Struggling quasi-Kansan resident and Senator Pat Roberts has decided to embrace the theatrical with his comments about President Obama's potential plan to close the human rights blight that is Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp.
One of President Obama's most disappointing failures has been his inability to close the facility, as it serves as one of the largest symbols of American hypocrisy and her failure to lead.
Pat Roberts, however, thinks that this place is swell. He objects unconditionally to transferring detainees to United States prisons and having them subject to the due process that millions of Americans have died protecting.
As a matter of fact, the proud obstructionist has pledged to "shut down the Senate" if any moves toward justice are made.
Star Wars fans, see the resemblance?
More below the fold.
I'm not sure what exactly Pat Roberts is reaching at with his comments. Maybe he is trying to play up the influence he has in the Senate with the Kansan voters. Perhaps he is trying to align himself to another ultra-conservative Senator to try to woo back crazy-weary conservatives voters.
"I stopped him once from trying to send the Gitmo terrorists to Leavenworth" prison in Kansas, Roberts said during an event in Topeka, according to Roll Call. "I shall do it again, I shall do it again and if he tries it I will shut down the Senate." (Source: CNN)
Republican politicians sure do seem to love shutting things down,
even when their own voters don't. They seem to think it is tough and firm when, in reality, it is weak and crazy. Republicans don't boast about finding compromise or trying to build bridges, they celebrate burning them.
Just in case you were wondering whether the rhetoric could get anymore stupid, here comes my own Congressman -- Speaker John Boehner -- in to end all doubt.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Obama is willing to "unilaterally rewrite the law" because he is "so eager to bring these terrorists" into the country. (Source: CNN)
...
Did everyone just read what I did? The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives just suggested that the President of the United States was eager to bring terrorists into our country?
What the actual frick? The President doesn't want terrorists running free in America, he wants them in prison. Just preferably a prison that isn't illegal and riddled with human rights violations. We don't export domestic criminals (many of them incredibly dangerous) to other nations where we can evade our own civil rights laws, we put them behind bars within our own borders because that's what civilized nations do.
This isn't an off-key note, however, but rather the tune that the Republican Party has been playing for the last few weeks. You may recall Congressman Louie Gohmert suggesting last week that President Obama sent “3,000 military into where they can get Ebola that they can bring back.”
The Republican Party is starting to sound less and less like a legitimate political party, and more and more like some SNL sketch that actually gets public condemnation because the jokes are a little too inappropriate.
I struggle to characterize these comments as anything other than downright evil. They represent a total distortion of the truth, a total misrepresentation of reality for the purposes of political power. I'm not claiming that liberals don't make erroneous comments from time to time, but I don't think such a string of lies, toxicity and hatred have ever been introduced into the political discourse during my lifetime (which is relatively short, admittedly).
Reckless rhetoric is reckless. It divides the country and tears apart the fabric of our nation.
As the GOP fights to keep an inhumane prison camp open, claims that the President is trying to spread Ebola and let terrorists loose in America, one is left wondering whether we will ever have a certifiably sane second party in our nation again.