Welcome to “This Week In Crazy,” The National Memo’s weekly update on the wildest attacks, conspiracy theories, and other loony behavior from the increasingly unhinged right wing. Starting with number five:
5: Judson Phillips
After Tea Party Nation founder and walking Godwin’s Law example Judson Phillips compared liberals to Nazis last week, the National Jewish Democratic Council called on Tea Party senator Rand Paul to denounce the attack.
In Phillips’ opinion, that could only mean one thing: The folks at the National Jewish Democratic Council are Nazis, too.
In a deranged email to supporters, Phillips explained that by denouncing him, the NJDC “actually proved my point. Liberals do not want to discuss or debate issues. They want to silence those who disagree with them.”
“So did the Nazis.”
“Like the book-burning Nazis of the 1930s, the left wants to suppress all dissenting opinion,” Phillips added. With this latest outburst, Phillips has now labeled both his gay and Jewish critics as National Socialists. If any communists have something to say about Tea Party Nation, now would be the time.
4: Missouri Rep. Mike Leara
Republican Missouri state representative Mike Leara has a novel solution to the growing calls for new gun safety measures: Throw anyone who suggests it in prison.
On Sunday, Leara proposed a bill that reads in its entirety: “Any member of the general assembly who proposes a piece of legislation that further restricts the right of an individual to bear arms, as set forth under the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, shall be guilty of a class D felony.”
When pressed on his extreme proposal, Leara explained to Talking Points Memo that his attempt to silence his political opponents is, naturally, about freedom.
“I have no illusions about the bill making it through the legislative process,” he said, “but I want it to be clear that the Missouri House will stand in defense of the people’s Constitutional right to keep and bear arms.”
3: #LiberalTips2AvoidRape
After Colorado state Rep. Joe Salazar (D) inartfully referenced rape in a pro-gun control argument, right-wingers took to Twitter in an attempt to capitalize on the gaffe. The hashtag #LiberalTips2AvoidRape quickly took off, racking up over 25,000 tweets in its first 24 hours.
If the goal was to turn the tide in the “war on women,” it’s not going well:
#LiberalTips2AvoidRape Go for the Democrat politician look. You definitely won’t be raped… twitter.com/Bidenshairplug…
— AdolfJoeBiden (@Bidenshairplugs) February 19, 2013
Making matters worse, Colorado Republicans have now moved on from mocking Salazar to mocking rape victims, by posing for pictures with a fake “rape defense kit.”
One would think that after blowing at least three Senate races by mouthing off about rape, Republicans would learn to keep their crazy views to themselves.
2: Alabama Rep. Mary Sue McClurkin
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Alabama state rep Mary Sue McClurkin continued the Republican Party’s long tradition of deep confusion about biology Tuesday, when she made the following argument in support of a bill that would place extreme restrictions on a woman’s right to choose in Alabama:
“When a physician removes a child from a woman, that is the largest organ in a body,” McClurkin said in an interview Thursday. “That’s a big thing. That’s a big surgery. You don’t have any other organs in your body that are bigger than that.”
Despite McClurkin’s Kevin Swanson-level understanding of the human body (for the record, babies are not, in fact, organs), her anti-abortion bill passed through the Alabama House of Representatives by a 73-23 margin; it now awaits a vote in the state Senate.
1: Tea Party Patriots
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Tea Party Patriots heated up what had been a cold political war in a hurry Tuesday, when it responded to Karl Rove’s new anti-Tea Party PAC by sending out a fundraising email encouraging supporters to “Wipe the Smirk Off Karl Rove’s Face.” And, for no apparent reason, the email also featured the above Photoshop job of Rove wearing the uniform of Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler.
Yes, for those of you keeping score at home, the Tea Party has now accused gays, Jews, President Obama and Karl Rove of being Nazis this week.
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed published shortly after the election, Karl Rove predicted that President Obama’s supposed plan to start a civil war in the Republican Party “will probably fall short.”
Nobody who paid attention during the 2012 election would be surprised to learn that Rove was incredibly wrong.
