In both 2016, and in 2017, that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” presented its original profile of the four term U.S. House Representative for Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District, Mike Kelly, who was first elected in the Tea Party Wave back in 2010, defeating Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper by double digits with the benefit of GOP turnout that year, and after gerrymandering has turned the Cook Partisan Voter Index for his district from +2 Republican lean, all the way to +8 Republican, he’s now in his fourth term in office. Of course, in 2016, that was likely because nobody even bothered to run against him. Mike Kelly has raised some eyebrows since heading to our nation’s capitol, with his first foray into the spotlight coming in August of 2012, when at a press conference, he compared the birth control mandate of the Affordable Care Act to “Pearl Harbor or 9-11.” Certainly there was no hyperbole there, comparing the deaths of thousands in a surprise attack to employers having to cover contraceptives women might need to help regulate irregular menstrual cycles. No sir. A year after that blunder, in August of 2013, Rep. Kelly decided to comment on President Obama, explaining that actually, it was that Barack Obama “divides our country on race”. Kelly went on to rant about how his “liberty and freedom were under attack” by the Obama administration, offering little explanation of how that was, exactly. But that’s far from the worst thing he said about President Obama. He also discussed impeaching him for “dragging America into a Civil War” shortly after winning re-election back in November of 2014, and in a December 2015 interview with Houston conservative talk-show host Sam Malone, Kelly began questioning where Obama was born and who raised him, before ranting about how his remarks “embolden our enemies”, and that terrorists could “shoot up a ballet while Obama dithers.” His fearmongering about terrorism isn’t a one off, as during the massive Ebola Virus outbreak in 2014, Mike Kelly was on Newsmax, calling for a travel ban (that doctors said would only make the outbreak worse) and making the ridiculous assertion that American Jihadis were going to go into Africa to deliberately infect themselves with the lethally terminal disease, and then bring it back to the states and spread it to massive numbers of people. Which is stupid, because people infected with Ebola are pretty easy to spot, and usually unable to move because they’re so crippled by their organs liquifying. And to infect other people, they would have to smear blood or feces on people en masse, which is sort of a telltale sign of ill intent. And so in our update in the vein of “Mike Kelly is a deranged Obama-hating conspiracy theorist”, we must note that since President Obama left office, Rep. Kelly has not moved on, and in March of 2017, he told a crowd in his home district that President Obama was staying in the capitol not to just let his daughter Sasha finish high school, but was actually “running a shadow government that is totally gonna upset the new agenda.” Kelly never apologized for this blatant and paranoid lie, and his staffers tried walking it back, to being “frustration that some “Obama holdovers within the federal bureaucracy are attempting to upset the Trump agenda”… which for a walk-back, is still pretty inflammatory. Meanwhile, President Obama took the time outside the White House to go kite-surfing with Richard Branson, because that’s exactly how shadow governments operate.
It was only a few weeks ago that Mike Kelly got humiliated on the floor of the House by Congresswoman Maxine Waters, after he tried claiming that he knew more about discrimination than she did as an African American woman before dropping “MAGA” into his remarks, and trying to skulk out. Waters was having none of that bulls***, and straight up torched him. A few days later, Kelly doubled down on his behavior, going on Fox News and uncorking the most outlandish take imaginable. This time he claimed it was Un-American to acknowledge and talk about the existence of racism in the United States, and that he was often prejudiced against because… before he was a Congressman, he was a car salesman. Then, he praised Donald Trump for improving racial unity. No, we’re not making that up, here’s the quote:
Mike Kelly is living on Bizarro World, it seems.
Anyway, other than all that insanity, there’s the matter of Mike Kelly’s partisan, conservative voting record, that includes votes for the 2013 Government Shutdown, votes against raising the debt ceiling (!), two votes to shut down Planned Parenthood and one to shut down National Public radio, votes against disaster relief for victims of Hurricane Sandy, voting against the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, votes for banning abortion at 20 weeks, and a vote for the SAFE Act, to keep Syrian refugees from fleeing the civil war in that country.
And guess what? He’s still a bastard of a legislator:
- February 16th, 2017: Kelly votes for HJR 69, to make it legal for hunters on wildlife reserves to kill several species of hibernating bears or wolves while they’re sleeping.
- March 16th, 2017: Mike Kelly votes for HR 1181, which would allow veterans deemed mentally incompetent to continue to own firearms, and not have them taken away without a judge’s written order.
- May 4th, 2017: Kelly votes for the House GOP’s healthcare plan, that would kick roughly 24 million people off their health insurance plans, allow up to 28,000 more people to die a year, give $50,000 in tax breaks to millionaires, and would eliminate coverage for pre-existing conditions which would include such medical conditions as pregnancy (current or past), postpartum depression, or prior sexual assault.
- June 8th, 2017: Mike Kelly votes for HR 10, the GOP’s attempt to repeal Dodd-Frank financial reform.
- October 3rd, 2017: Kelly votes for HR 36, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, that would try to create an unconstitutional ban abortion at 20 weeks.
- December 19th, 2017: Mike Kelly votes for HR 1, the GOP’s $1.7 trillion tax cut to benefit the wealthiest Americans and corporations permanently that coincidentally also removes the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate and kicks 13 million people off their health insurance.
- February 18th, 2018: Kelly and his fellow Republicans decide that poor big businesses are suffering too much at the hands of the Americans with Disabilities Act too much, and vote for HR 620, which would strip most of the civil rights protections guaranteed by it.
Kelly’s opponent in November is Ronald DiNicola, a former Marine, and Harvard educated lawyer who starting in the 1980s, represented Muhammed Ali as his personal lawyer, and years earlier, just as a fan, defended Ali’s stance against the Vietnam War to a sportswriter attacking Ali back in the 1970s in a scathing opinion editorial. DiNicola also served many years as the Chairman of the Erie County Democratic Party, so he’s got the necessary connections to give Kelly a hell of a run in November. Especially when you consider that the huge partisan lean that Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District was given by the GOP after gerrymandering after the 2010 elections was undone by the courts. Suddenly, Mike Kelly finds himself in a swing district, and in a year where a Blue Wave election is predicted. And nothing would be better than seeing that become a reality in November.
One Year Ago, June 4th, 2017: Mike Kelly (PA)… 2017 Update
Two Year Ago, June 4th, 2016: Mike Kelly (PA)… Original Profile
Three Years Ago, June 4th, 2015: Jerry Bergevin (NH)