And The Crazy Things Conservatives Have Said This Week Are Piling Up
Is it just us, or does this week seem to already have a particularly large number of right-wing conservatives saying crazy things? Here are six of the most unfortunate:
1. Todd Akin Says He And Joe McCarthy Were Both Victims Of The Liberal Media. Remember Todd Akin? The failed Missouri Senate candidate has recently re-emerged in the public sphere to defend his claim in 2012 that women who were victims of “legitimate rape” could not get pregnant. In a phone interview with St. Louis Dispatch, the former congressman compared himself sympathetically to Sen. Joe McCarthy (R-WI), who spearheaded the infamous Communist witch hunt in the 1950s.
2. Rupert Murdoch Says Climate Change Should Be Approached With Great Skepticism. The chairman and CEO of News Corporation — one of the world’s largest media conglomerates, which includes Fox News and The Wall Street Journal — reflected candidly on climate change in a wide-ranging interview Sunday, saying he thought it should be approached with great skepticism. “At the moment the north pole is melting but the south pole is getting bigger,” he said. “Things are happening. How much of it are we doing, with emissions and so on? As far as Australia goes? Nothing in the overall picture.” Murdoch went on to argue that “we shouldn’t be building windmills and all that rubbish.”
3. Congresswoman Urges GOP To Bring Policy Discussion ‘Down To A Woman’s Level’. Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) is a second-term Congresswoman and chair of the Republican Women’s Policy Committee. In a panel on women and the Republican Party, she suggested that the best way for the party to appeal to women is to talk down to them. “Men do tend to talk about things on a much higher level,” Ellmers said. “Many of my male colleagues, when they go to the House floor, you know, they’ve got some pie chart or graph behind them and they’re talking about trillions of dollars and how, you know, the debt is awful and, you know, we all agree with that.” But, she went on to say, “We need our male colleagues to understand that if you can bring it down to a woman’s level and what everything that she is balancing in her life — that’s the way to go.”
4. Congressional Candidate: Most Energy Problems ‘Are Caused By Environmentalists’. George Cicotte, a Republican candidate for Washington’s fourth congressional district, said at a candidate forum Saturday that if environmentalists hadn’t “stopped nuclear in its tracks” in the 1970s, there would be a lot less greenhouse gas pollution today. “Really, when we talk about energy problems, most of the energy problems are caused by environmentalists,” he said. “Wind energy? I’ll be honest — give me a break.”
5. GOP Congressman: Kids At Border “Gang Members” From Culture Of “Rape”. A Florida Republican congressman called undocumented immigrant children at the border not children at all but gang affiliated persons from a culture of thievery, murder, and violence.
“A lot of these children … quote-unquote … ya know, the first caller mentioned it, ya know, they’re gang members. They’re gang affiliated,” Florida Republican Rep. Rich Nugent said on WOCA radio Monday.
6. TX GOP Lawmaker: Teens He Saw At U.S. Border Looked Like ‘Threat’. The Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security went on “Fox News Sunday” this morning and told host Brit Hume that many of the teenagers he saw at the United States-Mexican border facilities looked like a “threat.” Representative Michael McCaul (TX) said that “it’s very heart-wrenching as a father to see that — mothers with their babies.” He then added, “I also saw some 17-year-olds that I thought looked more like a threat.” McCaul did acknowledge that these teenagers were “caught in the middle, between [administration] policy and what the drug traffickers are doing in Central America.”
SMH.
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