Low information voters rejoice! Ann Kuster (D. NH) is a congresswoman for you! Mark Steyn, please do the honors:
First, she has no idea what “Benghazi” is.
Go here to National Review Online to read the rest. Ms. Kuster comes from a family prominent in New Hampshire politics, which perhaps might help explain how an obviously ill-informed doofus like herself stumbled her way into a House seat in 2012, a very good year for Democrats in the Granite State. Alas, people like her tend to be an ever increasing percentage of Congress. My favorite example is Hank Johnson (D.Ga.) worrying about Guam tipping over:
Vote for whoever you want to America, but when you vote for idiots the results are not pretty.
The woman is a lawyer-lobbyist whose book consisted of representing a range of state-dependent sectors (social work, education, medicine) both in transactional law practice and to the New Hampshire state legislature. My guess would be that representing the medical sector was paying the bills and that representing the social work industry was where her heart was. Foreign policy was never in her skill set and I would wager she is not interested.
To Rep Hank Johnson’s defense, I think he was making a feeble attempt at a joke. In doing so he joined Al Gore and Sarah Palin in the ranks of politicians who will be forever followed by misunderstandings.
This display by Rep Ann Kuster is of a different order of magnitude. One hopes that the people of New Hampshire will give her the time to pursue the social work she apparently so loves.
Tom,
You are indeed a very kind man to so characterize Johnson’s statements. I like to think of myself as kind too, but just can’t quite convince myself that you’re right.
End of video: Just put the mic down. Put it down now. LOL!
Tom D, Um yea. A joke. I think that is Biden’s excuse for everyone of his displays of stupidity. “Stand up Chuck!” And yes, Palin was right. You can see Russia from Alaska. Our acute investigative mainstream media sent real reporters to the far reaches to Alaska just to make sure. No word on an investigation into the likely hood of Guam capsizing. It could capsize any day now.
I would like to point out that Sarah Palin never made that statement, true as it may be, that you can see Russia from Alaska. It was made by a comedienne on Saturday Night Live. The low information crowd ever after believed the actress was actually Sarah Palin.
You’re right, Bill, and the same low information crowd still thinks that Dan Quayle believes that Latin Americans speak Latin.
Bill Sockey, That is incorrect. She said you could see Russia from Alaska. SNL turned her comment into “And I can see Russia from my house.” Her original statement to ABC News is “They’re our next-door neighbors, and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska,” which sounds far more intelligent than what SNL’s version. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXL86v8NoGk
Representative Kuster demurred to discuss Benghazi because she did not consider it to be located in the Middle-East, the region which she was there to discuss. Her perception of mere geography is incidental to the over-arching fact that events in Libya are inextricable from any evaluation of events in the Middle-East. Foreign affairs may not be her forte but she certainly revealed a foible at this event.
Kyle, thanks for pointing out the correct history of the Sarah Palin comment. It shows how unbelievably unhinged certain people became during the 2008 election.
I think a similar thing happened to Al Gore. I don’t think that he ever claimed to have invented the internet, but he was certainly a tech-minded politician who did sponsor legislation to further develop the internet. BTW, I consider Gore to be one of the great tragedies of American politics: a good and intelligent man who sold his soul to Planned Parenthood and then to the Clintons. His devolution from 2000 on was just the fruit of his moral errors.
I think that your introduction of Biden is a bit of a straw man argument, but I can’t disagree with your comments about him. To paraphrase Freud, sometimes a straw man really is a straw man. Biden is so off the scale it is impossible for a voter to know when to be charitable and when charity would be stupidity. Remember the Star Trek episode with the twin but opposite Kirks? Imagine the same thing happening to a politician, and you’d get Joe Biden and Spiro Agnew.
Mike, yes, Dan Quayle was another politician who got criticized for episodes that were harmless, and some of which were possibly attempts at humor.