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Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press

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Smoky Joe Barton, congressvarmint from Texas, got his name because he’s a playtoy of big oil and coal.

In the Pruitt hearing today, he felt real sorry for his hero, Scott Pruitt, because Pruitt was a victim of politics.  And then Smoky Joe said he’s not for too much clean air.  He told Pruitt —

“You got picked to be the EPA administrator because of the service you provided for the great state of Oklahoma in fighting some of the Obama administration radical clean air policies.”

Yeah, too much clean air is a radical idea.

Then poor ole Joe asks this:

“You’ve been attacked for flying first class,” Barton explained. “Is that illegal?”

“That was approved by the travel office and security team at the EPA,” Pruitt replied.

Joe, nobody said it was illegal.  It’s wasteful of taxpayer money, cocky, entitled, and incredibly stoopid, but not illegal.

Watch out, Louie Gohmert, somebody is chasing you.

Trump went on Fox and Frends this morning and screwed himself.  Even when they tried to cut him off because it was really obvious that he was screwing himself right there on national teevee, he continued to hump his own leg.

Trump starts off by explaining that Cohen only represents a small portion of his legal work.  That right there is a problem.

The problem is that Trump’s claim that Cohen only deals with a small part of his legal work dramatically complicates his lawyers’ efforts to shield documents seized in FBI raids under the guise of “attorney-client privilege.”

And Trump also admitted that Cohen did, in fact, handle the Stormy Daniels case.

The president admitted on Thursday that Cohen did work on his behalf to reach a nondisclosure agreement with Daniels, who was paid $130,000 just before the 2016 presidential election.

“Like with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal, he represented me and you know, from what I see, he did absolutely nothing wrong,” Trump said.

Okay, so this means that Cohen wasn’t acting on his own?  Well, there ya go.

Let’s hope he’s invited back soon.

I’m screaming at my teevee because I want to watch the Scott Pruitt hearings.  CNN is cutting in and out.  MSNBC is, too.  CSPAN is covering another hearing.

I have only one question for Scott Pruitt:  Who the hell do you think you are?

Best I can figure so far, he’s the Queen of Damn America.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has taken a tough stand against his fellow Republican Blake Farenthold.

Greg thinks Blake ought to pay back the $84,000 he scammed from the federal government, but … and here’s the grandstanding … Greg thinks Blake should give the $84,000 to Texas, not the federal government.

Do you want to know Greg’s reasoning?  Greg contends that Blake should pay for the special election that Greg called to replace him until November when there’s a regular election.

The only problem with that is that the Governor did not have to call a special election.  The Governor chose to have one solely to give Republicans one more vote in Congress between now and November, which they sure the hell don’t need in the first place.

So, the way I see it, Blake owes the federal government $84,000 and the State of Texas about a million for the special election.  And, hey, Greg Abbott should help pay for that, too.  He’s the one who wanted this damn thing.

Republicans:  we’re gonna get your money any damn way we can.

Okay, let’s drag our unwilling minds to the Pennsylvania state legislature.

Republican lawmaker Daryl Metcalfe just called a fellow legislator a “lying homosexual.”

He tells The Associated Press that he mentioned the sexual orientation of Democratic Rep. Brian Sims of Philadelphia because Sims has spoken openly about being gay, and because he believes it is “immoral behavior.”

It should be noted that Metcalfe recently “accosted another state lawmaker for repeatedly touching his arm, and suggested the man might be gay.”

Now the reason I’m bringing this up is because this story was printed in the Lufkin Daily News, which is in Louie Gohmert’s district.  I don’t think the newspaper should be giving Louie any ideas.  He’s doing just fine being a jerk all on his own.

I do have a thought, though.  I do not think that Daryl Metcalfe is gay.  But I think he wants to be.