Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion

To start out the 112th Congress, Rep. Steve Scalise introduced H.R. 61, the Coach Act of 2011. If passed, the Coach Act would prohibit federal government employees from being reimbursed for anything more than the coach class value of their airplane travel when they travel on official business, except in the case of necessity, such as for high-security situations or travel for disabled employees.

H.R. 61 strikes me as a reasonable way to cut some government cost without cutting back government services and without putting anybody in a situation of more discomfort than the average American citizen who travels by air must bear. The 8 cosponsors of Rep. Scalise’s bill in the House of Representatives are:

Jason Chaffetz [UT-3]
Mike Coffman [CO-6]
Nan Hayworth [NY-19]
Duncan Hunter [CA-52]
Robert Latta [OH-5]
Tom McClintock [CA-4]
Stevan Pearce [NM-2]
Rob Wittman [VA-1]

But curiously, the following 10 members of Congress had signed on as initial cosponsors of the Coach Act in January 2011, but withdrew en masse a week and a half later:

Cynthia Lummis [WY-at large]
Jeff Duncan [SC-3]
Tom Graves [GA-9]
Brian Bilbray [CA-50]
Patrick McHenry [NC-10]
Tom Cole [OK-4]
John Kline [MN-2]
Bob Gibbs [OH-18]
Doug Lamborn [CO-5]
Trent Franks [AZ-2]

There has been no communication from these Republicans to explain why they withdrew their support from this bill.

Notably, there has been no communication from any Democrats in the House to explain why they haven’t supported the measure in the first place.

A wee bit of noise has begun to be made by supporters of a presumed 2012 presidential campaign by Mitt Romney. Romney fans made a big deal about Romney’s first place showing in a recent New Hampshire straw poll, though only a minority of the invited GOP elites actually voted for Romney.

Some point out that Mitt Romney’s supposed political strongholds are not as solid as Romney might like, and Romney’s failure to produce a solid campaign in 2008 leaves many Republicans suspicious of Romney’s leadership abilities.

There is a Facebook group now supporting Mitt Romney for President in 2012. It has 23,480 members so far!

That sounds promising, but then, all one has to do to join a Facebook group is to click a “like” button, and then forget about it, as one’s supposed membership requires no money, no work, and not even any attention. A person can be a member of 1,000 such Facebook groups, and never do anything to support the cause to which the Facebook group is supposedly devoted.

The question is, really, how much a Facebook group actually DOES to support a political candidate. In the case of the Mitt Romney for President 2012 Facebook group, the results are underwhelming. Right now, the group begins its self-description by stating: “Mission #1 is to focus on the 2010 races”.

The 2010 election was over three months ago. What has the Mitt Romney for President 2012 Facebook group done lately? Nothing. It hasn’t even bothered to update its profile.

With supporters like these Mitt Romney is going to have a very difficult time running for President indeed.