Check out this giant steaming pile of Iran-shaped elephant manure Wisconsin's Republican Sen. Ron Johnson stepped in:
“Now, a President who was awarded the 2013 Politifact Lie of the Year, if you like your healthcare plan you can keep it, period. If you like your doctor you can keep it, period. They lied boldfaced to the American public repeatedly with Obamacare,” the Wisconsin senator said at a recent town hall in Cerdarburg, Wisconsin.
“I don’t know, I hate to admit it, but in terms of this framework, do I trust President Obama, or do I trust the Ayatollah? In terms of what the framework actually says? I’m not so sure I’m trusting President Obama on this.”
The framework -- for which Sen. Johnson thinks our most hated and dangerous enemy since our last most hated and dangerous enemy is a more trustworthy source than our (his) president of these United States -- is the tentative agreement reached in April between Iran and a half dozen other countries, including the U.S. of America, to contain Iran's nuclear program and try to avoid, you know, war. Even though Republicans are suffering major war blue balls, what with all the years of longing to bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran, or whatever other country is handy.
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Seems like it was only yesterday Senate Republicans were real proud-like of their letter to Iran declaring "President" Obama is not really president very much -- the Constitution says so! -- so kindly ignore him until they get a real president in the White House again, please and thank you, love and kisses. But no, it was March. Followed immediately by some awkward backpedaling and excuse-making about how it was just a joke, sheesh.
That clustermess was followed by an enlightening but not entirely surprising poll showing that a majority of Republican voters would not only trust the leader of another country over President Obama, but they'd even put the interests of another country before American interests. (The country happens to be Israel, and the other leader happens to be Benjamin Netanyahu, which is irrelevant because Republicans don't know jack about either, and the poll was nothing more than blatant trolling of a president whose guts they hate.)
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Senate Republicans, realizing that was a giant mistake, decided to move on and leave the kinda traitorous language behind them. Except, it seems, for Sen. Johnson, who was not kept apprised of the change in strategy, and called the president a big fat liar who lies, and that's why he'd trust Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Adolf Hitler Saddam Hussein Pelosi Castro Khamenei over Obama.
Except, as some aide apparently whispered in his ear, that makes it sound like the senator is some kind of traitorous piece of garbage who's siding with OUR ENEMIES, so some poor schlub intern got to write a statement for him to make it all go away:
The headlines accusing me of saying I trust the ayatollah in Iran are false. Simply reading my actual words in the stories below those headlines shows this.
OK, let's do that. Again. Heck, let's listen to him say the words, in his own voice, while we're at it:
Anyway, what were you saying, Senator, before we so rudely interrupted you with your own words?
And let me say for the record, I certainly do not trust the ayatollah. I want to trust our president on this subject. The fact remains that he needs to be more forthcoming on his negotiations and he needs to involve Congress fully in developing the agreement. The real question is why President Obama does not trust the people’s chosen representatives with a simple up-or-down vote of approval and why the president believes he can trust the Iranian regime to comply with any agreement.
Great statement, especially the part where he says again that he thinks Obama's maybe a big fat liar, too bad, sure wish that weren't the case, oh well.
What a fail. What an embarrassment. What a sad excuse for a United States senator. What a typical Republican.
[ BuzzFeed / Johnson statement via TPM ]
Sure...because if you don't like an article on a site that takes a particular editorial and stylistic approach to the commentary it provides, it's certainly reasonable and not at all juvenile or temper-tantrumy to demand that they change that style to suit your taste.
He seems to forget that foreign policy is NOT Congress's business. But they forget that many things are not their business, like my vag.