While combing various news sources as part of my daily routine, I came across this little gem of an opinion piece. Marie Cocco, according to a hasty Google search, works for The Washington Post. Apparently, she thinks Dennis Kucinich is a stand-up guy, and not an insane recovering Oompa-Loompa (do you know how many surgeries it takes to get rid of that orange skin?). For those of you not familiar with the Ohio Congressman, he runs for President each election cycle and prides himself on coming up with the absolute most liberal positions in the country. Oh yeah, and he believes aliens have visited Earth as well. But I digress.Marie thinks Dennis' 35 articles of impeachment for Bush was a complete and compelling litany of Bush's transgressions. Based solely on her selected quotes, I can tell you the articles are based entirely on liberal / Democrat talking points and conspiracy theories. But hey - whatever works. What's interesting, however, is how Rep. Kucinich went about presenting his Articles of Impeachment. Dennis spent 5+ hours on the floor of the House outlining his charges. 5 HOURS! And he didn't accomplish jack squat. Nada. The Articles of Impeachment were given a pass.
Because I'm such a huge fan of government, I decided to do a little math and figure out exactly how much taxpayer money the Dennis Kucinich wasted on this little stunt. According to Washminster, the budget for running the House of Representatives for fiscal year 2008 is $1.2 billion (this includes salaries for representatives, office personnel, and the various other costs associated with running the country, or something). Congress works roughly 150 days a year, and we'll say they work 10-hour days. Personally, I think that's generous, but for the sake of argument, I'll go along with it.
If you do the math, it costs $794,701.99 per hour to run the House of Representatives. Multiply that times 5, and you get $3,973,509.95
Good job, Dennis. You blew nearly $4 million on absolutely nothing. It takes some real talent to burn through that much money and have nothing to show for it.
* - And yes, that is a cetrified anti-alien mind reading aluminum foil hat Dennis is sporting.