Bad news for Ben Cline: per Louise Lucas, the 10-1 congressional map is the only one that the State Senate has the votes to pass.
This will mean that Cline, the MAGA who is on the back half of his fourth term representing the Sixth District in Congress, is about to be gerrymandered into being a MAGA former congressman.
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Actually, that’s not such bad news for Cline: former congressmen stand to make a lot more money than the paltry $174,000 a year we currently pay our current congressmen to work three days a week, in between all those long vacations that they call “district work periods.”
Even the only decently connected ones can easily double what they made in Congress, and the good ones can make millions.
Cline will be on the lower end of that scale.
I can see him maybe getting a weekend show on MyPillowTV, but not much else.
Anyway, poor Bennie, not so poor Bennie, whatever.
Cline, who doesn’t like town halls that might expose him to people outside the MAGA orbit, spoke at a religious extremist event held in Staunton last week, and tried to make the point that he shouldn’t be gerrymandered out of his seat.
“Given the communities of interest, the Shenandoah Valley ought to be represented in Congress, Roanoke Valley ought to be represented in Congress,” said Cline, at an event hosted by a group that calls itself City Elders.
This is per reporting from The News Leader.
I’m not getting up early for breakfast with a bunch of far-right religious zealots, though, according to the Leader, former Waynesboro Vice Mayor Jim Wood, the guy who called former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg “Pete Buttplug,” earning himself and the city national headlines, was there.
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Also there, per the Leader: “Augusta County Sheriff Donald Smith alongside many on-duty officers from his office.”
This is where I’ll remind you of how these City Elders describe themselves:
We are a national network of elders charged with the mission of governing the gates of every city in America to establish the Kingdom of God with strength, honor, and courage.
Governing the city gates is the Biblical model of City Governance.
City Elders are spiritual, political, and business leaders who have joined together in the Abrahamic Covenant within the towns, cities, and states to do accomplish the following:
- Establish righteousness in governance spiritual, civil, and economic systems.
- Draft civil laws which reflect and uphold Biblical values and Judeo-ecclesia ethics.
- Protect those vulnerable, innocent, and disenfranchised.
- Promote the principles and protocols of God’s Kingdom.
- Glorify God through the Lordship of His Son, Jesus Christ, and our High Priest.
Comes across as cultish to me.
I mean, “our High Priest”?
I’d advise staying away from the cooler full of Kool-Aid at the end of the buffet table, if you catch my drift there.
Anyway, so, our congressman, Ben Cline, hangs out with these folks, and we can guess, based on how these people view the world, that he thinks it’s his god-given right to continue to represent the Sixth District as was drawn for us by a judge, because Republicans in the General Assembly mucked up the supposed nonpartisan approach, because of course they did.
I’m not sure what Cline is trying to say there – that “(g)iven the communities of interest, the Shenandoah Valley ought to be represented in Congress, Roanoke Valley ought to be represented in Congress.”
Beth Macy, who I’ve got as the favorite to be the Democratic Party nominee out our way, lives in Roanoke.
The 10-1 map that Lucas referenced on her socials this morning continues to link the Roanoke Valley and the Shenandoah Valley.
That map also puts Staunton, Waynesboro and Harrisonburg into a district with Charlottesville and Albemarle.
If Ben Cline thinks Staunton, Waynesboro, Harrisonburg, Charlottesville and Albemarle aren’t communities of interest, well, that’s yet another sign that he shouldn’t be representing us in Congress.
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The economies of Staunton, Waynesboro, Harrisonburg, Charlottesville and Albemarle are interconnected, have been for years.
I wouldn’t expect Ben Cline to get that, because he’s not from here; he lives down in Botetourt County, and can’t be bothered to stop by, unless it’s to talk with the zealots.
“Shenandoah Valley is a way of life. It’s a community. It’s a way of thinking. It’s church on Sunday, work on Monday, families coming together, helping each other out, and we got to fight to keep that going,” Cline said.
Good news for those who want that: the 10-1 map still puts a big ol’ slice of Augusta County into a Republican district, stretching from west of Staunton all the way down to the Tri-Cities.
Ben Cline can challenge Morgan Griffith for the MAGA nomination for that seat, and keep his cushy job in DC.
Or he can put up a fight against Beth Macy here in our district, though, gotta say, while it won’t be impossible for a Republican to win in a leans-D congressional district, I don’t know that I’d recommend running a loyal Trumper who says dumbass things like this, about the ongoing Trump-induced chaos in Minnesota:
“There is action going on in Minnesota that is attempting to interfere with law enforcement as it seeks to perform that duty. They are violent actions. They are organized, and, in many cases, paid to interfere with law enforcement,” Cline told City Elders.
ICYMI
- ICE agent shoots, kills unarmed protestor in Minneapolis: Trump administration spins
- Trump regime thugs execute another anti-ICE protestor in Minnesota
Just saying it here: Cline serves on the House Judiciary Committee.
The MAGAs in Congress like to say the people protesting the Trump regime are “paid,” conveniently ignoring how, hey, we pay them $174,000 a year, plus damn good benefits.
Seriously, pot, meet kettle.
Not a one of the paid MAGAs in Congress has produced a single shred of evidence of a single payment to even one person engaged in a protest of the Trump regime to back up their claims.
Now, really, if this was actually going on, if people were actually being paid by somebody to protest, don’t you think we’d have seen even a single receipt by now?
Like, for example, how we saw the online ads offering to pay people to attend a screening of “Melania” for its premiere weekend?
If Cline has receipts, why hasn’t he produced them?
He sits on the friggin’ Judiciary Committee, for chrissakes.
Produce a receipt for us, Ben, or shut up.
Better yet, save it, for your debut Saturday 4 a.m. hour on MyPillowTV next January.