Sheila Jackson Take a Knee

Sheila Jackson Lee is an incredibly divisive figure, and her long track record of gaffes does her no favors in the eyes of her detractors, especially those of us who see her as an embarrassment to Houston & the state of Texas.

In 1997, while touring the Mars Pathfinder Operations Center in Pasadena, California as a member of the House Committee on Science, Jackson Lee wondered aloud if they were able to get a picture of flag planted on Mars. If the mix-up wasn’t bad enough, her deputy chief of staff doubled down and created an all new controversy by accusing the story’s reporter of racism.

In 2010, as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Jackson Lee inaccurately declared on the House floor that “victory had been achieved” in the Vietnam War and that “we have two Vietnams side by side, north and south.” The unconvincing nature of her explanation, that she simply forgot to add that they are actually just one country only added to the embarrassment.

In 2014, while speaking on the floor, she claimed that “we have lasted some 400 years operating under the US Constitution that clearly defines what is constitutional and what is not.” Disregarding the ignorance of the 400 years claim, her entire statement is patently false. The constitution does not, as she claims, clearly define what is constitutional. That’s exactly why, as we all know from recent confirmation news, that the Supreme Court is so critical.

Sheila Jackson Lee has a lengthy history of being a terrible airline passenger. In 1998, she was reported to have been screaming at the top of her lungs for over a minute, shouting things like “Do you know who I am?” An airline rep was then quoted as saying Jackson Lee “embarrassed the flight attendants and the passengers in first class. And she embarrassed herself,” all because she wasn’t going to get the seafood meal she requested. Just last year another airline incident occurred, prompting an article entitled Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee: Terror of the skies since 1995. A woman complained that she was reportedly bumped from first class to accommodated Jackson Lee, who then accused the woman of racism. The airline apologized. Sheila Jackson Lee did not.

In a certain sense, Sheila Jackson Lee is incredibly similar to Donald J Trump.

“But Jackson Lee's strengths also are her weaknesses. Some staffers and critics say her pace and management style cause staff turnover and prevent her from running an efficient office.” - The Houston Chronicle, 2002.

That sentiment could have just as easily described Trump verbatim. They are also some of the most unapologetic people in politics. Trump’s rare backpedalling of his Russian remarks after the Helsinki summit were nearly identical to Jackson Lee’s Vietnam explanation. They are both incredibly polarizing and divisive politicians.

She is known for a record high staff turnover, and both her staffers and critics alike point out that it has negatively impacted her legislative capabilities. Jackson Lee does only a fraction of the casework of her Houston-area counterparts and all “federal data suggest her constituents pay a price”

Although her personality and management styles have been heavily criticized, my aversion toward her her primarily stems from her aggressively liberal record and her warped interpretation of the constitution. In her early years she “compiled the most liberal voting record in the Texas delegation” and has not shown any sign of letting up. In recent years she has taken every legislative and social stance she can to oppose Trump and the GOP agenda, from her voting record to even kneeling on the floor of the house in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick.

She has consistently voted against tax cuts throughout her career from the Economic Growth and Tex Relief Reconciliation Act (Bush Tax Cuts) to the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 extension passed in 2010 which was signed by Obama. More recently she has voted and spoken out against the Tax Cuts and Jobs Acts and the Protecting Family and Small Business Tax Cuts Act of 2018.

Jackson Lee showed how little she knew about the Constituion when she claimed we’d been living under it for 400 years, but her use of it in defense of her questionable policy positions is arguably even worse. In 2011 she attempted to argue that repealing Obamacare would violate the constitution because it took away Americans’ 5th and 14th amendment rights. The constitution does not require the government to provide health insurance for its citizens.

As good as her intentions may be, her district is still dangerous and impoverished, while she spends her efforts fighting for idiotic international interests like F16 sales to Venezuela and international drug testing in sports. She is a limousine liberal and her behavior invites the extra criticism that her voting record alone would not bring her. Her Trump-like unapologetic approach to these accusations and complaints only serves to make her even more polarizing.