The Popcorn Stand: Clown wants to join clowns in Congress

When people in South Carolina’s 5th District talk about this clown running for Congress, they mean it literally.

A former Ringling Bros. circus clown, Steve Lough, is running as a Democrat for South Carolina’s 5th District seat in the U.S. Congress and of course he says he’s doing it because he wants to join the rest of the “clowns” in Congress.

Reminds me of that episode of “The Simpsons” when the station manager threatens to fire two DJs and demonstrates what will replace them with a recording from an automated machine that says:

“Those clowns in Congress, what a bunch of clowns.” “How does it keep up with the current events like that,” the one DJ asks. “Don’t praise the machine,” the other DJ says.

But Lough wants to leave one circus of clowns for another as he puts it.

“They joke that the president and Congress are all clowns,” Lough said. “Well, in my professional opinion, they are the worst clowns I’ve ever seen.”

As I’ve written before I can take or leave clowns and can never figure out why clowns are supposed to be so funny. Except Krusty the Clown when he bet on the Washington Generals to beat the Harlem Globetrotters.

And I’ve never thought of people who serve in Congress as a bunch of clowns. I may disagree with them and they’re probably too beholden to special interests and money — MONEY — and yes they generally don’t get a whole lot done. But I do think most of them at least are trying to serve us, are good, hard-working folks just like us trying to do the best they can under difficult circumstances.

And while we decry how bad Congress is, most of us are pretty pleased with our own Congress members as somehow they tend to be able to get re-elected.

Not bad for a bunch of clowns.

— Charles Whisnand