Texas Congresscritter Steve Stockman Invites Racist Rodeo Clown To Sit On His Lap

Rep. Steve Stockman has invited the rodeo clown who wore a Barack Obama mask at the Missouri State Fair to come to Texas, where good old fashioned minstrelsy is still appreciated. In a press release, Stockman said

“Liberals want to bronco bust dissent. But Texans value speech, even if its speech they don’t agree with ... From Molly Ivins to Louie Gohmert and every opinion between Texans value free and open political speech. I’m sure any rodeo in Texas would be proud to have performers.”

Stockman's invitation to the clown was largely regarded as an act of professional courtesy. Ms. Ivins, who died in 2007, was unavailable for comment, but is rumored to be piiiiiiissed .

In issuing the invitation, Stockman continued the tradition of low-risk, high-profile publicity seeking that reached a peak earlier this year when he invited fellow rightwing attention whore Ted "suck on my machine gun" Nugent to be his guest at the State of the Union address. Yay, free speech is safe from the liberal crackdown on dissent, and it is once again safe for decent godfearing Americans to have a good clean laugh at a guy hoping Obama will get stomped by a bull.

As for his roping Molly Ivins into his invocation of free speech, we suppose she might be honored to be placed at the opposite pole of a spectrum whose other endpoint is Louie Gohmert. Molly was pretty much a free-speech absolutist, but she also never thought that incredibly stupid speech should go unchallenged. It's a shame that we can't do a Woody Allen and pull her out from behind a curtain so she can tell Steve Stockman he knows nothing of her work.

Actually, we sort of can. We'd like to think Mr. Stockman remembers that, in a 1996 column, Molly called him Texas's "proudest contribution to the national Knot-Head Quotient."

Of course, that was near 20 years ago now, and his then-singular achievements in dumb have been regularly lapped by his fellow Texans. We guess he can only try to reach his former glory, but standing in solidarity with racist rodeo clowns inviting bulls to stomp on the US president is certainly a worthwhile start.

[ Steve Stockman ]