You’ve heard of FreedomWorks.org, right? The ‘grassroots’ site signing up Americans in droves to protest against government at every turn.

I was poking around on their website, and it was what’s in the footer that got my attention:

It’s a little hard to see, but it says:

Never believe it when someone says, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” – Dick Armey

Now, this is just my opinion, but isn’t that just a little incongruous coming from a former member of Congress. He was a former U.S. Representative from Texas’s 26th congressional district (1985–2003) and House Majority Leader (1995–2003). He has had a fair bit of constructing the government as we know it over his years in office.

Mr. Armey has had some less than becoming incidents over the years though:

• Several of his former female economics students went public with stories of his sexually harassing them — harassment allegedly so severe that at least one student transferred to another school. He would later divorce his wife and marry one of his students.

• In 1995 Armey referred to openly homosexual Congressman Barney Frank, as “Barney Fag”. Armey said it was a slip of the tongue.

• In August 2009 Armey was asked to step down from his lobbying position at DLA Piper, which was doing lobbying work for the pharmaceutical industry to pass health care reform legislation. Armey was simultaneously chairing the conservative group FreedomWorks which was actively working to defeat health care reform by encouraging and organizing high conservative turnouts at congressional and senatorial town hall meetings. DLA Piper was concerned about the conflict of interest particularly since their clients were spending millions in advertising and lobbying money to support the passage of health care reform and FreedomWorks was linked to demonstrations at town hall forums where health care reform was being discussed.

But it’s that statement in the footer of the website that really gets to me. Sure, our government has its issues. Each administration brings its own baggage along as well.

He isn’t saying “I’m from the Obama Administration, and I’m hear to help.” He isn’t saying “I’m from the Veterans Administration, and I’m hear to help.”

At least you could say he was protesting against a certain part of the government.

He is saying “Never believe it when someone says, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

That statement just seems to me to be, well, Anti-American.

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