# Stupid Republican idea of the day **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 26, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897 "2009-03-26T18:48:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 150
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2011, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/2981 "2011-05-16T14:15:34Z")
> [@Laughing\_Lady](#): > > As a newbie, I found this thread for the first time today. I then had to go back to the beginning, to get up to speed. 60 pages!? I’ve spent the whole day (well, except for napping, and eating) reading this stuff, and I’m not even halfway through! > Why oh why did I turn up my nose at the Evelyn Wood course? > Still, it was too good to miss. It’s only 15 pages if you change your settings to display 200 posts per page. No… you don’t really have to thank me. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2011, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/2982 "2011-05-16T14:20:47Z")
> [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](#): > > It’s only 15 pages if you change your settings to display 200 posts per page. No… you don’t really have to thank me. 😛 That is not a stupid Republican idea! You should’ve posted it elsewhere. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![legalsnugs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@legalsnugs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/legalsnugs)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2011, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/2983 "2011-05-16T18:48:17Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > The law requires that you have a lawyer but not that the lawyer gets paid, see? Slight nitpick here. “The law” does not REQUIRE you to have a lawyer. You may represent yourself if you so choose, unless you are a corporation. What you do have, via the 6th Amendment of the Constitution. is the RIGHT to be represented by counsel, as opposed to NOT having the right to be so represented. Back in the bad old days, you did not have the right to counsel so if you were in trouble, it was just you against the officers of the court. Guess who usually won. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2011, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/2984 "2011-05-16T19:23:39Z")
> [@Laughing\_Lady](#): > > As a newbie, I found this thread for the first time today. I then had to go back to the beginning, to get up to speed. 60 pages!? I’ve spent the whole day (well, except for napping, and eating) reading this stuff, and I’m not even halfway through! > Why oh why did I turn up my nose at the Evelyn Wood course? > Still, it was too good to miss. I love this, thank you. I haven’t contributed much for a long time, and I’m thankful that others are keeping this thread going. Thank you stupid Republicans, thank you smart Dopers! ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_Stimulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Digital\_Stimulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_Stimulus)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2011, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/2985 "2011-05-17T13:03:22Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > The right to legal counsel doesn’t come from Miranda. Miranda established that suspects had to be _advised_ of their right to counsel. Clearly. It was shorthand, used specifically because it is so well-known and exactly states “right to an attorney”. > [@](#): > > The point is that the right to have the government pay for your counsel _only attaches when the suspect cannot afford one himself_ (whereas Paul is presumably talking about universal healthcare, which is the logical result of “a right to healthcare”). And we’re back to me being unintentionally dense. What is it about “universal healthcare” that is mutually exclusive from, say, single-payer (beyond the fact that the latter is just one implementation of the former)? Under a single-payer system, would the government be absorbing the cost paying for one’s medical bills when the patient _can_ afford it? (I think that’s the abstracted converse of your point; if not, please correct me.) ---
**Author:** ![Spavined\_Gelding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Spavined\_Gelding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spavined_Gelding)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2011, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/2986 "2011-05-17T23:16:12Z")
Here we go again. Our boy, ex-Senator and Presidential want-to-be, Ricky Santorum is so enamored with reestablishing a national policy of torture that he has thrown all reason and truthfulness out the window. Senator McCain has said that torture did not produce any information that lead to the death of Osama and that the practice is generally a bad idea. Now our boy Santorum decides, and worse, publicly says that John McCain just doesn’t understand torture and just how effective an interrogation tool it is. He must be talking about some other Senator McCain, not the guy who spent four or five years actually being tortured – because that guy knows more about torture than ever occurred to the ex-senator’s addled brain after viewing any number of episodes of “Gay Boys in Bondage” or “24.” I can handle politicians, just spare me the ego enhanced idiots. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2011, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/2987 "2011-05-17T23:50:59Z")
> [@Spavined\_Gelding](#): > > Here we go again. Our boy, ex-Senator and Presidential want-to-be, Ricky Santorum is so enamored with reestablishing a national policy of torture that he has thrown all reason and truthfulness out the window. > > Senator McCain has said that torture did not produce any information that lead to the death of Osama and that the practice is generally a bad idea. Now our boy Santorum decides, and worse, publicly says that John McCain just doesn’t understand torture and just how effective an interrogation tool it is. > > He must be talking about some other Senator McCain, not the guy who spent four or five years actually being tortured – because that guy knows more about torture than ever occurred to the ex-senator’s addled brain after viewing any number of episodes of “Gay Boys in Bondage” or “24.” > > I can handle politicians, just spare me the ego enhanced idiots. Tell me there’s video of it somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2011, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/2988 "2011-05-18T00:10:44Z")
Speaking of Rick Santorum, I have to say he’s got the [best bumper stickers](http://www.truthwinsout.org/blog/2011/05/16553/) of any candidate running. Incidentally, have there been any reports of the Catholic Church denying him Communion for supporting torture, as they’ve been known to do in the case of politicians who support a woman’s right to have an abortion or the right of same-sex couples to marry? Or, as I suspect, is the Church hierarchy pretty much solely obsessed with those two issues? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2011, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/2989 "2011-05-18T00:25:20Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > Tell me there’s video of it somewhere. Maybe audio, but I haven’t found it. He said it during a radio interview. [Here’s a transcript.](http://www.hughhewitt.com/transcripts.aspx?id=d18eabab-3f0c-4611-8dcc-c277fa7f0deb) ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2011, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/2990 "2011-05-18T00:31:22Z")
> [@waterj2](#): > > Speaking of Rick Santorum, I have to say he’s got the [best bumper stickers](http://www.truthwinsout.org/blog/2011/05/16553/) of any candidate running. > > Incidentally, have there been any reports of the Catholic Church denying him Communion for supporting torture, as they’ve been known to do in the case of politicians who support a woman’s right to have an abortion or the right of same-sex couples to marry? Or, as I suspect, is the Church hierarchy pretty much solely obsessed with those two issues? A priest denied communion to Douglas Kmiec just for [endorsing Barack Obama in 2008.](http://blog.beliefnet.com/stevenwaldman/2008/09/the-day-i-was-denied-communion.html) ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2011, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/2991 "2011-05-18T23:32:06Z")
For today, let’s check out this fantastic statement from Newt Gingrich’s press guy: > [@](#): > > The literati sent out their minions to do their bidding. Washington cannot tolerate threats from outsiders who might disrupt their comfortable world. The firefight started when the cowardly sensed weakness. They fired timidly at first, then the sheep not wanting to be dropped from the establishment’s cocktail party invite list unloaded their entire clip, firing without taking aim their distortions and falsehoods. Now they are left exposed by their bylines and handles. But surely they had killed him off. This is the way it always worked. A lesser person could not have survived the first few minutes of the onslaught. But out of the billowing smoke and dust of tweets and trivia emerged Gingrich, once again ready to lead those who won’t be intimated by the political elite and are ready to take on the challenges America faces. Really, Newt, you’re pretending to be seriously running for President, you shouldn’t let your staff hog all the really good drugs. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2011, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/2992 "2011-05-18T23:40:32Z")
> [@waterj2](#): > > For today, let’s check out this fantastic statement from Newt Gingrich’s press guy:Really, Newt, you’re pretending to be seriously running for President, you shouldn’t let your staff hog all the really good drugs. Well, Newt IS the guy who [claimed that quoting him would be a lie.](http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/politics-elections/161883-gingrich-says-ad-quoting-him-on-medicare-would-be-a-falsehood) ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2011, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/2993 "2011-05-18T23:44:51Z")
> [@waterj2](#): > > For today, let’s check out this fantastic statement from Newt Gingrich’s press guy:Really, Newt, you’re pretending to be seriously running for President, you shouldn’t let your staff hog all the really good drugs. That is such a cool quote! Newt is _Shane_, and Will Kane in _High Noon_, all rolled together into one! Why do I keep picturing him as Boss Hogg? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2011, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/2994 "2011-05-18T23:55:21Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > That is such a cool quote! Newt is _Shane_, and Will Kane in _High Noon_, all rolled together into one! > > Why do I keep picturing him as Boss Hogg? Nah. Haley Barbour is Boss Hogg. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/2995 "2011-05-19T02:24:21Z")
> [@waterj2](#): > > For today, let’s check out this fantastic statement from Newt Gingrich’s press guy: > > > [@](#): > > > > The literati sent out their minions to do their bidding. Washington cannot tolerate threats from outsiders who might disrupt their comfortable world. The firefight started when the cowardly sensed weakness. They fired timidly at first, then the sheep not wanting to be dropped from the establishment’s cocktail party invite list unloaded their entire clip, firing without taking aim their distortions and falsehoods. Now they are left exposed by their bylines and handles. But surely they had killed him off. This is the way it always worked. A lesser person could not have survived the first few minutes of the onslaught. But out of the billowing smoke and dust of tweets and trivia emerged Gingrich, once again ready to lead those who won’t be intimated by the political elite and are ready to take on the challenges America faces. > > Really, Newt, you’re pretending to be seriously running for President, you shouldn’t let your staff hog all the really good drugs. What a lot of words to say “Tanned, Rested, and Ready.” ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/2996 "2011-05-19T03:01:58Z")
If he runs, gonna have to see a more pictures of his latest wife, who truly creeps me out. I know she doesn’t rise in the night to feed on the blood of the living. I know that. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/2997 "2011-05-19T04:06:39Z")
> [@](#): > > Washington cannot tolerate threats from outsiders who might disrupt their comfortable world. A guy who was in the House of Representatives for 20 years, starting more than 30 years ago, is trying to portray himself as an outsider against Obama? And weren’t they criticizing Obama for his inexperience just three years ago? ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/2998 "2011-05-19T05:14:45Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > A guy who was in the House of Representatives for 20 years, starting more than 30 years ago, is trying to portray himself as an outsider against Obama? And weren’t they criticizing Obama for his inexperience just three years ago? Ya, well now he’s an experienced “insider”. Try to keep up with the program wouldja? ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/2999 "2011-05-19T17:34:51Z")
May 17 - Jerome Corsi releases his next sure-fire best-seller, _[Where’s the Birth Certificate?](http://www.amazon.com/Wheres-Birth-Certificate-Eligible-President/dp/1936488299/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1305826386&sr=8-1)_ Well-timed, sir. ---
**Author:** ![Spavined\_Gelding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Spavined\_Gelding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spavined_Gelding)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3000 "2011-05-19T22:46:17Z")
Iowa is always a lot of fun in the lead up to the party caucuses. It has started a bit earlier than usual this cycle. All sorts of candidates sitting on straw bales and cuddling pigs. Our GOP however has pulled a real boner --hired The Donald to be the keynote speaker at the annual fundraiser without arraigning a backup in the event their guy pulled a Pailin. He did. Their stuck. Annual Lincoln Day (in June?) canceled. Here’s the story: [The Des Moines Register - Des Moines, Iowa, News and Sports](http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/2011/05/19/trump-bows-out-of-iowa-gop-speech-party-cancels-event/) Newt in town, Santorum will be here next week. Either of them is a mockable as Trump. Stupid and shortsighted. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=149) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=151)