I think it's time for "some timeout in the corner" for these kiddies.

The sophomoric behavior being spewed by these loonies increases my nausea daily. It's time for Obama to use his bully pulpit to tell them to simmer down...

"If these clowns keep screaming bloody murder over meaningless flaps that fall apart under scrutiny, it will be that much more difficult for them to be taken seriously when a genuine controversy arises."

Why would you think that? Has recent history ever given that impression?

The clowns impeached an extraordinarily popular president over something most of the country found silly. They made up lie after lie about Al Gore. They launched attacks on John Edwards' masculinity and Hillary Clinton's femininity. They got the entire country to seriously consider whether decorated Navy veteran John Kerry was a coward and a traitor.

Their reward for their over-the-top screeching has been to have their lies and attacks parroted by a compliant media. This has been true through my adult lifetime and I see no reason to assume it will ever change. Plunging the discourse into the sewer is our media's *job*, as far as I can tell.

Lies, trivia, nonsense, and fact-free dudgeon *work*. They are how you get things done politically nowadays. The Republicans know it, they are good at it, it's how they get their message out. If you think their winning formula is suddenly going to fall apart because they cross a line, you do not understand the American political system -- and you are a well-meaning enabler.

I think we should encourage them in this diversion, perhaps some mild amphetamines or a good dose of meth. Initially it seemed annoying, but I now see that it exposes their true nature. If it is properly highlighted, we can insure there is no republican comeback in our lifetime.

Singling out political opponents for working against the ruling party

I fully agree. Now if someone would please tell the GOPers that they're no longer the ruling party, we'd be just fine, thank you very much.

The Republican Study Committee has simply gone stark raving mad.

GOP 2009: Doubling-Down On Crazy !

How quickly they forget that this was a Bush administration report.

I was flipping channels last night when I saw part of this nonsense on CSPAN. No surprise, Michelle Bachman was engaged in heated consent with "Doctor Carter" over the outrage of DHS targeting anyone who believes in the Bible. And these heathens in the Obama administration "refuse" to call foreigners "terrorists". Only Christians are truly evil in their eyes, according to these kooks.

Rep. John Carter (R)of Texas should spend his time and energy on something more constructive like, say, the secession of Texas from our good old sane America!

Note to the GOP: grow some common sense and quit it with the delusional stuff! The rhetoric coming from the likes of Republican leadership is beginning to sound like political porn! -Kevo

shhhhhhh...

they are measuring out their own rope...

let them ramble on...

at least til november 2010...

cede the entire AM radio spectrum to these nuts...

shhhhhhh...

In this case, Obama should come out, reaffirm his confidence in Napolitano, and then discredit these idiots by pointing out that this Bush-requested, Bush-appointee-authored report, comprised largely of Bush FBI findings, never mentioned the word "conservative." If he uses the slightly mocking tone that he has perfected recently, it will be a slam dunk.

What did Napolitano do? She dared be a dem who was put in place by a dem.

Timothy McVeigh & Terry Nichols in Oklahoma.

Friends said 23 year-old Richard Poplawski feared the Obama administration was poised to ban guns. Three police officers were killed by him.

Jim David Adkisson, a man who said he attacked a church in order to kill liberals "who are ruining the country," court records show.

Abortion doctor assassins & clinic bombers are in there, too.

Hey you Right Wing pussies, Got a Left Wing Americans list like this?

No? Then I can be very confident in telling you to STFU.

So compromising with Republicans means what? Being half-crazy? Half-stupid? Half-dishonest?

Can this rump party please die a quick and painless death?

BH said:
In this case, Obama should come out, reaffirm his confidence in Napolitano, and then discredit these idiots by pointing out that this Bush-requested, Bush-appointee-authored report, comprised largely of Bush FBI findings, never mentioned the word "conservative."

Obama should also point out that this kind of silliness doesn't deserve his time and attention, but since the mainstream media refuses to report the facts and let everyone know that the Republicans are full of crap, then his only option is to speak publicly and bypass them.

If Obama embarrasses them enough, maybe some of the "journalists" will start to do their jobs.

I think it's wonderful that the highest levels of elected Republicans are going out of their way to self-identify with the likes of McVeigh, Poplawski, and Aryan Nation. They more Boehner and crew get up in front of the camera to proclaim the equivalence of conservatives with violent right-wing extremists, the better educated the public becomes.

Go GOP!!

Jamie McCarthy says

Lies, trivia, nonsense, and fact-free dudgeon *work*. They are how you get things done politically nowadays.

Along the same lines, there are often commenters here at Political Animal who say that Steve is woefully blind and indeed "enabling" by wondering at these wackos rather than calling them out as cynical manipulating liars. But I think he's right. Attack a man and you legitimatize him. Ridicule a man and you marginalize his rants.

The meme of Republicans as simply bat-crazy is beginning to take hold, and it's something they clearly don't know how to handle

Someone needs to point out to them that they are implicitly joining themselves with the Tim McVeigh's, Richard Poplawski's, abortion doctor assassins and clinic bombers. They are saying that these types of killers are representative of conservatives.

Sure, they might respond that the killers listed are all deranged individuals and not part of right-wing groups but the right-wing groups are made up of and depend on these types of people for their existence. And the conservatives are all but coming out and saying that this is who they are.

As Mr. Irony above put it so well, "GOP 2009: Doubling-Down On Crazy !"

"At some point, there might be a cabinet secretary who does something that's actually controversial in reality, instead of just the overactive imaginations of rabid, unhinged House members."

Maybe that's part of the plan! Let them wear themselves out against the more centrist democrats, and then bring in someone *really* progressive - by which time the republicans will have lost another 5 seats in the senate and we can get some well-needed change to the left! (And I mean the real left, not the 'slightly right' of the democratic party for the last 20 years...)

Also BH - excellent points! Obama may just ignore them completely, but using your response would be better (IMHO).

ex animo-
Jo

There's been debate, as we know, among Republi/cons over whether to reach out and appeal to moderates/indepdendents/secularists etc. versus to dumbell-down and be the party of Limbeck - and now we know the answer. It's a very ugly sight. I'm actually "disappointed" in that I figured a movement of apparent grown-ups would and should serve as a MOL rational opposition.

BTW, in case anyone needs rebuttal to their kookiness: Right-wing-extremist is a flavor of extremist, it isn't about "conservatism" such as James Kilpatrick (one of. There can be left-wing, environmental (didn't Justice just charge a guy who destroyed buildings etc?), religious, etc. "extremists." And we have the actual case of Timothy McVeigh from the 90s. We have Richard Poplawski who shot three cops a few weeks ago, that *we know* listened to Glenn Beck talking points.

It is particularly hypocritical for The Right (how I hate the way semantics turned out) to complain about such charaterizations and then strive so hard to live up to them - worst of all, their "leaders" are getting in the pig-pen and not just the demagogues. This is a national disgrace, and an ugly and dangerous (for Americans period) state of affairs.

BTW, Jane Harman isn't doing us much good either. She is a hypocrite about wiretaps, see this
http://blueherald.com/2009/04/jane-harman-angry-partisan-civil-liberties-extremist/.

"Singling out political opponents for working against the ruling party is precisely the tactic of every tyrannical government from Red China to Venezuela. The first step in the process is creating unfounded public suspicion of political opponents, followed by arresting and jailing any who continue speaking against the regime."

Yet again, the hypocrisy of Republicans knows no bounds.

Do they not recall the routine rounding up of law-abiding Americans at Bush campaign events who did nothing more than wear a shirt or have on their car a bumpersticker questioning Bush actions? How supposed 'free speech' zones were created and maintained by a perimeter of armed officers?

They really do go nuts when they're not in power. As Jon Stewart said the other night on his show (paraphrased):

You know what? You cannot be surprised when someone you voted into office with whom you disagree does disagreeable things. That is not 'tyranny.' That is called 'Democracy.' I, too, had to deal with many years of someone I disagreed with doing things I disagreed with, such as giving tax breaks to the wealthy, invading and occupying a country that we shouldn't have invaded and occupied, and did nothing to halt global warming. But that's democracy. You lost. That, too, is democracy. Get over it and stop playing the victim because you lost. Welcome to the minority."

Whenever I read stories like these I keep imagining that there must be a lot of secret GOP pill popping parties on the Hill. Huge bowls overflowing with pills-- blood pressure medication, baby asprin, beta blockers, and maybe some xanax kicked in for a little fun.

Good thing they all have such a cosy relationship with BigPharma, they certainly need it. This level of outrage so early on-- I don't know how they're going to keep this up. They'll all be dead in 3 years if they keep up this level of red-faced hysteria.

Our whole obsession with elections has put conservative Republicans at an unfair disadvantage. Under the circumstances, their best tack would seem to be to investigate the possibilities inherent in the 1956 film "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." I'm seeing Limbaugh as Obama, Coulter as Clinton, Cantor (carrying the budget with no numbers) as Geithner & Dr. Strangelove as Gates.

Or the Republicans could get a grip.

The Constant Weader at www.RealityChex.com

Zoe K - Interesting concept. I think that they are overdosing on some type of Big Pharma designer drug for republicans made from Marinol & steroids - all parinoia and rage.

"but these nuts seemed pretty serious yesterday"

They were serious. When a report comes out warning about rightwing extremists, and these GOPers are worried that it unfairly tarnishes their supporters, you have a pretty good idea where their sympathies lie.

That the modern conservative movement can sell "outrage" over prosecuting torturers, and in the next breath sell "outrage" over protocol reports on violent extremism, says all we really need to know about that movement.

Cognitive dissonance is a disease. The GOP needs help.

This should be about impeaching a US Senator for impugning the good name of our military. How dare he send a letter to the Secretary of Defense asking for a zero tolerance against racist military extremists. Following an FBI report reflecting concerns of domestic racist groups actively attempting to recruit military personnel, the Senator wrote "We witnessed with Tim McVeigh that today's racist extremist may become tomorrow's domestic terrorist. Military extremists present an elevated threat to both their fellow service members and the public".

Yes, impeach Senator Richard Shelby, (R-AL) for this despicable letter to Secretary Rumsfeld.

What, exactly, did the DHS secretary do that warrants resignation?

She is a Democrat. She has a uterus. You need more? Isn't that enough, fer chrissakes?

This is how cornered rats behave.

Have you ever known a poor soul who is afflicted with a bad case of stuttering? The Republican party reminds me of these people.

A bad stutterer not only stutters, but exhibits lots of tics. This is because one time the stutterer, say, blinked an eye and it seemed to stop the stuttering that one time. There may have been no cause-and-effect, but the stutterer believed it, so now the stutterer stutters AND blinks eyes and performs several other tics in false hope that these actions will help.

Well, the Republicans were in power from 1995-2007. And they often said and did outrageous things during that time. So they seem to think that if they can only be MORE outrageous MORE OFTEN then magic will occur and they'll get back in power.

Of course, we know that they held on to their slim majorities for all those years despite all their nuttiness, not because of it. Bush hid his extreme beliefs from the mainstream -- calling himself a "uniter not a divider" and claiming he wanted to "change the tone in Washington". Their years in power were mostly due to the normal power pendulum cycle typical of democracies -- the Democrats in 1994 were long in the tooth with few new ideas, and most of the ideas that Clinton ran on he actually borrowed from the Republicans.

But, if they think being even more nutty is their path back to power -- well, let them have at it.

Doesn't the use of the term "ruling party" strike anyone else as odd. The US is governed, not ruled. This seems to be a deliberate use to tie in with all this "fascism" talk the GOP is indulging.

More and more, I think, these GOP guys are getting their information about the world from word-of-mouth from others. They are incredibly gullible and trusting of things they are told by other Republicans, and never stop to think about it, or try to find the source documentation themselves. Particularly if it reinforces their sense of being oppressed by the evil left. However, like the child's game of telephone, the actual details of things get garbled badly by the word-of-mouth transfer.

The result is them getting up in arms about things they are absolutely sure are happening, because someone told them all about it, but which, in objective-reality-land, aren't happening at all. Michelle Bachman seems to be making a cottage industry out of it, but she's not alone.

I think you meant to say "Rep. John Carter (R) of Texas -- who, BECAUSE OF his apparent madness, is a member of the House Republican leadership -- ;-)

biggerbox raises a really good point. Every time Bachmann does a public freak-out, it turns out she got her "information" from some winger radio personality or chain email.

These people are operating entirely within their own bubble now. They don't even peek out to see what the weather's like in Reality World.

The Republican Study Committee has simply gone stark raving mad.

Not just the RSC - the entire organization, from the astroturf on up.

If these clowns keep screaming bloody murder over meaningless flaps that fall apart under scrutiny, it will be that much more difficult for them to be taken seriously when a genuine controversy arises.

Oops - Steve, you let the cat out of the bag. We want them treated like the boy who cried "wolf!" when we send the black helicopters to take them all to the FEMA-built concentration camps.

This tactic has been used many times against the media. Any time the media does a bit of unbiased reporting, there are screams from the right about the bias of the leftist media. Now that the right is out of power, we're going to hear a lot more complaints of government bias. It's not like there is any real bias. The Obama administration is full of centrists, moderates, and old-fashioned conservatives. They want to be fair, unite the country, and do what is right. The Republicans don't get that. They are afraid that the Obama administration is saying all those nice things as propaganda, while deep down they are just leftist versions of the Bush administration.

You know...

The absence of sensible, sane Republicans IS suspicious.

Has the Obama administration made any reasonable conservative "disappear"?

Everyone keep an eye on Gibbs from Little Green Footballs. If he "goes on vacation" or something, the jig is up!

All we're left with are this gaggle of froot loops.

All who were left scratching their heads when Obama chose this obedient toady to head Homeland Security now can get a handle on it: a serious appointee, focused upon real terrorist threats (not imaginary, partisan ones i.e. the TEA parties) -like, say, a Rudolph Giuliani- wouldn’t have been a willing collaborator in a sham report trashing US vets for shameful political purposes.

Napolitano’s qualification for this job was purely being a liberal Obama sycophant… certainly not any skills, insight, or ability.

Her recent statements on Canadian border security illustrate how incompetent and puzzled she really is- completely lacking the credentials to be in charge of protecting our country from the likes of Al Qaida.

Trouble is, the narcissist Obama needs to be surrounded by mindless drones to confirm his omnipotence and pollyanna world view. But such appointments as Napolitano and Panetta to vital national security posts are a show of weakness that will surely encourage terrorists and other rogue characters who see America as their enemy- no matter how hard Barack tries to schmooze them.

Anyone who expected The One to place the nation’s practical defense interests above those of his own political security and radical agenda hasn’t looked very close at how he got this far in the first place.

http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com/

Didja think we were rid of Texans after the bushies were gone? Fat chance. They're still the biggest burr under the U.S. saddle.

If you mention the name Timothy McVeigh, these people get all teary eyed and stand at attention. Just like Oliver North, he is one of their heroes who was wrongly and unjustifiably crucified by the liberal media. They really don't see anything wrong with blowing up a bunch of kindergarten kids.