The Neocons are congregating in Florida, awaiting the ascension of Jesus of Bain Capital on Thursday evening. But many of the party faithful are lamenting the fact that the media is focusing more on Rep. Todd Akin's "legitimate rape" lunacy and lack of an 8th grader's understanding of human reproduction than the dog-n-pony show in downtown Tampa.
And why shouldn't they? Akin's views are shared by VEEP wannabe Paul Ryan, and the fact is that many of the House Republicans espouse odd ideologies more suited to Bellevue than the Beltway. Mainstream right-wing movers and shakers are tasked with the containment of the more rabid in their ranks to keep them off the public stage until after the election. Akin's beliefs -- bizarre and outrageous as they may be -- are hardly the oddest ducks in the pond.
Who are the GOP House members you won't be hearing in Tampa this week?
It's doubtful anybody will hand a mic to Mac Thornberry of Texas. Despite his state's severe drought and its crippling effects on agriculture, he's a vocal climate change science denier, suggesting that "praying for rain" is all that's necessary to solve the whole global climate change thingy.
Also in Texas, you'll remember Rep. Joe L. Barton's apology to the polluting BP oil executives for making them testify at a hearing on the largest oil spill in US history. Barton also eschews pointy-headed, environmentally friendly, petrol alternatives, like wind energy, claiming that wind is "God's way of balancing heat," so we better not touch it, lest we make the earth even hotter by disturbing the sacred breath of God -- or something. You can't make this stuff up.
Representative John Shimkus of Illinois is a similar Luddite, claiming that there's nothing to fear in the rising planetary temperatures and resulting looming ecological disasters -- it's just part of the End of Days as foretold in the Bible. Amen. See? We've got nothing to fear, it's just God's will that we all boil to death. ... Shimkus is not on the convention speaker list, but he is the chairman of the House subcommittee on the Environment and the Economy.
The bonkers blathering of Rep. Michele Bachmann is now legendary. Her disdain for any non-Biblical wisdom is evident in everything from her claim that a vaccine to prevent cervical cancer in women could lead to mental retardation, that there are no studies that show co2 is harmful to the environment, that gay marriage is the biggest threat to people in Minnesota, that the people of Iraq should reimburse the US for what they've done to us (?!), and that the Lord Almighty told her to run for office. That's just the more recent stuff.
Also notably absent under the GOP Big Top is one of Florida's very own -- Rep. Allen West -- who is being kept under wraps lest he start blabbering about how liberal women neuter American men, thereby contributing to the national debt (don't ask...). Or that Democrats should leave America as they are trying to reinstitute slavery.
This is just the short list. The Republican House is choc-a-bloc with a variety of mixed nuts, many in leadership positions. Guess that's what happens when your titular leader likes his Merlot with a little more Merlot
Gotta feel sorry for the GOParty Leaders, so difficult to keep that many crazy skeletons in the closet. But should anyone think Akin is just some fringe party kook -- he's actually a standard-bearer.
