You May Be Poor

Rep. Joseph Mitchell (D- Mobile) is one of my favorite legislators. The guy is a straight up comedian. According to Sebastian Kitchen's article "Capitol Beat" Rep. Mitchell did a stand-up routine last week when the Black Caucus filibustered over the removal of sales tax from groceries.

You may be poor ...

When members of the black caucus were filibustering on Thursday, state Rep. Joseph Mitchell, D-Mobile, used a Jeff Foxworthy-style routine to define who poor people are.

"You're poor" if you have jumper cables where a tire is supposed to be, he said, and you are poor if you have to boil water to wash your clothes. If your main source of dental care is a string and a door, "you might be poor," Mitchell continued during the filibuster.

"If you have names for individual rats, rodents and chickens, you're poor," he said.

Mitchell, when he first got to the microphone, apologized for his attire in the chamber. He said he had switched to his gym shoes after he got his feet wet when he had to walk though some puddles outside.

A colleague told Mitchell "if you wear white shoes on the floor of the Alabama Legislature, you're poor."
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What would we do without levity in politics? I think politics would be completekly unbearable without Reps. like Joseph Mitchell.