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The title is from Washington Post conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin yesterday, who took freshman Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) to task for mocking his fellow Republican senators in public over the weekend. Rubin's, and this morning Joe Scarborough's admonishments notwithstanding, it's hard to see Ted Cruz doing anything other than what he has been doing since he got elected to the senate, which is basically being a royal pain in the ass for everyone else. Certainly calling other Republicans "squishes" won't endear him to anyone.

Here is part of what Rubin wrote:

There is being principled, and then there is being a jerk. Putting down your colleagues to boost your own street cred with the base falls into the latter category.
...
Cruz’s actions suggest an immaturity and lack of sophistication about conservative governance. He might want to apologize to his colleagues for betraying their confidence and sit down and think what it is he wants to do in the Senate. Obstruction is easy; governance is hard. And if the answer is that only hackneyed gestures (e.g. push for repealing Obamacare with a Dem Senate majority, but offer no alternative) that interest him, then the people of Texas are being shortchanged. Worse, he’s doing nothing to suggest he’s a man of stature and future leader in the party.

And here are Cruz's full comments, upped to YouTube by FreedomWorks.

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Red Sox DH David Ortiz returned to the line-up today with a few choice words for the terrorists. After introducing and thanking the Mayor, the Govenor, and the entire police department he said this:

BIG PAPI: “This jersey that we wear today, it doesn’t say Red Sox, it says Boston. We want to thank you, Mayor Menino, Governor Patrick, the whole police department for the great job they did this past week.”

“This is our fucking city!” Ortiz exclaimed, with roars from the crowd. “And nobody going to dictate our freedom. Stay strong.”

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I'm not sure why we should care about insecure athletes who are afraid to walk through crowds at baseball stadiums unarmed. But we do.

via USAToday

Jonathan Papelbon, the former Boston Red Sox closer, once resided in an apartment directly above the site of one of the explosions at Monday's Boston Marathon, and he called watching the events from afar "surreal."

In a follow-up interview Tuesday with CSN Philadelphia, Papelbon elaborated on that and also spoke of other fears in this era, such as walking through crowds at a stadium. That included Papelbon bringing into play a seemingly separate issue, that of President Obama's efforts on gun control after the elementary school killings in Newtown, Conn

JONATHAN PAPELBON:"We walked through the crowd here on opening day and in Boston, we came down through the bleachers one opening day. I don't feel comfortable doing that.

"Today's day and age, has gotten so crazy. Shoot, man, Obama wants to take our guns from us and everything. You got all this stuff going on, it's just a little bit insane for me, man. I'm not sure how to take it."

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Longtime NY1 news anchor Pat Kiernan took the time this morning in his "In The Papers" segment to read Gabby Gifford's op-ed (A Senate in the Gun Lobby's Grip) for the NY Times in it's entirety.

A Senate in the Gun Lobby’s Grip

SENATORS say they fear the N.R.A. and the gun lobby. But I think that fear must be nothing compared to the fear the first graders in Sandy Hook Elementary School felt as their lives ended in a hail of bullets. The fear that those children who survived the massacre must feel every time they remember their teachers stacking them into closets and bathrooms, whispering that they loved them, so that love would be the last thing the students heard if the gunman found them.

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This will probably be the most touching thing you'll view all day.

via Digital Journal

New Zealand has become the 13th nation and the first in the Asia-Pacific region to legalize same-sex marriage after parliament voted to amend the nation's marriage act on Wednesday.

The New Zealand Herald reports that the public gallery erupted in jubilation after the legislature's 77-44 vote was announced. Lawmakers then embraced and exchanged congratulations as the gallery, and some MPs, sang a waiata, the New Zealand love song "Pokarekare Ana." Hundreds of LGBT advocates also celebrated outside parliament after the historic vote.

While same-sex civil unions have been legal in New Zealand since 2005, the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill updates a 1955 law in order to "ensure that all people, regardless of sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity will have the opportunity to marry if they so choose."

As soon as this hit the net yesterday you knew it would spark outrage.

via CNN

Fox has removed from its web site a recent episode of "Family Guy," which showed mass deaths at the Boston Marathon.

A doctored version of the clip, which made fun of Monday's terrorist attack at the marathon, has since circulated online.

Fox Broadcasting refused to comment. But Seth MacFarlane, creator of the "Family Guy" cartoon, condemned the hoax episode in a Tuesday tweet.

The "Turban Cowboy" episode was originally broadcast on March 17, and Fox confirmed that it has since been pulled from Fox.com and Hulu.

The episode showed the main character of the show Peter Griffin mowing down other runners with a car in a bid to win the marathon.

The online hoax spliced together two clips from the original episode. The hoax showed Griffin appearing to trigger explosions with his cell phone, while depicting the scene of bloody carnage when he drove his car through the runners.

Apparently the weapon was real and he could do this legally in the state of New Hampshire. Organizers called the event not a gun rally but an "Honor Your Oath" event as a warning to lawmakers who break the faith, presumably to the Second Amendment.

via The Union Leader

Organizers said the event, which happened to fall on the birthdate of Thomas Jefferson, was not a "gun rally."

But that didn't stop 11-year-old Hunter Cogswell of Concord from bringing an AR-15 and a big white flag with black lettering: "Come and Take It."

The boy said he was there to "stand up for gun rights."

"I believe in gun rights. It's our constitutional right," he said, adding the gun was real but "not loaded."

Emcee Jeff Chidester, a local radio talk show host, jokingly welcomed "all you racist, hateful tea-baggers to this event."

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Yes, it's 2013 and some states are still having these debates. The bill passed yesterday now makes its way to the Governor's desk for signing.

via KXLH, Helena.

On Tuesday, Montana's LGBT community saw a major victory on the House floor as lawmakers passed a bill which decriminalizes homosexuality.

Senate Bill 107 strikes language from Montana law which makes it illegal to have homosexual sex. In a 64 to 36 vote some Republicans joined Democrats in voting to take the language out of Montana code.

At least one Republican explained his bigotry and his vote in this way, that though he "has a whole lot of love and respect for his many homosexual friends", what they do is deviate or deviant.

Representative Dave Hagstrom (R-Billings) says homosexual sex is deviate.

"To me sex is primarily purposed to produce people," Hagstrom explained. "Sex that doesn't produce people is deviate. That doesn't mean it's a problem, it just means it's not doing its primary purpose."

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Ostensibly, former South Carolina Governor (and notorious Appalachian Trail hiker) is set to run against Elizabeth Colbert-Busch for his former and now vacant congressional seat. But if this clip from Morning Joe is any indication he's thinking more of defeating her famous younger brother.

MARK SANFORD: "She's not held office. Right now, the one thing people know about him [sic] is that she's Stephen Colbert's sister. Well, you know, at the end of the day, Stephen Colbert's a very popular, you know, well-regarded comedian, but at the end of the day he's not on the ticket. And we're going to have a debate about ideas, and I think that when people really begin to digest those ideas, some real strong contrasts in terms of where she would be versus where I would be, I think that will substantially change a poll that I think now simply defines name and ID as people know it, not issue ID. And I think ultimately debates in campaigns are decided on issues."

Yes, because the name "Colbert" provides an early unfair playing field advantage against someone who represented that congressional district for six years (1995-2001) and was the Governor of the state for another eight (2003-2011) in a deep red district that hasn't elected a Democrat in forty years. "At the end of the day," Mark Sanford sure has a lot of gall and is still a schmuck who feels entitled to the seat, but we knew that already.

South Carolina can do better. Elect Elizabeth Colbert-Busch.

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A long-time Alaska congressman uses some 'colorful' language in a radio interview. And Republicans wonder why minorities don't like them.

via Shannyn Moore

In an interview with Ketchikan’s KRBD, Alaska’s one and only Congressman, a Republican, Don Young in comments regarding the economy and employment, was able to include a racial slur. Congressman Young said, “My father had a ranch; we used to have 50-60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes,” he said. “It takes two people to pick the same tomatoes now. It’s all done by machine.”

Congressman Young is again under investigation by the House Ethics Committee. The fresh charges are that he failed to report gifts, misused campaign contributions and lied to investigators.

Young's office later released the following statement:

During a sit down interview with Ketchikan Public Radio this week, I used a term that was commonly used during my days growing up on a farm in Central California. I know that this term is not used in the same way nowadays and I meant no disrespect.

Migrant workers play an important role in America’s workforce, and earlier in the said interview, I discussed the compassion and understanding I have for these workers and the hurdles they face in obtaining citizenship. America must once and for all tackle the issue of immigration reform.

Diane Sweet adds:
Roll Call:

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus announced a $10 million outreach initiative Sunday to better convey the party’s message to voters, particularly minorities.

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