leader?
hell, this guy has arrived.

i couldn't make heads nor tails of anything he said.

pure gibberish.

i'm thinkin' preznit fer 2012...

do you think that Texas sends these people to congress as a kind-of big fuck-you to government in general? It's the only explanation that makes any sense. Why would anyone want someone like this representing them on the expectation they would do something productive?

I think we should let texas secede, then invade and conquer and rule it as a vassal state. Thing is, then we wouldn't have rubes like Gohmert to laugh at.

What's really shocking though is that anyone would vote for a guy like this for any reason whatever. This country includes a lot of people who would apparently be much happier in Putin's Russia.

and Goober Gohmert please explain to us how Bush made us safer by securing all the containers and ports in the US

You know, they make people take a psychological exam to go on Survivor. Maybe people running for congress should be held to those same standards.

I really don't understand the distinction implied in this post, Steve. Is there anyone in the House Republican Caucus who would not also belong in the House Stark Raving Mad Caucus? Anyone?

Maybe we can spot some differences in decibels or incoherence out there, but as far as I can tell these would be differences of degree, not substance.

I'm with you on letting Texas secede, LL. But rather than invade it, let's just fortify the border.

a few fries short of a Happy Meal

That's long been my favorite phrase in the family of "has a screw loose," "his elevator doesn't stop at all floors," etc.

That's long been my favorite phrase in the family of "has a screw loose," "his elevator doesn't stop at all floors," etc.

I'm also fond of "doesn't have both sticks in the chow mein." So retro.

Considering that the House Repub leader doesn't even know the difference between the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, what can you expect from the rank and file? You start with an ignorant buffoon at the top, and it goes rapidly down hill from there.
I mean, they were all speaking at the last teabagger rally..er..press event.

In the spirit of playground taunting, I think it's high time we stoop to making fun of Republicans's names.

Gohmert, like "Gomer"? Wadda gomer! Hahahahaha!

And Stupak, like stupid? Stupe-ack! Hahahahaha!

I'm also fond of "doesn't have both sticks in the chow mein." So retro.

Don't you mean "doesn't have both commie rods in the moo goo dog pan?"

I'm also fond of "doesn't have both sticks in the chow mein."

yeah, or "couple sandwiches short of a picnic" or "the lights are on but no one's behind the wheel"--"not the sharpest knife in the drawer"...there's probably a good one for every Repub in congress.

Brendan: Snap!

"Jumped headfirst out of the Overton window."

It would be very interesting to see charts of representatives and senators based on their denial of common reality: is Obama a U.S. citizen? is global warming real? is anthropogenic global warming real? is the earth billions of years old? is cutting government spending always a good idea in a recession? did Saddam Hussein plot the 9/11 attacks? List the largest three elements of the Federal budget, in order. Or maybe just find all the shibboleths that RedState.com requires, and turn those into questions.

We could call them congressional SATs! I would love to see the results. But then, this is why members of congress won't go on the Colbert Report anymore.

pure gibberish.

But it's authentic Frontier gibberish! Served up with a side of paranoia, an ethnic slur or two, and dripping with folksiness...

Remember Killer Trees? I don't see anything in what this guy says that is any more looney than the stuff Reagan spouted, and he got elected President and is considered a God by these people.

The stark raving mad bar wasn't just lowered, it's been buried.

Gohmert was a judge in East Texas before being elected to the House. I appeared before him a few times and he didn't seem like the raving mad type the quotes suggest. Perhaps he's a particularly strong example of the Peter Principle at work.

Don't enough voters realize this and why do they elect people like Goh-mert? What does this say about a big chunk of American voters?

All I can say is WOW fucking WOW !!

In recent years voters' alienation from Washington, egged on by pseudo-populists like Beck, Limbaugh and Palin, has caused us to treat politics as an entertaining spectator sport, not really caring about the character and qualifications of the people we send to Congress. Unless we're talking aabout pedaphiles like Mark Foley we tend to find the Vitters and Craigs of the world more amusing than troubling.

Now that the internet is able to expose rubes like Gohmert to national scrutiny real time whenever they open their mouths I hope voters take more seriously the potential harm sending idiots and hypocrites to Congress can do. As these buffoons gain seniority and get their hands on agency budgets their potential for doing harm multiplies exponentially.

Gohmert and his colleagues in the Republican Caucus are not smart. And in a free market voters get what we pay for.

I've been following Washington Monthly's blog since about mid-summer, when the rhetoric around health care (and now everything) started getting to its current level of unhinged nuttiness.

What I don't get is how, after 4-5 months, I keep seeing the same level of credulity at how these guys could make this or that outrageous claim, or level such and such an insult with a straight face.

Can't the reaction to this crap evolve a little? Just a bit? How about a little coverage of our side? What's our emotional message?

Following lefty bloggers is like watching a posse of vulcans at a klingon convention. Sure, you're right, but you'll get your ass kicked anyway.

The GOP leadership sucks the oxygen out of any policy debate just by saying something crazy... a perverse form of 'framing the argument.' Don't debate back. Doing that only makes crazy positions look like reasonable alternatives.

You know, they make people take a psychological exam to go on Survivor. Maybe people running for congress should be held to those same standards.
Posted by: SaintZak on November 18, 2009 at 11:37 AM

Excellent idea, and not only should they have to undergo that, they should also have to take a year-long course in Civics and Government (to find out what those pesky things like "the Constitution" and "the Bill of Rights" actually mean) and then put in two years on their local city council to get some experience in the mechanics of day-to-day governing. Since most of the whackjobs currently in the GOP (and, frankly, quite a few Dems as well) would never have the ethics or fortitude to do that, it would weed out probably 95% of these reprobates.

Perhaps he's a particularly strong example of the Peter Principle at work.

It seems more likely that he's serving up whatever he thinks his constituents expect to hear. There are large segments of the elctorate that are, shall we say, confused.

"Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas suggested yesterday that Democrats may actually want another terrorist attack because rebuilding the city would create jobs."

Ummm, Rep. Gomer, er Gohmert, I think there are already plenty of infrastructure projects in this country to keep people employed for a long time, maybe even in Texas.

This guy is such an embarrassment. I can't imagine being "represented" by him.

It's not too early to start asking Rep. Gohmert to donate his brain to science.

"It would be very interesting to see charts of representatives and senators based on their denial of common reality: is Obama a U.S. citizen? is global warming real? is anthropogenic global warming real? is the earth billions of years old? is cutting government spending always a good idea in a recession? did Saddam Hussein plot the 9/11 attacks? List the largest three elements of the Federal budget, in order."

How about a quiz of these types of questions for voters? Get less than 90% correct and you can't vote. People voting based on misinformation is what gets people like Gohmert, King, Bachmann, etc. elected.

I'm with you, itstrue: all the GOP has to do is say something nutty and bloggers get the vapours. Boring. That's why I like Markos at dailykos -- he kicks ass.

it is truly terrifying to have such a completely dysfunctional "opposition" in a two party system. it leaves the dems free to degenerate into stupacks and deprives us of the real dialogue necessary to real democracy. when one party has become the american taliban, we are all harmed.

To hell with Texas! How long has it been since Texas has brought anything productive or worthwhile to this country? Rather than letting Texas secede we should just give Texas back to Mexico. Now that's a big fuckyou even a Texan can understand!

My mom has a Gohmert sticker on her car. She loves him. She says he is one of the few that are willing to tell the truth. Needless to say, we don't talk politics.

rosie, my mom liked her former rep, Tancredo. We don't talk politics either.

It IS sad. All this hyping of animosity between the left and right has taken a toll on families. It's the new Hatfields and McCoys.

rosie: yep... And that GWBush was *such* a uniter. :-(

"Following lefty bloggers is like watching a posse of vulcans at a klingon convention. Sure, you're right, but you'll get your ass kicked anyway."

ROTFLMAO, with a bit of snot flying out of my nose, too. I'll definitely remember THAT one!

K @ 12:43...
it could be part of the world's smallest medical museum, along with dick cheney's heart.

Second, third and fourth the motion to let Texas secede (you could include Oklahoma and get rid of Coburn and Inhofe as a bonus) . But include: a population exchange...we get all their sane people --- say Austin and the Johnson Space Center staff etc., and they get our birthers, flat-earthers, racists, bigots, homophobes, and Rapture-ready Xtianists. Then we build a fence on the border and patrol it 24/7 with taser-armed guards. Soon enough the place will be taken over by Mexican drug cartels--- then we can legalize drugs and put those boys out of business (the free market in action!) leaving Tejas with its near-dry oil wells to go to hell and leave us alone.

It's my continuing shame and embarrassment that Rep. Gohmert and I were in the same class at TAMU. Morever, he "served" as "class agent" for decades. For year after year, I got to see his homely puss in the alumni newsletters.

But it's much worse seeing his homely puss as the buffoon of Congress. Talk about your "101 Aggie Jokes"! All of them there, in one volume.

I'm a native Texan. There's no limit to what many of my fellow Texans are willing to believe. Part of it may be the fundamentalist mindset which discourages questioning of any sort, and part of it is probably the mythos of the Texas Revolution and the Alamo. Wherever you lay the blame, it's a complete embarrassment.

On the language front, I like to mix my metaphors. So I would say that Gohmert's light bulb doesn't go all the way to the top.

Can I nominate John Shadegg for 'House Stark Raving Mad Caucus'?

She says he is one of the few that are willing to tell the truth.

I don't understand why ranting like a raving loon making illogical and accusations plays like "telling the truth," but there are MILLIONS of people out there who experience it that way, and their honorary leader is Glenn Beck.

Is it that crazy talk is supposed to be the antithesis of political slickness, so because slick politicians lie, crazy-talking non-politicians must be telling the secret deep-down truth no one else dares to share?

He ought to be standing on a street corner screaming at traffic as it passes by.

Somebody should ask this guy if he believes the government is beaming rays at him.