Alexander Burns and Jake Sherman of Politico
take a look at what they call the GOP's "clueless caucus" — the Todd Akins and Allen Wests and Steve Kings and Michele Bachmanns of the Republican Party who just can't stop saying stupid things. I'll never object to talking about clueless Republicans, but here's the thing thing: the clueless caucus isn't some rump group of House Republicans who get more attention they deserve. It's pretty much infused the entire party.
For example, here is one of the Republicans who Burns and Sherman offer up as a counterpoint to the clueless caucus:
Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn, perhaps the deftest communicator among the House GOP women, stepped up to be an advocate for the legislation instead. Speaking to POLITICO, Blackburn said the only thing the party can do in these moments is try to put its best messengers forward.
“I think people are going to misspeak. What we seek to do as women is to be a positive force for the right kind of change,” Blackburn said. She suggested voters might swap out some of her loquacious colleagues in coming elections.
“Many times when you want to change what’s happening, you change the players,” she told POLITICO. “Having more conservative women in Washington would be a good thing.”
But if Marsha Blackburn is supposed to be one of the "clueful" Republicans, it only serves to reinforce the depth of their problems. Sure, Blackburn replaced Rep. Trent Franks as leader of their abortion ban legislation after Franks
dismissed pregnancies resulting from rape and incest. But yesterday, Blackburn defended the legislation's requirement that women report rape to police before being able to have an abortion
by arguing that the purpose of the bill was to to put more rapists behind bars.
Now, I don't know about you, but I think the idea that banning abortion after 20 weeks will help stop rape is pretty damn clueless. In fact, it doesn't seem any less clueless than the guy she replaced. But even if it is, the fact that there are Republicans even more clueless than her shows just how clueless congressional Republicans really are.