On this date in both 2015, and [URL="https://republicinsanity.tumblr.com/post/143056283618/milton-wolf-2016-update"]2016[/URL “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted a profile of Milton Wolf, a man who was somehow a legitimate Tea Party challenger to Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas in the 2014 mid-term elections, which is amazing considering he's President Obama's second cousin. Mind you, blood is not thicker than water between the POTUS and Wolf, who publicly lambasted the Affordable Care Act, compared Obama to King George III of England, said the USDA were hoarding assault rifles in some sort of sinister plot they were going to carry out, tried to gin up support by perpetuating the right-wing myth of "Obama phones" and claims as a result he was vindictively audited by the IRS for being too critical of the president. Wolf had a highly radical agenda as a candidate, wanting to repeal the 17th Amendment of the Constitution, abolish the IRS, close off our borders, and completely ban abortion. While he did come within surprising striking distance of Pat Roberts at the polls, he came up short after being caught trying to pander to gun enthusiasts by buying a lifetime membership to the NRA and a semi-automatic rifle (but sending the dealer a thank you note for helping get him into the "big black scary gun community"), and more importantly, having it revealed by the Roberts campaign that he had the nasty habit of, at his day job as a radiologist, leaking X-Rays from patients on social media where he'd make jokes about their injuries. Wolf was rumored to be considering a challenge in 2016 to Sen. Jerry Moran (he ambushed Moran at a town hall), or perhaps making an attempt at taking the U.S. House seat of Kevin Yoder, but instead, chose to sit things out.
On this date in 2017, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiled Gia Arnold, a former Tea Party candidate for New York State Senate, who tried using that momentum to get elected in 2014, probably about four years later than if it actually would have been a benefit to her. Making matters difficult was that the 24-year-old Arnold, who was hell bent on getting New York’s assault weapons ban overturned, and was running almost solely on that issue. This, not long after the Newtown Massacre, and a wave of gun violence across the country, mind you, and in a blue state where people are fine with gun control. Her efforts were hampered when she managed to have it leak to the public that she had an extramarital affair in April of 2014 (while campaigning), dropped out of the race after confessing to infidelity, but then after a few days she changed her mind and jumping back in. She claimed people in her district took no issue with her affair, and were begging her to stay in the race. She may have been exaggerating, because she got crushed by over fifty points in the GOP Primary for that seat. In and of itself, that is a strange series of events. But then the saga of Gia Arnold got weirder. About a year and a half after her campaign fizzled, she made headlines again for a decidedly different reason… Arnold and her 18-year-old boyfriend got arrested near the U.S./Canada border near Niagra Falls in February of 2016 with a whole arsenal of assault weapons in her car. A spokesman for her again railed against New York’s assault weapon ban, and claimed the duo was stopped because her boyfriend was racially profiled, which is about the only time we’ve ever heard a Republican admit law enforcement would do such a thing. Arnold was indicted in July of 2016, and eventually sentenced to five years of probation (rather generous). That criminal history makes her an unlikely candidate to win office.
On this date in 2018, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiled former Oregon State Senator Jeff Kruse, who had hung around the Oregon state legislature overall since 1996. While Kruse spent his last few years in office voting to try and stop Oregon Democrats from doing sensible things like attempt to ban gay conversion therapy on minors, or raise the minimum wage, he also sponsored SB 215, a bill created to allow state high schools to continue the practice of using Native American themed mascots, because he cares that much about being able to project racist iconography at indigenous people. But how Kruse truly earned a CSGOPOTD profile was because he had a long history of sexually harassing women around the capitol, repeatedly groping, touching, and giving unwanted hugs to women over his decades long tenure. Since he’s now left office in shame, we’ll retire his CSGOPOTD profile at this time and go ahead and take a look at a different wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 745-40, since this was established in July 2014.)
Cliff Rosenberger
Welcome to the 745th original “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where today we’ll be discussing Cliff Rosenberger, a former House Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives who served in office as a state legislator from 2010-2018. Rosenberger rose to the role of Speaker by his third term in office in 2015, becoming the youngest person ever to hold that position before an abrupt end to his career sent shockwaves through Buckeye State politics.
Let’s first cover his voting record and general statements… Rosenberger openly criticized Barack Obama’s brilliant initiative to have two years of paid college tuition for American students, would sponsor extreme anti-Choice legislation like fetal heartbeat bills, had an A rating from the NRA because he’d even vote for firearm laws as extreme as legalizing silencers, and voted to try and block Syrian refugees from being resettled in United States.
Nobody seemed to know why it was that Rosenberger suddenly resigned in April of 2018, but in August of 2018, it was confirmed that Rosenberger under FBI invetigation for bribery and extortion with several lobbyists. The Bureau’s findings also seemed to indicate Rosenberger was using his office to allow himself to be sent on vacations around the globe on taxpayer dime, to the tune of $40,000 in 2018 alone, and spent 111 days of the 2017 calendar out of the state, including a trip to London where he tried to crash the set of Star Wars: The Force Awakens (really). In effect, Rosenberger was just getting ahead of a forthcoming scandal, and hoping it wouldn’t harm the Ohio GOP’s chances in the 2018 elections.
This guy saw himself as a future president, and if you needed any more proof, there’s the fact that he had a doctored painting by Andy Thomas (known for his bats*** takes on Republican politics as is) where he had himself painted in at a card game being played by former Republican presidents.
It looks like now, though, that Cliff Rosenberger will only be playing solitaire, since he obviously was so good at playing himself.