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When will the madness end?
Posted with permission.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/more-knuckleheads-their-way-capitol-hill
More knuckleheads on their way to Capitol Hill
09/30/14 10:28 AM
By Steve Benen
A couple of weeks ago, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) showed some of his frustration about Capitol Hill gridlock and Congress inability to govern, acknowledging his own partys role. You might notice, Boehner told reporters, I have a few knuckleheads in my conference.
The complaint is well grounded in fact. By some quantitative measures, the House Republican conference is the most ideologically extreme since the post-Civil War reconstruction era. Knuckleheads is obviously a polite way of describing some truly radical lawmakers who often dominate GOP politics.
Its tempting at times to take comfort in the belief that conditions couldnt get worse. Congressional Republicans, the theory goes, have reached some kind of ideological apex, and though theres no reason to think theyll shift towards the American mainstream anytime soon, at least they cant move any further off the far-right cliff.
This assumption is, of course, wrong. Jonathan Weisman had a terrific report yesterday on the coming crop of GOP freshmen.
Congressional Republicans successfully ended their primary season with minimal damage, but in at least a dozen safe or largely safe Republican House districts where more mild-mannered Republicans are exiting, their likely replacements will pull the party to the right, a move likely to increase division in an already polarized Congress.
The number of congressional Republicans who could reasonably be described as moderate is almost comically small and even they really only appear centrist because theyre compared against the rest of their GOP colleagues but several Republican incumbents who are retiring this year are at least mainstream within their party.
Their successors wont be.
Weismans piece is worth checking out in its entirety, but note that the list of retiring Republicans wholl be replaced with more extreme members isnt short. John Ratcliffe is to the right of retiring Rep. Ralph Hall (R-Texas); Gary Palmer is to the right of retiring Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.); Mark Walker is to the right of retiring Rep. Howard Coble; Ryan Zinke is to the right of retiring Rep. Steve Daines (R-Mont.); Barbara Comstock is to the right of retiring Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) and so on.
My personal favorite is in Wisconsin, where Rep. Tom Petri (R) is stepping down.
And these are just the examples of extremists likely to replace mainstream GOP incumbents. When we consider far-right lawmakers wholl be replaced by equally far-right successors Jody Hice replacing Paul Broun in Georgia; Ken Buck replacing Cory Gardner in Colorado its a reminder that knuckleheads will be even more plentiful in 2015 than in 2014.