Thread: Getting rid of crackpotism in the GOP

Getting rid of crackpotism in the GOP

By Jennifer Rubin May 11 at 10:15 AM

Ben Carson in January. (REUTERS/Earnie Grafton)

Republicans are taking a certain amount of glee in watching the Democrats’ ethical contortions as they try to back Hillary Clinton without accepting her self-dealing as business as usual.

But Republicans have their own problem: They tolerate far too many crackpots.

Dr. Ben Carson joins Mike Huckabee in refusing to accept that Supreme Court decisions, on gay marriage for example, are binding. Pressed by Chris Wallace, Carson insisted that Marbury v. Madison and more than 200 years of history have not settled the issue. “It is an open question. It needs to be discussed.” Actually, it’s not open, and him taking this seriously should disqualify him from office since he is telling us up front he won’t be bound by court decisions, something not even President Obama has done.

Huckabee has said much the same thing. And to boot he’s hawked “nutritional supplements” as a cure to diabetes. He insisted on Sunday, “One of the elements of the plan was dietary supplements, but it is not the fundamental thing.” (Then why encourage people to buy them?) He declared, “I don’t have to defend everything that I’ve ever done.” So he’s both a constitutional and dietary charlatan.

Either one should disqualify him.

Then there is Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), who cynically chooses to pander to the conspiracy-mongers who turning a military exercise primarily in Texas into a secret plan to impose martial law. Cruz has taken their nonsense as legitimate and made inquiries at the Pentagon. Rich Lowry hit the nail on the head on ABC, calling this “pandering to a vocal minority.” He continued, “I’m all in favor of a healthy distrust of the government but not paranoia. There are many threats to our liberty. The U.S. military isn’t one of them.

And besides, federal control of Texas is something that was pretty much established in the mid-19th century by President Polk. So, the idea that the federal government is going to go in and retake over Texas is just nonsense.” (You’ll recall that former Texas governor Rick Perry stood up to tell the conspiracy nuts to knock it off.)

In less obvious ways, some presidential hopefuls also play on the ignorance and fear of the public. How many times has Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) falsely suggested the National Security Agency is listening to the content of millions of phone calls?

Before reversing himself, he also gave support to the anti-vaccine hooey. At what point do voters say, you know, that’s not the mindset or character of someone who we’d want as president?

Anyone can run for president, but pundits and voters don’t have to indulge loony conspiracy theories or consider candidates who don’t accept the basic premise of our constitutional government. Responsible conservatives should follow Lowry’s lead — name and shame — lest the GOP be seen as a haven for the unhinged. It is only when they are repeatedly and consistently called out that pols will stop fanning the flames of paranoia and ignorance. On one level it is amusing, but it is also a sign that social media have made it increasingly easy for charlatans and con men to gain an audience. And worse, it also debases our political culture, hampers serious debate and further erodes self-governance itself.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...e-gop/?hpid=z4

Well, Jennifer Rubin, it looks to me like the WashingtonPost has fallen into its own form of crackpotism, publishing articles written by crackpots.

The Washington Post is, for the most part, a liberal rag akin to a Media Matters in print. JMO

Rand Paul's New Hampshire political director licked a camera

By Chris Moody, CNN Senior Digital Correspondent
Updated 4:00 PM ET, Mon May 11, 2015

Washington (CNN)A top New Hampshire staffer for Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul licked a camera owned by a Democratic videographer during a campaign event Monday in Londonderry.

That's not a figure of speech. He literally opened his mouth, stuck out his tongue and licked the glass with it.

David Chesley, Paul's political director in the state, slathered his tongue over a video lens from American Bridge, an opposition research firm that follows and records Republican candidates. The camera operator had the device in record mode and was live-streaming the footage back to the group's headquarters in Washington. The group posted the footage on YouTube.




Rand Paul's political life 20 photos

EXPAND GALLERY

RELATED: Chris Christie looks to rebound in New Hampshire

It's still early in the presidential cycle, but the lick may be the strangest thing that has happened yet.

Chesley is a political veteran who served as the state's Republican Party director before he joined Paul's operation in March. Emails sent to Paul's campaign asking why their political director licked a camera were not immediately returned.

New Hampshire was the first place Paul visited after announcing his presidential campaign in April. The state hosts the first primary on the presidential electoral calendar and is traditionally an important stop on the road to the nomination.

For the Democratic operative holding the camera, the Londonderry licking isn't his first adventure: In 2014, the same tracker once followed Republican Senate candidate Scott Brown in a canoe when he took a trip down the Contoocook River, American Bridge spokesman Ben Ray told CNN.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/11/politi...election-2016/

Id rather be a crackpot any day than one of the anti American communists and socialists at the Washington Post!

W