CD07: Meet Tim Walberg

by: Eric B.

Mon Dec 10, 2007 at 13:16:49 PM EST

I still remember, with great amusement, the first few months after Nick Smith went to Washington to represent my old hometown of Jackson.  He not only gave Spy magazine a long, eloquent discourse on what U.S. policy towards the country of Freedonia should be, but he was also spotted crawling on either the wall or roof of his office building because of a locked bathroom door (the specifics of the story escape me).

And, I can't say that I was at all surprised that the 7th put in office Tim Walberg.  The entire district is filled with pockets of Walberg-like folks, who have slipped the surly bonds of reality and orbit somewhere in their own strange fantasy world.  Tim Walberg, as far as I can tell, is one of these people.

Walberg won his primary in spite of heavy opposition from his own party.  How did he do it?  Through the heavy contributions of the Club for Growth.  They gave him something like 86 percent of the $1.184 million he needed to unseat Joe Schwarz, one of the few remaining moderates in the Republican Party.  In exchange ... Walberg essentially admitted in the Jackson Citizen Patriot that he's their boy.

Most of us remember Walberg for other colorful remarks.  There was the comparison of Baghdad to Detroit.  There was also this, the reasoning behind Walberg's protest vote against a resolution recognizing Ramadan:

To offer respect for a major religion is one thing, but to offer respect for a major religion that has been behind the Islamic jihad, the radical jihad, that has sworn war upon the United States, its free allies and freedom in Iraq, is another thing.

In short ... Freeeeeeeedom!

You'd think that almost a full year of spoken blunders would take the edge off his blade.  You'd think wrong.  Here is Walberg, less than a month ago, talking about the mortgage crisis:

When you make a law like this — politically posturing on the basis of probably no more than the 10% or 15% of the loans that were made were fraudulent and took advantage of people, and the rest were good — it moves away from necessity to pure political gotcha.

You could make stuff like this up, but it's more fun when you don't have to.  Walberg's solution?  From the same article:

I think the market always works when we let it.

In short ... Freeeeeeeedom!

I imagine that arguing that the same open and unregulated market that gave us predatory lending is the key to solving same-said predatory lending makes his Club for Growth bagmen very happy.

Aside from curious statements that freedom-loving Iraqis are overwhelmingly members of a religion that celebrates a holiday Walberg thinks shouldn't be recognized by the U.S. Congress, and that it's perfectly acceptable that 10-15 percent of home loans are fraudulent, there are also some very strange votes ... like Walberg's vote against reauthorizing Headstart. 

It also makes other people very happy ... anyone who wants to see him bounced from office.  The Cook Report last week listed the race as "Lean Republican."  Mind you, this is a seat that should be safe.  Considering that in 2006, Walberg was lucky to have beaten an underfunded turkey farmer, I think maybe The Cook Report is being a bit generous.

Currently, two Democrats have their hats in the ring to face Walberg come November.  The turkey farmer is back, and although she nearly beat Walberg last year and the idea of sending a turkey farmer to Congress is deeply amusing, I assume that come the primary she'll get steamrolled by state Sen. Mark Schauer.

A quick note ... there has yet to be an official policy on Michigan Liberal endorsements hammered out, and I'm not so keen on endorsing people who give us money for obvious reasons.  Schauer is a member, but we've been saying nice things about him for months, and as far as I'm concerned he has our enthusiastic support, if not an unofficial Michigan Liberal endorsement.