Defining Dickensian

In the spirit of the season, I’d like to pay homage to one of my favorite holiday tales.

Are there no poor houses? Are there no janitorial positions at the local schools?

There is truly no one in the leadership of the GOP who can pull off the “Insufferable Rich Asshole”  bit quite like Newt Gingrich.

“Start with the following two facts: really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working, and have nobody around them who works. So literally they have no habit of showing up on Monday. They have no habit of staying all day. They have no habit of “I do this, and you give me cash.” Unless it’s illegal.

And so I come around to this question: You have a very poor neighborhood. You have kids who are required under law to go to school. They have no money, they have no habit of work. What if you paid them part-time in the afternoon to sit at the clerical office and greet people when they came in? What if you paid them to work as the assistant librarian? What if, and I’d pay them as early as is reasonable and practical. OK? What if you, and and let me get to the janitor thing. And I get, these letters are written that say janitorial work is really hard and really dangerous and it’s this and that. OK, fine. So what if they became assistant janitors, and their job was to mop the floor and clean the bathroom? And you paid them?”

This is becoming a plank issue for Newt.  He really wants to repeal the twentieth century… bad.

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My apologies to the incredible George C. Scott, who’s portrayal of Ebenezer Scrooge will always be my favorite.