Republican Antics

From Brad DeLong:

Republican Pond Scum

John Stuart Mill was wrong. The conservative party is not the stupid party. The conservative party is the bizarro mind-numbingly extreme stupid party.

Ezra Klein informs us of the Carpetbagger's report on House Judiciary Committee Chair James Sensenbrenner:

Ezra Klein: Doesn't this sound more like... Saturday Night Live... than an actual strategy tried out on the floor of Congress?

About a week ago, the House Judiciary Committee was prepared to approve the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act. Dem committee members offered some fairly reasonable amendments to shield some parties from criminal responsibility...For example, one amendment, offered by Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), sought to exempt "cab drivers, bus drivers and others in the business transportation profession from the criminal provisions in the bill." So, if an underage woman takes a bus to another state to have an abortion, the bus driver, who probably wouldn't have any knowledge of the abortion, couldn't be charged with a federal crime. Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) not only helped kill the amendment, he decided to rephrase it for the official record:

'Mr. Scott offered an amendment that would have exempted sexual predators from prosecution if they are taxicab drivers, bus drivers, or others in the business of professional transport.'

Sensenbrenner did this multiple times. Every Dem attempt to amend the legislation was manipulated to make it appear Dems were trying to protect sexual predators. Whether one supports the bill or not, this was pathetic.

Yesterday, Sensennbrenner backed down and removed the 'sexual predator' language from the record. Fact is, however, it stil happened, and the floor of Congress, is, officially, one poorly-conceived skit.... Welcome to Congress.