# 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:** 378
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/7541 "2012-11-09T23:45:37Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > It could very well have been handled worse, like telling the truth. At least telling the truth would have the truth-thing going for it. Revealing enough to make people think you’re full of shit is a bad strategy! ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/7542 "2012-11-09T23:52:54Z")
True enough, I would have had more respect for Romney as I voted for Obama. ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/7543 "2012-11-10T03:33:05Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Fresh off his failed attempts to rig Ohio for Romney, John Husted is already trying to rig the 2016 election by proposing [a new electoral scheme that would give most of Ohio’s electoral votes to the Republican regardless of who wins the state.](http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/11/09/1169761/ohios-gop-secretary-of-state-already-has-a-plan-to-rig-the-2016-election-for-republicans/) It leads to this question: Does the party start moving to the left and enlarge the tent to bring in the minorities (to replace the shrinking pool of old white folk that are dying off)? Or, increasingly manipulate the voting system to maintain a tactical advantage? I would have gathered from Tuesday, the GOP would have seen the light–but watching Boehner play nice and then retreat–tells me that no, the Republicans would rather curse, weep, and gnash their teeth while remainst in the darkness. So sadly, they stick with what they know :(. On the bright side, this means the **Stupid Republican idea of the day** thread has just been granted a two-year extension. Congratulations to Karl Rove, Todd Akin, Michelle “Bi” Bachmann, et. al., we couldn’t have done it without you. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/7544 "2012-11-10T04:52:22Z")
Remember, they’re conservatives – they don’t like change, they don’t like _to_ change. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/7545 "2012-11-10T11:10:10Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Fresh off his failed attempts to rig Ohio for Romney, John Husted is already trying to rig the 2016 election by proposing [a new electoral scheme that would give most of Ohio’s electoral votes to the Republican regardless of who wins the state.](http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/11/09/1169761/ohios-gop-secretary-of-state-already-has-a-plan-to-rig-the-2016-election-for-republicans/) Two comments: (1) Is this really a “stupid” idea? If stupid people design a stupid system to ensure that the stupider candidate wins, isn’t that actually a _smart_ idea? At least from the perspective of stupid people? (2) Since Brickhead has a heavy workload, let me post on his behalf. [bricker logic]This gerrymandering law if passed, will pass by a democratic process. True, the state’s prior gerrymandering is a prerequisite, but that gerrymandering was also approved in democratic fashion. If the people of Ohio didn’t want their state gerrymandered, they were free to elect a non-gerrymandering legislature. The process pitted here is actually, instead _a paradigm of democracy in action_.[/bricker logic] ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/7546 "2012-11-10T12:38:24Z")
> [@Typo\_Negative](#): > > If you don’t live in the city you are having the cab ride in, you are not ‘commuting’ and it is a business expense. > > If my job requires I travel on business from L.A. to Sarasota Florida, I pay for the ride to LAX but the business picks up the expense of travel costs until I return to LAX. > [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I doubt most of these people lived in Boston. Wouldn’t your employer pick up the tab if they sent you to Seattle for a conference (I know you work for the feds, so they pick up the tab for everything, but bear with me)? Fair points, but the article says they were taking cab rides “home,” which I take to mean their home, not a hotel. Whatever. ---
**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:** [November 10, 2012, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/7547 "2012-11-10T12:44:04Z")
> [@bup](#): > > Reminds me of another Republican, who chose to believe cherry-picked intelligence to start a war. To be fair, McKinley’s advisors didn’t have the option of satellite imagery to evaluate the sinking of the “Maine”. ---
**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:** [November 10, 2012, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/7548 "2012-11-10T12:47:41Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Fresh off his failed attempts to rig Ohio for Romney, John Husted is already trying to rig the 2016 election by proposing [a new electoral scheme that would give most of Ohio’s electoral votes to the Republican regardless of who wins the state.](http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/11/09/1169761/ohios-gop-secretary-of-state-already-has-a-plan-to-rig-the-2016-election-for-republicans/) Wow. I guess the Koch brothers still have some cash left over, and are giving Husted another chance. I’d have thought they’d have sent him packing to Paraguay by now. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/7549 "2012-11-10T13:14:48Z")
Isn’t Husted’s proposal for Ohio identical to what already exists in Maine and Nebraska? So far in those states the impact has been zero (neither state has ever split its votes), but I admit I’m curious what would happen if the by-district method was done in a high-population state like Ohio. Will there be blatant if not constant gerrymandering, for example. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/7550 "2012-11-10T13:44:44Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Isn’t Husted’s proposal for Ohio identical to what already exists in Maine and Nebraska? So far in those states the impact has been zero (neither state has ever split its votes), but I admit I’m curious what would happen if the by-district method was done in a high-population state like Ohio. Will there be blatant if not constant gerrymandering, for example. From [this page (using scrollbar midpage)](http://www.politico.com/2012-election/map/#/House/2012/OH) or [this other page](http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/2012/results/ohio) you can see what the red-vs-blue voting was, district-by-district, in Ohio’s Congressional races, which GOP won 12-to-4. Despite the lopsided GOP dominance, the largest margins of victory were in the 9th and 13th districts, where the Democratic candidates each won with almost 73% of the vote, and in 11th district, where the Democrat ran unopposed. That is a symptom of gerrymandering. ---
**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:** [November 10, 2012, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/7551 "2012-11-10T13:47:23Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Isn’t Husted’s proposal for Ohio identical to what already exists in Maine and Nebraska? So far in those states the impact has been zero (neither state has ever split its votes), but I admit I’m curious what would happen if the by-district method was done in a high-population state like Ohio. Will there be blatant if not constant gerrymandering, for example. Blatant, constant gerrymandering! What kind of alternative universe are you talking about? 😉 And I think Nebraska did award one EV to Obama in 2008. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/7552 "2012-11-10T14:25:03Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > And I think Nebraska did award one EV to Obama in 2008. Huh, I stand corrected. Sure, the _timing_ of the proposal is blatantly partisan, but Ohio has had Democrat governments in the past and will again in future, I expect, so it may bite Ohio Republicans in the ass, rather like Republicans in the late 1940s who wanted to put a two-term limit on the presidency because of FDR, to the eventual annoyance of their grandkids who would have happily elected Reagan to a third, fourth, etc. And by blatant gerrymandering, I meant to say more so than the usual amount. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/7553 "2012-11-10T18:53:34Z")
At which point they’ll demand an end to the plan, calling it an infringement of liberty. It’s almost certainly unconstitutional anyway, because the proposed districts would have to be blatantly unrepresentative in order to return 12 votes for Romney. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/7554 "2012-11-10T20:03:22Z")
Yeah, that would stop them! Because it would be wrong, and stuff. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/7555 "2012-11-10T23:48:09Z")
Crazy person [Allen West](http://news.yahoo.com/allen-west-not-quietly-good-night-221125815.html) of Florida is not going quietly into that good night after losing his Congressional seat. I can just picture him now nailing the doors shut with boards and huddling behind his desk, clutching his chair in a deathgrip while playing country music loudly in the background ---
**Author:** ![MacCat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maccat/32/216_2.png) [@MacCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacCat)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/7556 "2012-11-10T23:57:41Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > Crazy person [Allen West](http://news.yahoo.com/allen-west-not-quietly-good-night-221125815.html) of Florida is not going quietly into that good night after losing his Congressional seat. I can just picture him now nailing the doors shut with boards and huddling behind his desk, clutching his chair in a deathgrip while playing country music loudly in the background [The White West](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1KvgtEnABY) ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/7557 "2012-11-10T23:59:40Z")
I have in my hand a document proving that there are 240 Republicans in the US Congress…err, make that 234. ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2012, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/7558 "2012-11-12T18:28:19Z")
[http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/11/10/texas-gop-official-state-should-secede-from-maggots-who-reelected-obama/](http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/11/10/texas-gop-official-state-should-secede-from-maggots-who-reelected-obama/) Actually, this is one of the stupid ideas that I encourage Republicans to adopt. I for one will not lift a finger to prevent you from seceding. Pay your own goddamn way. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2012, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/7559 "2012-11-12T18:52:52Z")
> [@Frostillicus](#): > > [http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/11/10/texas-gop-official-state-should-secede-from-maggots-who-reelected-obama/](http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/11/10/texas-gop-official-state-should-secede-from-maggots-who-reelected-obama/) > > Actually, this is one of the stupid ideas that I encourage Republicans to adopt. I for one will not lift a finger to prevent you from seceding. Pay your own goddamn way. Oh, the irony! > [@](#): > > Morrison also explained why Mitt Romney lost the election last week, placing the blame partially on minorities whom he claims are the real racists in America. > > “Many members of minority groups are simply racist against the party that most white people happen to vote for,” he wrote. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2012, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/7560 "2012-11-12T19:51:14Z")
> [@Frostillicus](#): > > [http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/11/10/texas-gop-official-state-should-secede-from-maggots-who-reelected-obama/](http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/11/10/texas-gop-official-state-should-secede-from-maggots-who-reelected-obama/) > > Actually, this is one of the stupid ideas that I encourage Republicans to adopt. I for one will not lift a finger to prevent you from seceding. Pay your own goddamn way. Besides the whole secession threat, there are two other things I love about that story. The guy who said that Texas needs to secede is Peter Morrison, the treasurer of the Hardin County Republican Party, who made the comments in his newsletter. The two things I love: First, he works for Batman. His boss is the Hardin County Republican Party Chairman Kent Batman. Second, here is Batman’s quote when hearing about Morrison’s comments: > [@](#): > > Batman’s response [upon hearing the comments]: “Wow.” > > He sighed and said, “OK, well — I guess I need to start taking a look at his newsletters.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=377) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=379)