In the latest edition of the Real Douchebags of the Republican Congressional Caucus, Rep. Louis Gohmert of Texas, who may very well be the single dumbest person in the entire House (yeah, I know, there’s a lot of competition for that title) told unhinged Islamophobe Frank Gaffney that Obama is being advised by the Muslim Brotherhood:
Gaffney: Congressman Gohmert let me just ask you quickly because you were one of five members of the House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich called you all the National Security Five, who back in June of this year wrote letters to Inspectors General of five different departments raising the question that some of these dismal policies that have resulted in the Obama administration embracing Islamists at home as well as abroad and finding itself I would argue squarely on the wrong side of history as far as freedom is concerned, may be a function of these Muslim Brotherhood associated individuals who are serving in or advising the Obama administration. Looking at what’s happening now, looking at what has developed since you wrote those letters, do you feel that that issue should be raised anew and much more aggressively as Congress looks into the fiasco in Benghazi and now more recently in Egypt?
Gohmert: Absolutely. I think it almost makes a prima facie case when you look at the decisions made by this administration over the last couple of years, or actually all four years. You look at the decisions it made especially in the last two years in going through the revolutions in Northern Africa and across the Middle East and to the Far East, and the only way you can explain the horrendous decisions that were so completely wrongheaded would be if this administration had a bunch of Muslim Brotherhood members giving them advice…
It wasn’t enough to send verbal accolades; this administration sent planes and bombs and support to oust Gadhafi so that Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood could take over Libya. Some of us were fussing about it back then but we faced what was then ‘all the rage’ and that was you know Muslim Brotherhood taking over, call it Arab Spring, call it Arab Winter, whatever you want to, but it was disastrous unless you were wanting a new Ottoman Empire to take place and that’s what this administration helped jump start.
I’m always baffled by criticism of Obama for the Arab Spring. What, precisely, do they think he should have done? Invaded Libya, Egypt and Tunisia to support the dictators in power? At what cost, both in lives and money? And what good would that have done other than to inflame the Middle East even more and foment far more terrorism?
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DaveL
November 30, 2012 at 1:42 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Someone should send Mr. Gohmert a case of shellac and a brush, because the GOP clearly didn’t receive enough of a shellacking in the presidential election.
Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort
November 30, 2012 at 1:44 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
How are these people our elected officials?
We’re supposed to laugh at the crazy conspiracists, pat their heads and give them a cookie, not put them in charge of the fucking country!
coragyps
November 30, 2012 at 1:51 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“Wanting a new Ottoman Empire?”
WTF?? Or is Gohmert worried about a replay of the 1500′s?
Alverant
November 30, 2012 at 2:12 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
#3 Actually a new Ottoman Empire is what Iran wants. Remember that empire was still around in the 20th century. This is the first sustained length of time in the history of humanity we haven’t had an empire somewhere. Countries with histories going back thousands of years may want to return to “the good old days” when they were an empire.
baal
November 30, 2012 at 2:19 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@#2 – DeathKitty, the Koch and other oligarch billionaire’s $$ doesn’t necessarily win elections but it does allow them to put up whomever they want to run. The result is Gohmert and similar. the right has been annoyed from time to time that if you put up sane people (who are still conservative, it’s a narrow overlap) they sometimes won’t do what you want because the idea is too stupid. These bought and paid for nut jobs are a different story. The nut jobs don’t ever get around to caring about people or avoiding shear stupidity.
Stevarious, Public Health Problem
November 30, 2012 at 2:24 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Of course. They may have been brutal, bloodthirsty murdering dictators, but they were our brutal, bloodthirsty murdering dictators.
You haven’t really lived until you’ve seen someone insist that some people aren’t smart enough for democracy. Usually they then unwittingly do their best to prove the point by voting republican.
It’s just soldiers and brown people doing the dying. Nobody cares what happens to brown people who can’t even speak English, and the soldiers? Well, dying in battle to protect American interests is what soldiers are for.
And the money? Well, military spending doesn’t really count as far as the deficit is concerned. It’s those filthy urban moochers that are the problem – if we cut them ALL off like they deserve, we’d have a surplus that we could spend on more bombs!
d.c.wilson
November 30, 2012 at 2:33 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
You know who else sent “planes and bombs” after Qaddafi?
Reagan.
What? You thought I was going to say Hitler? In the 80s, Qaddafi was one of the biggest thorns in Saint Ron’s side. It kills me that wingnuts hate Obama so much that they’ve forgotten about details like the Lockerbie bombing. Now they’re acting like Uncle Moe was their BFF.
thisisaturingtest
November 30, 2012 at 2:38 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@#2, Katherine Lorraine:
They’re not, not really; by the structure of the House of Representatives, they’re elected by, and represent only, small, self-contained bubbles of the same kind of batshit-crazy that they espouse. Look at Scott Desjarlais- I’m fairly sure that, on a larger stage than his own local constituency, he would have been booed unmercifully off of it.
ottod
November 30, 2012 at 2:45 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
As a constituent of the guanophrenic Ms. Bachmann (for the next few weeks), I am compelled by loyalty to dispute the claim that any other member of Congress even approaches her level density. I will not dispute that Mr. Gohmert might well be the second dumbest.
MikeMa
November 30, 2012 at 2:55 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
When Mr. Gohmert crawled out from under his rock, it hit him on the head. Repeatedly.
He rarely even comes close to sanity when he speaks. In addition to this lunacy, he appears to be advocating using the American economy as a lever to get his twisted vision of, well, something or other. There is a great picture of him on HuffPo with his mouth open (and brain off).
The only thing that makes sense about Gohmert’s position is that the people electing him really are as dumb and hateful as he his.
Ichthyic
November 30, 2012 at 3:07 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
ah, I see the problem. You shouldn’t have ever given them cookies to begin with. It just rewards bad behavior, and then they expect bigger rewards every time.
Ichthyic
November 30, 2012 at 3:10 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
and yet, I indeed would insist just that, and use Gohmert as a case in point…
Ichthyic
November 30, 2012 at 3:11 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
yup.
again, it’s like a lot of these people took 1984 as an instruction manual instead of a warning.
Ichthyic
November 30, 2012 at 3:13 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
*eyes England*
matty1
November 30, 2012 at 3:21 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Dear America, allow me to introduce to a novel concept we call it the mirror.
democommie
November 30, 2012 at 3:34 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
What I found most telling about the post was that there was an ad for Ron Paul running right above it. Talk about a dangerous confluence of the Batshit KKKrazzee.
Dennis N
November 30, 2012 at 3:44 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Some people aren’t. But they deserve it anyway.
timgueguen
November 30, 2012 at 4:34 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
And of course if the Obama Admin. hand’t helped overthrow Gaddhafi Gohmert would be claiming it was because the Muslim Brotherhood ordered Obama not to.
Dr X
November 30, 2012 at 4:38 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Matty1 @15 got there first.
tommykey
November 30, 2012 at 5:03 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I guess nobody told Gohmert that the Ottoman Empire was Turkish.
Michael Heath
November 30, 2012 at 8:59 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I think the very name, Muslim Brotherhood, serves as a convenient boogeyman for conservative Christians. It’d be fun to take a survey on their knowledge of this group to compare it to how they get their panties in a twist when this group is brought up.
Ichthyic
December 1, 2012 at 12:46 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
as did “communist” from 1950-1980.
laurentweppe
December 1, 2012 at 2:56 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
At the beginning of the Arab Spring, the french government (at the time: thankfully, they lost the last election) proposed to send troops to help the Ben Ali regime. It took a massive public outrage before the french government decided to back down. Sending troops to help these tyrants may be ridiculous, but we almost got there.
andrew
December 1, 2012 at 4:32 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Wait, the Ottoman empire? Specifically the Ottomans, who were not Arabs?
Might as well just say the Byzantines–or the Seleucids for that matter. Idiot.
skinnercitycyclist
December 1, 2012 at 8:43 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Uh, pretty sure the British Empire lasted arguably into the 1950′s/1960′s.
Soviet Union certainly qualified.
The United States, indisputably.
Remember, the Roman Empire was an empire long before they had emperors…..
StevoR
December 1, 2012 at 9:00 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@9. ottod :
Guanophrenic? Which means?
@24. andrew : bring back the Empire of Alexander the Great or even the Achaemenids I say! Let Britannia rule the seas rule the seas once more!
We could do much worse.
StevoR
December 1, 2012 at 9:05 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@20. tommykey :
I think its the Muslim bit he’s worried about in which case Ottoman empire was certainly Muslim.
Kemal Attaturk had the right idea about modernising and westernising his society – pity that didn’t catch on in the Muslim world more widely.
(Incidentally wonders where the Muslim sisterhood is & who they might be advising to do what.)
StevoR
December 1, 2012 at 9:09 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@25.skinnercitycyclist :
And if memory serves even the Athenians apparently had something described as an empire once. The famous democracy of Athens no less. I could be mistaken but..
StevoR
December 1, 2012 at 9:16 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Checks wiki finds :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Athenian_empire_atheight_450_shepherd1923.png
sorta an empire – the Delian league which evolved into a type of brief empire 454 to 404 BC – and was followed by a second one even.
dingojack
December 1, 2012 at 9:44 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Stevo – ‘Guanophagic’ is, more properly, coprophagic.
Hope that answers your question.
;) [copophagic rictus] Dingo
democommie
December 1, 2012 at 10:44 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
dingojack:
This link (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=guanophrenic) is more likely what was being referred to. On reflection I realize that Missy is likely both guanophrenic and coprophagic.
fifthdentist
December 1, 2012 at 10:57 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“I think the very name, Muslim Brotherhood, serves as a convenient boogeyman for conservative Christians.”
Nope, it’s just the “Muslim” part that rings the proverbial bell for them, except instead of drooling they shit their pants. It could be the Fraternal Order of Muslim Firemen and it would have the same effect.
dingojack
December 1, 2012 at 11:01 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Should be coprophrenic.
guano: excrement of sea birds or bats.
1595–1605; < Spanish: fertilizer, dung; American Spanish huano dung < Quechua wanu dung for fuel, fertilizer
copro-: dung
< Greek kopro-, combining form of kópros; cognate with Sanskrit śakrt
phreno-: mind, diaphragm
< Greek phreno-, combining form representing phrḗn mind, diaphragm
Unless you like compound words with mixed roots (and you think that the person in question has a diaphragm of sea bird shit, specifically). [/pedant]
:) Dingo
dingojack
December 1, 2012 at 12:16 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Apologies – it’s currently 79.16 degrees F (26.2 C) and 62% humidity at 4:15am, so I’m a little peevish (so say the least).
8( Dingo
this
December 1, 2012 at 9:05 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Muslim Brotherhood
Yes, we know that “Moslem” most bothers these ‘islamophobes’ (First Amendment haters), but “Brother” reminds them of 1960s black panthers. The ‘phobes see visions of black Vietnam vets, high fiving and elbow bump greeting, “Hey brother, what’s up, man”.
this
December 1, 2012 at 9:10 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
rightwingwatch, securefreedomradio
Gohmert
‘… alleged that the Obama administration actively aided Al Qaeda …’
Doesn’t Gohmert recall Romney advocating arming Assad opposition (Al Qaida amongst that opposition)?
‘… until the Palestinians—and Newt Gingrich is right, that’s a relatively new term, they certainly weren’t around 3,000 years ago when King David was ruling from Hebron for seven years and then Jerusalem’
And there was no “United States of America” 3,000 years ago. What point is he (and Newt) trying to make?
What self-identified group didn’t exist 5,000 years ago? 12,000 years ago?
And 5 years ago there were no “Tea Parties”.
bradleybetts
December 3, 2012 at 8:59 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“…unless you were wanting a new Ottoman Empire to take place and that’s what this administration helped jump start.”
I do not think this man knows much about the Ottoman Empire.
bradleybetts
December 3, 2012 at 9:04 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@Alverant #4
“#3 Actually a new Ottoman Empire is what Iran wants.”
Why would Iranian Shia Muslims want the resurgence of a Sunni Turkish Caliphate? That makes no sense.
Moggie
December 3, 2012 at 9:43 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
bradleybetts:
Wingnuts seem to get by on a small collection of Muslim-related buzzwords. Let’s see:
* Muslim Brotherhood
* Jihad
* Caliphate
* Fatwa
* Creeeping Sharia!
You just need to sprinkle a few of those into an article, like raisins in a bun, to get the audience riled up. It doesn’t need to be coherent: if they cared about coherence, they wouldn’t be wingnuts.
Mind you, I thought the Ottoman Empire was a discount furniture warehouse, so what do I know?