Today's newest effort to de-fund NPR in the House of Representatives came with a debate that had moments which must be seen and savored. On the serious side, there was Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who reminded the House that the airwaves belong to citizens, not corporations.
His points were well-taken, but of course they fell on deaf ears. Eric Cantor actually managed to come to the floor and cite the O'Keefe NPR slam, which even Glenn Beck's site managed to debunk. So then Anthony Weiner comes to the floor, and spices things up a bit.
The transcript will not do Weiner's speech justice, but here it is anyway:
Crisis averted, ladies and gentlemen. What a relief. What a relief. I'm glad we got the economy back going, I'm glad we've secured our nuclear power plants, I'm so glad the Americans are back to work. We finally found out our problem. We discovered a target that we can all agree upon.
It's these guys. This is the problem, it's Click & Clack, the Tappet Brothers. We're finally getting rid of them. Thank God we solved this problem for the country. Now let's look at them. Let's look at the record here.
For one, they talk in that Boston accent. Cah tawk? It's a car. It's a car, ladies and gentlemen. I need to call Congresswoman Capuano whenever they're on the air.
Secondly, they talk about master cylinders and slave cylinders. It's kinky! And so I am glad my Republican friends are finally getting to the bottom of this.
And then with all the giggling and snorting they do every week on their show, it's got to be some kind of a code. They're clearly talking to the Russians or the Chinese or something with all that giggling and snorting.
It is why I'm so relieved that we had this emergency session that we waived the rules of the House to require 72 hours so we finally get these guys off my radio. Click & Clack the Tappet Brothers on Car Talk. I know it. Because these guys clearly are political. Well, I don't know if they're political, they make no sense about most of what they say. But you know, I'm glad we're finally not going to have to listen to them. I'm glad the Republican party finally said enough of Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers.
That clearly was what the American people said in campaign 2010, clearly it's in their Contract with America or something, right? Get rid of Click and Clack? It's about time. I have to tell you something, because the last thing we want is informative solutions to how we fix our cars and the Car Talk puzzler. And think about the people we're finally going to put out of work. You know, their customer care rep, Heywouldjoobuzzoff? (I'll tell you how to spell that later, I say to the stenographer) And the director of ethics, Youlyinsack. All of these guys that are finally going to be taken off the public payroll.
The Republican Party. No one can say they're not in touch. They get it. They understand where the American people are. The American people are not concerned about jobs and the economy, what's going on around the world.
They're staring at their radio, saying get rid of Click and Clack. Finally my Republican friends are doing it. Kudos to you.
[applause]
Update: The bill passes 228-192.
