On this date in 2015, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" ran a profile of Ed Martin, a not-so-lovable loser in Missouri elections who has lost every election he’s run for any office since 2005. In fact, his political high water mark was still when he was appointed to be former Gov. Matt Blunt’s chief of staff, but was forced to resign for sending out anti-abortion e-mails from his government e-mail account, and when caught, violated Missouri’s Sunshine Laws by trying to delete any evidence of his wrongdoing and was forced to resign. During his 2010 campaign against Congressman Russ Carnahan, he spread as many lies as possible as he could about the Affordable Care Act, like that it funded abortions, and started launching attacks at both Carnahan’s wife, for working with Planned Parenthood, and Carnahan’s late father, while cheering on a crowd that burned a photo of Carnahan while chanting “death to the dictator”. He also said the 80% of the country who supported the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” were “out of touch”, that “climate change science is garbage”, and on a local radio show, claimed that President Obama and Russ Carnahan wanted to “take away your chance to find the Lord,” in the ultimate example of a victimized Christian. While Martin didn’t win a trip to Washington, D.C., he did win the election to become the new leader of the Missouri Republican Party, in spite of all that for a stint, and currently is being surgically excised from Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum via lawsuit. When you’re too nutty for them, that says a lot.
On this date in 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as in 2019, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published its profiles of Kansas State Senator Steve Fitzgerald, who back in 2012, was a guest at a forum where he was introduced by a Ernest Evans, a political science professor at Kansas City Community College, who opened up the question and answer session with a joke, of sorts, sarcastically asking the famous loaded question of, “When did you stop beating your wife?” to get a laugh from the audience. Y’know, it’s the classic “the media is out to get you” reference. Well, what Evans probably wasn’t expecting was Steve Fitzgerald took the bait, and joked back, “Who said I stopped?” and then was surprised when nobody thought making light of abusing your spouse was hilarious. Fitzgerald also once told a group of Catholics that “one cannot support the Democratic platform and be a true follower of Christ” because Democrats support gay marriage. When you consider Jesus never said anything about gays, and was pretty specific about feeding the hungry and aiding the poor, the GOP platform seems a lot more out of synch with his teachings. Just to nitpick. Fitzgerald also has a staunchly conservative legislative record, including showing his Pro-Life credentials by sponsoring the “Kansas Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act”, his vote to drug test welfare recipients, his attempts to nullify federal firearms laws, his cooperation with insane Kansas Governor Sam Brownback on his tax breaks for the rich at the expense of the poor, and his sponsorship of a bill to legalize concealed carry without a permit in Kansas. In March of 2017, Fitzgerald added to his extremist anti-abortion statements by, upon learning that someone made a donation to Planned Parenthood in his name, comparing Planned Parenthood to the Nazi concentration camp at Dauchau. When asked if he sent the letter by the media, Fitzgerald admitted he did, called the letter he received “harassment” and “political theatre”, but thought that people should be confused over who should be offended, saying, “I think the Nazis ought to be incensed by the comparison.” He went on to then compare Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan, while he was at it. In July of 2018, Steve Fitzgerald decided to go full-on white nationalist in his talking points, when during a meeting of the Leavenworth County GOP, he spoke about how “Christendom is under attack”, and that “outside of Western civilization, there is barbarism”. For whatever reason, he thought that meant he’d be a great U.S. Congressman, and in 2018, ran for the U.S. House seat for Kansas 2nd Congressional District, to replace the retiring Congresswoman, Lynn Jenkins. After finishing fourth in the primary, Fitzgerald announced he was retiring from politics.
On this date in 2020, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled the long-time U.S. Senator from Kansas, Pat Roberts, who was in Congress since 1981, serving eight terms in the U.S. House of Representatives for Kansas’ 1st District before winning a seat in the upper chamber in 1997 and sticking around until 2020. During his 1996 campaign for Senate, Roberts was the only major party candidate for Senate that year to not sign an agreement to honor term limits. He did, however, pledge that he would only serve two terms in the Senate. (Spoiler alert, his second term started in 2003, and he still ran for re-election for a third and fourth term in 2008 and 2014.) And that’s how there was an 84 year old Senator Pat Roberts. Well, that and you don’t pay attention to the fact that he hasn’t actually lived in Kansas since 2014, and lists a rental property he never actually visits as a golf course as his “home” back there. Seriously, he never went back to Kansas. If you needed that underlined any more for you, consider that Sen. Roberts’ personal website used a sunflower field that isn’t, in fact, in Kansas, but is actually a stock photo from Ukraine. While for some time, Pat Roberts has been thought of as one of the “more responsible” Republican Senators as the Tea Party wave gave way to the GOP becoming the “Party of Trump”, he has, in his old age, caved to the extremists within his own party repeatedly. In 2014, he actually followed Sen. Ted Cruz’s lead and voted against the Farm Bill… even though Roberts is from Kansas… and was the one who wrote the Farm Bill. He also allied himself with the loons when Bob Dole begged the Republican Party to vote for the United Nations’ treaty with people with disabilities, which is even sadder given Dole campaigned for Roberts’ 1996 Senate campaign back in Kansas while he was running for president. In 2016, Sen. Roberts may have put the cherry on top of his long, long history of anti-LGBTQ votes (including against the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and for the Defense of Marriage Act) when he unilaterally blocked Eric Fanning as a nominee for Secretary of the Army because Fanning was openly gay. Roberts tried claiming it was because Fanning wanted to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, but critics noted, he was full of s***, because he’d voted for other nominees who also wanted Gitmo shut down. Pat Roberts was, like most Republicans, opposed to federal healthcare. After serving as one of the most staunch critics of the Affordable Care Act or any of the early versions of it that were up for votes in 2009, he supported every repeal of the bill that came forth in its wake from Republicans. In 2017, Sen. Roberts made some headlines during debate on the AHCA, aka Trumpcare, when he was arguing against funding for it also covering maternity and women’s health coverage. When asked about it by Alice Olstein, Roberts sarcastically quipped, “I wouldn’t want to lose my mammograms.” After facing widespread criticism for mocking breast cancer screenings, he reluctantly apologized on social media. Go figure, he also resents women’s rights so much that he stated in 2014 that calling Roe V. Wade “settled law” was “unconscionable”, and celebrating the ruling in the Supreme Court case that allowed employers to reject the contraceptive coverage of women on “religious grounds”. Oh, and he also shrugged when asked about investigations into Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh being accused by multiple women of sexual assault, arguing against the FBI investigating the claims because, “What else could we learn?” As far as gun control discussions go, how typical is Pat Roberts, and his “A” rating from the NRA? Even in the wake of the Las Vegas Shooting, where more people were killed in a single mass shooting in American history by a madman with modified semi-automatic rifles who used bump stocks to effectively turn them into automatic weapons… even then, in the wake of the shooting when people thought gun stocks should be banned, Roberts insisted “I think it’s too early for that,” regarding ANY measures that could be taken. As he is now retired, we’ll set aside his profile and take a look at another kooky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 953-45, since this was established in July 2014.