Don't Count On Seeing Poor Ole Bob Barr Back In Congress

Phil Gingrey represents Georgia's 11th congressional district, mostly Atlanta suburbs in Cobb, Bartow, Fulton and Cherokee counties. It includes all of Marietta, the east side of Smyrna, and part of Atlanta's upscale/uptown Buckhead neighborhood (the Beverly Hills of the South). The PVI is R+19 and the only part of the district even remotely competitive for Democrats-- and only remotely-- is the Cobb County section. The current congressman is far right extremist-- and crackpot-- Phil Gingrey and he won reelection last cycle 196,968 (68.6%) to 90,353 (31.4%), beating his unknown, unfunded Democratic challenger by 70% or better in Bartow, Cherokee and Fulton counties but with "only" 60% in Cobb.

Gingrey gave up his seat to run for Senate. He got trounced in the primary, coming in 4th, nosing out even further right-wing extremist congressman Paul Broun. Now both are out of their jobs.

• David Perdue- 185,466 (30.64%)
• Jack Kingston- 156,157 (25.80%)
• Karen Handel- 132,944 (21.96%)
• Phil Gingrey- 60,735 (10.03%)
• Paul Broun- 58,297 (9.63%)

The new congressmen will be determined by Republican runoffs on July 22. Broun's replacement will be either Mike Collins, son of ex-Congressman Mac Collins, or a crazed teabagger and Hate Talk Radio host and Baptist preacher Jody Hice. They were virtually tied in the primary, Collins 17,378 (33.5%) to Hice 17,108 (33.0%) out of 51,876 votes cast. Both are extremists and the "establishment" candidate, Collins, has been endorsed by Rick Santorum.

The race for Gingrey's seat is more interesting because it includes always controversial ex-CIA agent and former Congressman Bob Barr, the guy in the two videos up top. Last I had heard was that Barr had quit the GOP to become a Libertarian. He ran as their 2008 nominee for president, coming in 4th-- with 523,715 votes (0.40%)-- behind Barack Obama, John McCain and Ralph Nader. His best performance was in Indiana, where he got 29,257 votes (1.06%), followed by his native Georgia, where he took 28,731 votes (0.73%). In 2012 he split with the Libertarians and endowed Newt Gingrich for president instead of Ron Paul and rejoined the GOP.

Barr, another standard issue delusional Republican devotee of Ayn Rand's, was appointed U.S. Attorney for Northern Georgia by Reagan after his stint with the CIA. He successfully prosecuted Republican Congressman Pat Swindall for campaign finance fraud and perjury, sending Swindall to prison and handing the district over to the Democrats. Barr then represented GA-07 from 1995-2003 and is best known as one of the more obnoxious and deranged of the Clinton impeachment managers. The other thing he was famous for was being an anti-marijuana fanatic, although he later became a lobbyist for the Marijuana Policy Project and is now adamantly pro-pot (unless he changed his mind again). He was the author of the notoriously homophobic Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and he has since apologized for having done that and is now pro-marriage equality and says he would vote to repeal DOMA. Loudermilk is painting him as an untrustworthy flip-flopper and it's working and will probably win Loudermilk the seat.

Barr came in second in the May 20th primary and will now face state Senator Barry Loudermilk in the runoff. Loudermilk has been endorsed by Club for Growth, RedState, FreedomWorks, the Madison Project and Georgia Right to Life. Barr has been endorsed by Tom Tancredo, Richard Viguerie and Gun Owners of America. These were the primary totals:

• Barry Loudermilk- 20,708 (36.6%)
• Bob Barr- 14,596 (25.8%)
• Tricia Pridemore- 9,655 (17.1%)
• Edward Lindsey- 8,389 (14.8%)
• Larry Mrozinski- 2,277 (4%)
• Allan Levene- 959 (1.7%)

Barr, who accepts contributions in BitCoin (as well as real money), has raised $683,795 and reported $96,425 cash-on-hand as of April 30. Loudermilk raised $449,054 and had $89,882 cash-on-hand on April 30. So far FreedomWorks, the Senate Conservatives Fund and Club for Growth have put in a total of $34,768 on behalf of Loudermilk. This kind of zombie-stupid, rote, right-wing yawnathon of an ad still excites deluded Georgia voters:



There's been some back and forth about Loudermilk claiming he was a fighter pilot-- he wasn't-- but it probably won't lose him the runoff. To show he can be as amusing as Barr, if he wanted to lie about his background, he could have claimed he was the son of Nashville songwriter John D. Loudermilk. This wasn't even his biggest song but "Tobacco Road" was a hit for the Nashville Teens, Jefferson Airplane, The Animals, Edgar Winter, Lou Rawls, Spooky Tooth, Status Quo, David Lee Roth, and the Blues Magoos. My fave:

We On The Grind In... Georgia

In Georgia, they want Medicare expansion and they want to keep their crazy anti-healthcare Governor. Maybe they listen to too much Hate Talk Radio and watch too much Fox News and have wound up with addled brains, but an Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll released today yields a portrait of one very confused electorate. Let's start with this interesting finding among Peach State respondents: 57% of them favor Medicaid expansion. OK, that makes sense and is pretty much in line with what voters in other red states without Medicare expansion want. But the guy who's preventing Medicare expansion-- and keeping 450,000 from getting healthcare-- in their state, right-wing Governor Nathan Deal, has a healthy 54% job approval rating going into his reelection campaign. The poll shows him leading Democrat Jason Carter 47-38% in a head-to-head matchup (although Carter leads in metro-Atlanta and it's basically the really backward parts of the state where Deal piles up his big margins).

The poll shows that the Senate race to replace retiring Saxby Chambliss is also a hodgepodge that defies reason. Anti-Choice extremist Karen Handel seems to be the frontrunner among the Republicans… maybe-- and depending how you look at the numbers. OK, so, keeping in mind, there are no Republican candidates that are objectively better than any of the others and that any of them would go immediately to the bottom of the senatorial barrel, let's look at this hot mess. The 3 percentages are favorable/unfavoranble/never heard of

• Karen Handel- 39/24/21
• David Perdue- 35/20/27
• Michelle Nunn (D)- 31/18/33
• Paul Broun- 31/21/29
• Phil Gingrey- 31/26/26
• Jack Kingston- 30/19/32

I included Michelle Nunn's numbers in that little chart as well, but the primary is May 20 (with a July 22 runoff) and the Republicans still have plenty of time to bash each other up but good before then. Broun, a John Bircher and former drug addict, has been endorsed by Ron Paul and the dangerous radical right Gun Owners of America. David Perdue has been endorsed by his cousin, Sonny, a former Georgia governor. And Handel has been endorsed by Vivien Scott and Betty Price, whose husbands are crazed right-wing congressmen Austin Scott and Tom Price.

Before today's poll, a PPP survey in August showed Gingrey ahead with 25%, followed by Broun with 19%, Kingston with 15%, Handel with 13% and Perdue with 5%. That same poll also showed Nunn beating Broun 41-36%, beating Handel 40-38%, beating Kingston 40-38%, tying Gingrey 41-41%, and tying Perdue 40-40%. At the time, Tom Jensen wrote that PPP's first poll showed the race was competitive and PPP President Dean Debnam said "The Georgia Senate race starts out as a toss up. None of the Republican candidates are particularly well known or well liked to begin the race. Meanwhile the Nunn name still carries a lot of weight with voters in the state."

Since then Gingrey, Broun and Kingston has made repeated missteps and shocked people with their extremism and obvious lack of qualifications for the job. Just this week, for example, Kingston, who had insisted school children from poor families be put to work because "there is no such thing as free lunch," was exposed for taking thousands of dollars for his own free lunches… and dinners from lobbyists and other trying to bribe him to vote for their own special interests, something Kingston is notorious for in Washingtion.

As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, Kingston has traveled to four continents, racking up $24,313 in per diem allowances. While the allowances were allotted for more than just lunch money, midday meals were included.

…Beyond taxpayer dollars, Kingston has enjoyed many free meals on the campaign trail. WSAV 3 reported $145,391.26 in expensed meals and catering for campaign events, $26,066.45 of which was charged at the Republican Club of Capitol Hill, an exclusive, members only venue.

"Isn't this a free lunch?" a WSAV 3 reporter asked Kingston.

"This is what we need in America," Kingston responded. "We need workfare over welfare. I learned a lot when I was 14 and 15 years old doing chores inside and outside the household and as a result i grew up with a good work ethic. ... It's hard in today's society to have a discussion where you want to challenge the status quo because of the 'I gotcha' politics."

It's going to be a long campaign. And to put it in a little context, let me go back to the healthcare reform that 57% of Georgia voters seem to say they want-- albeit while voting for political leaders who solemnly swear to prevent them from having it. According to a report from the House Ways and Means Committee, repealing the Affordable Care Act-- which all the Georgia Republicans advocate-- would be a catastrophe for the state's residents. Thanks, the report asserts, to the Affordable Care Act, in Georgia:

• 2,202,000 individuals on private insurance have gained coverage for at least one free preventive health care 
service such as a mammogram, birth control, or an immunization in 2011 and 2012. In the first eleven months of 2013 alone, an additional 728,900 people with Medicare have received at least one preventive service at no out of pocket cost.

• The up to 4,324,000 individuals with pre-existing conditions such as asthma, cancer, or diabetes-- including up to 613,000 children-- will no longer have to worry about being denied coverage or charged higher prices because of their health status or history.

• Approximately 2,036,000 Georgians have gained expanded mental health and substance use disorder benefits and/or federal parity protections.

• 1,699,000 uninsured Georgians will have new health insurance options through Medicaid or private health plans in the Marketplace.

• As a result of new policies that make sure premium dollars work for the consumer, not just the insurer, in the past year insurance companies have sent rebates averaging $82 per family to approximately 247,900 consumers.

• In the first ten months of 2013, 94,400 seniors and people with disabilities have saved on average $875 on prescription medications as the health care law closes Medicare’s so-called “donut hole.”

• 123,000 young adults have gained health insurance because they can now stay on their parents’ health plans until age 26.

• Individuals no longer have to worry about having their health benefits cut off after they reach a lifetime limit on benefits, and starting in January, 3,317,000 Georgians will no longer have to worry about annual limits, either.

• Health centers have received $102,945,000 to provide primary care, establish new sites, and renovate existing centers to expand access to quality health care. Georgia has approximately 175 health center sites, which served about 321,000 individuals in 2012.

Which Georgia Extremist Will Out-Extreme All The Others?

Republican voters seem more and more insane lately-- like in the last decade. No one believes in all the trumped up "scandals" Republican congressional obstructionists are pushing out to a media desperate for fireworks except GOP voters. And in the Old Confederate states, the Republican base is far crazier than the representatives they elect (except for a few like Louie Gohmert, Paul Broun, Phil Gingrey and domestic terrorist suspect Steve Stockman). And speaking of Paul Broun and Phil Gingrey...

Those two crackpots are among a gaggle of crackpots running for the Republican nomination for the open Georgia Senate seat. They're all running to the extreme right-wing fringes, the lunatics who vote in the Republican primaries. And their antics are turning off mainstream voters and independents. The latest polling in Georgia shows the main candidates bunched up together and "undecided" (which can also be interpreted as "none of the above") way ahead.

• Jack Kingston- 17.61%
• Phil Gingrey- 15.98%
• Karen Handel- 15.81%
• Paul Broun- 14.14%
• David Perdue- 5.77%
• Undecided- 30.69%

And the more radical and extreme the candidate the GOP primary comes up with, the more likely Sam Nunn's daughter, Michelle Nunn, will snatch the seat from the Republicans. Nunn is competitive polling wise, and would beat former Secretary of State Karen Handel hands down. But is she going to run? Sunday she was the big buzz-- along with Obama-- at an Atlanta DSCC fundraiser. Michael Bennet (D-CO), chair of the DSCC said "We believe Georgia presents us with the greatest opportunity for a pickup." And, needless to say, all the Republican crackpots have, for example, come out against the bipartisan immigration reform bill. They know well who the Know Nothing primary voters are.

"We absolutely must deal with it but we don't need any new laws," Broun said. "The solution is to secure the borders, both north and south."

"We absolutely are going to be opposed and stand strong against any amnesty," Gingrey said. "My idea about solving this problem is to enforce the laws that are currently on the books."

Gingrey and Handel both said the current proposal was too similar to a 2007 immigration bill that ultimately failed.

"We are about to have deja vu all over again," Handel said. "Only in Washington could the same failed policies be put forward as 'reform.' We need to secure the borders now before we do anything else."

Kingston also called for the end of automatic citizenship for those born in the United States. "When you come to America as a visitor and if you have a child, that child should not automatically be an American citizen," Kingston said. "We are one of the few nations left that still have that relic on the books. It was needed at one time but it is not needed anymore."

The Governor asked them not to behave like the Hatfields and the McCoys and destroy each other's chances. Broun, a former drug addict and a current John Bircher, is probably the most extremist of the candidates, though not by much. When he first entered the race, he claimed he was the "only" conservative running and that the others are, essentially, poseurs. "I believe in the original intent of the Constitution," he clucked. "There’s no other candidate that’s going to get into this race that does. I believe in the Constitution as the Founding Fathers meant it. They believe in a Constitution where government finds all the solutions for all the problems. So there are big differences between me and all the other candidates that can get in this race."

Can The Democrats Take A Senate Seat In Georgia? With Barrow Out, It's A Real Possibility

If you thought the Dems got lucky with Akin & Mourdock, wait 'til you meet Paul Broun

Teabaggers decided right-wing senator Saxby Chambliss wasn't pure enough-- after all, with a 1.95 lifetime ProgressivePunch score (and a ZERO for 2013), look how much more conservative he could be voting-- so they threatened him with a primary and he decided to retire. That leaves a Senate seat in a very Republican state up for grabs. Chambliss won in 2008 with 57.5% and in November Romney beat Obama 53-46%. Very Republican-- but not very, very Republican. Chambliss probably wouldn't have had to break a sweat to win reelection. But the teabaggers screwed that up for the RNSC. So now they have two declared candidates, two of the most certifiably insane extremists in Congress-- Paul Straight-From-The-Pit-Of-Hell Broun and Phil Akin-Was-Right Gingrey-- another lunatic (anti-Choice sociopath Karen Handel) threatening to jump in, a more respected right-winger (Tom Price) pulling out and Rove's handpicked Establishment candidate, Steve Kingston, under fore by the extremists for not being conservative enough for the party base. Broun had Kingston in his sites when he said the other Republicans running don't believe in the Constitution, "I believe in the original intent of the Constitution. There’s no other candidate that’s going to get into this race that does. I believe in the Constitution as the Founding Fathers meant it. They believe in a Constitution where government finds all the solutions for all the problems. So there are big differences between me and all the other candidates that can get in this race."

I wish there was more of a difference. But the 4 of them are all crackpots-- and that creates an opening for the Democrats, particularly a Democrat with a respected and beloved name in the state: Nunn. The Republicans, who were dying for weak, pusillanimous Blue Dog shill John Barrow to run, are petrified that Sam Nunn's daughter, Michelle Nunn, will run instead. (The Wall Street Journal announced Barrow's decision to not run as good news for Georgia Democrats.) The DSCC tested candidates against the least extremist of the 4 GOP extremists, Jack Kingston, and they found that Michelle Nunn would have the best chance to win the seat.

The March poll of 800 respondents found Kingston leading Nunn 33 percent to 32 percent, while Kingston led Barrow 33-29.

Barrow announced Tuesday that he would not run for Senate after months of flirting with the idea, and indications are that Nunn's refusal to step aside in a primary was a major reason for his decision. Democrats are now trying to spin Nunn as the superior candidate who can better turn out the base, while Republicans are crowing about how the battle-tested Barrow turned down the DSCC and dampened Democrats' dreams of taking over the seat after the retirement of Republican Saxby Chambliss.

...Nunn, daughter of the former senator Sam Nunn, is the CEO of the volunteer service organization Points of Light. She has not run for office before and is mostly a blank slate to Georgia voters, according to the DSCC poll. She was viewed favorably by 14 percent of respondents and unfavorably by 5 percent. Barrow stood at 18-10 favorable/unfavorable, identical to Kingston and the latest sign of how little-known these members of Congress are outside their districts.

After unspecified "positive and negative messaging" about the candidates was read to the respondents, Nunn pulled ahead of Kingston 37 percent to 34 percent, while Kingston led Barrow 33-32. The AJC was not provided any additional information about the poll, such as how the Democrats performed against the other Republicans in the race.

POLLING UPDATE

On Monday Better Georgia released a poll showing the GOP extremists make the open Senate seat very mich up for grabs. Michelle Nunn would beat Handel substantially and is in position to beat any of the crackpot congressmen the Republicans are looking at.

The survey shows a Republican advantage of 4 percentage points before either party has chosen its candidate. It also shows that in a crowded primary, Republican voters favor the most conservative candidate, Congressman Paul Broun.

Michelle Nunn, the founder and CEO of an international non-profit and the daughter of former United States Senator Sam Nunn, performs best when compared with potential GOP candidate Karen Handel, former Georgia Secretary of State. In a head-to-head match-up of the two women, Nunn draws 47 percent to Handel’s 39 percent. Nunn is tied with Congressman Phil Gingrey at 46 percent for each candidate. The most moderate Republican candidate, Congressman Jack Kingston, performs best against Nunn, 48 percent to 42 percent. None of the Republican candidates top the 50 percent mark when tested against Nunn.

“Georgia voters are growing increasingly tired of status quo conservatives who put ideology before common sense solutions to Georgia’s biggest challenges,” said Better Georgia Executive Director Bryan Long.  “Georgia is simply not a ‘red state’ where the most conservative candidate is assured victory. Anyone who believes otherwise simply has not looked at the data.”

Will Republicans Manage To Nominate Unelectable Crackpots In South Dakota And Georgia?

Straight from the pit of hell

Georgia and South Dakota are both pretty red-- Romney won the former with 58% and the latter with 53%-- so the value of a Republican senatorial nomination is massive. Either should sure worth a lot more than a GOP nomination in New York or Hawaii. So you can count on some internal bickering... if not bloodletting. Yesterday we took a quick look at the struggle between Democrat Brendon Johnson and Blue Dog Stephanie Herseth Sandlin for the Democratic nomination for the now open South Dakota senate seat (from which Brendon's dad Tim is retiring). But the battle for the South Dakota GOP nod is going to be a lot more... animated.

The far right doesn't like former Governor Mike Rounds, the heavy favorite, because they consider him too mainstream at a time when the job is moving towards outright reactionaries and nihilists. Jim DeMint's Senate Conservative Fund is, as usual, leading the way. The little freak he has running it for him, Matt Hoskins, attacked Rounds as “another moderate Republican who won’t fight for our freedoms... There’s already one Republican candidate in the race that we know we cannot support-- former Governor Mike Rounds... As governor, Mike Rounds raised taxes, increased the state’s bureaucracy, supported President Obama’s stimulus program, and backed bailouts for Wall Street banks. This is the not the record of a conservative.” They seem to be encouraging Kristi Noem, the state's one House Member, to run. She fits the more extremist, obstructionist mold DeMint is looking for. Her ProgressivePunch crucial vote score for the 113th Congress is ZERO, just the kind of radical right ideologue DeMint likes best.

And in Georgia the fight for the nomination is going to make South Dakota look like Patty Cakes. First of all there are no mainstream conservatives there. Everyone is so far right, they're off the scale. The incumbent senator who's retiring, Saxby Chambliss, is one of the most right-wing senators in the history of the Senate but he was chased out of office by the DeMint types who felt they could get someone even more extreme. And they probably will. All the potential nominees are crackpots from the lunatic fringe. The first in, for example, is Congressman Paul Broun, a John Birch Society member who-- as a member of the House Science Committee has denounced all scientific thought as "lies straight from the pit of Hell."

Yesterday Ashley Judd's tweets that she wouldn't challenge senatorial turtle Miss McConnell in Kentucky, all but buried the candidacy announcement of Georgia's second craziest congressman, Phil Gingrey a squishy little punk best known for humiliating himself and his constituents by fellating Rush Limbaugh live on the air in 2009. More recently he agreed with Todd Akin that lady parts don't allow rape victims to get pregnant. That would be almost funny-- except that he's a)- an obstetrician and b)- running for the Senate... the U.S. Senate. And so are another handful of far right ignorant rabble rousers.

In a nasty little preemptive move typical of his cutthroat nature, Broun attacked his 3 GOP colleagues-- Gingrey plus Jack Kingston and Tom Price (all presumed candidates)-- by implying he's the only one who believes in the Constitution. “I believe in the original intent of the Constitution. There’s no other candidate that’s going to get into this race that does. I believe in the Constitution as the Founding Fathers meant it. They believe in a Constitution where government finds all the solutions for all the problems. So there are big differences between me and all the other candidates that can get in this race.”

Gingrey, 70, isn't just extreme in his politics. He's also extreme in his vanity and is known for dying his hair and wearing makeup-- and not just on TV appearance like the one below:

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GOP Doctors Caucus-- A Roomful Of Crackpots

If you never heard of the GOP Doctors Caucus before, you probably did on Friday, thanks to the deranged ravings of it's crazy co-chairman, right-wing Georgia psychopath Phil Gingrey, an obstetrician.

Rep. Phil Gingrey, an ob-gyn and chairman of the GOP Doctors Caucus, explained to the audience at the Cobb Chamber of Commerce breakfast Thursday in Smyrna, Ga., that Akin wasn’t far off on the science when he said rape victims rarely get pregnant because their bodies have “ways of shutting that whole thing down.”

“I’ve delivered lots of babies, and I know about these things. It is true,” Gingrey said, according to the Marietta Daily Journal. “We tell infertile couples all the time that are having trouble conceiving because of the woman not ovulating, ‘Just relax. Drink a glass of wine. And don’t be so tense and uptight because all that adrenaline can cause you not to ovulate.’ So he was partially right wasn’t he?”

“But the fact that a woman may have already ovulated 12 hours before she is raped, you’re not going to prevent a pregnancy there by a woman’s body shutting anything down because the horse has already left the barn, so to speak,” Gingrey continued. “And yet the media took that and tore it apart.”

Gingrey also defended Akin’s theory that women who claim to be rape victims are often lying about it.

“‘Look, in a legitimate rape situation’-- and what he meant by legitimate rape was just look, someone can say I was raped: a scared-to-death 15-year-old that becomes impregnated by her boyfriend and then has to tell her parents, that’s pretty tough and might on some occasion say, ‘Hey, I was raped.’ That’s what he meant when he said legitimate rape versus non-legitimate rape,” Gingrey said. “I don’t find anything so horrible about that.”

Gingrey also addressed the campaign season comments by GOP senate nominee Richard Mourdock in Indiana, who said that pregnancy from rape “is something that God intended.”

“Mourdock basically said ‘Look, if there is conception in the aftermath of a rape, that’s still a child, and it’s a child of God, essentially,” Gingrey is quoted as saying Thursday.

Gingrey noted that the comments by Akin and Mourdock were “part of the reason the Dems still control the Senate” after the 2012 elections. He defended Mourdock as well.

This particular front in the Republican War Against Women worked out really badly for them in the last cycle. Mourdock and Akin both lost their Senate bids-- and in pretty states that Obama lost badly-- and the Democrats won quite a few more seats than anyone expected. Among the Republicans who lost House seats were GOP Doctors Caucus members Nan Hayworth (R-NY) and Ann Marie Buerkle (R-NY). Some of the House Republicans' most colorful members belong to the Doctors Caucus, including drug addict John Bircher Paul Broun, the date rape doctor from Tennessee, Scott DesJarlais and Lord Boustany, the loony Louisiana thoracic surgeon with more malpractice suits pending against him than any Member of Congress in history. That isn't why he's generally considered a crackpot though. Lord Charles bought a title of English nobility online from a scam artist-- one for himself and one for Lady Boustany. You want him doing cardiothoracic vascular surgery on you?

All of the Members oppose Medicare, all voted to repeal Obamacare and none are even vaguely mainstream in their approach to public health policy (or any other policy). Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), a podiatrist who beat Mean Jean Schmidt in the Republican primary and Ted Yoho (R-FL), a veterinarian who beat Cliff Stearns in their primary battle, are the newest members. Many Republicans are mortified that Gingrey opened up this can of worms for them again and the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists was only one of several medical groups which warned people to ignore Gingrey's insane rant.

The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said adrenaline wouldn't have any impact on ovulation and said rape is "never legitimate."

"Rape, defined as any genital, oral or anal penetration without consent, is never legitimate," ACOG said in a statement. "While chronic stress, for example from extreme exposure to famine or war, may decrease a woman's ability to conceive, there is no scientific evidence that adrenaline, experienced in an acute stress situation, has an impact on ovulation."

Less tone-deaf Republicans are pulling the hair out of their heads as the congressional yahoos like Gingrey just keep hurling bombs towards American women and further eroding their trust in the Republican Party. "This is actually pretty simple. If you're about to talk about rape as anything other than a brutal and horrible crime, stop," said Republican strategist Kevin Madden, who was a senior adviser in Mitt Romney's campaign.

Does Rush Limbaugh Still Run The Republican Party?

Penny Nance is an unhinged fanatic from the dark fringes of the American Taliban. She heads the hate group Concerned Women for America, which is only concerned with a kind of cultish extremism that has no place in America. She would however have felt right at home as a leader of the Bund Deutscher Mädel (the League of German Maidens), the Werk Glaube und Schönheit (the Belief and Beauty Society), the Frauenwerk or any of the organizations that made up the Nazi Women's League headed by the Penny Nance of her day, Gertrud Scholtz-Klink. When Hitler insisted that for the German woman her "world is her husband, her family, her children, and her home" he was perfectly in tune with the Taliban-- the one in Afghanistan, the one in Saudi Arabia and, of course, the one right here in America.

Wednesday Nance was savaging Michael Steele and demanding he resign as head of the RNC. She argues that "The new RNC chairman needs to be both a fiscal and social conservative, and must represent the party in a professional and engaging way... There is simply too much at stake for the Republicans to keep Michael Steele as the RNC chairman. If the party wants to maintain its gains among conservatives and independents, the GOP needs to start gearing for the 2012 election now. There is no time to waste on party politics and the crisis communications that have been commonplace at the RNC since Steele took over."

While the GOP picked up historic numbers of seats in this past election, it was in spite of, not because of, Michael Steele. In an unbelievable, and oftentimes comical, reign of just two years as RNC chairman, Steele managed to embarrass his party through his gaffe-prone media appearances.  He was specifically tasked with helping to bring African-Americans into the party, but when asked if there were any good reasons why they should vote Republican, Steele said they don’t really have a good reason. He also flip-flopped on his opposition to abortion during an interview with GQ Magazine and slammed conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, resulting in an embarrassing showdown (which Steele lost).

It wasn't as stinging towards Steele as the resignation letter from his own former political director, Gentry Collins (real name) but then again, Nance isn't running for RNC head the way Collins is (not to mention ex-Michigan GOP leader Saul Anuzis, Maria Cino (one of Boehner's favorite lobbyists), Ann Wagner, Norm Coleman, Wisconsin GOP Chairman Reince Priebus, former RNC Chair Mike Duncan, Connecticut GOP Chairman Chris Healy, California GOP Chairman Ron Nehring, some KKK leader from South Carolina and half a dozen other kooks and nuts).

But it's funny that Nance brought up the Rush Limbaugh incident. Remember how the feisty Steel reacted when someone pointed out on CNN that Rush Limbaugh is the de facto head of the Republican Party? Steele went nuts, insisting: “I’m the de facto leader of the Republican Party... Let’s put it into context here. Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer. Rush Limbaugh, his whole thing is entertainment. Yes, it’s incendiary. Yes, it’s ugly.” You probably remember what happened next, since it has been repeated ad infinitum by Republican toadies who forgot someone might be listening. Dave Neiwert and John Amato captured it in their most recent book, Over The Cliff:

The next day, Limbaugh launched a brutal verbal assault on
Michael Steele:

"I’m not in charge of the Republican Party, and I don’t want to be. I would be embarrassed to say that I’m in charge of the Republican Party in a sad-sack state that it’s in. If I were chairman of the Republican Party, given the state that it’s in, I would quit... Republicans and conservatives are sick and tired of being talked down to, they’re sick and tired of being lectured to. And until you show some understanding and respect for who they are, you’re gonna have a tough time rebuilding your party."

Steele, too, abjectly apologized, telling Politico in a telephone interview: “My intent was not to go after Rush-- I have enormous respect for Rush Limbaugh... I was maybe a little bit inarticulate...There was no attempt on my part to diminish his voice or his leadership.” Meanwhile, there were whispers from anonymous “Republican advisers to Congress” that unless Steele shut his trap, there would be a special session of the RNC to remove him. Steele said no more about Limbaugh, other than to praise him.

And as Amato and Neiwert pointed out, Steele is far from the only Republican politician who grovels in front of Limbaugh. There was a really funny dust-up between Limbaugh, Boehner and one of Boehner's lackeys:

Representative John Boehner of Ohio, in an interview with right-wing radio host Hugh Hewitt, denied that his ideas came from Limbaugh: “I like Rush, but, he’s a talk show host, and I’m in the policy-making business.”

Limbaugh responded by blasting him as weak: “He’s [Obama is] obviously more frightened of me than he is Mitch McConnell.

He is more frightened of me than he is of, say, John Boehner, which doesn’t say much about our party.”

Representative Phil Gingrey of Georgia came to Boehner’s defense in these remarks to Politico:

I mean, it’s easy if you’re Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh or even sometimes Newt Gingrich to stand back and throw bricks. You don’t have to try to do what’s best for your people and your party. You know you’re just on these talk shows and you’re living well and plus you stir up a bit of controversy and gin the base and that sort of thing.

The next morning, Gingrey issued a retraction, declaring that he saw “eye to eye with Rush,” and that afternoon was on Limbaugh’s show, abjectly apologizing:

"Rush, thank you so much. I thank you for the opportunity, of course this is not exactly the way I wanted to come on... Mainly, I want to express to you and all your listeners my very sincere regret for those comments I made yesterday to Politico... I clearly ended up putting my foot in my mouth on some of those comments... I regret those stupid comments."

I wonder if they'll run all the bills they try to pass by Limbaugh before they introduce them. I just ran across this wonderful old video from a couple years ago that seems to be as relevant as anything right now, especially on a nice quiet Black Friday like today:

Phil Gingrey (R-GA)-- A Man Of The People

How utterly embarrassing for Georgia, especially Rome and Marietta. Haven't they suffered enough humiliation down there?

OK, WE KNOW THE REPUGS CALL US DIRTY HIPPIES BUT THAT'S WHAT THEY CALL OUR WOUNDED SOLDIERS TOO????

One of the most extreme right-wing war mongers in the entire Republican caucus, Phil Gingrey (R-GA) is blaming the wounded soldiers for the disgrace at Walter Reed. (He also blames the media for exposing the situation.) People who heard him say "if you leave food around in a motel room or a dorm room at a college, you're going to get some mice show up at some point in time" weren't sure if he was joking or serious.

The Center For American Progress has a tape of Gingrey's anti-servicemen rampage. What is it with Bush and Cheney and these damn Republicans who expect young American men and women to go fight and die in Iraq and Afghanistan without proper training or proper equipment and then think they can treat them like trash when they come back to the U.S., wounded because of the lack of training and equipment?

I just can't understand what kind of people-- let alone 71% of his constituents-- vote for a man like Phil Gingrey... or any of these heartless right-wing thugs. What's it going to take for people to wake up-- even in Georgia? Posing in front of an American flag doesn't make someone a patriot and calling the invasion and occupation of Iraq on the Colbert Report "the greatest America war," doesn't give you the right to kick the men and women who are fighting in to the curb when they're wounded. Gingrey, who, bizarrely, referred to himself as a "Georgia peach," is on the House Armed Services Committee and has the #1 worst voting record on Iraq of any congressman, anywhere. He also has the #1 worst voting record of any congressman when it comes to health care for veterans and active military personnel. Yeah, some peach... he should be thrown off his committee immediately and someone should let the poor, deluded folks back in northwest Georgia's 11th CD know what an ass they have representing them.