Things took an astronomical turn for the worse on X, formerly Twitter, when critics began teasing Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee about her remarks at an event. Lee took to the social media platform to defend herself saying she misspoke when she referred to the moon as being made “mostly of gases.”
“Obviously, I misspoke and meant to say the sun, but as usual, Republicans are focused on stupid things instead of stuff that really matters,” Lee wrote on X. “What can I say though, foolish thinkers lust for stupidity.”
In a video on X that’s been viewed nearly 600,000 times, Lee said “sometimes, you’ve heard the word full moon. Sometimes, you need to take the opportunity to just come out and see a full moon — it’s that complete rounded circle which is made up mostly of gases.”
She went on to say “that’s why the question is why or how could we as humans live on the moon — the gas is such that we could do that.”
After discussing the moon, Lee dived into another part of the solar system — the sun.
“The sun is a mighty powerful heat, but it’s almost impossible to go near the sun,” she said. “The moon is more manageable and you will see in a couple years that NASA is going back to the moon.”
Sheila Jackson Lee steps down from two powerful posts — but not from Congress
WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, is stepping down from her two most powerful roles within congressional and House Democratic circles.
The 13-term congresswoman will no longer serve as the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s board chairwoman and will temporarily step aside from her position as chair on the Judiciary Committee’s crime, terrorism, homeland security and investigations subcommittee, according to the New York Times.
t issue is her spring 2018 termination of a staffer known in court filings as “Jane Doe,” who alleged that a supervising CBCF staffer raped her in 2015 when she was an intern for the foundation.
Doe later went to work for Jackson Lee and claims that she informed the congresswoman’s chief of staff that she planned to pursue legal action against the CBCF staffer and was fired several weeks later, according to BuzzFeed News — which first reported last week that the woman was suing Jackson Lee’s office and the CBCF over the matter.
The report threw Jackson Lee’s status within the House Democratic world into doubt, and several reports have since surfaced stating that CBCF officials pushed to remove her from that post.
Efforts for reparations:
Those of the congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee on the federal level to move out of the judiciary committee a bill calling for the creation of a commission to study reparations proposals.
How does Sheila Jackson Lee keep getting elected?
November 6, 2014
Another election cycle, another victory for the Congresswoman from the 18th District, Sheila Jackson Lee. How in the world does she do it?
Let’s start with some background on Jackson Lee (SJL). She was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994, which means she will begin her 11th term in January. She will have served 22 years in Washington, D.C., once this term expires. If you think that’s a long time, John Dingell has represented constituents in Michigan since 1955 (59 years). John Conyers, who almost got knocked off the ballot this year, has been there for 49 years, and Charles Rangel has been there for 43 years. By those comparisons, SJL has plenty left in her tank.
And why wouldn’t she keep running? She earns a yearly salary of $174,000, and according to a Washington Post story, her personal wealth has increased 488 percent since 2004. In the last decade, financial reports indicate SJL’s personal net worth is somewhere around $935,000.
Some of SJL’s wealth can be attributed to her husband’s good job, as well. Dr. Elwyn Lee is the vice president for community relations and institutional access at the University of Houston, which isn’t the job of a slouch by any measure.
And speaking of success, SJL’s children seem to be creating a legacy all their own. Her son, Jason Cornelius Bennett Lee, is a graduate of Harvard University, and her daughter, Erica Lee, graduated from Duke University.
But enough of the biography. How in the world does SJL keep getting elected to Congress?
Here’s my problem, and the reason for the question many of us ask every two years: SJL, when you cut away all the fluff, might be considered one of the most embarrassing U.S. Representatives in the entire country.
That is not an accusation by me.
That is a fact, based on way too many humiliating comments she has made.
In 1997, SJL took a trip to see the Mars Pathfinder operations center in California, where she foolishly asked if the Pathfinder was successful in taking a picture of the flag planted on Mars by Neil Armstrong in 1969.
Confusing the moon and Mars was one thing.
What made matters worse was our esteemed Congresswoman served on the House Science Committee at the time. Wow.
There are so many of these inane and, frankly, uneducated comments that it’s hard to pick just a few. I’ll certainly try.
Earlier this year, she jumped on Republicans threatening to introduce a bill of impeachment against President Obama.
“We did not seek an impeachment of President Bush because, as an executive, he had his authority,” she said.
The problem, of course, was SJL was the 2008 co-sponsor of HR 1258 titled: “Impeaching George W. Bush, President of the United States, of high crimes and misdemeanors.”
In March of this year, SJL gave a talk about the power of the U.S. Constitution. She proudly acknowledged that the document was 400 years old – only about 175 years off base.
In 2010, she compared the war in Afghanistan to the war in Vietnam, as many Democrats did. Her comments (to any semi-educated person) were comedic gold – and, yes, embarrassing to those of us who live in her district.
“Today, we have two Vietnams, side by side, North and South, exchanging and working…”
Maybe she was confused with Korea, but even then the analogy would be appalling. (By the way, South Vietnam hasn’t existed for 40 years.)
OK, we could go on with the stories for another few pages, but what we all really want to know is how she keeps getting re-elected. And when we say re-elected, we mean she wins in a landslide every other year. On Tuesday, she won with 72 percent of the vote. In 2012, she won with 75 percent. In 2010, she won with 70 percent. In fact, in the past 14 years, she’s never dipped below that 70-percent mark.
There are a number of ways to explain how she keeps winning.
The Democrats never run someone serious against her. Personally, I think they enjoy her antics, and when you have someone who can win for 11 straight terms and say some of the senseless things she has said, I can only guess that the Democrats enjoy the comic relief.
Second, the folks who read The Leader are only part of SJL’s Congressional district. She also represents heavily minority areas north of Beltway 8 and east of 45 North toward Highway 59. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are around 740,000 people in her district, and 513,000 of those people are minorities.
The entire purpose of a “representative” U.S. House of Representatives is to elect people who, yes, are representative of the District. Now I would never accuse any resident of District 18 of believing there are two Vietnams, but on the whole, SJL fits the part. As such, she continues to receive the support of the majority of her constituents. Personally, I like a democracy where that happens.
Last, and most important, SJL now has the never-ending power of incumbency. In her two decades in office, she has touched the lives (for better or worse) of thousands and thousands of people, and there is no better example than her interaction with the Harmony Public Schools.
In 2012, Harmony was the recipient of an enormous grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s “Race to the Top” program. Feel free to look up the federal program if you’d like, but it was not without controversy.
When we say “enormous,” we mean Harmony received $30 million in grants, and they were sure to thank SJL for her help in securing the grant.
I decided to go take a look at SJL’s campaign finance reports to see if there was any connection between their giving and the U.S. government’s generosity. You won’t be surprised.
In 2010, two people who listed Harmony Public Schools as their employer donated a total of $2,200 to the SJL campaign. Two years later, for the 2012 election (around the same time this grant was given), 21 people from Harmony donated a total of $32,000 to her campaign. And this year, the number amazingly starts to dwindle again. In the 2014, $13,000 was donated from folks affiliated with Harmony.
There’s no accusation of wrongdoing here, because I’m sure some of the major media would have caught it. But it doesn’t take a member of the House Science Committee to figure out that SJL helped the folks at Harmony and they helped her right back.
On a grander scheme, that’s what incumbency is all about. For every one favor she does, she gets another 100 supporters for life. The power of incumbency is real in our form of government, and Sheila Jackson Lee is Exhibit A. There are a lot of people who complain about her staying power, but I haven’t seen anybody do anything about it.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee: Terror of the skies since 1995
When United booted a paying customer from first class to make room for a member of Congress, the Internet erupted with good and healthy egalitarian outrage. But don’t blame the airline.
The congresswoman in question was Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas. And until she lands on the no-fly list, no airline is safe. Jackson Lee has been terrorizing the skies since coming to Congress in 1995.
The Democrat has developed a reputation for making life hell for any clerk, stewardess, or pilot unwilling or unable to make her three-and-a-half-hour flight anything less than glamorous.
She takes advantage of federal travel perks to book multiple flights (only to cancel at the last minute and at no charge).
She demands an upgrade to premier seats.
She expects, in her words, “to be treated like a queen.”
Sometimes it gets ugly.
For instance, when one peasant of a flight attendant failed to serve the food Jackson Lee requested, the congresswoman went wild. “Don’t you know who I am?” she reportedly shrieked. “I’m Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. Where is my seafood meal? I know it was ordered!”
That inflight incident was in 1998, and Jackson Lee has only increased in seniority since.
She sits on the Committee on Homeland Security and she serves as the ranking member of the subcommittee on transportation security, no doubt, giving her even more sway over the airlines and even more of a reason to feel entitled.
When accused of taking an ill-gotten first-class seat, Jackson Lee was adamant she didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just the way she expects to be treated. “I asked for nothing exceptional or out of the ordinary and received nothing exceptional or out of the ordinary,” the congresswoman said in a statement. Slay queen.
What’s an honest airline to do anyway? Airlines are one of the most regulated industries. Sure, they have an obligation to get passengers from A to B. But they also have a larger obligation to their stockholders. Angering an influential lawmaker doesn’t help the bottom line, and so it just isn’t done.
Of course, it would be nice if business saw everyday citizens and lawmakers the same.
Some goodhearted congressmen like Rep. Ron Estes, R-Kan., who recently insisted on giving up his seats on an overbooked flight to Wichita, bristle at any distinction.
But that’s not the way Washington works.
Quite simply, there are rules for the rulers and rules for the rest of us.
At least one airline tried standing up to Jackson Lee.
After the seafood fiasco, the head of government relations for Continental demanded the congresswoman either shape up or catch a competitor’s flight.
That airline is no more though. At this point, only one group of stockholders can kick the congresswoman out of first class: her constituents.
Those voters can rally together at the ballot box to boot her back to coach. Otherwise Jackson Lee will continue to terrorize the skies.
Washington Examiner
This was Representative Shelia Jackson Lee and her legacy.