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Stephen Colbert was terribly sad about the recent retirement announcement from Rep. Crazy-Eyes Michele Bachmann, and treated his viewers to a montage of her more memorable "moments."

She couldn't be gone quick enough to suit me, but I'm guess some of the fact-checkers and comedy writers might be sad to finally see her go next year, since she did do her best to make sure they stayed gainfully employed.

Although I'm sure once we get rid of her in the House next year, she'll have some wingnut welfare lined up where we still can't get away from her showing up to pollute our airways.

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As both David Ferguson at Raw Story and Jason Easley from PoliticusUSA explained, Sen. Ted Cruz and Fox guest host on Cashin' In this Saturday, Eric Bolling, both think that lowering taxes on the rich, while raising taxes on the poor and the middle class is just a wonderful idea.

Cruz is just the latest in a string of Republicans to be piling onto the IRS in the wake of the recent scandal mongering, where they're using the debacle over the 501(c)(4) so-called "social welfare" groups and their tax exempt status to make the IRS into the big boogeyman on everything from the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, to every conservative who has ever been audited coming out of the woodwork to claim that they were a politically motivated target of the IRS. And now we have genius Ted Cruz calling to just abolish the IRS altogether and for a flat tax.

From Raw Story: Ted Cruz pushes for flat tax but wants to abolish the IRS:

“We ought to abolish the IRS and instead move to a simple flat tax, where the average American can fill out our taxes on a postcard.” Cruz told Fox’s Eric Bolling in an interview.

“Put down how much you earn, put down a deduction for charitable contributions, for home mortgage and how much you owe. It ought to be just a simple, one-page postcard,” he continued.

Cruz insisted that taking “the bureaucrats” out of Washington and the process of collecting taxes would curtain abuses of power by the IRS.

Cruz did not mention what agency will take the place of the IRS when collecting these tax revenues, nor did he allow for the fact that creating a single tax rate on every dollar earned would go even further toward increasing income inequality in the U.S. by lowering taxes on the wealthy and raising them on the poor and middle class.

And PoliticusUSA: Ted Cruz’s Petition to Abolish the IRS Goes Horribly, Laughably, Ridiculously Wrong:

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I think The Washington Posts' most annoying right-wing, neocon blogger drank one too many shots of revisionist history KoolAid before appearing on Fox News Sunday and pretending that George W. Bush "demanded a level of accountability and candor" during the Plame investigation that President Obama has not during this IRS drummed up "scandal."

Just because no one took the Fifth, doesn't mean that they didn't lie and it hardly equates to anyone who was involved in that fiasco being either candid or held accountable for their actions.

Maybe Rubin could do a little reading here, and here, and here to refresh her memory about the Plame affair and whether Karl Rove told the truth to the grand jury.

And I hate to break it to Rubin, but Lois Lerner, the Bush appointee who took the Fifth when asked to testify before Issa's committee, is not one of President Obama's "people."

Transcript below the fold.

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MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry had a few words of advice for the right-wing nominee for lieutenant governor in Virginia, who, as we have noted here, is more than just slightly nuts. As she reminded him, if he actually wants to be taken seriously by the voters for one of the more important jobs in his state, maybe he should be a little more worried about all of the crazy crap that comes out of his mouth.

Given his track record so far, which she laid out here very well, I think the chances of him toning it down before the election are somewhere between zero and none.

Here's her letter to Jackson from her post this Saturday: Really, Virginia GOP? E.W. Jackson is your nominee?

Dear Bishop E.W. Jackson:

It’s me, Melissa.

May I call you “Ewww…”?

Because I’ve heard what you’ve had to say about your politics. And quite frankly, it’s pretty disgusting. I wanted to begin my advice to you with the reminder that–as a candidate for public office — you must choose your words carefully.

But it’s a little late for that, isn’t it?

The Internet has already caught wind of some of your greatest hits. You know, like the time you called the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell “a disaster of historic proportions,” and said that “it must be reinstated.” Or when you said that gays and lesbians are “perverted…very sick people.”

Can’t forget your conspiracy theory classic about President Obama having “Muslim sensibilities” and seeing the world from a “Muslim perspective”! Oh yes, and then there was that time you claimed that “liberalism and their ideas have done more to kill black folks…than the Ku Klux Klan, lynching, slavery, and Jim Crow ever did.”

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Your quote of the day from Coalition to Stop Gun Violence's Ladd Everitt when asked by Melissa-Harris Perry about the NRA's incoming president, Jim Porter:

EVERITT: If you love Ted Nugent, you're going to love the new incoming president of the NRA, Jim Porter. This guy basically could have walked right out of a militia camp.

Oh joy! Just what we need. Someone at the NRA more extreme than crazy Wayne LaPierre. Here's more on this wingnut from Hunter at Kos: NRA elevates crackpot conspiracy theorist to be their new president:

It looks like the NRA has no intention of toning down the batshit crazy, and calls for "responsible NRA leadership" just got shot in the thigh and left to bleed out behind the ol' shed. The new NRA president (the job rotates every two years, presumably because maintaining such a high level of indignant batshit crazy is a high-effort job) is current NRA vice president Jim Porter, who ascends to the job because apparently every last member of the NRA leadership is entirely off their rockers. Let's meet Jim, shall we?

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Jon Stewart did his best to make a mockery of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz for being brazen enough to consider a presidential run in 2016, given the fact that he's not exactly popular with most of the country, or even within his own party, with his penchant to stick his finger in the eye of his fellow Republicans if it means he's elevating his own profile.

After going through a series of video clips and a long list of why most Americans should never take this man seriously, Stewart brought up the one other item that might prove problematic for Cruz should he decide to run for president -- and that's the fact that he was born in Canada. He was however, ready to put "the Donald" on the case since he's already been so helpful with investing President Obama's birth certificate.

I had to wonder after watching the clip above from the Daily Show if one of Stewart's staffers read this post on Cruz: 5 Reasons Ted Cruz Would Be A Democrat’s Dream 2016 GOP Nominee:

In a move that only surprised people who assume there’s some limit to the ego of Ted Cruz (R-TX), the freshman senator from Texas has let it be known that he is considering running for president in 2016.

“If you don’t think this is real, then you’re not paying attention,” says a Republican insider. “Cruz already has grassroots on his side, and in this climate, that’s all he may need.”

“There’s not a lot of hesitation there,” adds a Cruz donor who has known the Texan for decades. “He’s fearless.”

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Leave it to Glenn Beck to turn Rep. Michele Bachmann's ethics investigation for improper use of her PAC donations into a conspiracy theory that the U.S. government has secretly been infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Beck: Bachmann Ethics Investigation Is a Muslim Brotherhood Plot:

As Beck sees it, Bachmann has been a target of the Brotherhood for a long time because she has been "uber clear" about the threat posed by the organization and so, in retaliation, the State Department has been relocating hundreds of Muslim Somali refugees into her congressional district. And for daring to ask why this was happening, says Beck, "now she's under investigation":

[Editor's note: Somalis have been settling in the U.S. since the 1920s. The Twin Cities is home to the largest Somali community in America, and it's been that way long before Michelle Bachmann started her wacko conspiracy theories. Nice try, Beckster.]

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You've gotta' love these so-called "small government" Republicans who don't mind imposing their religious views on the rest of the country. Someone needs to explain to this wingnut that marriage is a civil right and that it is not a requirement that those who get married have children.

Here's Iowa's next potential candidate for U.S. Senate embarrassing his state yet again: Republican says marriage is like selling alcohol and cutting hair:

Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa said Tuesday that same sex marriage should be prohibited because the government had the right to regulate human behavior.

“The state’s require a marriage license,” King said. “A license is by definition a permit to do that which is otherwise illegal. Licenses are used to direct and regulate human behavior — a license to drive, a license to fish, a license to hunt, a license to cut hair, a license to do brain surgery, or a license to join the bar, or actually own a bar. And this is all a proper thing for our state to do because they are regulating and promoting certain kinds of activity and behavior.

“That’s why there is a marriage license,” he continued. “You have to meet the qualifications in the same fashion as all of the other licenses I have mentioned. Marriage is promoted by the states because that is the best way that we know how to promote the best of our culture and civilization into the next generation.”

Same sex couples should be excluded from this institution, according to King, because marriage is about “natural procreation” and children “need a mom and a dad.”

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After last week's appearance at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference, where he told the audience, “There is nothing on this green earth that a liberal fears more than a black American who wants a better life and a smaller government," Fox's Neil Cavuto and his producers decided to bring the disgraced Congressman Allen West on his show. Cavuto immediately asked West if he was possibly going to throw his hat in the ring and run for president, because Lord knows we don't have enough wingnut grifters running that racket already.

There's nothing like seeing a former House member, who the voters of his district had to be insane to elect in the first place, lost his race despite outspending his opponent by about 4 to 1 and then finally conceding in the least gracious manner possible, being asked to weigh in on foreign policy and the economy. Even worse, being asked with a straight face for advice on the future of the Republican party and whether he's going to run for president.

CAVUTO: Real quickly, those who are urging you to run for president at CPAC, and I talked to a lot of them, are you saying you're not?

WEST: Look, Neil, the most important thing is that I'm always in a position that I'll serve my country however they wish me to. If they want a really good dogcatcher I'll be willing to do that. So we don't know what happens, you know, as we go forth for 2013, but maybe I'll have you as my economic advisor.

CAVUTO: Okay, that's already a doomed campaign right there.

Hey, what do you know.? Cavuto actually said something I agree with for once on Fox.

From this Thursday's Hardball, former RNC Chairman and now unfortunately for anyone who watches the network, MSNBC contributor Michael Steele, decided to get into a spat with Chris Matthews over whether CPAC 2013 ought to be inviting the likes of birthers like Donald Trump to speak at the conference rather than those from the Republican party who might actually have a chance of winning a national election. Steele's response was basically to dismiss all of Trump's birther talk and attempt to paint it as ancient history.

That was so last month, don't you know. Al Cardenas, chairman of the American Conservative Union which runs the event defended their choice of speakers as well, but I'm with Matthews on what we're likely to hear from The Donald when he takes the stage:

Matthews surmised CPAC’s theory was, “invite the noisemakers and snub the people who might actually lead you out of the wilderness.”

If you look at the scheduled speaking times, CPAC’s priorities are clear. Sen. Ted Cruz is allotted 33 minutes of speaking time, Sarah Palin has 16 minutes, and Donald Trump gets 14 minutes. Down at the bottom are Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan with 11 minutes a piece.

Matthews asked former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele if Trump’s conservative message at CPAC could be overshadowed by all of his birther talk about President Obama.

“I think that characterization can be put behind Donald Trump…Let’s see what the man says tomorrow,” said Steele, telling Matthews that no one’s talking about the birther issue “but you. You’re the only person bringing it up.”

“You know why?” Matthews said. “Because people who think that the president is an illegal immigrant shouldn’t be talking out loud almost anywhere.”

Cardenas said Trump was invited because he’s a “successful businessman” who can reflect on the realities of today’s economy. “I think he’ll be a positive influence on the youngsters here.”