Joni Ernst lets slip why Republicans feel they must stop Obamacare.

Courtesy of New York Magazine:

 Here Ernst, speaking candidly to supporters, gets to the root of conservative opposition: 

“We’re looking at Obamacare right now. Once we start with those benefits in January, how are we going to get people off of those? It’s exponentially harder to remove people once they’ve already been on those programs…we rely on government for absolutely everything. And in the years since I was a small girl up until now into my adulthood with children of my own, we have lost a reliance on not only our own families, but so much of what our churches and private organizations used to do. They used to have wonderful food pantries. They used to provide clothing for those that really needed it. But we have gotten away from that. Now we’re at a point where the government will just give away anything.” 

That’s the fundamental belief that motivates most, if not all, the conservative opposition: Health care should be a privilege rather than a right. If you can’t afford health insurance on your own, that is not the government’s problem.

This of course should be not at all surprising to those of us who have been paying attention.

Hell Bill Kristol said much the same thing about the Democratic plan for health care reform, back when Bill Clinton was in office: 

"Its passage in the short run will do nothing to hurt (and everything to help) Democratic electoral prospects in 1996. But the long-term political effects of a successful Clinton health care bill will be even worse--much worse. It will relegitimize middle-class dependence for 'security' on government spending and regulation. It will revive the reputation of the party that spends and regulates, the Democrats, as the generous protector of middle-class interests. And it will at the same time strike a punishing blow against Republican claims to defend the middle class by restraining government." 

And that, for Kristol, meant it had to be stopped at all costs: 

"The first step in that process must be the unqualified political defeat of the Clinton health care proposal. Its rejection by Congress and the public would be a monumental setback for the president; and an incontestable piece of evidence that Democratic welfare-state liberalism remains firmly in retreat."

The Republicans have been fighting against this law since before Barack Obama ever even entered politics, much less became the GOP boogeyman. 

I think we need to keep an eye on this Joni Ernst. She clearly is working without a filter, and I imagine that she is going to make enough gaffes to someday earn her place in the "Political Moron's Hall of Fame" right up there next to her idol Sarah Palin.

Well there is one group who will relish the election of Joni Ernst to the Senate, comedians.

Courtesy of Ria Novosti:  

The winner of Tuesday’s Iowa Senate Race, Republican Joni Ernst will be featured regularly in political comedy shows because of her extreme beliefs, a political strategist told RIA Novosti on Wednesday. 

“Joni Ernst has said some things that are on the fringe of American politics - which the press hasn’t covered very well. She referred to [US President Barack] Obama as a dictator. Not to mention she’s into all kinds of weird conspiracy theories. She’ll definitely make good fodder for Jon Stewart for the next six years,” Iowa-based political consultant Pete D'Alessandro said. 

D'Alessandro, who has also worked on a number of election campaigns, also pointed to some alarming statements Ernst made regarding gun ownership, including the one in which she stated that she would need a gun to defend herself against the government. 

“I would say she’s a less intelligent Sarah Palin [Former Alaska Governor]. Sarah Palin is actually smarter, politically,” the strategist claimed.

Wow, dumber than Sarah Palin. Is there any worse allegation than that for a politician?

I agree that Ernst is going to attract a lot of attention from comedians and satirists.

I can already visualize the SNL skit based on her acceptance speech, where she brayed like a donkey the entire time.

As for being dumber than Palin, I will have to see a little more evidence before I am willing to hand the Queen of Stupidity crown over to Ernst. Maybe if her family got shitfaced and attacked an innocent homeowner I might consider it.

Republican strategist says that Joni Ernst is Sarah Palin with more intelligence.

"She doesn't look so damn smart to me."

Courtesy of Newsmax: 

Republican political strategist Dick Morris shrugged off the news that former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin might run for office again, telling Newsmax TV on Wednesday that there's a new and improved Palin on the campaign trail these days — and her name is Joni Ernst. 

"Ernst is Sarah Palin, but with much more in the way of gray cells," Morris told "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner, calling Iowa's Republican candidate for the Senate "one of the superstars of American politics." 

Wow, a smart Sarah Palin. That's the kind of thing that gives children nightmares here in Alaska. 

Dick Morris at one time was all in for Sarah Palin, but then he seemed to get over her. (Perhaps he saw her without her makeup or something.)

More recently Morris has become the political analyst who cannot get anything right.

Though I have to say that on this one he is undoubtedly correct.

I think that Joni Ernst IS just as much of a wing nut as Sarah Palin.

And as for the intelligence thing, well damn who isn't smarter than Klondike Kardashian?

Joni Ernst, who is currently running for Senator of Iowa, carries a handgun so that she can shoot the Federal Government in the face if they try to take it.

Courtesy of RH Reality Check:  

Iowa State Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Red Oak), candidate for U.S. Senate, has quickly become a national figure by making outlandish statements that appeal to the far right, including comments charging that she would use a gun to defend herself “from the government.” 

“I have a beautiful little Smith & Wesson, 9 millimeter, and it goes with me virtually everywhere,” Ernst reportedly said in 2012 at the NRA and Iowa Firearms Coalition Second Amendment Rally in Searsboro, Iowa. “But I do believe in the right to carry, and I believe in the right to defend myself and my family—whether it’s from an intruder, or whether it’s from the government, should they decide that my rights are no longer important.”

I don't know about any of you but what I look for in a candidate seeking a position in the Federal Government is the assurance that at any moment they might murder a fellow federal employee if they dare to touch their gun.

I am also very impressed when they refer to the attractiveness of their murderous accessory and claim to take it with them "virtually everywhere."

Nothing creepy or frightening about that.

So why is Joni Ernst gathering information about recount procedures a week and a half before the election?

Courtesy of TPM:  

Iowa state Sen. Joni Ernst (R) this week requested materials on recount procedures, signaling that she might be gearing up for a recount request in the Iowa Senate race against Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA). 

Ernst filed open records requests in multiple counties for training materials, satellite voting locations, names of ballot counters, recount procedures and any thing also sent to Braley, The Gazette reported. 

Such a large record request so close to an election is unusual for candidates, multiple Iowa auditors told The Gazette. 

"I think they’re gearing up for a recount," Johnson County Auditor Travis Weipert said.

Okay well there are two ways to take this.

One is that the Ernst campaign is thinking proactively with an abundance of caution.

Or that they expect to lose and like many recent GOP candidates will simply refuse to accept defeat until they have exhausted all possible challenges?

Yeah I am going to go with the latter.

"Brutalized."

Courtesy of Politicususa:

Extremist Joni Ernst (R-IA) is running for the U.S. Senate, you know, the place that used to be the speed bump against the crazies in the House of Representatives. But now Republicans are hoping to turn the Senate into a highway for their extremist Tea Party positions, so they can pass laws that most reasonable people take issue with — like outlawing abortion in all cases, even in the case of rape or incest, due to the personhood amendment Joni Ernst supports. 

Democrats hit Ernst today with an ad featuring Kim Tweedy, a Nurse Examiner on a West Des Moines Sexual Assault Response Team, who says, “I’ll never understand politicians who’d make it harder. Politicians like Joni Ernst. She’d outlaw abortion even for victims of rape and incest. She’d ban a woman’s right to choose even for women who’ve been through that trauma, absolutely brutalized.”

Damn! It looks like the Democrats as a unit have simply decided that it is time to take the gloves off and start street brawling.

This ad is reminiscent of the Wendy Davis ad that received so much attention, and the Ebola one from the Agenda Project.

Good, it is past time for us to start playing hard ball.