Now imagine Bob Marshall in Congress
If you don't know who
Virginia Delegate Bob Marshall is, you should. When even the entirely crazy
Washington Times can't quite muster enthusiasm for one of the bats in the Republican belfry,
that is the sign of one odd bat:
Delegate Robert G. Marshall has said that disabled children can be God’s vengeance against women who have had abortions. He has described incest as sometimes voluntary, and he has questioned the sexuality of a Supreme Court justice who has favored marriage equality.
But unlike W. Todd Akin, whose offhanded reference to “legitimate rape” cost the GOP a winnable Senate seat from Missouri in 2012, Mr. Marshall is unbowed over his history of controversial rhetoric as he seeks a seat in Congress representing Northern Virginia.
"Unbowed" is meant to be the takeaway word. The lesson Todd Akin Republicans seem to have learned this time around is that Akin wasn't belligerent
enough with his stupid statements, so guys like this, unkindly dubbed
"Sideshow" Bob Marshall by non-insane people in Virginia for a legacy of antics that make Todd Akin look Churchillian in comparison, are trying to shoot the moon.
Please read below the fold for more on this guy.
In 2010, at an event calling for an end to state funding for Planned Parenthood, Mr. Marshall suggested that women who have abortions are more likely to face “vengeance” from “nature” in children with a greater likelihood of having developmental disabilities. [...]
The author of a 1989 Boston Globe column asked him about his opposition to all abortion — even in cases of rape, incest, and to save the life of the mother. Mr. Marshall, then the research director for the American Life League, posed a baffling question of his own in response.
“What if incest is voluntary?” Mr. Marshall said. “Sometimes it is.”
He's the one who co-sponsored the law banning same-sex marriage in Virginia. He's the one who wrote the Virginia "fetal personhood" bill. He introduced the bill purporting to "study" whether Virginia should mint its own money because you never know when the dollar is going to collapse. Every terrible idea that comes out of Virginia seems to have Bob Marshall's tongueprints on it; for all we know he might have grown Ken Cuccinelli from seed in his backyard.
Democrats see an easy victory, says the Washington Times subhead; that presumes Bob here gets the nod on the Republican side, and I think the various functionaries of the Virginia Republican Party may stuff him in a steamer trunk and ship him off to Antarctica if it looks like he might. That said, his Obama-leaning district keeps electing him, so there's clearly nothing he can do that would make the party base too embarrassed to vote for him.