IS GUN-THERISM NOW A GOP LITMUS TEST?

From Talking Points Memo:

House Speaker John Boehner said Wednesday that he didn't know whether the botched ATF operation known as Fast and Furious was a secret Obama administration plot to implement gun control by sending guns to Mexico.

"I've never indicated that was the case, I don't know whether that's the case because we don't have the documents," Boehner told reporters at a short press conference....

I've used the term "gun-therism" for this conspiracy theory, but I think it's now attained a status even birtherism hasn't attained. You can be a Republican politician and say you believe the president was born in Hawaii, but it may now be the case that you can't say that Fast and Furious wasn't a gun-control plot -- you either have to say it was a plot or say you're not sure. That puts this conspiracy theory in the same category as climate-change denialism -- you can't be a Republican anymore and say with certainty that people are causing climate change, though if your name is, say, Mitt Romney, you can say you're just not sure. That party-wide shift on climate change was bought and paid for by energy-industry zillionaires; the one on Fast and Furious comes courtesy of the NRA. Both are very stern taskmasters.