Look: I am eager to learn stuff I don't know--which requires actively courting and posting smart disagreement.

But as you will understand, I don't like to post things that mischaracterize and are aimed to mislead.

-- Brad Delong

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Saturday, December 18, 2010

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.
.

7 comments:

Jerry Critter said...

The Boner once again confirms that republicans purposely appoint incompetent people to positions of importance and power to prove that government does not work.

Boner -- the Peter Principle in action.

nanute said...

In the spirit of the Christmas season: "Jesus Jumping Christ on a Pogo Stick!" I expect to hear that she'll be requesting the installation of the "cone of silence", in the briefing room. I'm going to call her Maxswella Smart from here on in. In light of her recent comments regarding tax cuts and deficits, the upside is that she wasn't appointed to Ways and Means.Here's a quote from an interview on the Today show last week: Or as she puts it, cutting taxes shouldn't be defined as part of a deficit, and only spending should be viewed through this lens.

"I don't agree with that definition," Bachmann told Meredith Viera on the Today Show. "When people keep their own money, that's considered a deficit to government, but it's not a deficit to your pocket or mine, so I think it's important that people can keep their money." WASFF!

Litzz11@yahoo.com said...

This will be fun. I eagerly look forward to investigations into FEMA camps, birth certificates, Obama's church, etc. etc. Comedy gold, I tell you! We'll have two years to criticize this lunatic and see her replaced in 2012.

Jazzbumpa said...

Jerry -
Last sentence is priceless. Well played, sir!

nanute -
Not a bad plan, but it's just not the same without Barbara Feldon.

Beale -
I hope I'm wrong and you're right.

Cheers! (or somethin')
JzB

BadTux said...

For his next act, Boner shall select Shakes the Clown for the Sobriety Committee...

- Badtux the Snarky Penguin

Peter Kurze said...

I have my own pitiful theory about this, that it actually represents a stroke of genius. If you consider what must be the disheveled state of Bachmann's fevered brain, the idea might be to pack in such a bunch of sensitive information and place her in such fear of violating the restrictions on its dissemination, that she, unable to separate the qualified information from the general swirl of confusion, will just STFU.

Two big problems with this theory though: It supposes that Sir John of Orange is actually smarter than a box of hammers and the other problem is that it supposes Bachmann is capable of recognizing the existence of a line that should not be crossed.

BadTux said...

Sir John of Orange is not only dumber than a box of hammers, he's also dumber than a box of oranges. So your notion doesn't hold either hammers or oranges, much less water. As for what he's up to, well: clearly he's just rewarding Ms. Bachmann for her sterling service to the cause of mainstreaming the mentally insane.

- Badtux the Snarky Penguin