IT'S IMPOSSIBLE FOR A REPUBLICAN TO BECOME A PARIAH

I used to think that even a Republican could ultimately say or do something so extreme, so embarrassing, that he or she would become a pariah, even among other Republicans. I now realize that that simply can't happen, because every Republican word or deed is ultimately forgiven.

I learn today from Right Wing Watch that three GOP members of Congress, Mike Pence, Michelle Bachmann, and Tom Price, appeared this week on a Family Research Council health care Webcast with Virginia state legislator Bob Marshall, who recently argued that God punishes people who have abortions by giving them disabled children, and also the American Family Association's Bryan Fischer, who believes that Muslims should be banned from the military, homosexuality should be made illegal again, and Sea World should have stoned killer whale Tilikum to death, as the Bible recommends. Apparently it's not even a minor political problem for members of Congress to hang out with these guys.

Nor is Pat Robertson's long list of hateful remarks sufficient reason for the Virginia legislature not to have passed a resolution honoring him on his 80th birthday.

The mainstream press shrugs off right-wing extremist speech. There's less attention paid to it in the MSM than there is to the alleged radical left-wing extremism of Cass Sunstein on Fox.