Weird Congress

I was going to write about how Texas seems to have more than its share of off-the-wall politicians, but additional research showed that my first impression was wrong. (The resulting post here.) Nonetheless, the pursuit of knowledge has many rewards! As part of my research, I decided to search for lists of the worst members of Congress.

In accordance with the charge that the internet is biased, my discoveries list more incredibly bad GOP members of Congress than Democrats. Bearing that bias in mind, let's look at the carnival of congressional jerks:

• The Daily Beast nominated House members who shouldn't be returned to the House in Nov. 2012. Alas, five of eight are back in the House.
• The Nation highlights the terrible-ten lawmakers who've managed to avoid publicity. Well, most of them have avoided publicity. The perennial favorite Louie Gohmert, always a top suspect for crazy quotes and ideas, makes this list.
• The most referenced article is from Esquire, dating from 2010. It deserves the attention because it doesn't just focus only on congress critters with bizarre delusions, but also covers the most disappointing and the most sanctimonious.
• My favorite article is illustrated with some wicked cartoons of the ignominious ten. It justifies the selections with juicy anecdotes. 

I was truly disappointed not to find a conservative-flavored list. Searching deeper into the Google results, I found a few other lists worth noting:

• The most corrupt.
• The most partisan.
• The representatives who should be much more conservative in order to match their districts.

Still no luck finding a conservative list of the worst of Congress. If you have that hankering (and I did), you'll have to settle for Town Hall's list of worst liberal quotes. What a disappointment that conservatives as a group or a movement can't put together a better list than that.

Image: citypages.com