The Shame of Politicians Acting Like Children

Fools and Horses

Politics can be entertaining.  Or it can be responsible for causing embarrassment to all and sundry.  The end result can be politicians exposed as petty charlatans.  Not a nice picture.  It's the cause of many ending up despising the fools.

Just to show that politician-tomfoolery is not limited to any one country, here are a few examples.  Firstly, in New Zealand the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Trevor Mallard has disgraced himself.  He has abused his office, insofar as the Speaker is supposed to be a neutral referee of parliamentary antics. Instead he has been abusing opposition MP's left, right, and centre.

Here is what New Zealand was shamed by.

The suspension of (MP Nick) Smith follows Mallard kicking out National Party leader Simon Bridges from the House in Question Time yesterday.  Bridges had moaned in response to an answer from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and Mallard accused him of making barnyard-like noises.

Last week Mallard compared Hamilton East MP David Bennett to a primate he had recently seen in Rwanda (a gorilla).  Bridges clashed a second time with Mallard yesterday and was kicked out when Bridges called him "unprofessional".  [NZ Herald]

Mallard has flouted the necessary conventions of Parliament.  He has acted like a thug.

In the United States Democrats are trying to find a reason to impeach Attorney General Bill Barr  because he has declined to release to the Democrats some details in a report, which, were he to release them, would be a breach of the law.  Puleeeze.

For the New York Democrat [Nadler]  to turn around and have his committee vote to hold Bill Barr in contempt is truly bizarre. Barr’s alleged offense is the redactions. But he has made an almost entirely un-redacted report available to top Democrats to review. They have refused to do so, boycotting the further information that they say they so desperately need.

The redactions that Barr can’t undo relate to grand-jury material. These are extremely minor in the obstruction volume — now the most politically relevant part of the report — amounting to a few lines. The notion that they would change anything is absurd, and regardless, the rules written by Congress forbid their release to Congress (something Congress might have considered prior to the onset of this purported crisis). [National Review Online.]

For the maintenance of general wellbeing and sanity, please grow up.