Anti-'establishment' Rep. Broun: Akinesque!
The Georgia Senate race is shaping up to be a spectacular thing. The Republicans fighting for the nomination include Rep. Phil Gingrey, last seen
complaining about his woeful $170,000 salary as a mere representative, previously of the "
proper gender roles" brouhaha, previously of the "
Todd Akin was sort of right about that whole 'legitimate rape' thing" thing; also in the running is Rep. Paul
evolution and embryology are lies straight from the pit of hell Broun, aka the guy who makes regular embarrassment to the party Phil Gingrey look good in comparison.
Broun is running as an anti-establishment type, because apparently being a well-known member of the House of Representatives still counts as being not-establishment, these days:
“The establishment don’t want me to go to the U.S. Senate,” Broun told a breakfast gathering of conservative activists here in the northern Atlanta suburbs. “The reason for that is because when I go to the U.S. Senate, it will be Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Mike Lee and Paul Broun. The establishment don’t want that.”
The establishment don't want you to stick your face on a lit oven burner, too, so sometimes the establishment makes a fair point about these things. But he may be right: yes, Paul Broun may be too nuts for even the current Republican Party—at least the part of them that still want to actually win elections as opposed to merely biting the heads off things and declaring victory, which I realize is a dwindling caucus—and the party has a tough choice to make:
It’s what happened in Missouri last year, when Akin won his primary on the support of the religious right only to lose handily to Democrat Claire McCaskill in the general election after an uproar over comments on abortion and rape. To avoid that prospect in Georgia, Republicans in Washington are weighing whether to dump big bucks into the primary to prevent Broun from winning if his candidacy picks up steam, according to several sources.
Hilariously, this would only tip the race to one of the other members of the Georgia Republican clown car, someone like Phil Gingrey or Karen Handel, fresh off her boffo tenure
nearly destroying the Susan G. Komen foundation.
Incidentally, Rep. Paul Broun has also picked up a coveted slot as one of the most corrupt members of Congress, according to CREW. No doubt Broun will use this to polish his anti-establishment credentials, since there's nothing that says "I am a free spirit" more than having people ponder how corrupt you are in your current job.