I received a call today from my good friend Congressman Tom DeLay. You might recall that I had some correspondance with him a while back. Apparently Congressman DeLay is so impressed with me that he's decided to give me a National Leadership Award.
Well, I think I'm a pretty good guy and all that, but I didn't really think I was deserving of an award for leadership. I thought it was a scam right away. However, the person in my office who took the call was very curious. I bet her a dime that it was a fundraising scam. She got on the phone while I jumped onto the internet to do a search for "National Leadership Award".
The most informative page on this phony baloney award is here. There are several sites discussing this award. They can be found by going here. It turns out that in order to get the "award" you are asked to pay some money to cover the cost of publicizing it.
Although I've never officially declared myself as a Republican - I could probably be considered one. I've only voted for one Democrat (it was in a local election and I'm sorry I'll never do it again - I promise!) in my entire life. My political views definitely run at least a little to the right of center. If this makes me angry, what must it do to someone who is uncommitted to a political party or to a Democrat?
Obviously, Congressman DeLay is in league with the Democrats. He's using these sneaky, sleezy fundraising tactics in an effort to make people angry and cause them to vote for Democrats instead! Or... it could be that he and his ilk are monumentally stupid and are engaged in a moronic attempt at fundraising. I'm not sure which option bothers me more. I'm definitely going to write to someone and complain. Either that or someone better cough up a National Leadership Award - gratis.
By the way, I won the bet and received a shiny new dime so I guess something good happened afterall.