Republicans Blame Obama For Shutdown of Memorial

Republicans have truly sunk to a new low. In desperately trying to avert the blame of the shutdown that they, you know, caused, House members are trotting out veterans in wheelchairs.

Here’s what happened:

As per the government shutdown, all national parks and public museums are closed. This includes monuments and such on our National Mall, everything from the Lincoln Memorial to the Smithsonian.

Regardless of the shutdown, Honor Flights continues to bring in World War II veterans to Washington, D.C. Since 2007, Honor Flights has been providing free transportation to our nation’s capital so that aging veterans might see the memorial that honors their sacrifice. Tuesday morning, they arrived to find the memorial barricaded off. Smelling a photo op, House Republicans scurried down to greet the veterans and help them bypass the barricades.

Watch the nauseating display here:

Sadly, having endured the worst of the depression and saving us from the evils of the Third Reich, veterans now have to deal with Congresswoman Michele Bachmann. Bachmann, making a huge display of moving one four-foot-high metal railing, greeted one veteran with, “They’re not going to arrest you brother! They have to get through me first.” To which that veterans replied, “Would you shut the f*&%* up please. This isn’t about you.” Well, only half of that is true. That veteran had to be thinking it, though.

Smelling more fodder for her Facebook page, Sarah Palin, the Great White North’s answer to nothing, had to weigh in with the following dribble:

“My Call For Civil Disobedience Around The ‘Barrycades’: It’s beyond shameful to see Barack Obama disrespect and mistreat our World War II veterans so blatantly. Obama’s political stunt to ‘shut down’ their memorial by barricade is to elicit an angry response to generate bad publicity for people the president uses in his continual blame game.”

Let’s all take a moment to collectively roll our eyes. “Barrycades.” Do you see what she did there? Also, it didn’t take long for Palin to connect the goings-on at the World War II memorial with the attack on our diplomatic mission in Benghazi in September of 2012, since the two events are so clearly connected. She noted that Obama “deployed more guards to bar our World War II heroes from their memorial than he sent to Benghazi when our consulate was under attack.” The Republicans . . . still trying to make Benghazi happen.

But, when it comes to grandstanding and showy stunts, the top prize goes to Congressman Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas, it’s always Texas). At the memorial, he confronted a park ranger, telling her that she should be ashamed of herself for closing down the memorial due to the shutdown his party caused. Watch that here:

Fittingly, a veteran came to her defense. Saying that the woman was just doing her job. The congressman was quickly ushered away.

I fear the grandstanding has just begun. And really it’s not about veterans or monuments at all, but trying to place the blame for the shutdown elsewhere besides the Tea Party-dominated House.