Florida House Candidate Celebrates MLK Day By Calling For Obama To Be Hanged By The Neck Until Dead

In keeping with the hallowed conservative tradition of saying incredibly dumb stuff on Martin Luther King Day (really, why should it be any different from any other day?), a candidate for the Florida House of Representatives took the opportunity Monday to go on the Twitters and call for the hanging of Barack Hussein Obama for treason and stuff:

As Americans honored the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday, a Republican candidate for Florida House District 68 said President Barack Obama should be hanged for war crimes.

"I'm past impeachment," Joshua Black wrote on Twitter. "It's time to arrest and hang him high."

But you see, Black is talking about a proper judicial procedure, not lynching, and he is a black person himself, so it was not a "threat," it was a "call to action," and there is nothing offensive here, you bigots.

A fellow Republican candidate, Chris Latvala, who's running for a different House seat, immediately replied, 

"You aren't seriously calling for the killing of Obama are you? ... I know you are crazy but good heavens. U R an embarrassment."

Back was not daunted, heroically explaining that "Execution is the appropriate punishment for traitors. #BenedictArnold #ReadAmericanHistory"

He also told Latvala not to be such a buttinsky:  "Don't you have a race? Don't you have a primary? #MindYourOwnBusiness?"

Latvala fired back ,

"I make it my business when so called GOP candidates become an embarrassment to my beloved party."

It was all pretty exciting, really. Latvala also suggested that maybe Black was a member of the reality-challenged community:

You need to go take your medicine. #TinFoilHat #Crazy #TheSecretServiceWillBeKnocking

Did this worry Joshua Black? It did not! 

I don't do drugs. Not intimidated by the secret service, or #criminalpoliticians like you.

And just to clarify, he thinks that Barack Obama should get exactly the punishment for treason that was meted out in the olden days: A trial by the Senate and a jury, and then hanging, just like they did to Benedict Arnold.

It's really quite impressive when a #ConstitutionalConservative advocates double jeopardy and thinks that Benedict Arnold was executed, when in fact Arnold died in London in 1801. 

For the sake of novelty, it appears that Black's contention that Obama is a traitor is mostly about the use of drone strikes, including strikes against American citizens, although he's also willing to throw in Benghazi as well. And maybe abortion, which is just like Hitler, and so on.

Black's Democratic opponent in the House race, incumbent Rep. Dwight Dudley -- is a nerdier name possible? -- said that while Black has every right to criticize the president, calling for his execution is maybe a little out there:

"It's dangerous and unbecoming for someone who wants to lead to call for such violence and extremist action," he said. "Wow. I'm stunned."

For his part, Black did issue this clarification and apology today:

Well, I need to make this clarification:

I was wrong about Benedict Arnold. I apologize for the confusion.

In the last few minutes, Black has reportedly resigned from the Republican party. What that means for his candidacy remains unknown.

We are really torn on this -- we hope that Rep. Dudley keeps his seat, but when we think about the entertainment value of Joshua Black actually holding office... nahh, we wouldn't even wish him on Florida. Maybe Sean Hannity can bunk with him while he's house-hunting.

[ Tampa Bay Times / Twitter ]

 Follow Doktor Zoom on Twitter. He would just like to point out that he got through this whole post without a single "hung" pun.