During the summers when I was in college, I was fortunate enough to work for the county.
This was during the time when Yazoo County, under the direction of Mr. Bubba Dixon, built its own roads. The work was sometimes hard and always hot, but the experience was always educational. Yazoo County had some of the greatest philosophers employed in the Road Department, and a young summer boy like myself always picked up knowledge that even today serves me well.
One of the lessons that stands out in my mind was the meaning of the word "tater." This word was banded about almost daily, and it had a specific meaning. If one of those great philosophers said, "he’s got a tater," well that meant that he had an easy job.
Although none of us were ever accused of having a "tater," there were a select few who seemed to always get the good jobs, jobs that did not cause one to sweat and get dirty.
If you are a United States Senator, and your party is the Republican Party, you have a "tater." Being a senator is the only job I know of where a person can run for office, get elected, disappear for six years, and then, when election time comes, tell his constituents what a great job he is doing working for them, protecting their interests, and always voting the way he said he would when the good people sent him to Washington.
Every Republican Senator campaigned on the promise to "repeal and replace Obamacare." Three of these upstanding Republicans voted to keep Obamacare when it came time to vote in the Senate. The vote to repeal failed. The vote to repeal and replace failed. The "skinny bill" failed because of three senators. Senator John McCain marched to the front of the Senate Chamber and in one of the most obvious displays of defiance voted "thumbs down." Had he voted "yes," the "skinny bill to repeal and replace would have passed.
Susan Collins is another example of a worthless Senator.
Lisa Murkowski of Alaska also voted “no.” All three of these people should be held to account for what they did to the American people.
McCain, of course, hates President Trump with a passion, and instead of doing the right thing for the people of Arizona, he betrayed them to thwart Trump’s agenda. He likes to be known as a "Maverick," and he got his opportunity to get a dig in at Trump, and he took full advantage.
Every Republican Senator in Washington has a "tater." Who knows if they are working or not? They haven’t done anything that they campaigned on, and tax reform is now a long shot.
The Republican Party earned the name of the "stupid party" several years ago, but now it is the incompetent, lazy, and stupid party. Senators are missing a wonderful opportunity to pass legislation that would keep them in power for the next 20 years, but they are too stupid or arrogant, or both, to recognize this once in a life time chance.
None of the Republican Senators believed that Trump would win, so they sat on their hands and failed to craft legislation to repeal Obamacare. No bill was ready, and Mitch McConnell is like a disoriented goose – he wakes up in a new world every day.
If I were a senator, I would want meaningful work to do, something important like representing my constituents. It is clear to me that the crop we have in Washington loves boredom. They can sit in their offices for days doing nothing. When they venture out, they attend a party given by some lobbyist on K Street. Then they make a phone call or two to some big whig and ask for campaign funds so that they can continue staying in Washington doing absolutely nothing.
It is past time for the "tater" to end. We need some new blood in the Senate, people who will do what they said they would do when they asked for the office. What is sad is that these do-nothing foolish Republicans don’t even realize why President Trump was elected. To quote Forrest Gump, "Stupid is as stupid does."
