Purple? What's The Matter With Colorado? Meet Gordon Klingenschmitt

Yesterday we took a look at some of the really extremist crackpots Republicans across the nation elected to Congress Tuesday. Some were shocking, like the guy from Georgia who wants a bazooka in every home and the lunatic North Carolina racist preacher who wants to abolish the minimum wage and force raped women to bear their attacker's child.

In Colorado none of the House seats changed parties, although when Cory Gardner beat Mark Udall for the Senate, bizarre extremist Ken Buck won Gardner's very Republican (R+11) 4th district, basically the whole eastern third of the state. Buck is as good a match for the right-wingers there as Gardner was. But he'll probably be an even more disruptive and toxic presence in the House than Gardner will be in the Senate. That said, there's an even more right-wing district in Colorado, the 5th district (R+13) around Colorado Springs, where extremist nut-job Doug Lamborn was reelected 59.80 to 40.20%. (For those counting, Buck won with 64.84%.)

The scary news for any normal people who live-- for whatever reason-- in Colorado Springs, is that another far right politician, even further off the edge of sanity than Lamborn and Buck, Gordon Klingenschmitt, won a state House seat for District 15, the eastern part of Colorado Springs. He won with 70% of the vote. I wonder if he's looking forward to eventually getting Lamborn's congressional seat. In these deep red district, populated by brain-washed, self-righteous imbeciles, like this one, it doesn't matter what piece of garbage the GOP nominate... they're elected. Zack Ford tried to give Think Progress readers an idea of just how extreme and out of the mainstream Rep. Klingenschmitt is.

It’s hard to overstate just how extreme Colorado’s new state Sen. Gordon Klingenschmitt (R) is; it might even be impossible. RightWingWatch has been tracking Lt. Klingenschmitt-- a.k.a. “Dr. Chaps”-- since 2006 when he first became a darling of the religious right after a Navy court found him guilty of appearing in uniform at a political protest. As a military chaplain, he objected to requirements that chaplains offer non-sectarian prayers, and claiming persecution, he has since broadcast his very conservative views through his “Pray in Jesus’ Name Project.”

Klingenschmitt regularly publishes videos featuring rather loose-lipped rants on a number of topics. In particular, he is virulently anti-LGBT and is dedicated to running the country according to Christian beliefs. RightWingWatch posted its own round-up of videos they’ve curated over the years in honor of his election. Here is a collection of choice Klingenschmitt quotes:

1. “Almighty God, today we pray imprecatory prayers from Psalm 109 against the enemies of religious liberty…who recently issued a press release attacking me personally… Let their days be few, and replace them with godly people. Plunder their fields and seize their assets. Cut off their descendants. And remember their sins. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

2. “She gave her life to Jesus. She welcomed the Holy Spirit. And I looked into her eyes as she began to weep and I said, “You foul spirit of lesbianism, this woman has renounced you, come out of her in Jesus’ name,’ and she began to wrestle with that and suddenly her eyes began to bug out and then she began to weep, and weep, and weep as the Holy Spirit forgave her sins… She was baptized the next day and then she became one of the best evangelists in our church, started carrying around her Bible telling all of her friends about Jesus and she started dating boys.”

3. “Almighty God, please bless Lowes Home Improvement stores for their wise decision to stop advertising for the TV show All-American Muslim, which is nothing but Islamic propaganda designed to whitewash the fact that practitioners of militant Islam not only slaughtered over 3000 American civilians, but routinely kill millions of Christians worldwide.”

4. “Sen. Franken recently released a video in which he blames the high rate of suicide among homosexual teens on school bullying, by abusing these sad tragedies as his own propaganda tool. By spreading even more lies to more teens, Franken is ultimately causing more suicides. Teen suicide is tragic enough without Senator Franken recruiting more kids into homosexuality, which causes depression, self-hatred, self-rejection and self-murder.”

5. “Sexual harrassment [sic] is banned in the military, unless you’re a homosexual abusing a Christian, then it’s openly encouraged.”

6. “Federal bureaucrats will enforce Obamacare to exterminate the elderly, systematically. We must take a stand.”

7. “Picture this: four NFL players coming out as gay, and then this whole youth movement of coaches recruiting children into the homosexual lifestyle and punishing Christians because they voice an opposition to that sort of thing in the locker room… that is a demonic use of the sporting industry.”

8. “Is bestiality now a perceived sexual orientation? Well since it’s not defined in the ENDA bill, yes it is!”

9. “An atheist chaplain would be the perfect vehicle for convincing wounded warriors that they should end their lives because there’s nothing in the future and there’s nothing now, so why not just save money and kill themselves.”

10. “In other words, it doesn’t matter what your skin color is, it matters what’s inside of your heart. And if your heart is full of corruption or sin or immorality-- in this case, homosexuality-- then you should be discriminated against.”

11. “You know what, citizens, if you don’t have a gun, I’m telling you-- as a Christian chaplain-- sell your clothes and buy a gun. It’s time.”

12. “I want to put up there again this picture of this gay couple, these two men, holding up a baby. I want you to notice that one of them, one of the men, almost has his tongue hanging out, like he’s licking his chops, like, ‘This baby is ours now!’ And that’s fine, you may call that love, but it looks to me a little bit like lust.”

13. “These abusive parents now have used this little boy to try and claim that he’s a girl to try and tell the world that they ought to let transgender adults into your little girl’s public bathrooms… There is a demon of rape inside of this movement to violate your daughters.”

14. “There is NO mention of sexual orientation in the Constitution, and any judge who imagines one is a domestic enemy of the Constitution, and should be impeached and removed from office.”

15. “Child molesting is therefore a favorite “recruiting” tool of adult homosexuals. They violate children, and when the victim is later confused, they lie and say ‘you were born that way.’”

After Klingenschmitt won his primary race in June, Colorado Republican Party Chairman Ryan Call disclaimed, “Gordon does not speak on behalf of the Republican Party. To suggest otherwise is inaccurate and dishonest.” His predecessor, former House Minority Leader Mark Waller (R), said that his own 11-year-old son could identify Klingenschmitt’s rhetoric as “hateful speech.”

Tut, tut... now Klingerschmidtt does speak on behalf of the Republican Party-- and I'm sure Ryan Call and Mark Waller will be campaigning for him when he runs for Doug Lamborn's seat if Lamborn really does take on weak and vulnerable DLC Senator Michael Bennet in 2016.