If Louie Gohmert were a former beauty queen, chances are he'd get a lot more face time on TV, and you'd have heard of him by now. But since he's looks like an accountant, the Republican from Texas who may be Congress' single dumbest member will have to keep plying his trade on the floor of the House. Via Dave Weigel, we see Gohmert endorsing syndicated columnist Thomas Sowell's latest missive, which begins this way: "When Adolf Hitler was building up the Nazi movement in the 1920s..." You know what's coming - in this case it's Obama convincing BP to set aside a $20 billion escrow fund that proves that genocide is right around the corner. I know - the idea that Obama=Hitler is a profound thought that you haven't contemplated before, and its unusual insight shows why Sowell is one of America's most widely syndicated columnists.
But what I actually want to point to is the way Gohmert begins his tribute to Sowell:
"I didn't vote for Barack Obama in 2008, but I sure would have voted for Thomas Sowell." That's kind of an odd thing to say. Sowell isn't a politician. He's not running for anything. I doubt that when your typical Republican quotes, say, George Will, he says, "I didn't vote for Barack Obama in 2008, but I sure would have voted for George Will." So what could it possibly be about Thomas Sowell that would make Gohmert say that? Let's look at the columnist's picture and see if it provides us any insight:
Hmm. I can't quite put my finger on it...
-- Paul Waldman
