The Right-Cheek Ass Clown for October, 2022

The decision on this period's award begins with a person who, as the saying goes, said the quiet part out loud. In the wake of the cascading examples of the gross unfitness for office of GOP Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker, Republican activist and former NRA talking head Dana Loesch made the following shocking, yet totally predictable comment on her radio program this past Monday:

"I don't care if Herschel Walker paid to abort endangered baby eagles. I want control of the Senate."

She went on to diplomatically add,

“If the Daily Beast story is true, you’re telling me Walker used his money to reportedly pay some skank for an abortion and Warnock wants to use all of our monies to pay a whole bunch of skanks for abortions ... I don't know if he did it or not. I don't even care.”

Yes, she said the quiet part out loud. "Paying off skanks" is irrelevant, as are honesty, integrity, and a coherent and clearly stated program of government. Power is all that matters. And so it is that we name as 

The Right-Cheek Ass Clown for October, 2022

for the eleventh time (17th if you count shared awards)

The Republican Party

As the midterm elections approach, the "Grand Old Party" has gone into high gear with an enormous barrage of fact-free ads, tweets, bilge, and general allegations designed to cast doubt on the achievements of the Biden Administration while obscuring the fact that the Republican Party itself has no ideas, no programs, no policies, and no responsible positions of its own. Even its much-ballyhooed "Commitment to America" is less a commitment than a plan-free list of conservative whines ... in case you missed it, my take on it's empty, vacuous text can be found in this post from last week. You may also be interested in historian Heather Cox Richardson's discussion of it. 

New analysis by Amy Gardner of The Washington Post reveals that 299 Republican candidates* for the House, Senate, and important state offices in the coming midterm elections deny that President Biden won the 2020 election. Many of those running at the state level are competing for positions that will give them oversight of state elections, ensuring that hard-core GOP functionaries will be in a position to overturn electoral results that don't favor their party.  

The traditional Republican Party is long dead, with its most rapid period of decline beginning with the presidency of Ronald Reagan and culminating with the disastrous administration of Der Furor**, who still holds the party in thrall despite the overwhelming evidence of his criminality, malfeasance, vindictiveness, and general unfitness to hold any elected office. The fact that so many Americans are willing to swallow the debunked conspiracy theories, provable lies, and gross distortions of today's GOP says much about today's America, little of it good.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Readers, once again - and for the fourth time this year - the battered tinfoil and toilet paper Ass Clown crown is presented to the Republican Party ... and, by extension, to those deluded and bitter Americans foolish enough to vote for people like Der Furor, Herschel Walker, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Mehmet Oz, and the rest of the GOP's clown car.

Vote wisely next month ... the sort of government the GOP would bring in ... whether honestly elected or not ... is a frightening thought.

Have a good day, and come back tomorrow for the second Halloween-themed Cartoon Saturday of the month, when we'll visit with a man of many parts - Frankenstein. More thoughts then.

Bilbo

* 174 of them in reliably Republican districts.

** Time for a plug: if you've not read Andy Borowitz's hysterically funny yet heartbreakingly sad book "Profiles in Ignorance: How America's Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber," do it now. Only a comic and writer as talented as Andy Borowitz could describe Sarah Palin as "the gateway ignoramus who led to [Der Furor]."