The Daily Strike-7/11/09-Wouldn't Go As Far As THAT Part IX

Good evening welcome to the Daily Strike. Today, it's another edition of "Wouldn't Go As Far as THAT," where we chronicle the most ridiculous things said in the world of politics. Enjoy, and leave some comments.

3. The bronze this week Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, former Republican whip. The logical extension of Republican's knee jerk opposition to a public option for health insurance coverage is opposition to Medicare, a program that gives millions of seniors access to quality health insurance. Blunt expressed his belief that government should have never gotten involved in the health care marketplace, and cited Medicare and Medicaid as examples of the government "distorting the marketplace." If Blunt really believes that these programs distort the marketplace, I would love to see him make the argument to Missouri voters when he runs for Senate next year. Blunt's spokesman tried to step back on the comments, saying that Blunt thinks goverments are ok "organizing health care" but shouldn't "operate health care systems." I guess operation should be left to private insurance companies, who always have the interests of the American people in mind.

2. Blunt's comments don't even come close to whacko Georgia Republican Representative Paul Broun. Broun took to the House floor in the late hours of yesterday's session to rail against the Democrats' health care plan. He said that the public option "is gonna kill people." His logic was that Great Britain and Canada, who have government run health care, don't have the same respect for life as we do. Ignoring for a moment the enormous logical leap Broun inexplicably makes from "not having respect for life" and "the government health care option killing people," there's another important point to make: Great Britain and Canada have far lower infant mortality rates and higher life expectancy rates than the United States. (Thanks to Media Matters for pointing this out). I know I might sound a little whiny here, and believe me I couldn't care less about what Paul Broun thinks, but has our discourse gotten to the point where you can just arbitrarily say that a policy will kill people, without giving any justification whatsoever?

1. The gold goes to the Supreme Leader of Hypocrisy, Mr. Karl Rove. Rove has joined other old, white Republicans in thinking they can become hip by "tweeting." He wrote this gem of a tweet yesterday:

"darned if I can figure out all these Presidential czars except a giant expansion of Presidential power."

For starters, George W. Bush, as ThinkProgress pointed out, appointed numerous czars, including a “cybersecurity czar,” “regulatory czar,” “AIDS czar,” “bird-flu czar” and “Katrina czar.”(links from ThinkProgress). And Karl Rove should never, ever talk about expanding Presidential power. This is the guy who used his White House position to further his distorted politcal goals, and whose leader is widely considered the great defender of Presidential power in the history of the country.

See you tomorrow night!

The Daily Strike-6/28/09-Wouldn't Go As Far As THAT Part VIII

Good evening and welcome to the Daily Strike. I apologize for no entry yesterday. I was hanging out with Lady Strike's parents. It's time for our latest installment of Wouldn't Go As Far As THAT, where we review the three most ridiculous things said during the week in politics.

3. The bronze to Georgia Rep. Paul Broun. This venerable Republican was speaking on the House floor against the American Clean Energy and Security Act. There are indeed reasonable criticisms of the bill that could have been offered. Unfortunately, Broun chose not to make such a criticism. He instead questioned the existence of global warming. Here's a transcript of Broun's tirade:

"Scientists all over this world say that the idea of human induced global climate change is one of the greatest hoaxes perpetrated out of the scientific community. It is a hoax. There is no scientific consensus. … And who’s going to be hurt most [by ACES] the poor, the people on limited income…the people who can least afford to have their energy taxes raised by MIT says $3100 per family. … This bill must be defeated. We need to be good stewards of our environment, but this is not it, it’s a hoax! …"

I don't know what the worst part of this quote is. There's the fact that many of his Republican colleagues applauded. There's the part where he says that there's no scientific consensus, when according to the International Panel on Climate Change, there most certainly is. I have to say though, the dubious award for worst part of this quote goes to the part about the MIT study. Republicans had used the study as a talking point in the past, and were told, by the author of the study, that they were completely misrepresenting it. Sometimes I'm amazed at how many lies you can put in one paragraph.

2. The silver goes to the one and only Minnesota Republican Rep. Michelle Bachmann, who has been saying some pretty nutty things about the Census. This rant pretty much captures it:

"Now ACORN has been named one of the national partners, which will be a recipient again of federal money," Bachmann said. "And they will be in charge of going door-to-door and collecting data from the American public. This is very concerning because the motherload of all data information will be from the census. And, of course, we think of the census as just counting how many people live in your home. Unfortunately, the census data has become very intricate, very personal (with) a lot of the questions that are asked.

"And I know for my family the only question that we will be answering is how many people are in our home. We won't be answering any information beyond that, because the Constitution doesn't require any information beyond that."

Alright, where to start? The constitution says absolutely nothing about the census accepts that it should be administered in a manner to be proscribed by law. Not filling out parts of the census, according to federal law, is illegal. Second of all, ACORN has absolutely no real connection with the census whatsoever. The tiny shred of truth in Bachmann's statement is that the census does indeed partner with various groups to help with outreach in different communities. ACORN happens to be one of 30,000. ACORN doesn't even do outreach itself, it just spreads the word about temporary census jobs. There are no payments involved in any of these steps. I don't know why Bachmann is picking on ACORN, other than the fact that she's insane. Political fact checking websites have had their workload double since Bachmann took office.

1. The winner this week, of course, goes to South Carolina Mark Sanford. Mr. Sanford, of course, was forced to admit that his bizarre disappearance this week was a jaunt to Argentina to visit his mistress. One of the best parts of this whole affair (so to speak) were the original explanations for Sanford's absences. When the media first noticed Sanford's absence, his staff said that he was "taking care of some projects that have fallen by the wayside." His staff then said he was "hiking the Appalachian trail." Those, as The Big Picture first pointed out, will make for some fantastic euphemisms. "Guys, I can't hang out with you tonight. Lucy's coming over, and we're gonna take care of some projects that have gone by the wayside. If I get lucky, we might hike the old Appalachian trail."

The Daily Strike-6/20/09-Wouldn't Go As Far as THAT Part VII

Good evening and welcome to the Daily Strike. Today, we give you this week's edition of Wouldn't Go as Far as THAT (WGAFAT). Once again, it's very difficult to narrow the nominees down to three, but here we go.

3. The bronze this week goes to good old Senator John McCain (R-AZ), who somehow came within 7 percentage points of becoming President of the United States. The following quote unfortunately isn't "ridiculous" or "out of the ordinary" because it's peddled so much by conservatives that it has seeped into our collective conscience. That's why I think it merits a spot on this list. This is what McCain said in response to a question about a public health insurance option:

"The idea that somehow the government can administer health care in a more efficient fashion than the private sector I think flies in the face of examples of other countries that have done so."

That's, mmmm, completely incorrect, Johnny. Just because every Republican tries to insist that the government is inefficient doesn't make it so. According to ThinkProgress, when compared to five countries with "socialized medicine" the United States finishes last or next-to-last in every metric of health care performance. Say you're so stubborn that you don't want to take lessons from other "socialist" countries. The "socialized, government-run" health care we currently have in this country, the Veterans Administration, which has higher quality care for lower per-patient costs than almost any private insurance.Everything about government that is inefficient exists because Republicans have screwed it up (think Katrina).

2. The silver goes to House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH). Boehner and his Republican colleagues introduced their own version of a health care bill. Actually, it was more like a two page pamphlet that didn't contain any actual information. I digress. Boehner was asked a good question about what the Republican plan would do to help community health centers. Boehner answered that "hearing about community organizations reminds me of ACORN!" His jab against the activist group/Republican pariah got a health laugh from his fellow House Republicans. The actual question, of course, went unanswered. Real funny, Boehner. Ignore for a second the fact that attacking ACORN is stupid and disingenuous, because they're a small group that actually does GREAT work helping to empower the poor. I would argue that their work is about 100 times more important than anything House Republicans have ever done, and their alleged sins of voter registration fraud is about 1/100th as bad as what House Republicans do every single day. What the hell kind of logic is that, Boehner?

"What do you plan to do to help our military?"

"You know, hearing about the military reminds me of the Nazi army."

1. The gold this week was a pretty easy choice. It goes to Republican Rep. Peter Hoekstra, who sent this gem of a Twitter on Tuesday:

"Iranian twitter activity similar to what we did in House last year when Republicans were shut down in the House."

Yeup, pretty much exactly the same thing. Hoekstra is referring to the month-long Republican protest on an empty House floor because the Democrats adjourned without ending the ban on offshore drilling. Yeah, just like Iran. Just like Iran, House Republicans weren't allowed to have an input in their democracy. The House adjourned without even having a vote! And twenty or so rich white Republicans on the air conditioned House floor, Twittering on Blackberries provided to them by the Federal Government is exactly the same is a million average Iranians desperately trying to communicate about peaceful protests in spite of state-sponsored censorship of social networking sites. Drilling for oil offshore, which would yield increased oil supplies in about ten years, is just as important as the right to vote and peacefully protest. It's exactly the same thing. Hoekstra thinks he can compare House Republicans, the most laughable bunch of idiots I've ever seen, with the Iranian people. Wouldn't go as far as THAT!

The Daily Strike-6/14/09-Wouldn't Go As Far as THAT Part VI

Good evening and welcome to the Daily Strike. I just returned from New York where I spent some quality time with The Big Picture. I apologize for the lack of entry yesterday. Tomorrow, we'll return to serious business. As for tonight, it's another edition of WGAFAT.

3. The bronze this week goes to Indiana Rep. Steve Buyer (R). As we noted, the House accepted the Senate version of the bill and sent it along to the President last Friday. The support in the House for this bill FAR outweighed the opposition. But according to the House rules, equal time has to be given to both sides. So Steve Buyer had a disproportionate amount of time to spout out reasons why it's bad to regulate smoking. This particular rationale caught me a bit off-guard:

"Too often we should be careful about being cute here on the House floor. So cute means the reference with regard to lettuce. So I'll follow your logic. Do you realize if you were to take that lettuce, dry it, and roll it, and smoke it. And you go ahead and you smoke your lettuce. Do you realize that you are going to end up with similar problems than if you were smoking tobacco. It's not the nicotine that kills. It's the smoke that kills. So It's the inhalation of the smoke. That's what causes and is responsible for the pandemic of cancers, of heart disease, respiratory disease, and other disease. It's the smoke"

Ignoring, for a moment, that he's talking about smoking lettuce on the House floor, which is hilarious, how can he POSSIBLY make that claim? Does lettuce have toxic additives? Is smoking lettuce addictive? It's probably best for Mr. Buyer not to show his face on the floor for awhile.

2. Second place this week goes to the incomparable Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, Republican from Minnesota. Bachmann was going on a diatribe on the House floor about the government's plan to close certain auto dealers.

Now we've moved into the realm of gangster government. We have gangster government when the Federal Government has set up a new cartel and private businesses now have to go begging with their hand out to their local--hopefully well politically connected--Congressman or their Senator so they can buy a peace offering for that local business. Is that the kind of country we are going to have in the future?

First of all, she's talking complete jibberish. She's saying all of this because government is trying to keep one business solvent, when it has spent a generation letting the private sector do whatever it wants. Second of all, using the word gangster, really? Talking about Obama? I would be less worried if Bachmann hadn't already called Obama anti-American.

1. The gold tonight to the Reverned Jeremiah Wright, who we all hoped we'd never hear from again. Obama's former pastor was asked whether he had spoken with the President since his inauguration, and Wright responded, "no, the Jews won't let me talk to him." Wright may have had very good reasons for his controversial speeches that attacked the injustices of America. But he has far less credibility to make those criticisms when he's making bigoted comments himself. As The Big Picture pointed out, Obama must be disappointed that one of his mentor's is acting like a complete loon when he should be reveling in Obama's success. The comments also carry more weight when you consider what happened the very next day at the Holocaust museum. Most people who come up with conspiracies about "the Jews running things" are neo-nazis or skinheads.

That's it for tonight. See you in the morning!

The Daily Strike-6/6/09-Wouldn't Go As Far as THAT Part V

Good evening and welcome to the Daily Strike, where we bring you our 5th edition of "Wouldn't Go As Far of That." We usually limit our entry to three absurd statements made in the past week, but the competition this time around was so keen, we've decided to expand to five. Enjoy.

5. The fifth place this week goes to Rory Cooper of the Heritage Foundation. Rory is a frequent guest of Politico's "Arena" where he gives the radical conservative perspective on a wide variety of issues. After President Obama's historic speech in Cairo on Thursday, most commentators, even conservative ones, were laudatory of the President's effort to forge a new beginning with the Muslim world. Mr. Cooper went in the complete opposite direction. I may even say that he went in a direction so bizarre that it defies any category of evaluation. Cooper's first paragraph:

F Minus. It is as if the President has no basis in reality. At Five Guys restaurant last week, the President revealed he didn’t know what the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency was when he met an employee.

What? Even beyond the sensationalist use of a grade that doesn't exist (you have to reserve "F-" for Bobby Jindal's response to the State of the Union), he's not even talking about the speech at all! He's talking about when the President met some guy at Five Guys Burger Joint and didn't know about some obscure intelligence agency the guy was working for. You did it Republicans! What a great line of attack on Obama, that he's uninformed. That's really gonna win you some elections.

4. Speaking of elections, I was very intrigued by Rush Limbaugh's "electoral strategy" this week. In a wide ranging bizzarro interview with fellow right-winger Sean Hannity, Limbaugh offered a blunt criticism of his own party. He said, " “People in our party want to be accepted by people who hate them. We have to be liked by the middle class, Hispanics etc. That’s the way the Democrats think!” Yeah, Rush, the best electoral strategy is to write off the middle class and Hispanics because it violates your idea of ideological purity. It looks like Republicans are gunning for about 2% of the popular vote in the next election.

3. The bronze this week goes to former Vice President Dick Cheney. Mr. Cheney gave a speech at the National Press Club and answered questions ranging from topics of gay rights to the War on Terrorism. The real whopper of this event was when Dick Cheney seemed to blame 9/11 on former counter-terrorism expert Richard Clarke. "Richard Clarke was the head of the counter-terrorism program in the run up to 9/11," Cheney declared. "He obviously missed it." Absolutely, Dicky. It's not like Clarke, under President Clinton tried to kill Osama bin Laden but couldn't get basing rights in Uzbekistan. It's not as if Clarke warned the administration constantly about the threat of terrorism in the early days of the Bush administration, but could not get a meeting with the President to discuss terrorist threats. It's not like George W. Bush was handed a memo on August 6, 2001 that said "Bin Laden determined to attack in the United States." It's not as if Richard Clarke said on September 10th that there was a large risk of a terrorist attack. I mean, come on.

2. The silver to Gretchen Carlson of Fox and Friends. who asked rhetorically after Obama's Cairo speech, "why do we want them to like us over there?" This logic is pretty astounding. I guess Carlson thinks it's better for us to be the sworn enemy of Islam. Yeah, screw diplomacy! I would rather have people hate us and want to kill us than to have our President try to start a conversation with them. You have to love Carlson, who once said that the biggest race problem in our country was the "double standard" for certain phrases and terms.

1. The gold goes to the incomparable Karl Rove. We couldn't quite decide between these two gems, so we just had to include both of them. The first was Carlson-esque in its logic. Rove said, "Who cares whether or not Muslims like or approve the President of the United States? The question is do they respect the policies of the United States government ? And (under George W. Bush) you bet they did." First of all, how can he POSSIBLY say that Muslims respected the policies of George W. Bush? That's just so incredibly absurd. And second of all, it IS important that Muslims like the President of the United States. It's incredibly important. We need to foster a new relationship based on trust in order to protect or safety and pursue our interests. Obviously Karl Rove does not understand that.

His other quote was perhaps more ridiculous. Rove responded to a question by NPR's Charlie Rose by saying that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor "wasn't necessarily smart." Rose reminded him that she went to Princeton and Yale, and Rove said, " I know a lot of stupid people who went to Ivy League schools." I bet you do Karl. By the way, I'm sure he would have the same thought about someone who questioned George W. Bush's intelligence:

ROVE: Washington is a small town. Small towns have strange local rituals. They have their own mythmaking. The myth was that this guy, who was a Yale history grad and a Harvard MBA, was not smart.

So someone who grew up in public housing and overcame barriers to become Summa Cum Laude at Princeton isn't necessarily smart, but someone who got into Yale through legacy and got C's is smart by definition. Mr. Rove, I wouldn't go as far as THAT!

See you tomorrow!

The Daily Strike-5/30/09-Wouldn't Go As Far as THAT Part IV-Sotomayor Edition

Good evening and welcome to the Daily Strike. It's time for our latest edition of "Wouldn't Go As Far as That" after a one week hiatus. The nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court gave us ample opportunity to watch conservatives trip over themselves. It was hard to narrow it down to three.

3. The bronze goes to Newt Gingrich, who said that Sotomayor is a "racist" for comments she made saying that her background influences her decisions on the court. In a twitter post, Gingrich said that Sotomayor should withdraw from consideration, because a white man who said something like that would have to withdraw as well. I know we talked about this earlier this week, but I couldn't write an entry without including this silliness. For people like Newt Gingrich who try to find equivalency between what whites and minorities have gone through, I'm reminded of Justice John Paul Stevens quoting Anatole France’s observation's "that the majestic equality of the law forbade rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread."

2. The silver goes to G. Gordon Liddy, an aging right-wing radio hack who said of Sotomayor, "Let’s hope that the key conferences aren’t when she's menstruating" and that she "speaks illegal alien." What a great way to expand GOP outreach to women and Latinos.

1. If you can believe it, it gets better than Mr. Liddy. The gold goes to Tom Tancredo, former Rep. from Colorado. This anti-immigrant radical called the Latino activist group La Raza, to which Sotomayor belongs, "the KKK without the hoods or nooses." First of all, Mr. Tancredo incorrectly stated that the organization translate to "the race." My Spanish teachers would be insulted by such a false cognate. It actually means something more along the lines of "the movement." Also, it's an anti-poverty and anti-discrimination non-profit who has never harmed a single life in this country. Does Tancredo not quite understand what the KKK was and what it did? When Tancredo makes an absurd analogy like this, I have to say, I wouldn't go as far as THAT.

The Daily Strike-5/16/09-Wouldn't Go As Far As THAT Part III/Huntsman

Good evening and welcome to the Daily Strike. We'll get to our third edition of "Wouldn't Go As Far As THAT" in a moment, but first let's cover the day's most important political story.

HUNTSMAN: Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr., a Republican, has accepted President Obama's appointment to be ambassador to China. Huntsman nomination makes a lot of sense for Obama. For one, Huntsman is uniquely qualified. He is fluent in Mandarin, has an adopted Chinese daughter, and was previously an ambassador to Singapore. Politically, Obama may have just taken out one of his potential 2012 opponents. Huntsman was widely viewed among the chattering class as a rising star in the Republican party. Despite being governor of one of the most conservative states, Huntsman has stoked out moderate positions on a variety of issues, including gay rights and climate change. He was reelected last year by an overwhelming margin and maintained 80 percent approval ratings. I don't think Huntsman could win a primary though considering the state of the Republican electorate. They would have called him a "traitor" for taking moderate positions, and would have been vilified by the tea party/activist crowds. Perhaps Huntsman's decision to accept the appointment is a recognition that he doesn't have a place in today's ultra-conservative Republican party. If I were a Republican interested in winning an election some time in the next decade, I would not be happy about losing a candidate like Huntsman.

Now it's time for our third edition of "Wouldn't Go As Far As THAT," where we break down the three most ridiculous quotes of the last week.

Honorable Mention: Johnathan Turley, law professor at Georgetown, and a devout liberal, said that Obama's decision not to release the torture photos was "the greatest bait and switch in American history" and that Obama was just as bad as Bush. Seriously? THAT is the biggest bait and switch in American history? Bigger than Bush saying he didn't want to engage in nation building? Bigger than John McCain proposing to extend Bush's tax cuts after voting against him? And Obama, however much you disagree with him on this particular decision, has a long way to go before he's in the same league as Bush. Settle down, Turley.

I also have to mention this brilliance by House Minority Whip Eric Cantor: "We have to be about attracting as many people as possible. We want the ability to win among suburbanites and in the inner city of Los Angeles by being inclusive and forward-looking."

I can't say it better than The Big Picture on this one, "The Loon Party doing surprisingly well here in the inner-city L.A. corridor, despite their angry opposition to giving the people who live there jobs, health care, or a decent education. The "Obama is a socialist" argument is really resonating here."

3. The bronze this week goes to Pete Sessions, Republican of Texas, and chairman of the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, who accused President Obama of intentionally destroying American jobs and trying to suppress the stock market to bring down the capitalist system. This sounds strangely like something Glenn Beck would say, doesn't it? I'm SURE Obama's decision to raise taxes 3 percent on the wealthy in 2 years is evidence that he's trying to tear down our capitalist system. Oh yeah, and a stimulus package that spends billions of dollars with the express purpose of creating jobs also is clear evidence. This is getting into pretty severe conspiracy theory territory.

2. The silver goes to Newt Gingrich, former House Speaker, who gave an absurdly over-the-top denouncement of current Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Newt called Pelosi "a trivial politician, viciously using partisanship for the narrowest of purposes, and she dishonors the Congress by her behavior," Gingrich also said in the blistering interview."

"Speaker Pelosi's the big loser, because she either comes across as incompetent or dishonest. Those are the only two defenses," he continued. "The fact is, she either didn't do her job, or she did do her job and she's now afraid to tell the truth."

Ignoring whether Pelosi actually owes a better explanation or not, can Newt Gingrich possibly say that ANYONE is dishonoring Congress? As The Big Picture said, this is a textbook case of the pot calling the kettle black. Newt Gingrich left his tumultuous tenure as Speaker as one of the most hated politicians in America. He had to resign in disgrace because it was revealed that at the very time Newt was trying to impeach President Clinton over Monica Lewinsky, he was covering up his own sexual exploits.

1. The gold goes to Arkansas State Senate Minority Leader Kim Hendren, who referred to New York Senator Chuck Schumer as "that Jew." Hendren is planning on challenging incumbent Democrat Blance Lincoln next year. At a Republican fundraiser, Hendren asked the audience if they really want a Senator who takes order from "that Jew." Asked to defend himself, Hendren made things even worse, saying that "I was just trying to make the point that unlike Schumer, I'm for traditional values." So you're proof that Schumer is not for traditional values is that he's, that Jew?" He denied being an anti-semite by saying "There is a Jew I admire: Jesus. And also Joe Lieberman." Maybe that will endear you to the Republican primary electorate in Arkansas, but for the rest of us, I wouldn't go as far as THAT!

The Daily Strike-5/9/09-Wouldn't Go As Far As THAT #2

Good evening and welcome to the Daily Strike. I'm in Lady Strike's hometown of Syracuse, where Vice President Biden is scheduled to give a commencement address tomorrow! I don't have much time for an entry, but I will give you this week's three most absurd quotes in the 2nd edition of our new feature, " Wouldn't Go As Far As THAT."

3. The bronze this week goes to the great Michael Steele, embattled chairman of the Republican party. While guest hosting Bill Bennett's radio show, Steele railed against Obama's desire to nominate an "empathetic" judge, and said, "Crazy nonsense empathetic! I'll give you empathy. Empathize right on your behind. Craziness!" First of all, was he making some sort of sexual reference here? Second of all, I'm not sure it's the best political strategy to angrily rail against "empathy." I thank God everyday that Michael Steele is the chairman of the Republican National Committee.

2. The silver for blowhard Rep. Steve King (R-IA), who said that the Democrats' anti-hate crime legislation creates "sacred cows." The full quote: "If they’re one of God’s children let’s protect them equally and when you go down the path of special protected status, then you end up with the sacred cows walking around the street that have another extra shield around them that actually would put the victimizer’s focus on someone else. I think it’s unequal protection of the law that results from it."

What the HELL is he talking about? The law simply punishes crimes more that are inspired by bigotry. They're not sacred cows at all, they're people who are being targeted because of who they are.

1. You can't really beat these words coming out of the mouth of former Vice President Dick Cheney, the person who has spent his career standing up for oil companies, military contractors and executive power.

"I went through the Iran-contra hearings and watched the way administration officials ran for cover and left the little guys out to dry. And I was bound and determined that wasn’t going to happen this time. "

White House lawyers who authorized torture constitute "little guys?" Dick Cheney, I wouldn't go as far as THAT.

See you tomorrow when we return to our regular Daily Strike!

The Daily Strike-5/2/09-Premier of "Wouldn't Go as Far as THAT"

Good evening and welcome to the Daily Strike. We are adding a brand new feature of the blog today called "Wouldn't Go As Far As THAT!" This feature will appear every Saturday. The idea is to identify the top three most ridiculous things someone said during the previous week of politics. The competition was so keen this week, so it was difficult to narrow it down to three. Thanks to the Big Picture for this idea. If you disagree with our rankings, or think that we missed something, please let us know in the comments section!

3. The bronze this week goes to Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner. While evaluating his party's first 100 days, he claimed that "I think our team's doing fairly well, considering the barrage that's coming at us." Mmm-kay Johnny. Let's see. We would tend to measure a party's performance by a) what policies it accomplished for the American people, b) its politial popularity, c) its avoidance of doing anything incredibly stupid.

Boehner's House Republicans not only have lost every single vote so far this year, but they've lost by huge margins. Their "alternatives" to President Obama's agenda failed to even garner unanimous Republican support. I can't say I'm too surprised. Their alternative policy proposals seem like they just came out of a time machine. To counter President Obama's stimulus and budget proposals, the Republicans proposed more tax cuts for the wealthy, a spending freeze, and partial privatization of Medicare. Those may be the three most discredited policy prescriptions out there right now.

The Republican party has, by almost any measure, become even less popular since Obama became President. Fewer Americans now identify as Republicans than at any time since 1983. A majority of American's see Congressional Republicans' opposition to Obama as politically motivated.

Finally, House Republicans have embarrased themselves on numerous occasions in the last few months. Remember when they were endlessly mocked for releasing a budget with no numbers?

I don't know what John Boehner's smoking, but that sounds about as stupid as the time The Big Picture and I told our 4th Grade teacher that we were the two most mature kids in the grade.

2. Jim DeMint, Republican Senator from South Carolina, gets the silver this week for two separate idiotic statements. The first came Tuesday when Arlen Specter defected to the Democratic party. DeMint was asked by CNN's Rick Sanchez if the Republican party's tent was shrinking, and DeMint responded that, "the biggest tent of all is freedom." Sanchez's reaction says it all.

The second statement is still making me laugh almost three days later. When his interviewer suggested that the GOP has become a Southern party, DeMint responded that Republican losses in the northeast happened because "forced unionization" has caused a mass migration of conservative-minded voters to the South.

Not only has union membership significantly decreased over the past three decades, there has NEVER been any such thing as forced unionization in this country. To suggest otherwise is just silly. I hope his "brilliant understanding" of America's political climate informs the Republican party's electoral strategies.

1. The top award goes to Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, who is steadily gaining in the race against Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and Bill-O for the most ridiculous person in America. She said two things this weekend that are among the stupidest things I've ever heard in my life. And I don't say that lightly. We pretty much had to create this feature because of Bachmann.

First, she noted in an interview that "the last time we had the swine flu was under a Democratic President. Not that I'm blaming Obama, but I think it's an interesting coincidence." First of all, the last outbreak happened in 1976, when Republican Gerald Ford was President. More importantly, this might be the most egregious case of finding causation from correlation that I've ever seen. By Bachmann's logic, Reagan is responsible for AIDS. Also by her logic, you can blame clouds for the swine flu, since there were clouds in 1976, and there are clouds now.

The real kicker, though, came during a statement on the House floor Wednesday night that makes Miss Teen South Carolina seem like Martin Luther King Jr. Bachmann was trying to defend Republican economic policies by giving viewers a lesson in "history." By far the most intelligent part of her speech was when she referred to the "Smoot Hawley Tariff Act" as the "Hoot-Smalley Act." In the space of one minute, she claimed that the recession of the 1920's was actually greater than that of the 1930's (FALSE) , but Calvin Coolidge cut taxes, which led to the "roaring 20's." (Coolidge Presidency ended in one of our "greatest" economic years, 1929). Our problems only came along a year AFTER the stock market crashed, apparently, when Franklin Roosevelt signed the "Hoot-Smalley." (Herbert Hoover actually signed it). Roosevelt's action somehow turned a minor recession (the Great Depression) into a, um, depression. If Bachmann's speech was a 3rd Grade history report, she wouldn't have just gotten an F, they would probably have to set up a serious meeting with her parents. I frankly admire her ability to include that many insane falsehoods in a one minute speech. Her historical revisionism is truly audacious.

Ladies and gentleman, congratulations to Michele Bachmann, who blames "Roosevelt's" 1930 "Hoot-Smalley" act for the Great Depression that started in 1929. Wouldn't go as far as THAT!!

We'll get you caught up on the weekend in politics during tomorrow's Daily Strike. See you then!!