It’s not the first time that Minnesota’s 7th CD Representative has spoken with something less than flattery about the people who send him to Washington.  Last year, Collin Peterson told Politico that “[t]wenty-five percent of my people believe the Pentagon and Rumsfeld were responsible for taking the twin towers down … That’s why I don’t do town meetings.”  Instead of calling them crazy this time around, Peterson just called them ignorant, and strongly suggested in his interview with CQ Roll Call that they were too lazy to be well-informed:

More importantly, Peterson doesn’t expect that his constituents — other than those who have voted against him in the past — feel the same anger stirring up races in much of the country. Unemployment is low in his heavily agricultural district, he said.

“If they didn’t hear all this negative stuff from the national press, if they would’ve been isolated from everything the last three to four years, they wouldn’t have even known anything was going on,” he said. “Nothing’s changed.”

“All this negative stuff” means … what, exactly?  They wouldn’t know, for instance, that the national unemployment rate remains close to double digits and getting worse?  That Congress, under Democratic control, didn’t bother to pass a budget or even a budget resolution before giving itself six weeks off?  That scheduled tax hikes have yet to be addressed?  “All that negative stuff” sounds an awful lot like “accountability” on the farm, Collin.

Peterson doesn’t want his constituents to know that he voted for the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill.  If they find out about it, though, Peterson wants them to know that he really improved it … and that he figured it would never pass the Senate anyway:

“A lot of people know the only reason I voted for that was Waxman agreed to take my stuff on agriculture. I said at the time I voted for it, that if this was the final bill I’d vote no,” he explained, adding that he didn’t think the Senate would consider the bill.

So Peterson’s message is yes, I voted for it, but also Waxman bought my vote, as well as I voted for it even though I said I opposed it, with a touch of I just figured the Senate would pull my chestnuts from the fire eventually.  I don’t think MN-07 voters are either ignorant or lazy, but I’ll bet they’re pretty confused.  They’re probably not crazy enough to send Peterson back, either, not with Lee Byberg as a viable option.

Update: Peterson did vote against ObamaCare, not for it, as I incorrectly stated.  Thanks to The Whistler for the correction.