So, who is the dumbest Senator?

[TayTay]

I am torn between that gasbag Allen from Virginia and Santorum from PA. There are arguments on both sides. Anybody care to nominate anyone else?

I have watched Sen. Allen in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and he manages to make every friggin world crisis situation fit into a football analogy. I guess it's his gift to American politics. His interview on the Stephanopoulos show yesterday was pricelessly dumb.

Sen Allen contemplates the crisis in Iraq. He falls back, looks right to see if Hagel can help him. Unfortunately for the big guy from VA, Sen. Hagel is having a fit of sanity and is not receptive to the Iraq War pitch. Allen has to tuck the ball under his arm and run with it on his own. He starts, (the Iraqi factions are just like the divisions in America between State and federal and FBI) and suddenly discovers that he has run the ball down into his own end-zone. Befuddled beyond words, he spikes the ball anyway and does a victory dance. He is oblivious to the very end.

[acmejack]

1. Kay Bailey Hutchinson

Hands down.

[tishaLA]

11. Hutchinson and Cornyn

easily the dumbest Senate delegation.

[splat@14]

13. Yep, these two are the Donny & Marie of zero ethics.

[BlueIris]

65. OK, I snorted with laughter after reading that. Literally.

Out loud, snorted. That is so funny.

[idlisambar]

60. Agreed n/t

[Mass]

2. Allen is a good contender for the title, but Inhoffe is great too

with "global climate change does not exist".

Add Santorum to that and we have a winning trio.

[Dr.Phool]

3. Jim Bunning

Or the 2 whack-jobs from Oklahoma!

[Roland99]

9. Bingo. Bunning is senile, at best.

How in the hell Mongiardo lost against that worthless I'll never know.

[peekaloo]

29. Bunning and Cornyn (TX) should have a whack off.

That didn't sound too good. }(

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. Cornyn and Coleman.

[charlyvi]

5. Yep. These two have my vote. n/t

[Jacobin]

6. Jeff Session sure is a goober

If you added up Sessions, Santorum, Hutchinson and Allen, you wouldn't be able to light a light bulb with the combined brainpower

[SimpleMan]

8. Yeah, he's my choice too. n/t

-

[DarienComp]

69. Jeff Sessions is what happens when cousins marry.

.

[mikelewis]

7. I'd say it has to be Lugar even though he's not as contentious as...

everyone else. The old fart doesn't even know the parlimentary procedure for a tie vote in committe. Biden, of all people, had to correct him when he said a tie vote would result in Bolton getting moved out of committee. I'm no senator but even I know that. He's such an old dottering fool.

[longship]

10. Word has it.

Word on the street: It's Susan Collins (ME) or Patty Murray (WA)

However, I kind of like both of them.

I would prefer Inhofe (OK), Hutchinson (TX), or Sanitorium (PA).
There's a couple of others who might qualify:

Brownback (KS)
Allen (VA)

I would say that no Dem qualifies as being stupid since they are at least smart enough to be a Dem.

[mikelewis]

12. And Zell Miller is a genius?

[longship]

17. Zell Miller is not a Senator.

Zell is no longer a Senator.

Word has it that they wouldn't let him drink blood in the well of the Senate so he got pissed off and retired.

[mikelewis]

38. I was reponding to the the point that Dems are intelligent...

simply because they are Democrat. The title doesn't mean that they're honest patriots nor intelligent. There's many example's of dumbass traitor Democrats to prove that theory wrong.

[longship]

47. Well, there's Joementum, too.

At this point I'm not as worried about DINOs as I am about repugs. At least DINOs count as Dems with respect majority/minority status.

And at least they have enough brains to be Dems even if it's only a small amount of brains.

Now, if we can replace the DINOs with real Dems, all the better. But I'd rather have a DINO than a repug.

[mikelewis]

48. I don't know if I agree with that...

If there were an honest Republican who actually cared about the people...

Yeah, on second thought, it'd never happen, nevermind.

[Eloriel]

14. Norm Coleman

and smarmy too.

[mikelewis]

40. I absolutely despise Coleman... I wish we could elect Galoway as a...

U.S. Senator if only to piss off Coleman every chance he got.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

15. Hagel.

He thinks he's presidential material. Followed closely by Biden.

They share the same mother. Mother Moolah.

[feelthebreeze]

22. I share your disgust about Biden...

Talk about useless sports analogies. If it isn't football hen it is baseball. The pride he takes in these references, all the while letting down the American people again and again. Hey, here is an analogy...
Three strikes, you're out! I'd say on my scorecard Biden has begun his wind up to number three.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

26. Biden sees the Mendoza line and he thinks it's Cassiopeia.

[iwantmycountryback]

16. Don't forget Normie Coleman.

Allen and Bunning give some pretty good competition though.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

28. Never forget Coleman!

From Mini-thought-a.

[globalvillage]

31. Coleman is my #3

On the barf-o-meter.

Santorum
Allen
Coleman

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

32. Hard to argue.

When you're dealing at that level of synapse differentiation it becomes problematic.

[Skittles]

36. I would have to go with Santorum first too

I never really listen to what Coleman has to say because I can't get over how f***ing SMARMY the guy looks

[globalvillage]

39. AVERT YOUR EYES!!!

Coleman before he got his teeth fixed.

[Skittles]

41. OMG GLOBAL I SHOULD KICK YOUR ASS

*MY EYES!!!!!!!!!!!!!* :o

[globalvillage]

42. I deserve it.

I posted the same picture at Tay Tay once, and I think she didn't answer my posts for a week.
I'll remove it if you say please.
:rofl:

[Skittles]

43. NAH, people need to know what we are talking about

JAYSUS I cannot believe that smarmy piece of SHIT was actually ELECTED :puke:

[kodi]

18. no, no. no! the oklahoma mongoloid twins

whose names shall not be spoken

[TayTay]

20. thought of nominating Lamarr Alexander from TN

He had a bug up his butt about windmills. Apparently, the greatest threat to the security and future of America is the evil presence of windmills.

On the other hand, Sen. Alexander's speeches condemning the evil of windmills could be packaged as both a training tape for Psych majors and a cure for insomnia.

[globalvillage]

19. Oh, Tay Tay...

I have no problem with homosexuality. I have a problem with homosexual acts.
Rick Santorum

Isn't that the ultimate homeland security, standing up and defending marriage?
Rick Santorum

It is our responsibility to make the changes necessary to Social Security now, while we have the chance to make public policy for the public good.
Rick Santorum

It's essential for individuals born before 1950 to understand that they will experience no change in their benefits as a result of reform.
Rick Santorum

My feeling is, well, if it's my money, I have a right to judge.
Rick Santorum

The idea is that the state doesn't have rights to limit individuals' wants and passions. I disagree with that. I think we absolutely have rights because there are consequences to letting people live out whatever wants or passions they desire.
Rick Santorum

Thirty-two years after the legalization of abortion by the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, the majority of Americans consider themselves pro-life.
Rick Santorum

"What the Democrats are doing is the equivalent of Adolf Hitler in 1942 saying, 'I'm in Paris. How dare you invade me. How dare you bomb my city? It's mine.' This is no more the rule of the senate than it was the rule of the senate before not to filibuster."

-- Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), quoted on the Senate floor by Raw Story

"I don't think Ted Kennedy lecturing me on the teachings of the church is something I'm going to take particularly seriously."

-- Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), quoted by the Harrisburg Patriot-News.
If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything. (April 2003)

and this one

we’ll have our opportunity someday, and we’ll make sure there’s not another liberal judge, ever! (November 2003)
It’s amazing that so many kids turn out to be fairly normal, considering the weird socialization they get in public schools.” (It Takes a Family, p. 386)


"The notion that college education is a cost-effective way to help poor, low-skill, unmarried mothers with high school diplomas or GEDs move up the economic ladder is just wrong." (It Takes a Family, p. 138)


"In far too many families with young children, both parents are working, when, if they really took an honest look at the budget, they might confess that both of them really don’t need to, or at least may not need to work as much as they do… And for some parents, the purported need to provide things for their children simply provides a convenient rationalization for pursuing a gratifying career outside the home." (It Takes a Family, p. 94)


"Many women have told me, and surveys have shown, that they find it easier, more “professionally” gratifying, and certainly more socially affirming, to work outside the home than to give up their careers to take care of their children. Think about that for a moment…Here, we can thank the influence of radical feminism, one of the core philosophies of the village elders." (It Takes a Family, p. 95)


“One of my political heroes, the eighteenth-century British statesman William Wilberforce, argued that hypocrisy can often be a social good.” (It Takes a Family, p. 280)

"President Clinton is once again releasing American military might on a foreign country with an ill-defined objective and no exit strategy. He has yet to tell the Congress how much this operation will cost. And he has not informed our nation's armed forces about how long they will be away from home. These strikes do not make for a sound foreign policy."
-Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA)


YOUR FAVORITE:

"It is startling that those in the media and academia appear most disturbed by this aberrant behavior, since they have zealously promoted moral relativism by sanctioning 'private' moral matters such as alternative lifestyles. Priests, like all of us, are affected by culture. When the culture is sick, every element in it becomes infected. While it is no excuse for this scandal, it is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm." -Rick Santorum, on the Boston Catholic Church sex abuse scandal


AND THE INFAMOUS


"OK, without being too gory or graphic, so if somebody is homosexual, you would argue that they should not have sex?", Santorum replied, "In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be."

[TayTay]

24. You win! Santorum is the dumbest friggin Senator

But he has six years more than Allen in the Senate. I think Senator 'dumber than a bag of cold rocks' Allen will catch up. Did you see his interview on ABC yesterday morning? Dear Gawd in heaven. And he hasn't had a head trauma that I'm aware of.

Every time you win, you're reborn; when you lose, you die a little.
George Allen

Leisure time is that five or six hours when you sleep at night.
George Allen

People of medicore ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don't know when to quit. Most men succeed because they are determined to.
George Allen

The tougher the job, the greater the reward.
George Allen

The street to obscurity is paved with athletes who can perform great feats before friendly crowds.
George Allen

Anyone else hear the theme from 'Deliverance' in the background whenever these two open their mouths on the Senate floor?

[globalvillage]

25. Yay, I win!!!!

Oh.
:-(

[punpirate]

21. Santorum...

... hands down. The brightest mind of the 13th century.... :)

[globalvillage]

30. I was actually watching one of the talking heads shows

one day, and the dude (?) called him one of the 13 brightest minds of the century. I stood up and started screaming "NOOOOOO you ass!!!, you got it backward."
And no one corrected him.
I wanted to
:puke:

[punpirate]

34. Just goes to show you that in order to interview...

... Santorum, you have to find someone even dumber than him. :)

[LittleClarkie]

23. Allen works for me

He's just a set of RW talking points on legs.

[wisteria]

27. Not fair, I can't make up my mind! Can I choose both? n/t

[tinfoilinfor2005]

33. Coleman... whew, there is one rocket scientist.

But I guess I agree that Santorum probably takes the number one spot.

[growlypants]

35. Santorum. He's also crazy. Did you know he brought a FETUS home

with him (his wife had a miscarriage) and they made the children hold it (I swear to god this is a true story) and then he and his wife slept with it in bed. He ALSO has a picture of it on his desk in Washington. Am I the only one TOTALLY DISTURBED here??? Dont believe me?? Read here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61804-2005Apr17.html

[globalvillage]

44. That's our Senator!

Makes ya proud, don't it?

http://www.bobcaseyforpa.com/

[growlypants]

46. YEP!!!! We gotta get him outta office in '06. He's a cancer

[Mister Mark]

64. I love these quotes

from the Washington Post story you cited:

"Sen. Mary Landrieu, the Louisiana Democrat, grimaces. "You couldn't quote what I'd have to say about him," she says.

Boxer (D-Calif.) says he has a knack for "becoming remarkably harsh and personal during debates."

Former Democratic senator Bob Kerrey once wondered whether Santorum is "Latin for anus." Teresa Heinz Kerry called him "Forrest Gump with an attitude." Howard Dean called him a liar. Then there are the crude Web sites and protesters outside his office, all of which Santorum takes with a measure of pride."

[Mz Pip]

37. Brownback

thinks he can talk to and get an answer from the "snowflake babies."

Santorum makes eye contact with a blind woman. Cornyn jeez, where to begin with that waste of grey matter.

I think I'd vote for Santorum.

I do wonder how Frist got into Harvard Medical School. He seems pretty stupid to me.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

49. Well, there's Cornyn and box turtle sex...

http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=8112

[Cocoa]

45. that Allen comment was the dumbest thing I've heard in a long time

his comment on the militias.

[karynnj]

50. Although I only saw him at one Senate hearing, Burns of Montana

deserves a mention if only for that hearing. Chertoff was meeting with the committee and they were talking about security at the airports and ports. Most of the Senators asked very sensible questions about security improvements or the lack of them. Some had substantial information that they brought to Chertoff and the committee.

Burns was most concerned about two things: that he had ruined a dozen pairs of socks - and he buys expensive ones - because he had to take off his shoes to go through security and he was upset as they confiscated the spurs he had in his carry on luggage on a trip back to Washington, DC. This is the only thing I know about him - but it seemed too unreal to be true.

[Arkham House]

51. Don't Forget--

--the dumbest Senator of all time, the immortal Sen Scott of VA--forget his first name--who, when described by a magazine as the "stupidest Senator"...*called a press conference to deny it*...no one, not even Roman Hruska of Neb defending G. Harold Carswell as a mediocrity on the grounds that "mediocre people deserve representation on the Supreme Court, too"--will ever top that one...

[newyawker99]

68. Hi Arkham House!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[hatrack]

52. My personal faves come to you straight from The Heartland!

You know, that wonderful place where people are just so much more Real and Honest and American than those icky people on the East and (*ugh*) West Coasts!

James Inhofe - With the personal panache of a rabid airedale (but without the charm), Inhofe has done more with less brainpower than any member of Congress imaginable to destroy what once was a pretty good American reputation for science, research and intellectual curiosity. How? Why, by his lame-brained and utterly unsupported assertions on all things scientific, to say nothing of his opium-eating visions for development worldwide.

"It's also important to question whether global warming is even a problem for human existence. Thus far no one has seriously demonstrated any scientific proof that increased global temperatures would lead to the catastrophes predicted by alarmists. In fact, it appears that just the opposite is true: that increases in global temperatures may have a beneficial effect on how we live our lives."

Shame on you, Oklahoma! SHAME ON YOU!!

"The Senate went through a similar scare back in 1992. That year some members seized on data from NASA suggesting that an ozone hole was developing in the Northern Hemisphere. The Senate then rushed into panic, ramming through, by a 96 to 0 vote, an accelerated ban on certain chlorofluorocarbon refrigerants. Only two weeks later NASA produced new data showing that their initial finding was a gross exaggeration, and the ozone hole never appeared."

Yes, yes, pay no attention to those areas of depletion 300 dobsons or less above both the South AND North Poles that approach the continental United States in extent. Never mind the fact that they've endured for nearly 15 years since the Montreal Protocol went into force!

""I've always believed that establishing a series of coal-fired power plants in countries such as Kenya (with simple electrification to the villages) would be the best advancement for the African people and the African environment. An electric light bulb, a microwave oven and a small heater in each home would make a dramatic difference in the overall standard of living."

Yes, Senator, there's no problem in Africa that couldn't be cured by the odd coal-fired power plant and (of course!) microwave ovens for the masses!

http://inhofe.senate.gov/pressreleases/climate.htm

Then, there's Wacky Sam Brownback. Less said 'bout ol' Wacky Sam the best. Suffice to say that he's another rich little prick prince who married into money and who's done his folksy best to demolish what remaining regulatory power the USDA has, and who never met a tax subsidy for Cargill, Premium Standard and IBP he didn't like - but who somehow pulls it off with cowboy-hatted aplomb.

BuzzFlash: And you have senators who are extremist – you know, Brownback and Roberts, total Bush administration kind of army, following the marching orders.

Thomas Frank: Brownback is a real piece of work. Actually, Roberts is not as bad; Roberts is an old-school Kansas Republican who has had to take on the coloring of conservatism in order to survive but –

BuzzFlash: But he’s completely loyal, and he has supported Bush.

Thomas Frank: Brownback, though, is outflanking Bush on the right. Brownback is like one of the great thinkers of the –- he’s a very interesting man.

BuzzFlash: It’s a complicated picture. Your point is, in Kansas you’ve had a rebellion based on the so-called cultural wedge issues -- though you say at this point that the pitchfork rebellion among the middle class and the working class, it’s as though they went to Mission Hills and said, we’re mad as hell so we’re going to cut your taxes -- meaning the taxes of the wealthy.

Thomas Frank: Yes, that is precisely what has happened.

http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/04/08/int04044.html

Though Brownback denies knowledge of the contributions, he has been the darling of the Koch Family Foundation during his years in Washington. Brownback has a 100 percent rating from the Cato Institute, an antigovernment, libertarian think tank founded by Charles Koch, who directs it along with his brother David. Brownback toes Cato's line on blocking the passage of hate-crimes laws. ("Shouldn't our law make room for the possibility that people can exhibit some variation of bigotry in life--but then change?" the associate director of Cato's Institute for Constitutional Studies said before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1999.) Brownback has written a glowing blurb for a Cato-published book promoting the privatization of Social Security, and he supports Cato's efforts to gut environmental regulations like the Oil Pollution Act and the Clean Water Act, which have been used to levy $35 million in fines against Koch Industries for illegally dumping waste across the country. The Koch family has rewarded Brownback handsomely for his efforts on their behalf, donating $64,000 to his 2002 re-election campaign and $30,000 to his Restore America PAC. That same year, Brownback was fined by the Federal Election Commission for violating election guidelines in 1996 through his dealings with Triad Management.

In spite of his pious public image, Brownback's spiritual life seems to be defined by his wealth and corporate ties. In 2002 he converted to Catholicism under the guidance of the Rev. John McCloskey, a leader of the secretive right-wing cult Opus Dei. At the time. McCloskey operated out of a K Street office with a mission to spread the Gospel exclusively to the rich and powerful, whom he calls "the righteous remnant." Brownback refuses to discuss his conversion, perhaps because of the controversy McCloskey has generated by, for instance, demanding that Catholics who use birth control leave the Church. Or perhaps it's because McCloskey leads an organization founded by a clerical fascist, Josemaría Escrivá, an ally of Spain's Franco. Escrivá prescribed that members sleep on wooden boards and flagellate themselves to expiate their sins. Brownback is also reticent about his membership in The Family, a shadowy Christian-right group comprising all-male elites. Some of its most famous members have included Watergate crook Charles Colson, South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint and the brutal Somalian former dictator, Mohammed Siad Barre. "The goal is an "invisible" world organization led by Christ--that's what they aspire to," Jeff Sharlet, a journalist who revealed The Family's inner workings in Harper's Magazine, said in an interview with Alternet.

Few Kansans, including his conservative Christian admirers, are aware Brownback travels in such circles. He is better known as "the new internationalist," as the New York Times's Nicholas Kristof has decribed him, working across the aisle to stop human trafficking and genocide in Africa. He's the racial healer who presses for a formal US government apology to African-Americans and Native Americans. Or he's the preacher who channels Martin Luther King Jr. to promote his values. "A spring has begun," he declared in April during an antiabortion rally on the Mall in Washington. "A spring when all babies...babies of all races will be born, not aborted, and grow up playing with each other." He's presented himself as anything but just another Republican insider.

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml%3Fi=20050704&s=blumenthal

And the best part? He things - he really thinks - that he can run for president and WIN.

[Gemini Cat]

53. John McCain

He's a dumb-ass for campaigning for chimpy in '04, after what chimpy did to him.

[ncrainbowgrrl]

56. Oooh, quite true.

I guess that does give McCain the edge over Sanitorium.

[Independent_Liberal]

54. Frist

He's the dumbest in my opinion.

[Guaranteed]

61. That's my vote. That video of him standing behind Bush

that the Daily Show ran, staring off into the distance....

The guy isn't all there.

[usregimechange]

55. Jeff Sessions by far! Oh my. Box of rocks.

[Bluebear]

67. Dumb as a stump. nt

[VADem11]

57. Hard to choose

If I had to pick I would say my stupid senator allen and Santorum. Basically any repub is dumb as a rock though.

[dajoki]

58. santorum

no question, to me no one comes close, i live in PA of course.

[win_in_06]

59. Allen, which is why

he is scary as a Presidential candidate. Has the same smarts as the current office holder.

[CityDem]

62. Not even a doubt

Rick Santorum - hands down.

[ginnyinWI]

63. Oh I'd give it to Allen over even Santorum

I've never heard anything come out of his mouth that wasn't a parroting of RW talking points. Not an original thought in his head. Santorum at least has ideas--although all of them are weird. :)

[BlueIris]

66. Santorum is starting to sound pretty dumb.

Don't know about his actual intelligence. Though, how smart can he be to have apparently decided to become another Rovian stooge?

[election_2004]

70. Cornyn

The poster-boy for verbal diarrhea.