Idiot's Delight

After a month or more of summer doldrums, the political season has really picked up. First there was Mitt Romney's selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate thus doubling the number of boring white guys on the GOP ticket. Ryan is a perfect fit because like Romney he only cares about making the rich richer. Anyone who believes their spiel  about how they're better for the middle class is, sorry to say, an idiot.

Then we had the fascinating revelation that in August 2011 a large group of freshman GOP congressmen who were in Israel on a euphemistically named "fact-finding  mission" paid for by the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) went swimming in the Sea of Galilee while either clothed or in the case of Rep. Kevin Yoder of Kansas stark naked. Of course the Sea of Galilee is a holy site to Christians because it is the alleged site where Jesus walked on water. No word on whether any of these idiots attempted that feat. Anyway, the next morning, House majority leader Eric Cantor (probably the only Jew among the congressmen) who had not gone swimming purportedly severely reprimanded the group for, well, behaving like idiots. He probably told them to stay away from any mikvas.

Then in Illinois we have one of the top idiots--freshman Republican Joe Walsh who has been making increasingly stupid statements for two years. The latest was his dismissing his opponent , Tammy Duckworth, as a false hero although she lost both legs in a military helicopter incident while she was serving in Iraq (Walsh of course has no military experience).

But the top of the idiocy chart was reached over the weekend by Rep. Todd Akin, the Republican candidate for Senate in Missouri. He told a TV interviewer that women who are victims of what he termed "legitimate rape"(!!!!) have biological ways to "shut the whole thing down" or avoid pregnancy. Thus in his idiotic brain, there is no need to permit abortions in case of rape. Of course, when the inevitable fallout occurred, Akin's damage control spin included the classic "I misspoke". With national Republicans pressuring him to drop out (he has until tomorrow afternoon) watch for him to decide that he needs to spend more time with his family. As President Obama pointedly stated, male politicians (read: Republicans) should not be making health care decisions (birth control, abortion) for women. For that matter, why would any women who are not idiots vote Republican?

OMG-- we still have the Republican convention next week. TNB will be back soon.