The Greatest Joke...

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...that was perhaps ever perpetrated on the American public was when Sen. James Inhofe, a reliable Republican troll who looks as if he buys his hair from William Shatner's yard sales, first convinced the people of Oklahoma that he wasn't completely insane. Last night on Rachel Maddow's show, he reiterated that (you would think) painfully obvious fact.

Pick a topic, an obfuscation, a lie. There's plenty to go around, plenty to pick from, as an interview with Inhofe at any length is wont to do. From distancing himself from the Kill the Gays bill now up for vote again in the Ugandan parliament, to defending Doug Coe, the Godfather of the C Street Gang, to global warming to unfairly attacking Maddow for something she didn't do in 2009 to... Oh, just watch the clip and I'll still be here when you're done.

OK, where do we start? Well, Inhofe, a man who has gratefully accepted $1,370,346 from the oil and gas industries, is, true to Republican form, blaming the public school system for "brainwashing" his granddaughter because she wonders why her grandfather is so batshit insane regarding global warming. This is a guy, don't forget, who has been so hoarsely screaming about global warming being a hoax that nearly seven years ago he invited the late Michael Crichton, an overrated sci fi novelist and no accredited expert in climate change, to testify before Congress "proving" that global warming was a hoax.

As Deep Throat told Woodward and Bernstein in that parking garage, "Follow the money."

He continues championing an obviously homophobic and mentally unbalanced godbag like Doug Coe despite Coe essentially brokering a meeting between three American evangelicals and Ugandan legislators who were about to introduce the Kill the Gays bill that would make homosexual relations involving those with AIDS subject to execution and homosexuality itself punishable by life in prison. Inhofe proved last night what a craven rat fuck he truly is by pretending not to know the name of one of Coe's right hand men who was instrumental in shaping that hateful policy.

He also tried to deflect a direct question from Rachel about him attacking her in his book over a December 3rd 2009 telecast in which she mentioned Inhofe in relation to the Ugandan anti-gay bill. Inhofe attacked her because he'd obviously only heard, not seen, Maddow, attack him for his brief and baffling trip to the Global Warming summit in Copenhagen where he stayed around just long enough to say to one or two reporters, "Global warming is a hoax and no way is the Senate gonna pass a cap and trade bill," before hopping back on a jet. (Note: The 12/3/09 Maddow telecast was a full two weeks before Inhofe hopped on that jet to Denmark.)

Inhofe also tried to bill himself as a great expert on Africa, despite the fact that it took a full eight years of ceaseless lobbying by young humanitarian activists to bring his attention to bear on the apprehension of Joseph Kony, the Ugandan martinet who for 26 years has been invading villages, murdering people, turning little girls into prostitutes and kidnapping little boys for his little army. Only in the last few months did Inhofe find it politically expedient to get involved.

But helping to criminalize homosexuality in an African nation years ago was a bigger priority for him than a man who's already enslaved upwards of 30,000 children.

James Inhofe needs to go and it's inexplicable for a liberal like me to understand why he has such mass appeal with the voters of Oklahoma and why he had been until recently chairing important Senate committees. But the sooner the goobers in Oklahoma wake up and get rid of this Frick and his Frack twin, James Coburn, the better off they'll be.