Cornelius MacGillicuddy IV Might Not Understand What Right-Wing Social Engineering Is, Nor What Social Darwinism Is About, But He Knows What A Joke Is

A friend of mine in Congress, a Democrat who serves alongside Florida Republican Cornelius MacGillicuddy IV (AKA- Connie Mack) tells me Connie-- and his wife Mary Bono-- are very pleasant people. "They're the best dressed couple in Congress and they're very polite, well-mannered people. They may not have a brain wave between them but... I think Connie learned his lesson since he used to get drunk and pick barroom fights. These are two people who go out of their way to dress nicely and behave pleasantly." Before inheriting his father's seat in Congress-- his father was Cornelius MacGillicuddy III and was also known as Connie Mack; almost no one knows they're not the same person-- IV was a special events coordinator for Hooters.

But now Connie, one of the hereditary multimillionaires in Congress embracing Tea Party politics, would like to assume his father's old seat in the U.S. Senate. Polls show him with virtually no chance of defeating moderate incumbent Bill Nelson. His tactic to draw attention to himself, at least in front of the Republican primary, is to go so far right that he makes Paul Ryan look like a leftist-- literally.

Rep. Connie Mack (Fla.) called the House Republican budget plan “a joke” over the weekend, providing a public face for the discontent by some members of his party with a GOP proposal that President Obama has called "nothing but thinly veiled social Darwinism."
 
“I was here in Florida campaigning," Mack said when asked about missing the budget vote, which passed the House in a party-line vote last week. "You know that budget was a joke, doesn’t balance the budget for years.” 

The conservative Florida Political Press website first reported the comment, made at a Tea Party forum for three Senate candidates in Orlando last Saturday.
 
The plan, proposed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), would cut about $5 trillion and would create a “premium support” option to help future Medicare recipients obtain private insurance.

Mack voted for Ryan's budget in 2011, although the 2012 plan made some changes, particularly to the Medicare component of the budget.

Most of his colleagues will admit, at least off the record, that Connie's a little simple-minded. Lately, he's been all over the place on the Ryan budget-- criticizing it vaguely from the left for some audiences and from the right for other audiences... and, of course just making whatever excuse he can for missing the vote while he was at a fundraiser with Jeb Bush, Jr. (not even the real Jeb Bush-- but then, he's not the real Connie Mack either, so what does it matter?).