The Lunatics Who Govern Us

She'd vote for Sam Brownback.

I've heard political science types say that "People get the government they deserve," but I don't ever remember fucking up badly enough to get Sam Brownback as a Senator.

Senator Removes His Block on Federal Court Nominee
By NEIL A. LEWIS

WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 — Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, who blocked the confirmation of a woman to the federal bench because she attended a same-sex commitment ceremony for the daughter of her long-time neighbors, says he will now allow a vote on the nomination.

Mr. Brownback, a possible contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, said in a recent interview that when the Senate returned in January, he would allow a vote on Janet Neff, a 61-year-old Michigan state judge, who was nominated to a Federal District Court seat.

Mr. Brownback, who has been criticized for blocking the nomination, said he would also no longer press a proposed solution he offered on Dec. 8 that garnered even more criticism: that he would remove his block if Judge Neff agreed to recuse herself from all cases involving same-sex unions.

In an interview last week, Mr. Brownback said that he still believed Judge Neff’s behavior raised serious questions about her impartiality and that he was likely to vote against her. But he said he did not realize his proposal — asking a nominee to agree in advance to remove herself from deciding a whole category of cases — was so unusual as to be possibly unprecedented. Legal scholars said it raised constitutional questions of separation of powers for a senator to demand that a judge commit to behavior on the bench in exchange for a vote.

Mr. Brownback said that he believed Judge Neff’s attendance at the 2002 ceremony merited further investigation, but that he had not meant to set any precedent with his proposal. “It was the last day of the session and I was just trying to provide some accommodation to see if we could make this thing go forward,” he said.

He said that “this is a big hot-button issue” and that Judge Neff had not made it clear that her presence at the ceremony did not mean she could not rule without bias in deciding cases involving same-sex unions. “I’d like to know more factually about what took place,” he said.

Sweet crap.

What a moron. However, if he were just a moron, this story would, sadly, be unremarkable. No, Brownback is a lunatic.

But Jude, I can hear you asking, how do you know?

Well, Jesus told us that "Ye shall know them by their fruits," and Sam Brownback hangs out with some fruit loops of the highest order.

Via Unclaimed Territory, I direct you to the story of the Family. You have got to read that article. I can't find an excerpt that will do it justice. If this shit doesn't frighten you, then you must be one of them. Brownback is a member in good standing, and there's nothing more I can say about that.