Berl Falbaum
When we created the honorable (dishonorable) Pence Outstanding Hypocrite Award (POHA), we looked for the best talent, those who displayed a special expertise in the art of hypocrisy.
We thought we had found the cream of the hypocrisy crop when we inducted the 16 so far.
Boy, were we wrong. Our present POHA winners (losers) are amateurs compared to the latest two candidates whom we are inducting with much admiration (disgust).
They are former Republican Senator Richard Burr, of North Carolina, and former one-term Republican congressman from Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District, Peter Meijer.
First, let’s deal with Burr.
He plans to vote for Donald Trump in November despite having voted to convict Trump on impeachment charges for having incited the January 6th insurrection. He was one of seven Republicans who joined Democrats voting for conviction, not enough though to find Trump guilty by virtue of the two-thirds vote required.
A conviction would have barred Trump for running again for president.
In making his support for Trump public, Burr said in an interview that he finds nothing contradictory in his decision. Now, that is the epitome of hypocrisy, the gold standard, a dyed-in-wool hypocrite.
Explaining his conviction vote, he said it was a response to Trump’s actions on January 6th rather than an attempt to disqualify him from the presidency.
That makes absolutely no sense. He implies he did not want his vote to be among those finding Trump guilty and barring him from office. If that’s true, why did he cast his vote? He surely understood the process.
In addition to a POHA, we might bestow on Burr our newly minted hypocrisy-dishonesty award as well.
“Maybe someone will have a hard time squaring with [my decision to vote for him]. I don’t have a hard time squaring with it because I firmly understood why I voted for impeachment,” said Burr, adding, he thought Trump had made a “bad choice…one time.”
That “bad decision…one time” cost five people their lives and injured more than 150 police officers. The rioters threatened to hang Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, sought out former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and ransacked the Capitol, costing more than $30 million in repairs and heightened security measures to prevent a recurrence.
Yes, “some people” might find his turnaround contradictory, beginning with his children and grandchildren.
Now, Meijer.
He lost his seat after voting to impeach Trump and then ran in the Senate GOP primaries this year, but dropped out because the Republicans had not forgotten his “disloyalty.”
He is trying to make amends with Republicans, saying he will endorse Trump because “President Biden …has done far greater things to bring disgrace to that office.”
This leads us to conclude that Meijer believes Biden is the one who was involved with Stormy Daniels, the Access Hollywood tape, was convicted of the 34 felony convictions, lied about the 2020 election for four years, and eight years of corruption and scandal.
Thus, the one-man POHA Board of Directors considers Burr and Meijer the hypocrites’ hypocrite. We are thinking about changing the name of the award to the Burr-Meijer Outstanding Hypocrite Award but we don’t want to hurt Pence’s feelings.
Maybe, to properly honor (dishonor) the two, we will give each two POHA certificates or one gold-plated one.
I did an Internet search to find out how many of the 10 Republicans House members and seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump are supporting him.
I did not find any with one possible exception, Louisiana Senator Bill Cassiday, a strong Trump critic. On “Meet the Press” in March, he would not rule out voting for Trump, adding that he would cast his ballot for a Republican.
Thus, our one-member board has decided to tear the POHA certificate in two, and give him one half.
There are numerous former Trump officials and supporters who are trying to rehabilitate their reputations by endlessly criticizing their former boss on TV political talk shows “political analysts,” and in Op-Ed articles.
Similarly, Burr and Meijer, apparently, are trying to regain their disreputable reputations with the Always-Trump contingent. They are working diligently to reestablish unseemly credentials.
We commend (denounce) both for taking a major step toward rehabilitation. After all, they were severely berated by party organizations in their areas.
Whether their endorsements of Trump are enough to receive forgiveness only time will tell. The gutter standards in the Trump world are pretty low.
They might try throwing in their belief that Nixon was innocent of any wrongdoing in Watergate.
—————
Berl Falbaum is a long-time political journalist and author of several books.
We thought we had found the cream of the hypocrisy crop when we inducted the 16 so far.
Boy, were we wrong. Our present POHA winners (losers) are amateurs compared to the latest two candidates whom we are inducting with much admiration (disgust).
They are former Republican Senator Richard Burr, of North Carolina, and former one-term Republican congressman from Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District, Peter Meijer.
First, let’s deal with Burr.
He plans to vote for Donald Trump in November despite having voted to convict Trump on impeachment charges for having incited the January 6th insurrection. He was one of seven Republicans who joined Democrats voting for conviction, not enough though to find Trump guilty by virtue of the two-thirds vote required.
A conviction would have barred Trump for running again for president.
In making his support for Trump public, Burr said in an interview that he finds nothing contradictory in his decision. Now, that is the epitome of hypocrisy, the gold standard, a dyed-in-wool hypocrite.
Explaining his conviction vote, he said it was a response to Trump’s actions on January 6th rather than an attempt to disqualify him from the presidency.
That makes absolutely no sense. He implies he did not want his vote to be among those finding Trump guilty and barring him from office. If that’s true, why did he cast his vote? He surely understood the process.
In addition to a POHA, we might bestow on Burr our newly minted hypocrisy-dishonesty award as well.
“Maybe someone will have a hard time squaring with [my decision to vote for him]. I don’t have a hard time squaring with it because I firmly understood why I voted for impeachment,” said Burr, adding, he thought Trump had made a “bad choice…one time.”
That “bad decision…one time” cost five people their lives and injured more than 150 police officers. The rioters threatened to hang Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, sought out former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and ransacked the Capitol, costing more than $30 million in repairs and heightened security measures to prevent a recurrence.
Yes, “some people” might find his turnaround contradictory, beginning with his children and grandchildren.
Now, Meijer.
He lost his seat after voting to impeach Trump and then ran in the Senate GOP primaries this year, but dropped out because the Republicans had not forgotten his “disloyalty.”
He is trying to make amends with Republicans, saying he will endorse Trump because “President Biden …has done far greater things to bring disgrace to that office.”
This leads us to conclude that Meijer believes Biden is the one who was involved with Stormy Daniels, the Access Hollywood tape, was convicted of the 34 felony convictions, lied about the 2020 election for four years, and eight years of corruption and scandal.
Thus, the one-man POHA Board of Directors considers Burr and Meijer the hypocrites’ hypocrite. We are thinking about changing the name of the award to the Burr-Meijer Outstanding Hypocrite Award but we don’t want to hurt Pence’s feelings.
Maybe, to properly honor (dishonor) the two, we will give each two POHA certificates or one gold-plated one.
I did an Internet search to find out how many of the 10 Republicans House members and seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump are supporting him.
I did not find any with one possible exception, Louisiana Senator Bill Cassiday, a strong Trump critic. On “Meet the Press” in March, he would not rule out voting for Trump, adding that he would cast his ballot for a Republican.
Thus, our one-member board has decided to tear the POHA certificate in two, and give him one half.
There are numerous former Trump officials and supporters who are trying to rehabilitate their reputations by endlessly criticizing their former boss on TV political talk shows “political analysts,” and in Op-Ed articles.
Similarly, Burr and Meijer, apparently, are trying to regain their disreputable reputations with the Always-Trump contingent. They are working diligently to reestablish unseemly credentials.
We commend (denounce) both for taking a major step toward rehabilitation. After all, they were severely berated by party organizations in their areas.
Whether their endorsements of Trump are enough to receive forgiveness only time will tell. The gutter standards in the Trump world are pretty low.
They might try throwing in their belief that Nixon was innocent of any wrongdoing in Watergate.
—————
Berl Falbaum is a long-time political journalist and author of several books.
