Senate Republicans’ idea to give $100 gas rebate checks to voters has failed to ignite — and has run out of political gas, according to the New York Times.
Conservatives give it a thumbs down. Liberals give it a thumbs down. And the sheer idea of $100 impressing voters has become a laughline. To be sure: $100 is just about enough to fill an SUV once — or pay for a cup of coffee at Starbucks…
The Senate Republican plan to mail $100 checks to voters to ease the burden of high gasoline prices is eliciting more scorn than gratitude from the very people it was intended to help.
Aides for several Republican senators reported a surge of calls and e-mail messages from constituents ridiculing the rebate as a paltry and transparent effort to pander to voters before the midterm elections in November.
“The conservatives think it is socialist bunk, and the liberals think it is conservative trickery,” said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, pointing out that the criticism was coming from across the ideological spectrum.
Angry constituents have asked, “Do you think we are prostitutes? Do you think you can buy us?” said another Republican senator’s aide, who was granted anonymity to openly discuss the feedback because the senator had supported the plan.
How bad is it?
Well, let’s put it to you this way, in boldface: Rush Limbaugh and Fox News‘ Brit Hume have ridiculed it:
Conservative talk radio hosts have been particularly vocal. “What kind of insult is this?” Rush Limbaugh asked on his radio program on Friday. “Instead of buying us off and treating us like we’re a bunch of whores, just solve the problem.” In commentary on Fox News Sunday, Brit Hume called the idea “silly.”
And guess who is staunchly insisting it’s a brilliant idea?
You guessed right: Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (a Presidential hopeful):
Still, Eric Ueland, chief of staff to Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the Republican leader, whose office played a main role in pulling the proposal together, said the rebate was an important short-term step in a broader array of measures that began with last year’s energy bill. Constituents “believe government ought to step up to the plate rather than loll around in the dugout,” Mr. Ueland wrote in an e-mail message on Sunday.
The problem: Ueland feels the proposal means the government won’t “loll.”
But the proposal has caused voters of both parties to “lol.”
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.