It's a stiff competition, but. . .

I have to believe that I have the dumbest "representative" in Congress. That would be our pal Betty McCollum, who is clapping like a harp seal about the Army's decision to pull out of Nascar:

The U.S. Army has announced it is pulling out of NASCAR sponsorships this year, fueling a proposal by Minnesota Democrat Betty McCollum that would ban all military sponsorship of sports.

The Army cited budget concerns in its decision. But it will not head off debate on McCollum’s measure, which targets more than $70 million remaining in the Defense Department’s sports sponsorship programs for auto racing, bass fishing and ultimate fighting.

This has Betty all excited, of course:

"By ending its sponsorship of NASCAR, the Army made the right move to eliminate a wasteful program and protect taxpayer dollars – which has been my goal all along,” McCollum said. “Congress is facing a very difficult budget environment, and I want taxpayer dollars protected – even at the Pentagon. I applaud the Army’s decision to terminate its funding of NASCAR.  The Army now joins the Navy and Marine Corps in terminating its NASCAR partnership.”

If Betty were actually interested in protecting taxpayer dollars, her record would be very different than what it is, but we'll leave that aside for the moment.

The Army, like all branches of the military, has to advertise to gain recruits. The money "saved" by deep-sixing Nascar won't be returned to the treasury or the taxpayers, of course -- it will merely be spent in other ways, on other forms of advertising. Most likely it will be used instead for television ads on football games, so instead of subsidizing auto racing, it will simply be redirected to the television networks instead. This may be an improvement, but I'm not quite sure how. I doubt the Army's ad budget will be going to MSNBC.

I'm personally not a Nascar fan. Back in 2001, I decided that I should give it a try and watched the Daytona 500 in its entirety. My reward for that decision was seeing Dale Earnhardt smack into a wall and die at the end of the race. That was enough for me. Still, a whole lot of people enjoy it and there's no question that racing is a lucrative business -- many, many corporate sponsors see the value in putting their logos on the cars. If the Army thinks it can spend its taxpayer-supplied money better elsewhere, I'm fine with it.

Having said that, I'm certain that Betty McCollum has no clue on how the Army should direct its advertising budget. And I'm equally certain that with the myriad challenges our nation faces, this one is waaaay down the list.

I'm also certain that Tony Hernandez wouldn't waste his time on such nonsense, either.