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Just what we need... another Republican bed-wetter screeching like a banshee on cable news in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing attack. First of all, who in the hell gave this clown a radio show? And second, why does MSNBC think that anyone in their audience cares what this disgrace of a former Congressman and deadbeat dad and known flamethrower Joe Walsh thinks about anything?

Having him on when he was a member of Congress and taking him to the woodshed over failing to pay his child support, as Bashir did a while back is one thing. Having him on there as someone to be taken seriously to discuss policy after he's been run out of Congress is quite another.

Jonathan Alter hasn't been much better with his usual appearances on the network where he's happy to help with the hippie punching and pushing for Democrats to go along with austerity measures, as he did with Sam Seder on his radio show as well not long ago, but in this segment, he was the voice of reason -- only to have Walsh insult him at every turn, just looking to start an altercation on camera with name calling.

I guess Ted Nugent and Glenn Beck were too busy to come spend some time as a "panel member" so they settled for Walsh.

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From this Friday's Real Time With Bill Maher, Bill's annual election reel, "In Memoriam."

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Proving yet again that Joe Walsh picked the wrong person to mess around with with his foolishness. Tammy Duckworth does not suffer fools gladly.

Via The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell:

Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq war veteran running for a congressional seat in Illinois’ 8th district, responded to opponent Rep. Joe Walsh’s controversial commentson abortion rights.

“I think he’s taking biology lessons from Todd Akin,” the Purple Heart recipient told MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell during an appearance on The Last Word.

Walsh falsely claimed women do not die from pregnancies because of “advances in science and technology” and the exception for the life of the mother has become “a tool for abortions at any time under any reason.”

During a press conference on Friday, the anti-abortion incumbent somewhat walked back his original statement:

“When it comes to having an abortion to save the life of the mother, I will say again that outside of the very rare circumstances, such as ectopic pregnancies, during which both the mother and baby will die if the baby is not aborted, and other rare health issues and circumstances, the research is pretty clear that with the advances in modern medicine an invasive and traumatic procedure like abortion is often, thankfully, not necessary to save the life of a mother.”

Duckworth, who calls herself pro-choice without restrictions, said at Thursday’s debate that her opponent “would let a woman die rather than give the doctor the option to save her life.”

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Republican Joe Walsh's answer on the abortion issue tonight in his debate on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight with Tammy Duckworth caught reporters offguard, so they asked him again what his stance was, figuring they'd misheard him. They hadn't.

via WGN:

The two candidates also clashed on abortion rights.

Walsh said he was against abortion “without exception,” including rape, incest and in cases in which the life or health of the mother was in jeopardy.

Asked by reporters after the debate if he was saying that it’s never medically necessary to conduct an abortion to save the life of a mother, Walsh responded, “Absolutely.”

“With modern technology and science, you can't find one instance,” he said. “... There is no such exception as life of the mother, and as far as health of the mother, same thing.”

So, according to medical expert Joe Walsh, there are never any instances where a woman's life is in such grave danger that she'd need an emergency procedure to end her pregnancy. Tammy Duckworth also called out Walsh for cosponsoring legislation that would have redefined rape as "forcible rape," a bill which would prohibit federal funding of abortions except in instances of "an act of forcible rape or, if a minor, an act of incest."

Here's Tammy Duckworth's ad which came out a few days ago.

Someone needs to tell Joe Walsh to "get a job" where it doesn't include lying to his constituents on a daily basis. Hate monger and deadbeat dad Rep. Joe Walsh decided to lay into activist Sandra Fluke for her appearance at the Democratic National Convention this week, and apparently he's not aware that she was not asking for the government to pay for anyone's birth control, or her own.

She was advocating that insurance companies pick up that tab, since it actually saves them money in the long run to do so. And he apparently thinks that she's never going to try to find a job once she graduates from college. I'm not sure what corner of the electorate this mean S.O.B. is trying to appeal to, but somehow I don't think screeching that someone who is continuing their education needs to get a job right now if they dare to want insurance companies to pay for birth control pills is going to resonate with a good deal of the sane public out there. Here's to hoping this idiot goes down in flames in the upcoming election, and that Fox doesn't hire him once the voters fire him.

Joe Walsh To Sandra Fluke: ‘Get A Job’:

At a campaign stop Saturday in Addison, IL, Walsh, who faces a tough reelection battle, went on a self-described rant about Fluke, attacking her support for contraception coverage and telling the law student to “get a job.”

“So at the Democratic Convention Wednesday night their first prime time speaker was Sandra Fluke, whatever her name is,” Walsh said. “Think about this, a 31-32 year old law student who has been a student for life, who gets up there in front of a national audience and tells the American people, ‘I want America to pay for my contraceptives.’ You’re kidding me. Go get a job. Go get a job Sandra Fluke.”

“This a woman who feels entitled that we all should pay for her contraceptives,” he said. “This is what we are teaching Americans? That was embarrassing. That was embarrassing.”

If Walsh wants to know what embarrassing looks like, just take a look in the mirror buddy.

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Only hours after tea party-backed Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) released a statement warning that radical Islam was trying to "kill Amerians," police say that shots from a "high-velocity air rifle" narrowly missed a security guard at the Muslim Education Center near Chicago, while about 500 Muslims prayed inside during Ramadan services.

According to a statement from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the FBI was investigating a possible hate crime after David Conrad was arrested for firing at least two shots into the the mosque.

A press release from Morton Grove police said that off-duty police officers working as security guards saw someone firing shots from Conrad's home. The release indicated that a high-velocity air rifle had been confiscated from the home.

Security guards told police that there had also been "a number" of other incidents of mosque damage that had not been reported.

"Due to the sensitive nature of the incident and with the previous criminal damage there, we contacted the Cook County state's attorney's office," Morton Grove police Chief Mark Erickson explained. "We have a safe community here and we'll ensure that a complete and thorough investigation will continue until this matter is resolved."

Conrad had reportedly attended community meetings in 2003 and 2004 to oppose the mosque, neighbor Berdella Wehrmacher, 90, told the The Chicago Tribune.

"We fought to keep it away, not because it was a mosque but because they took away our park," Wehrmacher insisted.

Kamran Hussain, vice president of the Muslim Community Center of Chicago, which owns the mosque, said that Conrad had been involved in a number of disputes over the years.

"He’s always been a thorn in our side," Hussain told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Conrad was arrested on Saturday and charged with three counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm, a class X felony. He also faces one count of criminal damage to property, a class 4 felony.

Although CAIR had indicated that the incident was being looked at as a hate crime, FBI spokesperson Joan Hyde told the Chicago Tribune that the agency was not investigating.

"The matter is being handled by the locals," Hyde said.

“It should be. It is a hate crime," Mosque president Mohammad Aleemuddin remarked to CBS Chicago.

Hours prior to the shooting, Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh had warned that radical Islam was "a real threat."

"One thing I’m sure of is that there are people in this country – there is a radical strain of Islam in this country – it’s not just over there – trying to kill Americans every week," Walsh said during a town hall meeting. "It is a real threat, and it is a threat that is much more at home now than it was after 9/11."

"It’s here. It’s in Elk Grove. It’s in Addison. It’s in Elgin. It’s here," he remarked, adding that the next 9/11 attack was "not a matter of if. It’s a matter of when."

CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab accused Walsh of trying to target the Muslim community.

"Rep. Joe Walsh’s comments are consistent with the rise of the radical right and the insistence by some in the Republican party that Americans should be suspicious and fearful of fellow Americans – including Walsh’s own constituents – who are of a different faith," Rehab said in a statement.

"Such indiscriminate vilification is not unrelated to the rise in hate crimes and acts of vandalism we are seeing today. When elected officials, trusted by many, indicate that the enemy could be any Muslim living in your neighborhood, it gives rise to xenophobic vigilantism where fearful citizens target other Americans for simply looking different."

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In the interests of "fair and balanced" and false equivalences that cable news, especially CNN loves, you often get these bizarre interviews where the host parrots what one side said against their political opponent. In this case you get venerable CNN host Wolf Blitzer ("venerable" meaning he's been there so long, not for the quality of his work) playing the role of devil's advocate for Joe Walsh.

Blitzer starts the interview out ok, correctly attributing the comments to Walsh himself, and then asking Duckworth if she'd care to respond to his nonsense, which she does. But midway through Blitzer lapses into this equivalence crap, and lets fly with some doozies:

BLITZER: Do you have a problem that he never served in the military?

BLITZER: Do you have a problem -- he says that you send -- you and your campaign I assume he means, someone to videotape all of his speaking engagements to watch him wherever he goes. Is that an issue as far as you're concerned?

BLITZER: Are you willing, Tammy, to come on our show and debate him directly?

BLITZER: We would love to invite you and Mr. Walsh to come on and do a good serious substantive debate, no name-calling, no nasty words on either sides. Just the substantive important issues I think that our viewers would be very happy to see that.

And so on. This is the part I found most annoying though.

BLITZER: I agree that the differences on substantive policy issues are what the two of you should be debating about. He's used some nasty words. But you've also suggested among other things that Walsh is an extremist loud mouth for the Tea Party.

Back in April, you said there's not a crack pot Tea Party idea that he hasn't embraced. Is that appropriate to use that kind of language against the sitting United States congressman?

What does the fact that he's a "sitting congressmen" have to do with the repulsive charges he made against Duckworth? If Joe Walsh is being a jackass, Duckworth can say so, and does, whatever his job description.

DUCKWORTH: I think it's appropriate against a gentleman who says that he wants to be the poster child for the Tea Party. He actually gave that quote to "Time" magazine.

He's told the people in the district you're not going to get squat from me, his words. And that he is going to Washington to shout from the mountain tops and he's not going to compromise.

He's not going to work with anyone. He is there it to be a poster child for the Tea Party. Well, if he's proud of that, then he needs to embrace that because the people in the district are sick and tired of what's going on in Washington.

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After Joe Walsh came on the air again and doubled down on his attacks on wounded veteran and political opponent Tammy Duckworth, for supposedly talking about her service too often on the campaign trail and nothing else (which she hasn't), leave it to Red State and unfortunately for anyone who watches the network, CNN contributor, Erick Erickson to come to his flame throwing buddy's defense.

Here's more on that from our friends at Media Matters: UPDATE: CNN's Erickson Defends GOP Rep's Attack On Wounded Veteran :

After Walsh received widespread criticism for his comments, Erickson wrote a post on RedState.com: "I support Congressman Joe Walsh a thousand percent and you should too. Pony up your checkbooks while you are at it. He's in the midst of a manufactured scandal because he dared utter an inconvenient truth." Erickson claimed that "the left went into overdrive" when Walsh "pointed out that Duckworth's service in the military is about the extent of her public campaign platform" and concluded that "[a]ll he did was tell it like it is. That's what is so refreshing about Joe Walsh."

But Erickson's defense of Walsh misses the point of the controversy . Walsh didn't limit his attack to Duckworth's record on policy issues, his comments explicitly created a distinction between Duckworth and "our true heroes" in the military. In fact, after given the chance to walk back his statement, Walsh called Duckworth a hero but qualified it by stating, "unlike most veterans I have had the honor to meet since my election to Congress, who rarely if ever talk about their service or the combat they've seen, that is darn near all of what Tammy Duckworth talks about."

Appearing on CNN's The Situation Room on Friday afternoon, Erickson continued his defense of Walsh and claimed that Duckworth "doesn't spend a lot of time talking about the issues," again avoiding and deflecting from Walsh's attack on her military service.

He said that Walsh "calls it like he sees it," adding "I actually stand by what Joe Walsh said."

Why... oh why, Erickson is part of the "best political team on television" as CNN likes to call themselves, is beyond me, but so are most of the rest of the people that they have on the air at that network, so I guess he fits right in. That said, I do think hiring someone who called a Supreme Court Justice a goat f**king child molester along with the hire of his fellow flame throwing hack Dana Loesch does represent a new low for the network I did not think they'd sink to, before they actually hired both of them, in a race to the bottom to become Fox-lite.

Erickson's exchange with Blitzer below the fold.

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Joe Walsh, America's Most Offensive Congressman ®, doubled and then tripled down on his comments disparaging Tammy Duckworth today in an interview on CNN. I lost count of how many times he says "Ashleigh" here, but if it were a drinking game you'd have gotten alcohol poisoning.

via Salon.com

In a heated interview with CNN’s Ashleigh Banfield this afternoon, Rep. Joe Walsh, the controversial Republican Illinois, quadrupled down on his attack on his Democratic opponent’s military service, while also taking the opportunity to call Banfield “kiddo,” and defend his previous attempt to humiliate an octogenarian political opponent. Walsh said he didn’t regret attacking Tammy Duckworth, his rival who lost both her legs fighting in Iraq: “I’m not going to back down from anything I’ve said.”

His initial comments came during a town hall last week, when he said of her service, “my God, that’s all she talks about.” When asked about the swipe by Politico, he explained, “I have so much respect for what she did in the fact that she sacrificed her body for this country. … Ehhh. Now let’s move on.”

The entire interview was over 12 minutes, which DemRapidResponse (DNC) put immediately on YouTube. I couldn't in good conscience subject you to the entire thing though. Suffice to say though, the clock on Joe Walsh remaining in congress is ticking.

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Tammy Duckworth didn't mince words tonight in describing the waste of political space that is Joe Walsh. I especially liked how she pointed out how useless Walsh has been in his two years in congress, typically working against his constituents interests.

via The Ed Show blog:

Speaking on Tuesday's The Ed Show, Duckworth that it was "irresponsible" of Walsh to talk that way about military service. "Our 23 million veterans have done more in one day in uniform than he's done for this country," she said.

"He's trying to muddy the waters," Duckworth continued. "He's just trying to shift the focus away from the fact that he's done nothing for the people of the district. He's irresponsbile in his words and he's irresponsile in his actions."

Duckworth added that Walsh has "done nothing in his two years in Congress other than be an extremist loudmouth for the Tea Party."