On this date in both 2014, as well as 2015, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Jim Sensenbrenner, the sitting U.S. House Representative for Wisconsin’s 5th Congressional District, who has been a member of Congress since 1979. Through the years, he has been involved in some of the more distasteful legislative acts in our country, such as the attempted impeachment of President Clinton, where he read the opening statement, the drafting of the original version of the Patriot Act (which he denies leaving loopholes in to allow for government surveillance of the civilian populace), and his vote against $50 billion in relief aid for Hurricane Katrina. Sensenbrenner has also been prone to tantrums, like when in 2005, he walked out of a meeting about human rights abuses at Guantanamo Bay prison after demanding C-SPAN turn off all cameras in an attempt at a media blackout. This guy even fought against funding for HIV, malaria and tuberculosis prevention, and against stiffer penalties for people convicted of dogfighting, he’s so heartless. Sensenbrenner also has a long history of ridiculous quotes on climate change denial, including his insistence that there’s data to prove “global cooling” out there. That should come as little surprise, as Sensenbrenner owns stock in British Petroleum,and during the Congressional hearings after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, he actually refused to recuse himself from the proceedings, instead writing an angry letter to the White House to lay blame on them for the disaster. His disgust for the Obama White House goes a bit farther than that, as he actually tried criticizing Michelle Obama’s efforts to combat childhood obesity, because “she has a big butt” (because he himself is doing so much better in battling obesity). Sensenbrenner actually voted against the renewal of the Violence Against Women act, and not only voted for the 2013 Government Shutdown, but voted against re-opening it when the time came. In 2015, Sensenbrenner was taking testimony in the hearings on Planned Parenthood, and asked witness Priscilla Smith why she prioritized Planned Parenthood over feeding hungry children, then cut her off to pretend to be baffled by her answer about how it helped mothers with cancer screenings so they could feed their healthy children, because they would still be alive to if it’s caught early.
- February 2nd, 2016: Jim Sensenbrenner votes for HR 3762, the 61st attempt by Congressional Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act (which is still working better than was predicted).
- May 19th, 2016: Rep. Sensenbrenner votes against House Amendment 1079, which would have prohibited the use of federal funds for discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. So if you were wondering, yes, he’s pro-discrimination, apparently.
- September 28th, 2016: Months after funding was requested to prevent Zika Virus, and after several cases have begun to be diagnosed in the United States, Sensenbrenner still votes against HR 5325, which would provide funding towards preventing its spread. (Remember, this is from a hard core Pro-Lifer determined to defund Planned Parenthood.)
Jim Sensenbrenner won re-election in 2016 with 67% of the vote over Democrat Khary Penebaker, mostly because Wisconsin’s 5th District is gerrymandered to have the largest concentration of wealthy people into it who don’t mind Sensebrenner’s non-stop agenda of “rich white males first”. We remind you now that a decade ago, back in 2006, Rolling Stone named Rep. Sensenbrenner America’s Second Worst Congressmen only behind shamed GOP colleague Dennis Hastert, and this was their assessment of the man representing Wisconsin’s 5th District:
”Sensenbrenner is an ever-sweating, fat-fingered beast who wields his gavel in a way that makes you think he might have used one before in some other arena, perhaps to beat prostitutes to death.”
And yet, here we are, a decade later, as he’s about to be sworn into his twentieth term in office in a few weeks.