GOP member who claimed Bloomberg’s daughter is in danger has history of exploiting children

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GOP attack-drone Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ) is in the news today after hilariously telling Mike Bloomberg–THE RICHEST MAN IN TOWN–that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, or maybe just some other Muslim super-genius, was going to kidnap Bloomberg’s daughter after he and his buddies are brought to New York City to stand trial.  TPM reports: 

“On the House floor last night, Media Matters points out, Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ) made his case against holding trials for 9/11 suspects in New York City, directing a question to Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

“I saw the mayor of New York said today, ‘We’re tough. We can do it.’ Well, Mayor, how are you going to feel when it’s your daughter that’s kidnapped at school by a terrorist?” Shadegg said.”

There’s an easy answer to that question: “Bad.” 

There’s a slightly more complicated, but I think more appropriate, answer to Shadegg’s intelligent question as well.  That response goes like this: “What smells like poop and is named John Shadegg?  Um, wait, gimme a minute…oh!  I remember!  Poopy-pants Shadegg!  Why you talkin’ ’bout my daughter Poopy-pants!?”

That is, in my opinion, the response that Poopy-pants Shadegg deserves for engaging in such idiotic fear-mongering.  Poopy-pants Shadegg acts as though the 9/11 trial in NYC is the first example in human history of a suspected terrorist being tried in a major/capital city.  As Glenn Greenwald wrote recently,

“People in capitals all over the world have hosted trials of high-level terrorist suspects using their normal justice system.  They didn’t allow fear to drive them to build island-prisons or create special commissions to depart from their rules of justice.  Spain held an open trial in Madrid for the individuals accused of that country’s 2004 train bombings.  The British put those accused of perpetrating the London subway bombings on trial right in their normal courthouse in London.  Indonesia gave public trials using standard court procedures to the individuals who bombed a nightclub in Bali.  India used a Mumbai courtroom to try the sole surviving terrorist who participated in the 2008 massacre of hundreds of residents.”

There’s really nothing else to say about Shadegg’s quote, but it is worth noting that fantasizing about Bloomberg’s daughter getting kidnapped isn’t the first time he has exploited a child in a kind of creepy way. 

Back in February he kidnapped his chief-of-staff’s 7-month-old daughter, whom he referred to as “Maddie,” so he could parade her around as a prop on the House floor.  Though ultimately harmless, the charade does feel a bit unseemly. 

Notice also how Maddie tries to move the microphone away from her captor at about :50 min mark.  Smart kid.