If a constituent asks you to work on a bill that will diminish violence against women, and you wind up telling another constituent during your answer to "shut up"....
...then you are Congressman Joe Barton of Texas.
You might recall that Joe Barton is the one who apologized to the CEO of BP during a congressional hearing into the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Because of how impolite people were being!
And yes, Barton's year, and probably his congressional career, ended with some nude photos of him surfacing like an asphyxiated porpoise onto the public stage.
But there were many other reasons to give Joe Barton a Crookie award this year:
Barton said Obamacare Repeal was Fantasy Football:
Reporters asked why, after Republicans held dozens of nearly-unanimous votes to repeal Obamacare under President Obama, they were getting cold feet now that they control the levers of power.
“Sometimes you’re playing Fantasy Football and sometimes you’re in the real game,” he said. “We knew the president, if we could get a repeal bill to his desk, would almost certainly veto it. This time we knew if it got to the president’s desk it would be signed.”
In May, Barton admitted to CNN that he doesn't "know everything" about the Republican health care bill, but he said he would vote for it because there is a "probability" that it will work.
And in September, Barton was one of only four Texas Republicans who voted AGAINST aid for Hurricane Harvey victims.
Joe Barton is such a winner. Here's your prize:
