# 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:** 802
**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:** [August 5, 2014, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/16021 "2014-08-05T17:08:09Z")
This can only end well: Steven Palazzo (T-MS) has [distributed bibles to everyone in congress](http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/08/04/tea-party-house-leader-sends-bibles-to-every-congressman-urges-them-to-use-it-to-make-policy-decisions-image/) so that they may use Og’s Word to properly inform their decision making. ---
**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:** [August 5, 2014, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/16022 "2014-08-05T17:16:15Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > …Because shelling Tijuana isn’t going to affect immigration? And if we start a war, it just might look as if we’re over-reacting. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2014, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/16023 "2014-08-05T17:29:21Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > This can only end well: Steven Palazzo (T-MS) has [distributed bibles to everyone in congress](http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/08/04/tea-party-house-leader-sends-bibles-to-every-congressman-urges-them-to-use-it-to-make-policy-decisions-image/) so that they may use Og’s Word to properly inform their decision making. That is so incredibly wrong, presumptuous, and stupid that it is almost beyond words, but it’s not the scary part. The scary part is that every Republican and Christian I know would say about that: “So? What’s wrong with that?” ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2014, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/16024 "2014-08-05T17:40:56Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > One of the stupidest Republicans, Steve King, gets verbally confronted by a young woman who benefited from [DACA](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deferred_Action_for_Childhood_Arrivals), and [physically grabs the woman’s wrist](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/steve-king-rand-paul-dreamers) to interrupt her. That somewhat overshadowing the background where you see Rand Paul [flee in terror](http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/08/05/rand_paul_takes_bite_of_burger_hears_questioner_is_a_dreamer_flees_while.html) after learning she’s a DREAMer ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2014, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/16025 "2014-08-05T18:10:42Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Firstly, he grabbed her hand after only 30 seconds or so of her talking. It was a minute into the video, with her talking almost the entire time. > [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Secondly, I don’t know if it was assault, but I thought the way he grabbed her hand was pretty startling – he was the one shaking his finger, and when she tried to speak again he reached out lightning-fast right under her chin and grabbed her wrist. I would be pretty offended if someone did that to me and might even push back. She kept talking over anything he tried to say. I’m not excusing his conduct, but it seems to be horribly over-exaggerated to conclude somehow it was violent. > [@iiandyiiii](#): > > He didn’t give her much of a chance to tell her story (constantly interrupting her), and he refused to answer any of her questions. She never gave him much of a chance, whenever he did start to speak, she just continued talking. It was a “confrontation” because she started it, and didn’t stop talking at all. I don’t think that’s a very good technique and rather than making King look like the pandering idiot he is (which he did pretty well with the “you’re very good at English” and calling Mexico “lawless” when she allowed him to speak), it made her appear more haranguing and confrontational. YMMV, of course. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2014, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/16026 "2014-08-05T19:16:18Z")
[More on Paul’s tactical retreat from the Dreamer.](http://www.salon.com/2014/08/05/rand_pauls_stunning_cowardice_wants_to_be_president_but_fears_a_dreamer/) > [@](#): > > It’s probably on an endless loop in Sen. Ted Cruz’s office today. You might even see it in Cruz ads if the two men face off for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. > > Say what you will about the combative extremist Cruz: It’s hard to imagine him cutting and running in a similar situation. > > Paul ran away even before the conflict between King and dreamer Erika Andiola began; she had merely identified herself as a dreamer. Why was the Kentucky senator so panic-stricken? Probably because he has repeatedly tried to have it both ways on immigration reform. > > He voted against the bipartisan Senate bill last year, but he has subsequently tried to depict himself as a champion of reform, even after Rep. Eric Cantor’s surprise primary defeat in June, which was attributed to his opponent’s shrill anti-reform stance. “I say everywhere I go that I am for immigration reform,” he told reporters after Cantor’s loss. > > Everywhere, that is, except for Steve King fundraisers. > > Paul’s Iowa panic suggests that either he doesn’t understand how difficult it is to square the GOP’s policy positions with outreach to non-white groups, or that he thinks he can get away with ducking the conflict. Of course anyone who cares about either reaching Latino voters, or developing a sane immigration policy, wouldn’t be appearing with King in the first place. King’s reflexive xenophobia and casual racism are well known. He’s the one who went on about Latino immigrants having “calves the size of cantaloupes” as a result of being drug mules, for instance. > > On the other hand, Paul knows King is now in his party’s mainstream when it comes to immigration policy. Boasting about his role in blowing up House Speaker John Boehner’s compromise border-crisis bill, King told Roll Call: “The changes brought into this are ones I’ve developed and advocated for over the past two years. It’s like I ordered it off the menu.” ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2014, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/16027 "2014-08-05T20:17:44Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > This can only end well: Steven Palazzo (T-MS) has [distributed bibles to everyone in congress](http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/08/04/tea-party-house-leader-sends-bibles-to-every-congressman-urges-them-to-use-it-to-make-policy-decisions-image/) so that they may use Og’s Word to properly inform their decision making. I look forward to the day they finally start making laws prohibiting tattoos and clothes made from multiple types of fibers. ---
**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:** [August 5, 2014, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/16028 "2014-08-05T20:41:28Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > I look forward to the day they finally start making laws prohibiting tattoos and clothes made from multiple types of fibers. I look forward to the phone video from the meetings they have after they decide that since Solomon was the wisest of kings, they should emulate him, using the _Song of Solomon_ as a how-to. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2014, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/16029 "2014-08-05T20:53:49Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > This can only end well: Steven Palazzo (T-MS) has [distributed bibles to everyone in congress](http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/08/04/tea-party-house-leader-sends-bibles-to-every-congressman-urges-them-to-use-it-to-make-policy-decisions-image/) so that they may use Og’s Word to properly inform their decision making. I don’t see any problem with this. It’s been a tradition to distribute copies of the Jefferson Bible to members of congress for over a century: > [@](#): > > Beginning in 1904 and continuing every other year until the 1950s, new members of Congress were given a copy of the Jefferson Bible. Until the practice first stopped, copies were provided by the Government Printing Office. A private organization, the Libertarian Press, revived the practice in 1997.[34][35] > > In January 2013, the American Humanist Association published an edition of the Jefferson Bible, distributing a free copy to every member of Congress and President Barack Obama The only difference in the case of Palazzo that I can see is that he’s probably distributing a more traditional Bible, instead of Jefferson’s edited humanist version. > **[Jefferson Bible](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Bible)** > > The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, commonly referred to as the Jefferson Bible, is one of two religious works constructed by Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson compiled the manuscripts but never published them. The first, The Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth, was completed in 1804, but no copies exist today. The second, The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, was completed in 1820 by cutting and pasting, with a razor and glue, numerous sections from the New Testament as extractions of the ... ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2014, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/16030 "2014-08-05T20:54:10Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Then how does he get re-elected? You’ve got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know… morons. 🙂 I blame their close proximity to Nebraska. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2014, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/16031 "2014-08-05T20:58:45Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > That somewhat overshadowing the background where you see Rand Paul [flee in terror](http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/08/05/rand_paul_takes_bite_of_burger_hears_questioner_is_a_dreamer_flees_while.html) after learning she’s a DREAMer Yeah, watching Randy run away so quickly was too funny. ---
**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:** [August 6, 2014, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/16032 "2014-08-06T00:01:26Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > Yeah, watching Randy run away so quickly was too funny. Now, that is just impolite to call him that, his name is Randal, so … um … nevermind, if it is good enough for Moss, Quaid, Meisner, Johnson and Travis, is is good enough for tribblehead boy. ---
**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:** [August 6, 2014, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/16033 "2014-08-06T00:10:51Z")
My admiration for the DREAMer who confronted Steve King knows no bounds. Mostly because she managed to be within 5 feet of him for something like 5 minutes and managed to resist the overwhelming urge to kick him in the jimmies, HARD. She’s a better person than I am… ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2014, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/16034 "2014-08-06T00:59:26Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > That somewhat overshadowing the background where you see Rand Paul [flee in terror](http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/08/05/rand_paul_takes_bite_of_burger_hears_questioner_is_a_dreamer_flees_while.html) after learning she’s a DREAMer Laugh? I thought I would surely die! Think that video might surface again? And again? ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2014, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/16035 "2014-08-06T01:31:47Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > My admiration for the DREAMer who confronted Steve King knows no bounds. Mostly because she managed to be within 5 feet of him for something like 5 minutes and managed to resist the overwhelming urge to kick him in the jimmies, HARD. She’s a better person than I am… And if you’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes, that’s gonna be a pretty painful kick. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2014, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/16036 "2014-08-06T01:42:34Z")
> [@waterj2](#): > > And if you’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes, that’s gonna be a pretty painful kick. Actually, the calves contribute little if anything to the kicking motion. However, _kneeing_ him in the jimmies can involve the calf of the support/drive leg. ---
**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:** [August 6, 2014, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/16037 "2014-08-06T01:53:08Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > That somewhat overshadowing the background where you see Rand Paul [flee in terror](http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/08/05/rand_paul_takes_bite_of_burger_hears_questioner_is_a_dreamer_flees_while.html) after learning she’s a DREAMer Maybe the video is just jerky, but it looked to me like he heard the statement in mid-bite and had to stop himself from either doing a spit-take or choking. Really, about the only thing that would make it better is a _Yakity Sax_ soundtrack. ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2014, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/16038 "2014-08-06T11:02:58Z")
Someone please do that and link to it here! ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2014, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/16039 "2014-08-06T12:17:46Z")
Man, did he ever _split_! He cut a tunnel through the air that collapsed behind him! They didn’t speed up the tape there, did they? ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2014, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/16040 "2014-08-06T14:59:00Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > My admiration for the DREAMer who confronted Steve King knows no bounds. Mostly because she managed to be within 5 feet of him for something like 5 minutes and managed to resist the overwhelming urge to kick him in the jimmies, HARD. She’s a better person than I am… +1 I am a white, middle-class Iowan and I could not have held out that long. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=801) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=803)