Wingnut vs wingnut
by digby
You all remember Georgia wingnut Jack Kingston don’t you?
The bill by Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) would require unemployment claimants to pass a drug test if they are identified in an initial screening as having a high probability of drug use…
Kingston cited an overwhelming number of job applicants flunking drug tests as the rationale for his proposal.
“I had an employer tell me of an overwhelming response for job openings,” Kingston said in a statement. “There was just one problem: half the people who applied could not even pass a drug test.”
Unfortunately for him, he’s now forced to run against someone who is even more of a right wing nutjob than he is:
On January 7, second-term Republican Rep. Paul Broun of Georgia and two friends prayed over a door. It was not just any door, but the entranceway beneath the Capitol that President-elect Barack Obama will pass through as he walks onto the inaugural stage to take the oath of office. “I hope and pray that as God stirs the heart of our new president that President Obama will listen and will heed God’s direction,” Broun proclaimed.
Greg Sargent reports on the first salvo in exciting contest:
Kingston is now furiously walking back his apostasy, pointing to his dozens of votes to repeal the law as proof that his zeal to get rid of it knows no bounds.
The point here is that GOP base voters may force Republican lawmakers to remain chained to a fantasy — that Obamacare’s demise is still a genuine possibility. While Democratic operatives fully recognize that the law is unpopular, that further problems are possible, and that Dems are still in danger, they believe Republican lawmakers and candidates are constrained in a way that will work against them, too.
Democratic lawmakers and candidates at least have some flexibility to deal with problems as they arise — they can call for fixes while defending the law’s broader goal of expanding affordable health coverage. Republicans don’t have any flexibility. Remember, a recent CNN poll showed that only Republican voters believe the law should already be pronounced a failure, while moderates and independents still think its problems can be solved. Republican lawmakers and candidates must continue to insist on full repeal and nothing else, even as the number of people gaining coverage continues to mount.
Greg says that the GOP will suffer for this and I’m inclined to agree when it comes to swing statewide races and, of course, the presidency. They just sounds like assholes to anyone who isn’t a hardcore Obama hater. But unfortunately, I think this could very well work for them in certain red states and conservative districts. This frothing, incoherent hatred for a health care program would logically turn off even hardcore conservatives because it looks unstable and weird. But it’s become a tribal war cry for the true believers and I’ll guess it is going to have organizing power where the right is in a majority, at least for a while.
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