Article:

House Republican Joe Walsh, a Tea Party favorite from Illinois, will not be attending President Barack Obama's Sept. 8 jobs speech, the Chicago Tribune reports. 
  
 “I don’t see the point of being a prop for another of the president’s speeches asking for more failed stimulus spending and more subsidies for his pet projects," he said in a statement issued Thursday. 
  
 Walsh, a member of the House Small Business Committee, will instead be hosting a small business forum in Illinois. He said he opposes Obama's eagerness to give another major jobs speech before meeting with more constituents. 
  
 “The president needs to stop the speeches, get out of his office and away from all the White House academics and start talking to real people out there," Walsh said. "They’re the ones who are going to create the jobs, not White House paper-pushers and bureaucrats.” 
  
 Walsh's comments come after Obama embarked on a three-day bus tour through the Midwest to speak with citizens about jobs and the economy. Obama stopped in Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois, hosting town halls and addressing constituents' concerns about the nation's debt and high unemployment rate. 
  
 Walsh also criticized the president and his jobs plan earlier this week, according to the Northwest Herald. He called Obama "idiotic" while speaking to a group of voters in Illinois on August 31. 
  
 “How idiotic is this president?” Walsh said. “I don’t want to be disrespectful, but he’s going to bring forth a jobs plan next week. Think about that for a minute. He’s been in office for three years. He’s destroyed job creation systematically for three years.” 
  
 Walsh plans to return to Washington Friday morning after the speech. ||||| Walsh calls Obama ‘idiotic’ 
  
 PRAIRIE GROVE – Congressman Joe Walsh, once again, didn’t mince words about his thoughts about the Democratic Party and President Barack Obama. “How idiotic is this president?” Walsh said to the GOP crowd Wednesday night in Nunda Township. “I don’t want to be disrespectful, but he’s going to bring forth a jobs plan next week. Think about that for a minute. He’s been in office for three years. He’s destroyed job creation systematically for three years.” The 8th District Congressman was one of the Illinois GOP leaders who came out to the Prairie Isle Golf Club, where elected officials and party leaders took turns delivering messages to galvanize local precinct committee members and voters. The event, in conjunction with the Nunda Township Republican Central Committee meeting, comes two months before the Illinois Republican Party’s presidential straw poll. The Nov. 5 statewide poll attempts to reach a broad spectrum of Republican voters throughout the counties. “We thought, you know, we’ve got to test run our energy, our organizations, and do it a year off so we know where we are,” Pat Brady, Illinois GOP chairman, said. Although the national party made significant gain when it “picked up 700 legislative seats,” Brady said Illinois Republican party needs to “redouble” its efforts in getting out the vote to match or exceed those of the Democratic Party. “The reason that we lose is because [House Speaker Michael Madigan’s] machine turns out the vote,” Brady said. “The Madigan labor machine turns out the vote.” Republicans must “brand our party in the correct way,” State Senator Dan Duffy said. “We need to talk about encouraging job growth, fighting corruption and keeping our taxes low,” he said. Other elected officials who spoke at the event included State Sen. Mike Tryon, State Sen. Kent Gaffney, McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren, McHenry County Prosecutor Lou Bianchi and several McHenry County Board members. ||||| WASHINGTON — House Republican Joe Walsh of Illinois is thumbing his nose at President Obama’s speech on jobs before a joint session of Congress on Sept. 8 — by skipping it. 
  
 Walsh, a tea party-backed freshman from McHenry, issued a statement today saying he’ll be in Illinois on the night of the speech to host a small-business forum. A Walsh aide said he expected details of the forum to be known Friday morning. 
  
 Talking about avoiding Obama’s address, Walsh said in his statement: “I don’t see the point of being a prop for another of the president’s speeches asking for more failed stimulus spending and more subsidies for his pet projects.” 
  
 He added: “The president needs to stop the speeches, get out of his office and away from all the White House academics and start talking to real people out there. They’re the ones who are going to create the jobs, not White House paper-pushers and bureaucrats.” 
  
 Walsh, who said he’ll return Friday morning after the forum to Washington, said the keys to fixing the economy were lowering taxes and freeing small business from “burdensome red tape.” 
  
 Walsh, who chairs a House subcommittee on small business, said he had made it his mission to “help American small businesses create jobs and put America back to work.” 
  
 kskiba@tribune.com |||||
What is a summary?
– Hoping today's dismal employment report will ignite a bipartisan fight to create jobs? Yeah, good luck with that. Tea Party congressman Joe Walsh of Illinois says he is skipping President Obama's joint session of Congress because it will be a waste of time, reports the Chicago Tribune. "I don’t see the point of being a prop for another of the president’s speeches asking for more failed stimulus spending and more subsidies for his pet projects," the GOP freshman explained in a statement. At least he didn't call Obama an idiot again, as he did Wednesday night, notes the Northwest Herald. “How idiotic is this president?” he asked a GOP crowd. “I don’t want to be disrespectful, but he’s going to bring forth a jobs plan next week. Think about that for a minute. He’s been in office for three years. He’s destroyed job creation systematically for three years.” Click for more.