John the Boner Has a Hyperactive Sense of Irony . . .

Or, alternatively, a total and absolute tone-deafness to irony.

There are times when, looking at a situation in a vacuum, you just can't tell.

But, conservatism being what it is, and the Boner being what HE is, I vote for the later.

Holy flaming brass icon of Moloch!

Rep. Michele Bachmann, one of the most outspoken conservatives in the House, has won an appointment to the secretive House Intelligence Committee. 

The move by incoming Speaker John Boehner to put Bachmann on the panel surprised Republican insiders . . .

Yeah.  It surprised me, too - dumber than a god-damned stump Michelle Bachmann on the for-God's-sake INTELLIGENCE Committe. 

OK - one can easily find loony characters in congress (in-coming senator bat-shit crazy Dr. Paul the lesser, and his belfry-soiling patriarch, long time Texas representative Dr. Paul the greater spring readily to mind.)  But for an outre blend of insanity and stupidity - and I'm talking mega-dumb, at the Sarah Palin level - I don't think Michelle Bachmann has a peer.

Upon further reflection, though, it shouldn't surprise me at all.  On the one hand, the big lesson of the Cheney-Rumsfeld administration was that it is literally not possible, when thinking about the Repugnicants, to be cynical enough.  On the other, look at the Rethugs history of showing utter contempt for this country, it's citizens, government and institutions by putting simpletons, ciphers, fools, and cardboard cutouts into positions of grave or potentially grave responsibility:  Ronald Reagan, J. Danforth Quayle, George W. Bush, Bobby Jindal, Sarah Palin. 

Members of the Intelligence panel receive classified briefings in a secure conference room in the Capitol, and are sworn to secrecy about most of the committee's activities.

"If you're looking for media and controversy, that's not the committee to be on," said a Republican familiar with the discussions about Bachmann's appointment.

There is not enough schadenfeude in the entire expanding universe for me to extract even a single microscopic grain of amusement from this horribly sad event.

I have uttered this despairing phrase so much that I was going to drop it from my lexicon, due to overuse.

But - one more time:  WASF!

Now, I must go hug TWO squids.

H/T to the LW, whom I will love forever, no matter how much bad news she brings.
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