Obey Votes Against Dairy Funding

Dave Obey voted against the war funding, and in doing so, put the liberal left wing of the party ahead of dairy farmers in Wisconsin.

Obey's Excuses

Obey tries to explain eruption away.

We don't know about you, but if this was the first time he had exploded at someone, an explanation would be in order. He explodes at the drop of a hat and that's the problem. It's not a reflection of our values and it's time for him to go.

Mount Obey Known for Bad Temper

According to colleagues, you haven't lived until Obey's ripped you a new one, Obey's always ill-temptered, and cranky all the time. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0507/3922.html

Great representation of our values. I need a paper bag for my head when I visit DC later this summer.


Mount Obey erupts on colleagues
By: Josephine Hearn and David Baumann May 9, 2007 06:22 PM EST


The great Mount Obey rumbled to life again Tuesday, producing one of the most spectacular eruptions yet for the Wisconsin volcano and triggering minor flare-ups in peaks as far away as California.

Experts said such breathtaking seismic activity is common for Mount Obey, better known on Capitol Hill as House Appropriations Chairman Dave Obey, one of the most volatile members of Congress.

Obey's most recent outburst came during a private meeting of House Democrats discussing the latest proposal for funding the war in Iraq through the summer.

Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, an anti-war Democrat from Ohio, asked Obey whether the bill would lead to privatization of Iraqi oil reserves, according to lawmakers and aides present at the meeting. Exasperated by the question, Obey let forth a stream of caustic words, asserting that the bill would not privatize Iraqi oil and emphasizing that he had clarified the issue many times already with Kucinich.

Obey was unrepentant Wednesday.

"I told him to read the goddamn language," Obey said in an interview. "If someone's ears are too tender for that language, that's too bad. I did it on purpose."

He said that Kucinich, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, is purposely misleading people about the spending bill. "I'm sorry he's only at 1 percent in the polls," Obey said. "He simply does not like me and I don't like him. I make no apology [for] what I said to Kucinich. He had it coming."

Obey gave some insight into how he uses his temper when he elaborated on the incident. "It was purposeful," he said. "People don't listen to half the things that are said in caucus. I did it to get people's attention. And, by God, I got their attention."

Obey continued, "As far as whether I have a temper, frankly, Scarlett, I don't give a damn. I didn't come here to win a popularity contest."

Kucinich had no comment.

Obey's eruption galvanized Rep. Diane E. Watson (D-Calif.), who rose to say she was offended by the remarks.
"When a member asks a question, I think there should be a response, not a cussing out," she said in an interview. Watson said that she shared Kucinich's concerns that the bill might lead to oil privatization but that Obey "scolded" her.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) was similarly taken aback. "He cursed at [Kucinich]. I think Mr. Obey was unfairly harsh and disrespectful."

Waters, Watson and Kucinich are among the handful of Democrats who opposed Obey's last wartime spending bill.

Other lawmakers at the meeting were more forgiving of Obey's temper, noting that such behavior is commonplace for him and not meant to be taken personally.

"You haven't lived until Dave Obey has torn your ass in half," Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) quipped to his colleagues.

Rep. Rahm Emanuel, an Illinois Democrat who is himself known for profanity-laced outbursts, tried to lighten the mood. "In my family, this is how we talk!" he said. (Indeed, Emanuel's mother is quoted as calling him a "shithead" in a new book, "The Thumpin': How Rahm Emanuel and the Democrats Learned to Be Ruthless and Ended the Republican Revolution.")

But Watson was not amused. She rejected arguments that Obey's comments were not meant to be harmful and were simply "the way he is."

"That's the way Imus is," she retorted, referring to radio shock jock Don Imus, who was recently fired after making racially insensitive remarks. "I do not accept what [Obey] said to me."

Mount Obey has long fascinated volcanologists who marvel at its high level of activity. Obey last blew his top two months ago, when he was confronted by an anti-war activist in a Capitol Hill hallway. The topic was again the wartime spending bill, which he has been ushering through the House. Obey himself would like to end the war, but he understands that his bill must take a more moderate approach to gain wider support, congressional aides said.

He unleashed a six-minute diatribe on the activist, railing against "idiot liberals" who did not understand his pragmatism. The exchange was caught on video and posted on YouTube, where it had been viewed more than 151,000 times as of Wednesday.

Obey attacks other lawmakers and congressional aides with regularity, often dubbing a misguided thought as "bullshit." In 1997, he mockingly waved a newspaper article in front of former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) on the House floor, saying it showed Republicans were selling out to lobbyists. DeLay shoved him and called him "chicken shit," according to accounts at the time.

Scott Lilly, who worked with Obey on the House Appropriations Committee for decades and himself got in a tussle with DeLay in 2001, said Obey's volatility is calculated.

"Many of the times he gets angry, it's not uncontrolled," Lilly said. "He gets people's attention when he gets angry, and he's aware of that. It's a more effective way of communicating with people."

First elected in Wisconsin in 1969, Obey is among the most senior members of the House and, as Appropriations chairman, he wields enormous power.

He is also perennially ill-tempered, said another former aide, who asked not to be identified.

"He's cranky all the time," the former aide said. "He's so used to being in a bad mood that if nothing is pissing him off, it makes him angry."

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II (D-Mo.), co-chair of the House Civility Task Force, a group created to lower the level of vitriol among lawmakers, declined to condemn Obey's behavior.

"There have always been characters in Congress, people who are respected for who they are," he said. "He's not being mean; he's just being who he is."

Still, Cleaver said members of Congress should "make sure to give a very civil response." He lamented an overall lack of civility in Congress.

"This place is almost a volcano waiting to erupt,'' he said, "on any issue, at any moment."

Obey Drops Pork Bribes and Inserts Union Payoff

Dave Obey revealed a new funding proposal for our troops in Iraq. It calls for shorter funding authorization and benchmarks without an automatic date to withdraw troops. But according to this Politico article, he has dropped the pork spending bribes and replaced it with a union payoff of a minimum wage vote.

If I were a member of congress who'd been promised a pork project for my district and was then told I was simply getting another minimum wage vote, I'm not so sure I would take that deal.

Oh well, the unions are Obey's (and most liberals) biggest benefactors, and they must be demanding this.

Should be interesting.

Playing Politics with Our Troops

This blatant political ploy by Speaker Pelosi should be condemned by Dave Obey today. Haven't heard, well, instead of sending the overdue troop funding bill to the President after it passed last week, Nancy Pelosi said she needed to read it line by line AFTER she voted for it.