Today’s conservative legislators may not be as dumb as a box of rocks or so dumb it takes them an hour and a half to watch 60 Minutes (HT: Rodney Dangerfield) but Daily Kos writer Hunter is willing to claim that they’re “the dumbest we've ever had. You have to credit the tea party Republicans for that one—they know what they want, and by golly if it can ooze its way into a suit and tie they'll vote for it.”
Unfortunately, added Hunter in a Wednesday post, many if not most Americans are unaware of this breathtaking GOP stupidity because the media have “ratchet[ed] down their own expectations [of Republicans]…The pundit class all just grits their teeth and tries their best to present all of this as the new normal.”
What set Hunter off were comments from Republican senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin that in regard to the Iran nuclear talks, he didn’t trust Iranian head of state Ali Khamenei but also was “not so sure I’m trusting President Obama.”
From Hunter’s post (bolding added):
All right, let's play that always-fun game called Imagine a Democratic Politician Said This. If a Democratic senator spoke to constituents during the run-up to the Iraq War or Not-War and told them "Do I trust George Bush, or Saddam Hussein? I'm not so sure I'm trusting President Bush" here is an approximate list of what would happen to that person.
It would be the top news story on every network. It would be the topic of discussion on every cable punditry show, on all channels. The senator would be called un-American in newspaper columns. Other senators would hold a press conference to denounce that senator's statements. That senator would need to give, at minimum, a press conference apologizing for his remark. The senator's staff would be inundated with furious phone calls. That senator would get hate mail. That senator would likely receive anthrax in the mail, and several letters containing a white powdery substance that looked like anthrax, but was not. Bullets might or might not be fired at the senator's in-state offices. The quote would be featured on every campaign mailer funded by every PAC in that senator's next election…He would be branded a traitor.
Sen. Ron Johnson, on the other hand, can tell a town hall full of his supporters that when it comes down to trusting President Obama or the ayatollah of Iran, he is "not so sure" he trusts the American president more. And the only clarification he needs to give is one condemning the idea that he trusts the ayatollah either, lest his frothing base of God's worst humans get a bee in their bonnets over that one…
You know, I really do think this current crop of conservative legislators is the dumbest we've ever had. You have to credit the tea party Republicans for that one—they know what they want, and by golly if it can ooze its way into a suit and tie they'll vote for it—but I also think the media has been ratcheting down their own expectations as a result. There's no way to write a news article that truly conveys the empty craptacularness that is a Ron Johnson, and it's not like there are that many fresh Republican faces that are much better, so the pundit class all just grits their teeth and tries their best to present all of this as the new normal.
