tour of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, she asked if the Mars Pathfinder probe had taken a picture of the flag Neil Armstrong planted in 1969. And she thinks repealing ACA would be a violation of the Constitution."... the sanctity of this nation and how well it is that we have lasted some 400 years, operating under a constitution that clearly defines what is constitutional and what is not.”
“I stand here as a freed slave because this Congress came together.”
"Today, we have two Vietnams, side by side, North and South, exchanging and working. We may not agree with all that North Vietnam is doing, but they are living in peace. I would look for a better human rights record for North Vietnam, but they are living side by side.”
Okay, perhaps we can all agree she's stupid. But her latest gaffe is not merely funny, but deeply troubling.
link...
During the floor debate over authorizing the lawsuit against Obama, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, suggested that Democrats had the moral high ground.
Even though some Democrats had thought that President George W. Bush had abused his authority when he initiated the Iraq War, the House, while under Democratic control in 2007 and 2008, did not impeach him.
The current resolution to authorize a lawsuit, Jackson Lee said in a floor speech on July 30, 2014, "smacks against the Constitution, which says there are three equal branches of government. Therefore, the executive has the right to perform his duties. I ask my colleagues to oppose this resolution for it is, in fact, a veiled attempt for impeachment, and it undermines the law that allows the president to do his job. It is a historical fact that President Bush pushed this nation into a war that had little to do with apprehending terrorists. We did not seek an impeachment of President Bush because as an executive, he had his authority. President Obama has the authority."
A reader asked us to check whether it’s accurate for Jackson Lee to say, "We did not seek an impeachment of President Bush." So we took a closer look.
Jackson Lee, it turns out, is an imperfect vehicle for making this charge. Here’s the problem: A dozen House Democrats in 2008 did introduce a resolution seeking the impeachment of Bush. And Jackson Lee was one of the measure’s 11 co-sponsors.
...
So she claimed that Dems didn't seek impeachment of Bush, even though she cosponsored the bill to impeach him! And when a concerned citizen called her office to ask about this contradiction, he was threatened with an IRS audit! This is how Dems think: the power of the government is theirs to use against their political critics.
linkThings got dicey, however, when he was transferred to an unidentified gentleman. According to Horner, the man he spoke to insulted him, and even called him un-American for daring to question Jackson Lee's false statement.
"I was transferred to a gentleman on Lee’s staff," Horner wrote. "When I again asked him about the contradiction and stated that perhaps I was confused, the man said 'Oh look it here, we have one of those right wing, tea-bagger nut jobs on the phone taking his cues from FOX News.'”
The situation only got worse, he said, when the unidentified staffer raised his voice and accused him of being un-American. Moreover, the staffer falsely accused Horner of being on a mission to destroy the country.
“I don’t have to give it to you because I don’t want to show up on some right wing blog and be on your Twitter account,” the man said when Horner asked him for identification. Horner said he never identified himself and the staffer simply made assumptions while attacking him.
“I doubt you even pay taxes and the IRS will find you soon enough,” the man said when Horner reminded him that his salary is provided by the taxpaying public. After issuing the veiled threat, the man hung up, Horner added.
After being insulted, threatened and hung up on, Horner called back and asked to speak to Jackson Lee's chief of staff. He was transferred to another man who only identified himself as "Chief Counsel," who gave Horner 15 seconds to speak.
“Really?” Horner asked the man on the other end of the phone. "Chief Counsel" then informed Horner he had 14 seconds left.
"When I asked him for his name, he said 'Chief Counsel,'” Horner said. "Of course that’s not his name, and I said 'No, I mean your name, not your title.'”
The man, however, refused to give his real name. Horner said he could find out through a Freedom of Information Act request. The man, however, hung up on him.
"That’s what happens when you (contact) the office of Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX)," Horner said. This is not the first report of rudeness from Jackson Lee and her staff, as we noted in March 2011.
But it seems that Jackson Lee is no longer content to lie on the floor of the House. Now, it appears she and her staff is willing to threaten anyone who dares ask a question about her statements.