So this morning I woke to Morning Joe, having fallen asleep watching Rachel's late rerun. They teased an interview with Tim Huelskamp, the wingnut who Boehner recently purged from a powerful committee for being too crazy for the House Republican leadership. OK, I thought, I won't instantly change the teevee channel while I try to wake up. Off to the shower....
A few minutes later Rep. Huelskamp was given a long interview over the Boehnerpocalpyse last night. Joe eagerly agreed with all Huelskamp's lies about tax hikes killing jobs, and the need to cut (always unspecified) spending. But even Joe kept asking Huelskamp whether he acknowledged that in a divided government some compromise was necessary for the good of the country. He got a badly-spun "No" each and every time he asked -- pled -- with his interviewee, clearly hoping for a different answer. An angry Donny Deutsch broke in and demanded a yes or no answer: Should anybody's taxes go up at all? Even somebody making $5 million a year? Huelskamp got his back up and said no, he wasn't going to vote for any tax hikes, using a pulled-out-of-his-ass figure of 200-700,000 jobs that would be lost due to tax hikes. Joe went back to pleading for a different answer to his question.
(Link to video here. Sorry, work network won't allow video posting.)
Then Mika was allowed her meager few words, and asked the Representative whether it was time to consider banning assault weapons, a topic Joe had been fulminating against his party about previously. Not surprisingly, Huelskamp retreated to the "Guns don't kill people" familiar ground, shoved his four children out as human shields against potential criticism, and talked about "culture" and video games. He deplored anyone "politicizing" the deaths of these children to talk about gun control. Joe leapt on him like a grouchy bear, taking serious umbrage at the idea that he'd be politicizing (sic) the deaths of children on his political chat show. He waved his own four children as proof of his bona fides. Huelskamp's jaw jutted out as he stood his ground, firm in his wingnut convictions. Much further umbrage ensued.
Listened to a bit of the post-inteview chat, in which Eugene Robinson was allowed on to shake his head at the brutal stupidity of what had just been shown. The crew spared a thought for poor John Boehner (no, really they did), and wished him a happy and peaceful holiday. Poor Scarborough seems to see the utter disaster looming for his party, as the crayzees and misanthropes he so eagerly abetted in his day take full charge of it.
If it's not too early for popcorn, pop on over to enjoy the show. These are the people a certain president is looking to compromise with.