The Pope and the very Far Right

This past week, a large majority of us spent our time following Pope Francis’ trip to the US.

For many of us, regardless of religion, Roman Catholic or not, it was a wonderful experience.  To paraphrase the old Levy’s Rye Bread Ad, You don’t have to be Roman Catholic to like Pope Francis.

For the Religious Right and American Intellectuals it was not wonderful.

The Pope represents and spoke of all that the current GOP and their masters are not interested in hearing or doing.  So we had the usual calling of names.  I did not think it was possible for the Right to find someone whom they dislike as much as they dislike POTUS, but they did.  This short video will give you a sense of their feelings.

So Pope Francis is now safely back in Rome and the insanity that is our government continues to careen down the same crazy path.

The Sunday morning shows were of course the showcase for the madness.

The Speaker said that the Right wing of the GOP was “unrealistic” in expecting to pass conservative legislation when there is divided government. Translate that to as long as the veto pen is in the hands of a Dem they will be whistling Dixie and I will say if the pen is in the hand of a GOP President, he will not need to use it, because their crazy ideas will never reach his desk as long as there are Democrats and “moderate Republicans” in the Chambers.

He also said there will not be a shutdown over defunding Planned Parenthood.  I am certain that he knows, like those of us who are paying attention, that those videos were heavily edited to show a narrative designed to destroy Planned Parenthood.

Carson jumped into the Speaker Boehner resignation story, telling George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week “…[he] has served our country for many years and I certainly don’t see any reason to denigrate him in any way, but it is time probably for new leadership,”

“There’s a lot of unrest and people who really feel that a lot of people have been sent to Congress over the last few elections but nothing really has changed and they want to see some results,” Carson added. (It maybe time for new leadership on the Hill, someone who is willing to tell the lunatic fringe to stick it, but it is also time for Carson to go home.  Like the other members of the Clown Car, he is a menace to this country.)

Rep Tom Cole has had the Speaker’s back for years and did again on Fox News Sunday.

He defended him against the attacks by Cruz (I am counting the days to his (Cruz’) downfall, pols are usually slimy, but he is closer to the creature in STNG episode “Skin of Evil”). 

Cole went on to say “This is a guy that for 25 years had a distinguished record in the House — I’m talking about Boehner, certainly not talking about Sen. Cruz — again, who got real tax cuts, real spending reductions, real entitlement reform in divided government.”

Cole said that the Freedom Caucus does not understand how our government works. I believe they do know, but since it does not fit the Tea Party narrative, they choose to ignore the checks and balances that are the bedrock of our form of government.

One last comment, Carly Fiorina was on Meet the Press and continued to stand behind her “live fetus on a table” story. I firmly believe that at some point way before 11/1/2016, she will rue the day she told that story, and then decided to continue to make statements like this one. “That scene absolutely does exist. And that voice saying what I said they were saying, ‘We're going to keep it alive to harvest its brain,’ exists as well’.”