Virginia Foxx: 'Let's Talk About Character!'

Talking Points Memo picks up on some spilled acid from Madam Foxx's recent interview with the Winston-Salem Journal. Democrats have no ideas, sez she, so they talk about character, including, we assume, hers.

Okay. We'll go for that.

Her behavior at the buffet line of life reveals a good deal about character: "All for me, none for you."

That attitude of shoveling everything that's not nailed down into her over-sized pockets and purse and big cloth shoulder bag -- while sneering at everyone else's prospects of getting just a taste from the food bar -- extends itself to her attitude toward health insurance reform: She's got hers, both Medicare and a very generous government health-care plan. But none for you, suckas!

Her line: "There are no Americans who don't have healthcare. Everybody in this country has access to healthcare" (July 24, 2009, in a Capitol Hill press conference).

The woman has been on the government payroll -- local, state, federal -- most of her grown-up life and has not been shy at taking advantage. One might say that guv'mint has been veryvery good to her. Meanwhile, she lectures everyone else sternly: "Getting gouged by predatory credit card interest rates? It's your own fault. Get a different credit card!"

Or this, one of my all-time favorite Foxx quotes: "The worst thing we can do is to get government involved in solving problems" (September 16, 2003, in the NC state Senate's special session on medical malpractice lawsuit reform). That's Foxx in a nutshell: All for me, none for you.

Sez she, "Don't have health insurance, you lazy bum! Go to the Emergency Room, and maybe they'll take care of you. Or put out a collection jar at Smoky Mountain Barbecue. Maybe you'll raise the half-million in $$ you'll need for treatment, a nickel or dime at a time."

That's character, Virginia Foxx-style.