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Thursday
Oct232014
The Commentariat -- Oct. 24, 2014
Internal links removed.
** Tim Egan: "How did we lose our democracy? Slowly at first, and then all at once.... You can trace the Great Breach to Justice Kennedy's words in the 2010 Citizens United case, which gave wealthy, secret donors unlimited power to manipulate American elections. The decision legalized large-scale bribery -- O.K., influence buying -- and ensured that we would never know exactly who was purchasing certain politicians.... At the same time that this court has handed over elections to people who already have enormous power, they've given approval to efforts to keep the powerless from voting.... We Americans have long boasted of having free and fair elections. Thanks to this Supreme Court, they are neither." (See also Open Secrets report, linked under November Elections below.) ...
... Paul Krugman: "... the political right has always been uncomfortable with democracy. No matter how well conservatives do in elections, no matter how thoroughly free-market ideology dominates discourse, there is always an undercurrent of fear that the great unwashed will vote in left-wingers who will tax the rich, hand out largess to the poor, and destroy the economy.... History says they're wrong.... The truth is that a lot of what's going on in American politics is, at root, a fight between democracy and plutocracy. And it's by no means clear which side will win."
Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Denise Grady of the New York Times: "Almost a decade ago, scientists from Canada and the United States reported that they had created a vaccine that was 100 percent effective in protecting monkeys against the Ebola virus. The results were published in a respected journal.... The researchers said tests in people might start within two years, and a product could potentially be ready for licensing by 2010 or 2011. It never happened.... Only now is the vaccine undergoing the most basic safety tests in humans -- with nearly 5,000 people dead from Ebola and an epidemic raging out of control in West Africa. Its development stalled in part because Ebola was rare.... But experts also acknowledge that the lack of follow-up ... reflects a broader failure to produce medicines and vaccines for diseases that afflict poor countries. Most drug companies have resisted spending the enormous sums needed to to develop products useful mostly to poor countries with little ability to pay for them." ...
... AP: "A Doctors Without Borders physician who recently returned to the city after treating Ebola patients in West Africa has tested positive for the virus, according to preliminary test results, city officials said Thursday. He's the fourth confirmed case in the U.S.... Craig Spencer, a 33-year-old emergency room doctor, returned from Guinea more than a week ago.... He was rushed to Manhattan's Bellevue Hospital, a designated Ebola center, and was being treated in a specially built isolation ward." ...
... The New York Times story, by Marc Santora, is here. ...
... New York Times UPDATE, by Marc Santora: "Disease investigators are looking for anyone who came into contact with New York City's first Ebola patient since Tuesday morning, health officials said Friday, adding they were acting out of an abundance of caution to ensure that they find anyone who might have been at risk of infection." ...
... Washington Post UPDATE, by Mark Berman: "The federal government is considering altering the protocols for doctors and health-care workers who return to the United States from West Africa, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said Friday morning.... The possible change would come in the wake of Thursday's diagnosis of Craig Spencer, a doctor who had treated Ebola patients in Guinea, one of the countries at the heart of the Ebola epidemic." ...
... Carl Zimmer of the New York Times: "Unlike Ebola, the influenza virus is truly airborne. And if recent history is any guide, it will kill thousands in the coming months." ...
... Edgar Walters & Jay Root of the Texas Tribune: Texas Gov. Rick Perry "and other Texas leaders are pointing fingers at the Obama administration, asking for a ban on most flights from West Africa and criticizing the U.S. Centers for Disease Control for weak oversight. Meanwhile, a task force Perry assembled is recommending that the state give its health officials more power to quarantine people at risk for infectious disease. Missing from the official talking points is the reality that the state of Texas had full legal power from day one to order travel restrictions or impose quarantines on nurses or other health sector workers ... but did not use that power. Seven people were isolated, but not health care workers.... Perry, who was traveling in Europe when [nurse Amber] Vinson asked Texas health officials for help getting home from Ohio, later blamed the CDC for its 'indefensible' decision allowing Vinson to board a commercial plan. But Vinson's family said she was cleared for travel both by county health officials and the CDC."
Congress May Unite against Nazis. Richard Lardner of the AP: "Legislation to stop suspected Nazi war criminals from receiving U.S. Social Security benefits will be introduced soon, the latest response to an Associated Press investigation that revealed millions of dollars have been paid to former Nazis who were forced out of the United States. Reps. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, will release details of the bill Friday.... Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Bob Casey, D-Pa., said they will propose a similar bill in the Senate." CW: Couldn't they get a Senate Republican co-sponsor? Surely, surely we can finally expect some bipartisan legislation. Via Paul Waldman. ...
... Here's the underlying AP story (October 20), by David Rising.
Juliet Eilperin & David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "The apprehension of a man who jumped the White House fence Wednesday night and was bitten by a guard dog highlighted one of the Secret Service's most effective weapons: its canines. Secret Service agents and K-9 units quickly subdued the latest fence jumper, whom authorities identified as Dominic Adesanya, 23, of Bel Air, Md., after he punched two of the Secret Service dogs, Hurricane and Jordan, authorities say."
Rachel Bade of Politico: "Judge Reggie Walton of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia dismissed almost all counts brought against the [IRS] in two cases, ruling that both were essentially moot now that the IRS granted the groups their tax-exempt status that had been held up for years. Walton, a President George W. Bush-appointee, also said individual IRS officials could not be fined in their individual capacity for allowing such treatment because it could hurt future tax enforcement." The Tea party plaintiffs can appeal.
Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "... government lawyers ... conducted a comprehensive review of the incident [in which FBI agents and lawyers working for Independent Counsel Ken Starr first confronted Monica Lewinsky] in 2000, two years after the encounter. Their findings are contained in a report -- recently obtained by The Washington Post -- that key players had long believed was under court-ordered seal. According to the report, a prosecutor who confronted Lewinsky 'exercised poor judgment and made mistakes in his analysis, planning and execution of the approach.' The report, written by two lawyers appointed to investigate the matter by Robert W. Ray, Starr's successor as independent counsel, concluded that the 'matter could have been handled better.'... The report says prosecutors' actions did not amount to 'professional misconduct' but were more serious than mere mistakes."
Gene Robinson: "The purposes, parameters and prospects of the war [against ISIS] are increasingly uncertain. Americans have a right to be concerned about the whole enterprise.... If degrade-and-destroy is really the goal, I don't see how deeper involvement will be avoided. This has morass written all over it. And morasses, as Obama knows, are dumb."
A. O. Scott, the New York Times film critic, reviews "Citizenfour," Laura Poitras' "partial, partisan view" of Ed Snowden. Scott likes it, describing the film as "a tense and frightening thriller that blends the brisk globe-trotting of the 'Bourne' movies with the spooky, atmospheric effects of a Japanese horror film. And it is also a primal political fable for the digital age, a real-time tableau of the confrontation between the individual and the state."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Hadas Gold & Dylan Byers of Politico: "CNN's Carol Costello apologized on Thursday for joking about a police recording of Bristol Palin." CW: No, Carol, you were right the first time. These people are hilarious rubes, & only not-laughable thing about them is that one of them could have become vice president of the United States. ...
... Contra me, Arit John in Bloomberg, sees Bristol as a victim of sexual assault. But that presumes you believe her screaming, drunken claims. I don't....
... T Bogg of the Raw Story: "Yup. Forget the eyewitness accounts, the police reports, and transcripts taken from a police interview at the scene. It's all bullshit created by a vast leftwing conspiracy out to destroy America's Favorite Snowbilly Family, and Bristol Palin is here to set the record straight because she was there, man."
November Elections
Open Secrets: "Almost $4 billion will be spent for this year's midterm election, the Center for Responsive Politics is projecting. That figure makes this year's election by far the most expensive midterm ever."
Manu Raju of Politico: “'I think Obama being so unpopular is the biggest factor in this election,' said Tom Jensen, a Democratic pollster with the firm Public Policy Polling. 'And I think at the end of the day, it may be too much for a lot of the Democratic Senate candidates to overcome.'... Still, even as the map looks ripe for a GOP Senate takeover, at least 11 battleground states remain within or right at the margin of error, according to an average of public polling. That means if Democrats succeed in driving up turnout as they've vowed to do all year -- particularly in states like Colorado, Iowa and North Carolina -- they could tilt the electorate by one or two points in their direction and win enough races to hold the Senate."
Jonathan Bernstein of Bloomberg View: "There's more evidence Obamacare is here to stay. Take a look at the governor's races in nine states where Republican candidates have a decent chance of replacing Democratic incumbents. All of these states have carried out Medicaid expansions, a major part of the Affordable Care Act. But no matter how strongly these Republican candidates claim to hate Obamacare, check out their websites: Not a single one of the nine reveals any plans to roll back Medicaid expansion."
Alaska. Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: "Former Gov. Sarah Palin (R) is endorsing independent Bill Walker and Democrat Byron Mallott for governor and lieutenant governor of Alaska.... The campaign said Palin endorsed the pair, who last month joined on a single ticket, at a reception she hosted Tuesday night.... The endorsement is ... a snub to the incumbent Republican Gov. Sean Parnell, who served as Palin's lieutenant governor and took over as governor in 2009, after Palin stepped down. But the two have long been at odds over the state's oil tax laws." CW: Sounds like Palin's endorsement of the other guys was inspired by a grudge. That fits.
Georgia. Cameron Joseph of the Hill: "Democrat Michelle Nunn has jumped into a narrow lead in recent polling of the state's open Senate race, a slight edge driven as much by questions about Republican David Perdue's business career as the former charity executive's centrist appeal."...
... Don't get giddy. Nate Silver: "... the race will require a runoff if neither candidate wins 50 percent of the vote Nov. 4. The dynamics of a potential runoff are a bit unclear but probably somewhat unfavorable to Nunn."
Iowa. The Revolutionary. Sam Levine of the Huffington Post: "Joni Ernst, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Iowa, said during an NRA event in 2012 that she would use a gun to defend herself from the government. 'I have a beautiful little Smith & Wesson, 9 millimeter, and it goes with me virtually everywhere,' Ernst said at the NRA and Iowa Firearms Coalition Second Amendment Rally in Searsboro, Iowa. 'But I do believe in the right to carry, and I believe in the right to defend myself and my family -- whether it's from an intruder, or whether it's from the government, should they decide that my rights are no longer important.'" ...
... Paul Waldman in the Washington Post: "... if you think that the way to resolve policy differences or personal arguments with the government is ... through the use of violence against the government, you have announced that you have no commitment to democracy.... Ernst should be given the opportunity to elaborate -- and pressed to answer specific questions about when she thinks it's acceptable for an American citizen to use violence against representatives of the American government." ...
... Ed Kilgore: "The picture of IA GOP SEN nominee Joni Ernst that's emerging from exposure of her pre-2014-general-election utterances is of a standard-brand Constitutional Conservative embracing all the strange and controversial tenets of that creed. There's Agenda 21 madness. There's Personhood advocacy. There are attacks on the entire New Deal/Great Society legacy -- and perhaps even agricultural program -- as creating 'dependency.' And now, inevitably, there's the crown jewel of Con Con extremism: the belief that the purpose of the Second Amendment is to enable 'patriots' to violently overthrow the government if in their opinion it's overstepped its constitutional boundaries." ...
... ** Steve M.: "In an obvious way, the fact that Ernst can say this and still be the favorite to win a U.S. Senate seat is a clear example of white privilege.... Ernst feels free to make this reckless statement, to a crowd that didn't find it the least bit objectionable, because she feels pretty safe in the assumption that she'll never be called to back those words up with actions. That's because she lives in a country where, regardless of all the hotheaded rhetoric, the government never really tyrannizes people like her and her audience, i.e., heartland white people of some means.... They talk the talk, knowing they won't ever to have to walk the walk." ...
... Dylan Byers of Politico: "Republican Senate candidate Joni Ernst skipped out on a scheduled meeting with The Des Moines Register on Thursday, prompting criticism from one of the paper's leading political columnists.... Rekha Basu, a Register columnist..., noted that Ernst, an Iowa state senator, had also 'begged off meetings with The Cedar Rapids Gazette and The Dubuque Telegraph-Herald.'" ...
... Charles Pierce: "Joni Ernst, career crackpot, veteran juggler of pig testicles, and determined foe of Agenda 21, the secret UN plot to steal all our golfs, seems to have gone into a kind of delay game as she edges toward the Senate election in Iowa.... Perhaps she's down in the root cellar, stocking up the canned goods and keeping the crystal set in trim.... She's going to bring down an F-16 with her 9-mil, but she doesn't have the fortitude to stand up to the editorial board of the Cedar Rapids Gazette. She's leading in the polls, by the way."
Kansas. "The Great Kansas Tea Party Disaster." Mark Binelli in the Rolling Stone: "In 2012, [Gov. Sam Brownback] enacted the largest package of tax cuts in Kansas history, essentially transforming his state into a lab experiment for extreme free-market ideology. The results (disastrous) have reduced the governor to making appearances at grim strip malls ... in a desperate attempt to salvage his re-election bid." This is a long piece that also covers some of the other GOP-led near-fiascos.
Kentucky. McConnell as the Anti-Beatle -- Money Can Buy Mitch Love. One way to use that Koch, et al., dark money -- pay people to pretend they're ardent supporters. Alexandra Jaffe of the Hill (October 20): "Sen. Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) campaign is offering volunteers all-expenses-paid trips to join his bus tour and 'contribute to an enthusiastic atmosphere' at his events.... Bussing in supporters isn't a new tactic for McConnell, who has done it to fill out crowds during his previous appearances at the annual Fancy Farm picnic." ...
... Beck for Grimes. Sahil Kapur of TPM: "Glenn Beck doesn't think it would be 'all that bad for the country' if Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) loses reelection to Alison Lundergan Grimes (D).... The nationally syndicated talk radio host told his army of conservative listeners on Thursday that even though Grimes is 'gonna be worse' for America, making her a senator could be worth the price of ousting an establishment Republican whom he suggested has added 'poison' to Congress."
New Hampshire. Tim Buckland of the New Hampshire Union Leader: "The perceived threat from Ebola dominated the first portion of the second televised debate held Thursday night between U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and her challenger, former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown." ...
... Wolf Blitzer fact-checks Scottie:
... James Pindell of WMUR Manchester: "... in [Scott] Brown's latest campaign finance report, Brown is listed as donating $244 to his campaign on Sept. 9, the day of the Republican primary. His employer is listed as 'Commonwealth of MA' and [h]is occupation as 'state senator.'" CW: Later, Brown participated in a debate with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-Wherever) in Concord & thanked Michele Bachmann for reminding him the town was the site of the "shot heard 'round the world." Via Paul Waldman. Wait, wait, it gets worse ...
... Charles Pierce: "The other night, in a debate, and in a Real Journalism question from my man Chuck Todd, former senator McDreamy was asked why he didn't just run for the Senate from Massachusetts again.... 'Because I live here, he said as the crowd did everything but throw tomatoes.... 'I was born at the Portsmouth Naval shipyard...My mom was a waitress at Hampton Beach.' The problem is that the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is in Kittery, which is in Maine. Now, there's a longstanding historical dispute over this, but as of a Supreme Court decision in 2001, the shipyard is not in New Hampshire. So Scott Brown's reason for running for the Senate in New Hampshire, and his primary rebuttal to the charge of being a carpetbagger come to New Hampshire, is that he was born in Maine. Genius!... He's leading in the latest poll, by the way." Read the whole post. It's hilarious -- except for that last jolt of reality. ...
... CW P.S. Hampton Beach actually is in New Hampshire, so good on Scottie. He's one for three, which in baseball is pretty good.
Presidential Election
Paul Waldman in the American Prospect: "... so far, no Republican has gotten nearly the good press Rand Paul has, and it sure looks like it's the product of careful planning and execution.... The other GOP candidates underestimate him at their peril."
"The Most Misunderstood Man in New Jersey." Edgar Sandoval & Larry McShane of the New York Daily News: Gov. Chris "Christie didn't back down an inch Thursday, two days after declaring -- before a firestorm of outrage -- that he was 'tired of hearing about the minimum wage.' But the governor, speaking at a Garden State diner, explained that most people missed his point.... 'The President wants to focus (on minimum wage) because he's a class warrior,' Christie said. '... Our focus should be on creating better paying jobs for everyone in our country.' Diner workers, while quick to pose for photos with Christie, said the governor lacked empathy for their plight."
Beyond the Beltway
Terrence McCoy of the Washington Post: "... an Amnesty International report released Thursday night ... paints a damning portrayal of the Ferguson police force, which it accuses of committing numerous human rights abuses. The report was deeply skeptical of whether Ferguson cop Darren Wilson was justified in the killing of unarmed Michael Brown, criticized Missouri law it said violates international standards and condemned the local police response for shooting tear gas, rubber bullets, intimidating protesters and restricting residents' right to peaceful assembly." The report is here.
News Ledes
New York Times: "President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Friday unleashed perhaps his strongest diatribe against the United States yet, using an international meeting of Russia experts to sell Moscow's view that American meddling has sparked most of the world's recent crises, including those in Ukraine and the Middle East. Instead of supporting democracy and sovereign states, Mr. Putin said during a three-hour appearance at the conference, the United States supports 'dubious' groups ranging from 'open neo-fascists to Islamic radicals.'"
Washington Post: "The body found on an abandoned property outside of [Charlottesville, Virginia] has been confirmed as the remains of University of Virginia sophomore Hannah Graham, a grim result that came nearly six weeks after the 18-year-old from Fairfax County went missing."
Seattle Times: "Two students are dead after one of them opened fire Friday morning in the Marysville-Pilchuck High School cafeteria before turning the gun on himself, according to law-enforcement sources. Police said a girl was killed and two other girls and two boys were wounded in the 10:45 a.m. shooting.... Jarron Webb, 15, said the shooter was angry at a girl who would not date him, and that the girl was one of the people shot. He said he believes one of the victims was his friend since kindergarten." Marysville is near Seattle.
Guardian: "European leaders have struck a broad climate change pact obliging the EU as a whole to cut greenhouse gases by at least 40% by 2030. But key aspects of the deal that will form a bargaining position for global climate talks in Paris next year were left vague or voluntary, raising questions as to how the aims would be realised."
New York Times: "American security officials said Thursday that they were looking into a new report that Islamic State militants had used chlorine gas as a weapon against Iraqi police officers last month near Balad, north of Baghdad."
Bloomberg News: "Mali became the sixth West African country to report a case of Ebola, opening a new front in the international effort to prevent the outbreak of the deadly viral infection from spreading further."
New York Times: "Frank Mankiewicz, a writer and Democratic political strategist who was Senator Robert F. Kennedy's press secretary, directed Senator George S. McGovern's losing 1972 presidential campaign and for six years was the president of National Public Radio, died Thursday at a hospital in Washington. He was 90."
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Reader Comments (10)
What is there to say about Mitch McConnell--other than that he is
a pathetic old ass wipe. I hope that Grimes in her final campaign ads gives facts and figures about how much this goofball has spent bussing in and paying stupid people to "be enthusiastic" at his rallies! Maybe even an SNL "interview" with one of the shills. That would be terrific.
BTW, I think there are quite a few Reality Chex contributors who are Wisconsin born and raised, or born elsewhere, who went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison back in the days. And, oh my, those WERE the days! Scott Walker would have been put gently in stocks in the Capitol rotunda--naked--and fed pizza supplied by the "enthusiastic" masses. The Koch brothers would have been invited (no, summoned) to the spectacle--after eating lots of Alice B. Toklas brownies--then deposited carefully in adjoining stocks. We would all take a vote on wee-wee size and give pizza with extra salami to the biggest weiner--with a rousing speech by Oscar Mayer, Jr.
Just wondering
If Joni Ernst is elected, will she be packing heat in the Senate?
Just the thought makes me cringe.
She says, “I have a beautiful little Smith & Wesson, 9 millimeter, and it goes with me virtually everywhere,”
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2014_10/joni_ernst_and_the_right_to_re052606.php
mae finch
Kate, thanks for the appealing fantasy of Walker facing the populace back in the day at the UW. Having grown up in Madison during the era, then attending UC Berkeley during the Vietnam War, and back in Madison for the last 30 or so years, I am able to add to and enjoy such thoughts.
The Capital Times had some great letters today, as well as this article:
http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/writers/todd-milewski/with-two-new-polls-governor-s-race-model-shows-mary/article_a4e0f69e-5aea-11e4-b716-830464267732.html
I'm not so sure that the Cap Times is justified in its optimism, but it's nice to have a psychological boost as I work on GOTV.
The whole Ebola fear-mongering campaign is just a convenient ploy by the right to link something African or "other" to President Obama. If the same disease had origins in, say, Switzerland, it would be harder for them to gin up and sustain the panic they have now because, you know, the Swiss are affluent and white (like us) and it's therefore impossible to harbor and transmit such an icky disease as Ebola.
Interesting (okay, not really, more like stupid) that a quarter of the Shaheen/Brown exchange (no one does actual debates anymore) was consumed with Ebola, a threat, in this country at least, that affects far fewer people than lightning strikes or shark attacks. Imagine spending a quarter of your time in a nationally televised event talking about shark attacks. Holy shit, why isn't Jacques Cousteau our Shark Czar??
Brown, as usual, steps on his own tongue. In one breath he berates the president for not selecting a medical expert as his Ebola czar. In the next he claims that we don't need experts to deal with the virus. Clearly, he's not an expert since he's proclaimed that had the Romney Mechanism been president now, we would have no Ebola problem. I don't know if that means that he believes The Rat would have gone to Africa, grabbed a hold of the virus and choked the living microscopic shit out it (Romney is, after all, pretty adept with assault), or if he means that he'd make sure that only black Africans died, not any white Americans. Yeah, that must be it.
Either way, it's pretty stupid. When called on it, Racist Beefcake Boy's only defense was "...taken out of context", "...taken out of context" as he stood there with a look on his face like Dan Quayle when reminded that he was no Jack Kennedy.
I suppose if he was asked about the lie that he was born in NH, he'd have to say "taken out of context". Taken out of the state is more like it.
Hopefully Shaheen can spare him any future rhetorical mortification and remove him from the context altogether in a few weeks, after which he'll move to Vermont and claim that his forebears explored the state with Champlain in the 16th century ("My great, great, great, great grandfather told Sam to name that big lake after himself!"). And if that's a fail, there's still Maine, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Maybe he's a long lost relative of Roger Williams. Oh wait, Williams was all about tolerance.
Ah, shit. That'll never fly.
"The problem is that the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is in Kittery, which is in Maine."
@ Ak: Scott Brown strikes fear in the hearts of progressive Mainers! When Shaheen wipes up in NH (please, please! fingers crossed!) where else is Scottie to go? If he remembers that the Naval Yard is in Kittery he'll likely toss his carpetbags into the old pickup truck and head across the Piscataqua on I-95. Let's hope he knows enough to quit while he's behind!
And then in Maine's governor's race...Barbara & George H.W. Bush just endorsed Paul LePage. Seriously, who cares? Sort of like if a leaf falls in the forest does anyone hear?
MAG: Someone should remind Maine voters that when Barbara Bush was campaigning for her retarded son’s reelection, she told a group of retirees in Sun City, Florida, that her Georgie would protect their Social Security. When he was reelected, the first thing he tried to do was privatize Social Security. So much for Babs’s veracity.
James,
And let's be clear. By privatize you mean he tried to hand the Social Security pot over to his buddies on Wall Street for them to loot and to use as their personal piggy bank. Because that's how Republicans roll. Any government program that has been a success for that long has to D.I.E.
Ak: The lesson (if there is one) is that Republicans appear to be channeling Cuthbert J. Twillie—“Anything worth having is worth cheating for”—except they are neither as funny nor as endearing.
Mae,
You are right on the money about Joni Ernst, one of the weirdest and downright creepiest candidates the GOP has pushed on us in years, and, holy Christ, that's saying something, especially when you think about Bachmann and Palin and Christine (really, I am not a witch) O'Donnell and Rapeman Todd Akin and Blake Farenthold and the many other assorted whack jobs lurching out of Right Wing World.
But Ernst's seemingly erotic attachment to her weapon makes me wonder if Republican congressional photographers will begin suggesting, like that Nebraska school district Marie told us about yesterday, that members of congress begin posing for their official portraits while fondling their favorite weapons. I can easily see one entitled "Gohmert with gat". Where's Diane Arbus when you need her?
Ernst can pose with her "beautiful" Smith & Wesson in one hand and a pair of recently severed testicles in the other.
Because Republicans are nothing if not classy.