Capitol Hill’s Most Unhinged Republicans

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David Corn,
Washington, DC, bureau chief

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Read the quotes behind the chart here. See a list of the 111th Congress’ dumbest bills here.

MEMBERS OF CONGRESS								IN HIS/HER OWN WORDS
Rep. John Shimkus (Illinois)	X					X		“If we decrease the use of carbon dioxide, are we not taking away plant food from the atmosphere?…All our good intentions could be for vain.”
Rep. Joe Barton (Texas)	X					X	X	“Wouldn’t it be ironic if in the interest of global warming we mandated massive switches to [wind] energy, which is a finite resource, which slows the winds down, which causes the temperature to go up?…It’s just something to think about.”
Rep. Bill Posey (Florida)			X			X	X	“I could easily fill up a page listing all the activities an American needs to show their ID for…everything from playing youth soccer to getting a driver’s license, buying cigarettes and alcohol, to opening bank accounts and even playing Little League.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa)	X			X				“You have every right to fear…We should not have a government program that determines if you’re going to pull the plug on Grandma.”
Rep. Trent Franks (Arizona)	X	X	X	X				“Barack Obama could solve this problem and make the birthers, you know, back off by simply showing us his long-form birth certificate…There’s some other issue, I don’t know what it is, that he doesn’t want people to see the birth certificate on.”
Sen. James Inhofe (Oklahoma)	X	X	X			X		“President Obama is obsessed with turning terrorists loose in America…Those of you who think like I do hope this country can hang on another 16 months.”
Rep. Louie Gohmert (Texas)	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	“I would hate to think that among five women, one of ’em is gonna die because we go to socialized care.”
Rep. Paul Broun (Georgia)	X	X		X	X	X	X	“You have to remember that Adolf Hitler was elected in a democratic Germany. I’m not comparing [Obama] to Adolf Hitler. What I’m saying is there is the potential of going down that road.”
Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minnesota)	X	X	X	X		X	X	“What we have to do today is make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers on this thing [health care]…We are looking at reaching down the throat and ripping the guts out of freedom. And we may never be able to restore it if we don’t man up.”
Rep. Steve King (Iowa)	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	“American patriotism is not imprinted on [Obama’s] mind or in his heart, because he wasn’t raised as an American.”