Song of the Day 3/13: David Allan Coe, “Take This Job and Shove It”

Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado is among the 23 Republican House members who announced they would not seek reelection this year, but yesterday he went them one better: He’s not even going to stick around until the end of the month. He’s leaving at the end of next week.

Buck entered office as a Tea Party type, but he’s no longer far enough to the right for the MAGA crowd, and he’s not a Trumper. “I am not going to lie on behalf of my presidential candidate, on behalf of my party,” he told a reporter last month. “And I’m very sad that others in my party have taken the position that as long as we get the White House, it doesn’t really matter what we say.”

He hasn’t been diplomatic about his departure, either. Buck did not tell House Speaker “Moses Mike” Johnson ahead of time that he was ankling the show. The move also undermined show pony Lauren Boebert, who is seeking the nomination for Buck’s 4h District seat in the November election. By leaving early, Buck triggered a special election that will be held first, and Boebert can’t run in it unless she resigns her current 3rd District seat. “Shove it” indeed.

Everybody knows this as a Johnny Paycheck song, because he recorded it first and had a No. 1 country hit with it in 1977, but it was written by David Allan Coe. The ever-testy Coe resented people thinking Paycheck had written the song, so he recorded it the next year for his “Family Album” LP.