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Rep. Louis Gohmert makes Ed Schultz's edition Psycho Talk for his hate filled rant on the House floor over the repeal of DADT.

Rep. Louie Gohmert: Hate crimes bill will lead to Nazism, legalization of necrophilia, pedophilia, and bestiality.

GOHMERT: If you’re oriented toward animals, bestiality, then, you know, that’s not something that can be used, held against you or any bias be held against you for that. Which means you’d have to strike any laws against bestiality, if you’re oriented toward corpses, toward children, you know, there are all kinds of perversions, [...] pedophiles or necrophiliacs or what most would say is perverse sexual orientations but the trouble is, we made amendments to eliminate pedophiles from being included in the definition. [...] But people have always been willing to give up their liberties, their freedoms in order to gain economic stability. It happened in 1920 and 1930’s. Germany gave up their liberties to gain economic stability and they got a little guy with a mustache, who was the ultimate hate monger. And this is scary stuff we’re doing here when we take away what has traditionally been an important aspect of moral teaching in America.

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More of Michele Bachmann's nuttery from last night's Larry King Live. Bachmann singing the praises of Hannity, Limbaugh, Levine and Beck and calling their followers who are as King points out, 2% of the country, a "critical mass" and a "movement".

KING: Congresswoman Bachmann, I would gather from your political end of the -- of the spectrum, you enjoyed that?

BACHMANN: Well, sure. Republicans like humor, too, Larry. And so it's fun to see -- it's fun to -- it's fun to watch that show. And I think that what we're seeing now is after nine months, "Saturday Night Live" has decided to take on the president, too. I think that's good for everyone.

KING: Well, but here's what might not be so good for everyone. Senator Lindsey -- GOP Senator Lindsey Graham recently blamed the current lack of civility in U.S. politics on voters electing confrontational representatives, faulted the 24 hour news cycle -- hello us -- talk radio and groups like MoveOn.org.

Did he have a point, James?

Are we -- have we gotten vituperative?

CARVILLE: Well, yes. But I mean to some extent, too, the politicians are -- are playing along with this, too. Yes, I think so. And I think Senator Graham, like a lot of people in the Republican Party, everybody keeps one-up in Rush, one-ups Glenn Beck or one-ups Sean or one-ups the next guy to see who can say the nuttiest thing. And I think people like Senator Graham or -- or a congressman from Michigan, a fellow by the name, I think, of McCarter, who called Senator DeMint nuts. I think people in the -- there's some people in the Republican Party who want to get that party in a methadone clinic so they can get off of the heroin and all of this crazy talk that comes out of all these people. And so that's what's going on here.

BACHMANN: You know, Larry, one thing...

KING: Ari, are the...

(CROSSTALK)

KING: Are the...

(CROSSTALK)

KING: ...as he calls them, are the nutty -- Ari, are the nutty people, frankly -- and some of them go a little wacko -- hurting you?

FLEISCHER: I'm glad to see that James just played his part in lowering the temperature.

Look, Larry, I take these things with a grain of salt. You know, in the -- in the election of 1800, it was said you couldn't walk across the street without fear of being caned by people from what was then the opposite party. This has been a part of the lifeblood of a noisy democracy forever.

What's happened today is just with the speed of communications, it gets reverberated and echoed faster.

But here's the bigger point -- and I say this with all respect. The evening cable show that has the most viewers has three million viewers in a nation of 300 million. And so I think a lot of people are pretty sensible, don't pay attention to all the noise and all the shouting. And I'll take this country with its noisy democracy over any other country any other day. BACHMANN: And, Larry, if I could just add...

KING: There was a "New York"...

BACHMANN: ...there's no -- Larry...

KING: Go ahead, Michele.

BACHMANN: Larry, if I could just add, the shows that have had the greatest ratings increases in recent time have been Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity. People go where they think they're going to hear the truth. And that's why they're going to those shows.

KING: But -- but, Congresswoman, as Ari points out, they're talking about 1 percent of the population. They had no effect on the election. And to the -- wouldn't -- wouldn't you, as a Republican, would you want them to be the voice of the Republican Party?

BACHMANN: Well, still, it's their ratings that are going up. And I think you have to look at the reality of ratings...

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This was truly a thing of beauty. Betsy McCaughey gets smacked down by Dylan Ratigan and Anthony Weiner on MSNBC's Morning Meeting.

From Think Progress:

Throughout the interview, McCaughey was constantly on the defensive, complaining that she was being shut out of the debate. “Anthony, you are ignorant about health insurance,” she said, before insisting to Ratigan that “this will go down in history as one of the most browbeating interviews in television history.” “I hope that it does,” Ratigan replied. “And maybe you’ll learn at that point then to answer questions as opposed to go on television and cast accusations.”

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And Bob Cesca noted:

Jamison Foser makes a good point: why is McCaughey on television in the first place? While it's frustrating that cable news continues to elevate wingnuts and crazies, there's actually an upside to bringing in people like McCaughey. I'll explain. In the case of this Ratigan segment, he's doing the opposite of what Fox News does all the time. Fox News claims "balance" by including occasional liberals. Weak, barely articulate, outnumbered liberals who are way out of their depth. So the debate is automatically stacked in favor of the conservatives, while Fox News can claim "balance" in a very superficial way. Ratigan, today, lined up a strong liberal against a weak wingnut, and Ratigan is clearly more sympathetic to Weiner's position on healthcare. That meant two pro-reform voices against one weak anti-reform voice. It's a start.

Yes it is.

From The Daily Show Oct. 6, 2009. Jon Stewart whacks President Obama for saying he's got too much on his plate to revoke "don't ask, don't tell".

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The Today Show had a moving piece on Bill Cahir with his widow Rene Browne this morning. Via Wikipedia:

Bill Cahir (pronounced “care”), 40, was a former newspaper correspondent for Newhouse Newspapers; a Congressional committee staffer for U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.); and a 2008 Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress in Pennsylvania’s 5th District, when he was killed by a single enemy gunshot Aug. 13, 2009 while on active duty in Afghanistan as a U.S. Marines Reservist.

Cahir was working as a Washington, D.C.-based correspondent for Newhouse News Service when he notably joined the Marines at age 34—a move that required requesting an exception to the service’s age-restrictions. He cited a long-held interest in military service as well as the September 11 attacks as motivations for his enlistment, and subsequently wrote a first-person essay regarding his boot camp experience.

He married Rene Browne in 2006. She is pregnant with twin girls, and is due in December 2009.

A memorial fund was established to pay for the family’s needs at Bill Cahir Memorial Fund, Box 268, Alexandria, Va. 22313

Today is the 8th year since the Afghanistan War began.

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From Larry King Live Oct. 6, 2009. Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann does her best to avoid answering the question first of all on whether she agrees with the birthers or not on where the president was born, and she completely dodges answering, with the help of GOP flack Ari Fleischer, whether she thinks the birthers are nuts or not.

She also claims that the only ones who are raising the issue are those on the left and is nearly laughed off the set. It's clear Michele didn't want to completely piss off her wingnut base while doing her best to try to appear sane on Larry King's show.

It's hard to say what was worse. Bachmann's dodge or Ari Fleischer trying to compare those on the left who were upset about the stolen presidential election to the wingnut birthers. NOT the same thing Ari. Epic fail there bud.

KING: James, were you going to comment on some of this falderal?

CARVILLE: I would love to comment on (INAUDIBLE), where you left off.

FLEISCHER: So would I.

(CROSSTALK)

FLEISCHER: Go ahead, James. You go first.

CARVILLE: Well, first of all, there are seven Republicans in the House that have birther legislation before there. And one of the things that people don't like is that politicians get a simple yes or no question and they try to evade it, just like I heard Cong -- the Congresswoman do. She's known to be very outspoken...

BACHMANN: Oh, not at all. I answered.

CARVILLE: I can't believe that she doesn't have the courage just to give us a simple yes or no answer -- do you believe that these birthers are plum crazy, because that's what Senator Graham was saying?

And it's a simple question -- do you believe that they're crazy or not?

KING: But that was the only question...

FLEISCHER: Let me -- let me jump in.

KING: (INAUDIBLE).

(CROSSTALK)

KING: Do you think they're nuts?

All right, go ahead, Ari. Go ahead.

FLEISCHER: I -- I think this movement is nutty. I think this is nutty. I think there's no evidence and people shouldn't waste any time on it.

But I want to point out something that is a terrible hypocrisy about all of this. When George Bush was elected, there were many people who called him illegitimate and said that he lost Florida despite there being no evidence of that being the case.

CARVILLE: I was one.

FLEISCHER: But nobody...

CARVILLE: I was one.

FLEISCHER: But hold on a second. Hold on, James.

CARVILLE: Yes. OK. I was one of them.

FLEISCHER: Hold on. Nobody blew the whistle and started to say, well, wait a minute, aren't these people on the left nutty?

It always seemed that people said George Bush was a divider, not a uniter and they didn't talk about the tactics of the left being the problem.

Now, when people on the right are making claims that are not supported, it's as if all the media referees now can't wait to blow their whistle and throw their flags and say the problem is on the right.

That's hypocritical. And if you ask me, there's -- there's a loony factor in both parties. And I'd say for everyone who's a little lulu on the left, there's -- I mean on the right -- every one who's a little lulu on the right, there's about 1.8 who's lulu on the left.

CARVILLE: Well, I was one.

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From Hardball Oct. 6, 2009. Pat Buchanan claims President Obama has a 'messiah complex'. Seems Pat can't quit repeating John McCain campaign slogans.

Matthews: Do you believe he turned over too much power to the hill?

Fineman: I think there’s a way he’ll get a bill but he’s not going to get the bill he should have gotten by the way he’s doing it.

Buchanan: I don’t think he—I don’t know that he really cares. I think he says here’s the Congress… here’s the Congress and you guys put together this bill. Get all your people in there. Get it together. Get it down to me and I’ll sign it.

Matthews: Okay that gets the voters.

Buchanan: He’s got a messiah…

Matthews: But does he have a motive, does he have a clear cut policy motive like Reagan did or…

Buchanan: No, I think he’s got a messiah complex.

Matthews: What’s that mean?

Buchanan: It means he has succeeded by being President of the United States. His very presence there and who he is and who Michelle is has elevated this country, and he can get things done because of who he is.

Matthews: So you’re saying he’s just a prom king?

Buchanan: I think there’s an awful lot of that, you know, walking across big man on campus about him.

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Ed Schultz talks to Rep. Anthony Weiner about the hesitation from the White House to call out the Conserva-Dems on supporting some real health care reform.

Congressman Weiner encouraged everyone to go to his new web site at Countdown to Health Care and let John Boehner know what he's wrong about support for the public option.

From The Washington Independent:

At a briefing for conservative bloggers at the Heritage Foundation today, Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.) dismissed MSNBC as a network neither she nor “most of the American people” paid attention to.

“Quite honestly I don’t even know anything about MSNBC,” said Bachmann. “It’s not a network that I watch, and most of the American people agree with that assessment. They aren’t watching it either. And that’s why Fox’s ratings — I mean, it’s like, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC combined. I think Fox even exceeded one of the major networks last week. They’re on the ascendency.”

Bachmann praised conservative bloggers for getting out the truth past the filters of the old media. “I didn’t fear my own editorial boards in Minneapolis-St. Paul when I lived there,” she said. “I’m certainly not going to fear the likes of Keith Olbermann.”

h/t The Political Carnival

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From CNN Ensign says he did not breach ethics rules:

Embattled Republican Sen. John Ensign told CNN Tuesday he did not break Senate ethics rules by helping to secure a lobbying job for the husband of the woman he had an affair with.

"I think it's pretty clear. I said in the past, I recommended him for jobs just like I've recommended a lot of people," Ensign told CNN senior congressional correspondent Dana Bash and congressional producer Ted Barrett. "But we absolutely did nothing except for comply exactly with what the ethics laws and the ethics rules of the Senate state. We were very careful in everything that we did. You can see our statements on that."

The comments come four days after The New York Times reported the husband of the woman Ensign had a affair with, Doug Hampton, has since lobbied the Nevada senator on behalf of his clients. The New York Times also reported evidence that suggests Ensign played an active role in getting Hampton the lobbying position. Hampton, a former senior aide to Ensign, is barred by congressional ethics rules from lobbying his old boss for one year after leaving his post in the Senate.

While Republicans continue to distace themselves from the Senator, it appears he still may have one friend in Nevada--Harry Reid-- who continues to call the Ensign scandal a 'personal matter'. Time to end the 'gentlemen's agreement' Senator Reid.

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