A Bloodthirsty and Idiotic Republican

This is getting to be too frequent. David Corn writes about some bloodthirsty Republicans.

Republican Congressman Sam Johnson told a group of veterans he wants to get in on the bloodlust and nuke thousands of Syrians. While speaking at a veterans' event at a United Methodist church(!) in Allen, Texas, on February 19, Johnson said that he was recently chatting with the second President Bush on the White House porch and informed Bush that he believes those nonexistent WMDs are in Syria. Recounting his conversation with Bush, Johnson said he had told Bush,

Syria is the problem. Syria is where those weapons of mass destruction are, in my view. You know, I can fly an F-15, put two nukes on 'em and I'll make one pass. We won't have to worry about Syria anymore.

According to Roll Call's Akers (subscriber only), who was given access to a tape of the event, the "crowd roared with applause."

Johnson and his supporters are ignorant barbarians. First, as both David Kay and Charles Duelfer, the two chief WMD hunters, have each reported, Iraq had no WMD programs up and running in the years before the war. There were no WMDs to hide in Syria or anywhere else. Second, to joke--or half-joke--about a nuclear attack against any nation is an atrocious action for a legislator who has the Constitutional authority to vote for war. (And Johnson, a leading House GOPer, is a member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, meaning he has a hand on the purse strings.) Pardon me for not having a sense of humor about nuclear war, but I can only imagine how the Arab press might cover these dumb-ass remarks.

As someone who has a nephew in the military this is unacceptable from any legislator.