Much more entertaining than Time’s 100 Most Influential People list is its 100 Least Influential — juvenilely titled the “Bum Hundred.”
And that’s only partly because it contains a handful of TPMmuckraker favorites. For instance:
Bertha Lewis — President of ACORN I didn’t follow this controversy at all, but I know ACORN doesn’t exist anymore
And:
Michael Steele — RNC chairman
After his lavish spending and criticizing of Rush Limbaugh — Rush Limbaugh! — many in the party are trying to get rid of him. Even though that would mean losing his blog on GOP.com, which, though now untitled, used to be called What Up?
And:
Roland Burris — Senator
Still a Senator!
And:
David Paterson — New York governor
A year after Eliot Spitzer got caught with a hooker, and everyone likes Spitzer better. The President flew to meet you just to tell you to give up the governor’s race. And you said no. Now you literally have less power in the party than Spitzer.
And:
Tom DeLay — Former Congressman
Not sure what kind of career he was trying to jump-start by appearing on Dancing with the Stars, but camp-loving gay men don’t like a quitter.
And:
Eric Massa — Ex-Congressman
It’s hard to be influential when you have no clue how the world works. You don’t explain how ungay you are by saying you were just having tickle fights with the guys you live with, like you did when you were in the Navy. Liberace was more subtle.
And:
Mark Sanford — Governor of South Carolina
Before he “hiked the Appalachian Trail” with an Argentine journalist, the still sitting governor of South Carolina was a top contender for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. Now he’s going to enter the private sector. A sector so private, a man can go on a fake hiking trip alone and no one will care.
And:
Bernie Madoff — Wall Street fraudster, prisoner No. 61727-054
Prisoners won’t even invest their cigarettes with him.
And:
Joe Cassano — Former AIG exec
Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi named him “patient zero” of the global economic meltdown. TIME magazine’s Joel Stein called him “a big fat nunny pants.” One of those is going to stick.
And:
Jim Gibbons — Governor of Nevada
He had a 10% approval rating. He had too many scandals for Nevada to handle.
And:
John Ensign — Nevada Senator
His sex scandal is so confusing — he gave a job to the husband of the woman he was cheating on his wife with (I think) — that it’s taking forever for him to be thrown out of office.
And even:
Jack Abramoff — Lobbyist
He is in prison only until December, so it’s got to be hard organizing long-term sports gambling there.
We were surprised not to see our old friend Blago on the list. Maybe Time thinks he’s still got some juice.
Facebook Conversations
Questions about commenting with non-Facebook accounts like Yahoo, or other concerns? Click here to read the TPM Commenting FAQ.