"PBS Newshour" just featured interviews with four freshmen congressfolks, one of whom was some crewcut and utterly clueless-looking Georgia Republican by the name of Doug Collins, who said in all seriousness--and I kid you not--that he was disappointed that President Obama didn't raise the issue of Benghazi! in his State of the Union address.
Talk about fearing for one's country. A minute of Doug and I was quaking in horror. Could he, a United States congressman, really be that dense?--did he really think that the president's SOTU address should have been reserved for litigating peurile, GOP pettiness? Or are his constituents simply so tethered to the nightly ravings of Sean Hannity's Benghazi fixation that he thought it advisable to humiliate himself on national TV by commenting on it at the most inappropriate opportunity?
Doug may have looked clueless, and indeed he may be profoundly without wits. But no one is so dumb as to authentically believe that Obama should have raised Benghazi in the SOTU address.
That leaves pandering. To a base that believes Sean Hannity. And there are dozens like Doug. In Congress.
As I said. Talk about fearing for one's country.
"...he thought it advisable to humiliate himself on national TV by commenting on it at the most inappropriate opportunity?"
There it is, P.M. These days, the people who have the most success in America's right wing are impervious to humiliation. I say this with complete seriousness. Being completely impervious to humiliation (for whatever reason) is the only requirement necessary to qualify a person who wants to build a career in a political party that rejects empiricism and vilifies the very institution it seeks to control. It will not tolerate moderate and intelligent debate, genuine policy proposals, or even acknowledgment of real problems encountered by real voters. With shocking hostility, they've thrown out everything but paranoia, racism, and the cartoon characters who aren't too proud (or sane or decent) to pander to those things. That's why nobody -- not Chris Christie, not Jeb Bush, not Marco Rubio -- will "save" the party. The party is fucked because its members are paranoid and racist.
Posted by: Beulahmo | February 14, 2013 at 08:28 PM
This is sadly now the permanent proud pathology handed down from the GOP elders. That pathology has to intensify, pleasing its parents, as it were.
Yes, they're fucked. But will they manage to continue to spread the derangement across the land? Certainly trying their best for sure.
Bet you Rep. Collins cannot find Libya, much less Benghazi on a map. Maybe Africa--let's give him that. Generously.
Posted by: nancy | February 14, 2013 at 09:13 PM
Congress is not unlike a public pool. Once enough kids have peed in it what sane adult wants to dive in? And look, now there are floaters.
Posted by: Peter G | February 15, 2013 at 08:34 AM
@Peter G:
Brilliant framing. Also YUCK.
Posted by: Janicket | February 15, 2013 at 08:58 AM
LOL... Peter G, that is perfection.
Posted by: Susan Zoon | February 15, 2013 at 09:00 AM
PeterG: ROTFLMAO You have been on a roll lately.
Posted by: Robert Lipscomb | February 15, 2013 at 10:51 AM