Billy Long's addiction is aversion to the truth

StLtoday has this editorial: Billy Long's addiction is aversion to the truth

Someone on his staff should explain the Internet to U.S. Rep. Billy Long, the cowboy-hat-wearing Tea Party Republican from Springfield, Mo.

Mr. Long seems to not understand that his statements, often typed on Twitter, end up being consumed by the general public. For instance, he created quite the firestorm recently when, shortly after British singer Amy Winehouse was found dead, he compared her battles with drug addiction to congressional addiction to spending.

Mr. Long said he couldn't imagine that his ill-timed statement would be taken in a bad light, and then he issued an apology referring to Ms. Winehouse as a "true artist." We're guessing that the "conservative values" Republican hadn't actually paid much attention to the painfully gritty lyrics of Ms. Winehouse's songs before he suddenly became her biggest fan.

Contradictory statements are par for the course for Mr. Long. A couple of weeks ago, he said that "we are not going to raise the debt limit." Then he said that "cut, cap, balance" was the only way to raise the debt limit.

And on Thursday, he said he would back House Speaker John Boehner's plan that completely erased the lines Mr. Long previously drew in the sand.

Truth-telling, it seems, is not Mr. Long's addiction.

Ah, but we've been trying to tell you all that for over a year now.