D'oh! Senate GOP staffers wince at Simpsons SCHIP 'joke'

Perhaps Friday afternoon boredom got the best of some House Republican staffers, or maybe whoever wrote this press release just came off an 18-hour Simpsons marathon.

Whatever the case, the use of fictional Springfield's Montgomery Burns and Mayor Joe Quimby to sell GOP talking points on a critical healthcare bill is being panned in the blogosphere. Even some Republican staffers on the other side of Capitol Hill winced at the stilted Simpsons joke.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee minority staff imagined a fictional press conference featuring "Republican businessman" Burns and Quimby, "D-Springfield," supporting the "Senate's gazillion-dollar SCHIP bill." (Congress and President Bush are fighting over the reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program.)

"Somehow they managed to look bitter instead of funny," one Senate GOP aide told Roll Call's Heard on the Hill column. That took a lot of talent.

Wonkette called the GOP attempt a humor a "mindfuck of a press release," and Ryan Powers, blogging at The Body Politik, said the satire has "absolutely no basis in reality."

The GOP release also took some pot-shots at MoveOn.org, a favorite GOP target, and it included a disclaimer in case anyone would confuse the yellow-hued Springfieldians for actual politicians.

"*Actual facts and events may vary," it says, "but really, how much?"



