Full tournament bracket
here.
Welcome to Day 2 of first-round action in the Teabaggers region. Today, we're completing the first round ahead of this weekend's second-round matchups. You can cast your votes for today's matchups from
this page or follow the direct links in the game summaries below.
You're voting for whoever you think is the best poster child for Republican craziness, however you define it. That doesn't necessarily mean you have to pick the person who's crazier. For example, you might think Herman Cain is more off his rocker than Jim DeMint, but that Jim DeMint is a better poster child because he's got more clout in the GOP and conservative movement than Cain. It's entirely up to you.
With that out of the way, here are the matchups:
- #6 Louis Gohmert vs. #11 Joe Barton: Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-TX) might be a sleeper pick to win this region: The guy who invented the "concept" of terror babies (al Qaeda sleeper cells who give birth to future terrorists on American soil) is going to be an absolute force in the tournament. That shouldn't take anything away from Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), another nutjob from Texas. Barton is most famous for apologizing to BP during a hearing on the Gulf oil spill. Yeah, he apologized. He might not be a favorite to win this matchup, but he should never live that moment down. Vote here!
- #3 Steve King vs. #14 Matt Kibbe: This is an unfair matchup for Matt Kibbee, the president of FreedomWorks. You'd think that the guy who had armed security oust political rivals within his own organization would stand a chance in a contest like this, but there may be nobody who is a match for Rep. Steve King's (R-IA) insanity. According to King, many people never use the health care system at any point in their lives, Democrats support abortion because it allows sexual predators to force child rape victims to erase evidence of the crime (which also means that King thinks if a child rape victim doesn't get pregnant then there's no proof she was raped), and that people who say diversity has strengthened America don't know what they're talking about. And that's just from three of the dozens of posts written by Hunter documenting King's nuttiness. The best thing about King: He's all but certain to be Iowa's GOP nominee for U.S. Senate in 2014, which is great news for our side. Vote here!
- #7 Sarah Palin vs. #10 Paul Broun: Not to pick sides here, but I think you could argue that Paul Broun is crazier than Sarah Palin. You probably couldn't argue that he's lazier or stupider, but while Palin seems unable to get outraged about anything other than attacks on herself, Big Gulp and cookies in school lunchrooms, Broun loves to drape himself in Confederate rhetoric, criticize Paul Ryan as a liberal and generally embrace every mooonbatty idea to come his way. Palin is better-known, so I have to figure she's a favorite here, but I might pick Broun plus the points. Vote here!
- #2 Rand Paul vs. #15 Donald Trump: Once again, the selection committee has picked a strong #15 seed. This is either proof that the selection committee is made up of nothing but idiots ... or that the GOP has incredibly deep bench of nutjobs. Both Paul and Trump have terrible hair, but while Trump spends more of his time spouting racist attacks on President Obama, Paul spends most of time advocating for policies that actually would turn back the clock 60 years. Paul has none of Trump's histrionics, but unlike Trump, he's used his calm voice to propose things like getting rid of the Civil Rights Act. But while Paul is certainly more dangerous to progressive ideas than Trump, he doesn't come off as crazier, so he might be in for a rough first round. Vote here!
That's it for the action in the Teabaggers region. Remember, you can vote from a single page or follow the individual links above. As with yesterday, you've got until about 8:30 AM ET on Saturday to cast your ballot.
You can see the full tournament bracket as well as yesterday's results here.