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Senator Jim Bunning Throws Beanball at America’s Unemployed

February 26, 2010 Mason Lerner

bunning 214x300 Senator Jim Bunning Throws Beanball at Americas Unemployed

A lot of people don’t know that Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY) was a Hall of Fame pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies.

But now just about everybody knows he’s a jerk.

TheHuffingtonPost.com and Politico.com reported extensively today on Bunning’s antics to single-handedly insure the Senate would recess for the weekend before taking action toward extending unemployment benefits for those in need.

According to Ms. Huffington’s Post:

“As Democratic senators asked again and again for unanimous consent for a vote on a 30-day extension Thursday night, Bunning refused to go along.

And when Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) begged him to drop his objection, Politico reports, Bunning replied: ‘Tough shit.’”

SportsChat is not taking sides in this debate. But given the fact Bunning was the sole Republican objecting to the proceedings, throwing in a “Tough Shit” really seems like a 90 mile per-hour bean ball to the collective nads of out of work Americans.

The most SportsChatalicious part is that Senator Bunning complained that just talking about helping unemployed Americans was getting in the way of him watching a basketball game.

“‘I have missed the Kentucky-South Carolina game that started at 9:00,’ he said,
‘and it’s the only redeeming chance we had to beat South Carolina since they’re the only team that has beat Kentucky this year.’”

SportsChat remembers flipping through the Guinness Book of World Records as a kid in the elementary school library and reading about a millionaire so miserly she chose to allow her son to have his arm amputated (Note: Could have been a leg. It’s been a while) rather than paying for a curative surgery.

Jim Bunning has now replaced her in SportsChat’s mind as the poster-child for heartlessness.

Don’t get SportsChat wrong. We understand how annoying it can be when a scheduling conflict causes one to miss a game they very badly want to see. And even more so, it is easy to understand why any college hoops fans would be excited to see DeMarcus Cousins square off against Devan Downey (although the game itself was a predictably lopsided Kentucky win).

So in the spirit of brotherhood, SportsChat would like to pass on to Senator Bunning the words of wisdom SportsChat’s mom passed on to him when he said he wanted to skip his high school graduation to watch game six of the Knicks/Pacers NBA Eastern Conference Finals back in 1994:

Tough shit.

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Terry

I am really upset with both Reid and Bunning. Why not just get this extension done today using the available stimulus money than worry about getting the funding back for the stimulus later next week or the week after? This is much more time critical. I am wondering if the Democrats also did not want this to pass since they could have easily accessed the money from the stimulus and didn’t even make anyone in the Senate stick around last night, today or this weekend. I am voting for all INDEPENDENTS come November!
Donde Groovily

Terry, I’m not so sure that stimulus money can be diverted like that, and even if so, it still would require some kind of vote that Bunning could have still held up.
Terry

Donde, I was talking out of frustration in my earlier post. I have always been a diehard Democrat and will vote for them in November but am just very upset about the situation. Just wish Reid would have passes this extension with any type of available funding today and worry about other things later. Also not sure why Reid didn’t make the Senate stay open 24/7 until they got this done. Thanks again for your feedback and insight.
Blonnie

Dear Terry,
Fear not the Democrats did fight for it all night. Read more on the news.
Hank

Bunning spokesman Mike Reynard said the senator believes that the bill’s provisions are important but that the Senate should not abandon its commitment to pay-as-you-go principles weeks after adopting them. He said Bunning offered alternatives, including using unspent funds from last year’s $862 billion economic stimulus package, to cover the cost of the jobs package, but could not reach agreement with Democratic leaders.

“Senator Bunning supports this bill. He believes it is essential that it should pass. But the bill must be paid for,” Reynard said. “If we can’t find $10 billion to pay for something that all 100 senators support, we will never pay for anything.”
Wut

Gimme fricken break you morons! Reid doesn’t need a repub to pass squat! To blame this on an R is stupid. How many dems didn’t vote for it. You are the typical left wing nuts that have driven your party into the crapper and now you want to blame the R’s? As bugs would say, “What a bunch of maroons!”
michelle

Oh its okay to bail out the banks and wall street, but not Americas working class, what a crock of shit.
yojuran

As I thought … along with his own very nice pension, really nice healthcare package and all kinds of goodies, the Senator has seen to it that he’s well taken care of these days:

From McClatchy Newspapers

“‘… For now, Bunning is mum on the future of his campaign coffer. In a statement, his aides would only say that “the campaign is working with the Federal Election Commission to ensure that all funds are handled in accordance with FEC law.”

Bunning can’t, however, channel money to the nonprofit Jim Bunning Foundation and then draw a salary from those funds, Toner said. Bunning set up the charitable foundation in 1996, the year he entered baseball’s Hall of Fame. Every year since, he has been the fund’s biggest recipient.’”