# 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:** 2150
**Author:** ![steatopygia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steatopygia/32/3132_2.png) [@steatopygia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steatopygia)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2019, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42989 "2019-12-07T01:53:22Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Pfffft. You amateur colonial wankers. Come back when [your representative critter announces he’s running for mayor again](https://www.ouest-france.fr/politique/patrick-balkany/malgre-son-incarceration-patrick-balkany-souhaite-etre-candidat-la-mairie-de-levallois-perret-6636691) via phone call from his jail cell, where he was put for (among other things) misappropriating public funds and using city hall to launder money. > That’s how we rock it in the Old World, baby. Ain’t no depths of shaaaame enough… Well we did have this guy…[Marion Barry.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Barry)…skip to “1990 arrest”. Re-elected in 1994. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2019, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42990 "2019-12-07T02:07:36Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Does Congress get a Xmas bonus? No, but there’s a helluva party. With favors and everything! ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2019, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42991 "2019-12-07T03:51:37Z")
Nikki Haley is a [disgusting piece of shit](https://www.businessinsider.com/nikki-haley-church-shooter-dylann-roof-hijacked-confederate-flag-2019-12) “_And here is this guy who comes out with his manifesto and his confederate flag who had just hijacked everything that people thought of. And we don’t have hateful people in South Carolina. There’s a small minority that’s going to be there, but people saw it as service, and sacrifice, and heritage. But once he did that there was no way to overcome it._” The stars-and-bars was a symbol of service and heritage until Dylan Roof turned it into a symbol of hate. Fuck you sideways with broken glass, Nikki. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2019, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42992 "2019-12-07T03:52:04Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > [He’s resigning after the holidays](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-politics-hunter/california-congressman-hunter-will-step-down-after-corruption-plea-idUSKBN1YA2K7?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social). I have no idea why he doesn’t just resign now. He can’t vote. He could spend the time at home with his family. He gets an extra month’s pay check if he waits till January 1. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2019, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42993 "2019-12-07T04:07:09Z")
Matt Whitaker, former acting Attorney General and pitchman for a special toilet designed for the extra-well-endowed, [offers another argument](https://www.mediamatters.org/trump-impeachment-inquiry/fox-news-former-trump-official-claims-impeachment-will-hurt-peoples) against impeachment: > [@Matt Whitaker](#): > > …And it’s really a sad day for America. It is, I think, going to, you know, hurt people’s Christmas experience, because this is going to be playing in the background. Instead of Bing Crosby’s Christmas album, we’re going to have impeachment en vogue… ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2019, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42994 "2019-12-07T06:32:16Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > In a stunningly quick reversal, [Cowboys for Trump group now says sand wasn’t from monument](https://apnews.com/e4c1906cc48899a6e821ece9b2c414aa). It looks like the White Sands National Monument extends about as far north as the city center of Alamogordo, while the gypsum dunes go up nearly as far as Tularosa, which puts about as much of the dunes beyond the monument as within it. However, that area north of the monument is the White Sands missile range, a USAF reserve where just anybody is very much not welcome to putter around in (the Trinity site is up in the middle of there, a large basin that is/was known as _el Jornada del Muerte_ because, history). There really is nowhere around there that these “cowboys” could have legitimately collected any large amount of white sands even with permission from the NMDOT, which they could not give. On the other hand, the ShitGibbon himself is known to be hostile to the very idea of public lands and voracious for any and all adulation, so he will certainly be quick to pardon the “cowboys’” transgressions. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2019, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42995 "2019-12-07T07:45:05Z")
> [@steatopygia](#): > > Well we did have this guy…[Marion Barry.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Barry)…skip to “1990 arrest”. Re-elected in 1994. Yeah I knew about that, but that’s just a personal fuck up, a little big vice. My guy’s fucked the city in the ass for 20 years and not only expects to keep doing it while facing at least 10 years ineligibility (he’s appealing in time for the election of course) so fucking idiots can line up to say “please, good sir, give us some more of that deep dick”. And the worst part is : he’s likely to win that election, too. He’s still giantly popuplar, and his brain trust electorate have spent money, actual money of theirs, on a GoFundMe-like fund to pay his legal expenses since all the cash he’d _embezzled from them in the first place_ got frozen and seized. Stupidity like that you can’t buy or rent. ---
**Author:** ![Bumbershoot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbershoot/32/3428_2.png) [@Bumbershoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbershoot)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2019, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42996 "2019-12-07T17:21:28Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > It looks like the White Sands National Monument extends about as far north as the city center of Alamogordo, while the gypsum dunes go up nearly as far as Tularosa, which puts about as much of the dunes beyond the monument as within it. However, that area north of the monument is the White Sands missile range, a USAF reserve where just anybody is very much not welcome to putter around in (the Trinity site is up in the middle of there, a large basin that is/was known as _el Jornada del Muerte_ because, history). There really is nowhere around there that these “cowboys” could have legitimately collected any large amount of white sands even with permission from the NMDOT, which they could not give… I was planning to make a similar post yesterday and studied the map. It looks like there is a short section of Highway 70 just south of the visitor center where the sand could easily blow across the highway. I don’t really want to defend these “cowboys” but there is a chance they could be telling the truth. > [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > In a stunningly quick reversal, [Cowboys for Trump group now says sand wasn’t from monument](https://apnews.com/e4c1906cc48899a6e821ece9b2c414aa). > [@](#): > > …“It’s not like I drove onto the monument to collect sand. We got permission from the state Department of Transportation who collected it for us,” Griffin said. > > New Mexico Department of Transportation spokeswoman Marisa Maez did not immediately return an email seeking comment. This article has since been updated and now says > [@](#): > > …“It’s not like I drove onto the monument to collect sand. We got permission from the state Department of Transportation, who collected it for us,” Griffin said. > > New Mexico Department of Transportation spokeswoman Marisa Maez did not know if the agency gave Cowboys for Trump permission to take sand or if the agency collected sand for the group. In an email, she said once the white sand blows across the highway from the monument and into the agency’s right of way, it becomes the department’s property. > > “At that point, the sand is also considered ‘contaminated’ and cannot be placed back at the monument,” she said. “It then becomes a safety issue when someone wants to collect the sand on the side of the road.” ---
**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:** [December 7, 2019, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42997 "2019-12-07T17:50:34Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > [He’s resigning after the holidays](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-politics-hunter/california-congressman-hunter-will-step-down-after-corruption-plea-idUSKBN1YA2K7?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social). I have no idea why he doesn’t just resign now. He can’t vote. He could spend the time at home with his family. There’s a scene in _Saturday Night Fever_ where John Travolta’s dad smacks him on the back of the head. I imagine if Duncan D were gathered around the table at Duncan Lee’s house, that scene would be repeated about five times an hour. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2019, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42998 "2019-12-07T21:50:20Z")
> [@Bumbershoot](#): > > I was planning to make a similar post yesterday and studied the map. It looks like there is a short section of Highway 70 just south of the visitor center where the sand could easily blow across the highway. Yes, there is a short stretch of the highway where the sand could blow onto the shoulder. I have seen it, and it does. But “4 large bins” is a bit of a stretch. I am very skeptical. The “cowboys’” backtracking sounds a lot like CYA. ---
**Author:** ![Anny\_Middon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@Anny\_Middon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anny_Middon)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2019, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42999 "2019-12-07T22:18:34Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > [He’s resigning after the holidays](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-politics-hunter/california-congressman-hunter-will-step-down-after-corruption-plea-idUSKBN1YA2K7?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social). I have no idea why he doesn’t just resign now. He can’t vote. He could spend the time at home with his family. Are his fellow Republicans jumping all over him because he didn’t say “after **Christmas** ”? ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2019, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/43000 "2019-12-07T23:24:31Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > Matt Whitaker, former acting Attorney General and pitchman for a special toilet designed for the extra-well-endowed, [offers another argument](https://www.mediamatters.org/trump-impeachment-inquiry/fox-news-former-trump-official-claims-impeachment-will-hurt-peoples) against impeachment: > > > [@](#): > > > > Originally Posted by Matt Whitaker > > …And it’s really a sad day for America. It is, I think, going to, you know, hurt people’s Christmas experience, because this is going to be playing in the background. Instead of Bing Crosby’s Christmas album, we’re going to have impeachment en vogue… Whitaker has some very stiff competition for the Hypocrite of the Year crown: > [@](#): > > Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich called out House Democrats for trying to impeach President Donald Trump “on the eve of Christmas,” Friday, but on December 19 1998, when Gingrich was speaker, the House of Representatives impeached former President Bill Clinton. > > “Really, on the eve of Christmas it is really sad to see the dishonesty and the partisanship that the House Democrats are displaying,” declared Gingrich during a Fox News interview on Friday, describing the ordeal as “an embarrassment to the country.” … > **[Bill Clinton | Mediaite](https://www.mediaite.com/tag/bill-clinton/)** > > Bill Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States. He served from 1993 to 2001. He was born and raised in Arkansas, where he became the Attorney General in 1976 and the governor in 1978. He was the second president to be impeached, but the... Somehow, according to Newt’s unique calendar, the first week of December in 2019 is “the eve of Christmas”—but December 19, 1998 was just another working day. ---
**Author:** ![Bumbershoot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbershoot/32/3428_2.png) [@Bumbershoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbershoot)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2019, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/43001 "2019-12-08T00:15:20Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Yes, there is a short stretch of the highway where the sand could blow onto the shoulder. I have seen it, and it does. But “4 large bins” is a bit of a stretch. I am very skeptical. The “cowboys’” backtracking sounds a lot like CYA. The short stretch of highway appears to be about 1000 feet long on Google maps. [Here is a video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RC59gAYIKU) that Cowboys for Trump made before they left for Washington. It shows the four plastic bins at about 3:00 minutes in. It doesn’t seem unreasonable to me that they could have gathered that much sand from that stretch of highway. Couy Griffin also mentions in the video that they worked in collaboration with the state of New Mexico to obtain the sand. I think it is plausible that they are telling the truth. ---
**Author:** ![Bumbershoot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbershoot/32/3428_2.png) [@Bumbershoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbershoot)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2019, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/43002 "2019-12-08T00:23:52Z")
Too late to edit: Griffin also mentions that the sand was gathered outside the perimeter of the National Monument. And obviously the video was made before the allegations of theft. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2019, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/43003 "2019-12-08T00:40:03Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > He gets an extra month’s pay check if he waits till January 1. Plus if he resigns after January 3, 2020, he gets credit for n extra year, 12 years of service toward his Congressional pension. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2019, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/43004 "2019-12-08T03:10:14Z")
December 7, 2019 46% of US military members view Russia as an ally. [Pentagon Concerned Russia Cultivating Sympathy Among US Troops](https://www.voanews.com/usa/pentagon-concerned-russia-cultivating-sympathy-among-us-troops)? ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2019, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/43005 "2019-12-08T03:12:22Z")
DEC 06, 2019 Mike Huckabee has filed a complaint with the Florida bar association against a lawyer who is retweeting and liking anti-Huckabee posts. [https://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/commentary/fl-op-com-mike-huckabee-launches-legal-assault-20191206-uecvnl4wmvagth5q5yztyc5iii-story.html](https://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/commentary/fl-op-com-mike-huckabee-launches-legal-assault-20191206-uecvnl4wmvagth5q5yztyc5iii-story.html)? ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2019, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/43006 "2019-12-08T22:42:17Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Pfffft. You amateur colonial wankers. Come back when [your representative critter announces he’s running for mayor again](https://www.ouest-france.fr/politique/patrick-balkany/malgre-son-incarceration-patrick-balkany-souhaite-etre-candidat-la-mairie-de-levallois-perret-6636691) via phone call from his jail cell, where he was put for (among other things) misappropriating public funds and using city hall to launder money. > That’s how we rock it in the Old World, baby. Ain’t no depths of shaaaame enough… Pffft back atcha; over here we **re-elect** our convicted former public officials. As a one-time resident of Providence RI, I give you the late ex-mayor [Buddy Cianci](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddy_Cianci): > [@](#): > > Mayor of Providence, 1974–1984 > > Cianci was forced by law to resign from office for the first time in 1984 after pleading nolo contendere or “no contest” – neither admitting nor disputing – on an assault charge alleging an altercation with Bristol, Rhode Island contractor, Raymond DeLeo. Cianci claimed that the man had been romantically involved with his wife, from whom Cianci was separated at the time […] Providence municipal regulations prohibit a convicted felon from holding public office […] > > After Cianci’s resignation, a special election was held to name a replacement. Cianci attempted to run in the election under the rubric that he had been convicted of a felony, but received a five-year suspended sentence rather than being sent to prison. After a few weeks it was decided by the Rhode Island Supreme Court that Cianci could not run in the special election […] > > Mayor of Providence, 1991–2002 > > Cianci was indicted in April 2001 on federal criminal charges of racketeering, conspiracy, extortion, witness tampering, and mail fraud. […] > > In September 2002, Cianci was sentenced to serve five years in federal prison by Judge Torres, who opted for a higher sentence than the minimum required by the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. Cianci was forced by law to resign immediately following the sentencing. […] > > Cianci became eligible to run for mayor again in the year 2012, three years after his probation ended (due to the provisions of the 1986 Rhode Island constitutional amendment, aptly named “the Buddy amendment”). […] > > In May 2014, Cianci, after being successfully treated for cancer, was cleared by his doctors to run for mayor in the 2014 November election. On June 25, Cianci declared his candidacy for Mayor of Providence as an independent. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2019, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/43007 "2019-12-09T03:09:16Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > December 7, 2019 > 46% of US military members view Russia as an ally. > [Pentagon Concerned Russia Cultivating Sympathy Among US Troops](https://www.voanews.com/usa/pentagon-concerned-russia-cultivating-sympathy-among-us-troops)? Well, only temporarily, until Nazi Germany is defeated. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2019, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/43008 "2019-12-09T03:33:06Z")
The guy whom Mike Huckabee is trying to get disbarred has gone from 400 Twitter followers to over 60,000 in 24 hours. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=2149) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=2151)