A Few Observations from the Silly Season

There'll be plenty of spin over the next several weeks as pundits digest the election results. For now here're some shards out of the flotsam we call democracy in action.

As one wag suggested, this may be the first election a candidate denied she was a witch since 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts.

Speaking of Delaware's Christine O'Donnell, I figured out why Tea Party leaders allowed her to keep running her mouth. It was all a set-up for 2012. They reckoned compared to her Sarah Palin finally comes off looking intelligent and rational enough to be considered presidential.

Palin's memorable howlers like not knowing the three members of NAFTA nor that Africa is a continent not a country pales in comparison to O'Donnell's assertions that evolution must be a myth because there are still monkeys or masturbation is comparable to adultery and being unaware of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause.

Tea Party flamer Sen. Jim DeMint, R-SC promised to ban unmarried pregnant women from teaching in schools and to criminalize abortion, including as a result of rape and incest. As usual he hasn't considered the possible consequences.

Enter Miss Honeywell, cheerleading instructor at Angel Beach high school, who is date raped by the basketball coach in the equipment room and, by law, required to carry the fetus to term thereby getting canned. Of course coach daddy gets to keep his job because he's not the one "showing."

It turns out TARP, which Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY delighted in laying at the feet of President Obama -- although it was done on W.'s watch and with overwhelming Republican backing -- not only wasn't a "disaster" but actually made $25.2 billion for taxpayers; an 8.2 percent return on investment -- so far!

Given the case, McConnell, being wholly incapable of embarrassment while uttering the most absurd twaddle, won't take long to reclaim responsibility for the bailouts irrespective of the year's worth of fraudulent Republican charges leveled at Democrats on this topic.

Whether NPR was right or wrong in firing Juan Williams, I feel sorry for anyone whose initial reaction to seeing a Muslim in full garb is one of paranoia. I see someone dressed like that and my first thought is, "God, he must be hot."

There was one bright spot as a result of the GOP victory. The country is safe from armed insurrection. Nevada's Sharon Angle had declared if conservatives didn't get their way at the ballot box, "people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies." That wasn't some conservative elixir she's was talking about. She meant shooting people.

Republicans may reimpose the same jackass policies that got us into this mess but at least Americans won't have to worry about them taking us out with Uzis.