Thursday 17 June 2010

You don't have to be batshit crazy to run for US office. . .

But it helps. (And a peculiar name seems to go with the territory too.)

Meet Zack Wamp, Rethuglican candidate for governor of Tennessee. The blog Nashville Scene calls him the Democrats' favorite spittle-flecked Republican.
Zach Wamp says if Tennessee will only outlaw abortion, God will give our state new jobs and a booming economy. According to Wamp, God already has blessed the economy of his hometown of Chattanooga for keeping abortion clinics out of the city.

"Let me tell you one of the reasons why Chattanooga is a very blessed city today, why we have so much new economic development and why we're really an anointed city," the eight-term congressman said at a Tennessee Tea Party convention this summer inGatlinburg.

"There are no abortion clinics in Chattanooga. We made a decision. We made a decision a long time ago that we were going to work as a community to not allow abortion clinics in our city, and I got to tell you we're trying to be after God's own heart. I mean it's hard to say that. Lincoln said, we don't claim to have God on our side but we strive to be on his. And that's the deal here. People who seek righteousness and the right thing are blessed and anointed. Our city is blessed. Our state will be blessed as we remove this scourge and plague of killing innocent children in the womb."

Pro-choice Tennesseeans seem to take such ravings in stride.
Two abortion clinics operate in Nashville "so maybe that's why we had this thousand-year flood," Planned Parenthood's Jeff Teague says.

Teague was asked how Wamp could claim the god-botherers had kept abortion clinics out of Chattanooga.
"He's probably talking about the usual intimidation and terrorist tactics" employed by abortion foes all over the country, Teague says.

Wamp is a Tea-Bagger, of course, pro-gun, anti-immigrant, pro-armed insurrection, anti-climate change, yada-yada.

Oh, look here:
Shortly after leaving college, and after a stay in a substance abuse program, Wamp married his wife Kim and, switching denominations, became an active member in one of Chattanooga's more politically active Baptist churches where he began to hone his political skills and build his religious right political base.

Substance-abusing, anti-abortion, gun nut. And one more thing -- a C Streeter.
In April 2003, the Associated Press reported that Wamp was one of six Congressman living in a Capitol Hill townhouse subsidized by The Family, a national Christian organization.

On July 10, 2009, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported that Wamp admitted in an interview that he and his fellow residents at C Street have all pledged that they won't talk about their private living arrangements, adding that he intends to honor that pledge. When Rachel Maddow repeated the story on her show, Wamp complained, but the Knoxville News Sentinel stated that Wamp did not call them to correct his comment. Maddow responded strongly to Wamp's complaints on air.

Now, from Nevada, running against Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, is another Tea-Bagging whackaloon, Sharron Angle.
Honorable Tea Party voters might ask why Karl Rove has thrown his corrupt, Bush-style politics behind the Sharron Angle campaign for Nevada senator. Honorable Tea Party voters might also ask why Angle comes to Washington, in virtual secrecy, hidden from Nevada voters, to meet with old-style Bush-friendly Republican insiders to study the tricks of the dirty political trade.

I have always tried to be fair to Ron Paul. I agree with Paul on some matters, such as auditing the Fed, and disagree with Paul on other matters. But let’s be clear, agree with him or not, Ron Paul is the real deal, a serious thinker with serious ideas on serious issues.

Sharron Angle is just a political kook who takes weird positions on issues and has been seeking high office unsuccessfully in the past. Can any serious person believe that abortion causes breast cancer? Even many Nevada Republicans are running away from Angle.

Besides believing abortion causes breast cancer, she has a number of other, er, interesting ideas. A homeskooling nut, she wants to dissolve the federal Department of Education. This, apparently, has something to do with the fact that one of her children failed kindergarten.

Gun-nut, pro-armed insurrection, anti-immigrant, anti-climate change, you know, the usual.

I'm guessing, though, that if the good people of Nevada take leave of their senses and elect her, she won't be a C-Streeter. That's exclusively a boyz club.

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