Republican Congressman Claims Hammers Could Be Outlawed Under Assault Weapons Ban

By Scott Keyes/Think Progress
A Republican congressman lambasted the push for gun control in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre, stating on Friday that if lawmakers wanted to ban assault weapons, they would have to outlaw “hammers” and “machetes” as well.

Appearing on the Dennis Miller Show, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) told guest host Larry O’Connor that he “refuse[s] to play the game of ‘assault weapon.’ That’s any weapon,” said the Texas congressman. “It’s a hammer. It’s the machetes.”

O’CONNOR: I want to ask you a question about one of your colleagues, Rep. Peter King in New York. He’s a very passionate guy, a great defender, he’s a great patriot. But he’s on board with this assault weapons ban. He was actually on MSNBC yesterday, openly saying, “I don’t understand why anybody would need an assault weapon.” I personally get nervous whenever a politician is asking me as a citizen why I need my right, but can you answer that question for your colleague? He might need some help here. Why would anyone need an assault weapon as they’re defining it?

GOHMERT: I refuse to play the game of “assault weapon.” That’s any weapon. It’s a hammer. It’s the machetes. In Rwanda that killed 800,000 people, an article that came out this week, the massive number that are killed with hammers.

Listen to it:

According to the FBI, in 2010, there were 8,775 people who were murdered with guns, compared to 540 people who were killed with blunt objects, a small minority of which were people armed with hammers. The exponentially-higher number of people killed by guns also includes many innocent people killed by indiscriminate gunfire, such as drive-by shootings. After all, there are no “drive-by hammerings.”

Still, hammers are not the only “weapon” that conservatives are equating with firearms in an attempt to undermine any gun control legislation. A state representative in New Hampshire,warned of another deadly weapon: credit cards. “Anything can be used as a deadly weapon, said Rep. Dan Dumaine (R). “A credit card can be used to cut somebody’s throat.”

GOP Rep. Floats New Conspiracy Theory: Obama Ousted Qaddafi ‘So Al-Qaeda Could Take Over’

By Scott Keyes/Think Progress

As if it weren’t enough that members of the Republican Party spent much of President Obama’s first term accusing him of being a crypto-Manchurian Candidate who was born in Kenya, one GOP congressman is floating a new conspiracy theory: Obama only helped oust former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi so al-Qaeda could take over.

Appearing on Frank Gaffney’s anti-Muslim radio show, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) launched into a lengthy tirade criticizing the Obama administration’s decision to provide air support in the international campaign against Qaddafi last year. Rather than acknowledging that Obama launched the mission to stave off a looming massacre in Misrata, the Texas Republican saw a hidden, pernicious reason for the intervention. “This administration sent planes and bombs and support to oust Qaddafi so that al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood could take over Libya,” said Gohmert.

GOHMERT: What was all the rage a year and a half ago? It was the Arab Spring and how wonderful it was! This administration really embraced blowing out Mubarak – yes, do it up by all means – getting rid of Qaddafi, it wasn’t enough to send verbal accolades, this administration sent planes and bombs and support to oust Qaddafi so that al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood could take over Libya.

Listen to it:

After accusing Obama of harboring hidden sympathy for al-Qaeda — a group whose leader Osama bin Laden was killed in a mission ordered by Obama — Gohmert went on to say that the president of helping “jumpstart” a “new Ottoman Empire” in the Middle East.

Tea Party Congressman Calls McCain ‘Numb Nuts’ For Criticizing Bachmann’s Anti-Muslim Witch Hunt

By Igor Volsky/Think Progress

Tea Party Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX) lashed out at Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) for criticizing him and his fellow conservative members for suggesting that a senior aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. Gohmert is part of a small group of five Republican members, led by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), who are demanding an investigation into whether Clinton deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin is connected to the group.

“Normally you don’t go blast somebody on the floor who is a colleague on the same side of the aisle unless you touch base with them,” Gohmert complained during an appearance on the Dennis Miller Show on Tuesday, referring to McCain’s denunciation of the group’s allegations as “nothing less than an unwarranted and unfounded attack.” The fiery Texan then launched into a personal attack against McCain, calling him “numb nuts” and suggesting the Muslim Brotherhood is now influencing him too:

GOHMERT: Well, it’s obvious that John McCain didn’t even read the letter because of what he said in accusing Michele and us of making these horrible accusations. There were five letters and there were many things that are stated that are facts in each letter. And I wish some of these numb nuts would go out and read the letter before they make these horrible allegations about the horrible accusations we’re making. But we also know that John McCain himself had said back in the early stages of stuff going on in Egypt that he was, in his words, “unalterably opposed to helping the Muslim Brotherhood.” Well, obviously the unalterable person has been altered, so he is okay with it now.

Listen:

Gohmert has long believed that Muslim extremist organizations have infiltrated the American government. At a recent Congressional hearing, he furiously questioned Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano about whether Mohamed Elibiary, a member of DHS’s Combatting Violent Extremism Working Group (CVE) and a Muslim is part of a terrorist organization.

While Bachmann and her small group of supporters are doubling down on their attacks, a growing number of Republicans are distancing themselves from the charges.

Gohmert: Americans Will ‘Die’ If The Affordable Care Act Remains In Place

By Igor Volsky/Think Progress

As the Supreme Court considers the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert (R) addressed a Tea Party rally calling for its repeal. In a short interview following his remarks, Gohmert told ThinkProgress that Americans will “die early” if the law remains in place and the Court finds it constitutional:

VOLSKY: Congressman, do you think because of health care that people will live shorter lives — that it will shorten the lives of Americans?

GOHMERT: Those are the indications. [...] [This law] would make us like England and Canada where they try to come to America to get the treatment because they don’t want to die.

Watch it:

Gohmert’s rhetoric closely resembles the “sky is falling” hysteria surrounding the measure as it made its way through Congress in 2009 and 2010. Gohmert himself warned, “I would hate to think that among five women, one of ‘em is gonna die because we go to socialized care.” But in the two years since its enactment, none of the GOP’s dire predictions have come to pass.

House Approves DADT Repeal, Gohmert Warns Of ‘End Of Existence’

By Igor Volsky

Moments ago, in a vote of 250 to 175 the House voted to approve a stand-alone measure to repeal the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, paving the way for Senate action in the coming weeks. Fifteen Republicans voted for repeal, 10 more than had supported May’s vote for the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). During the debate’s more animated moments, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) spoke out against repeal by explaining that the military “isn’t the YMCA” and Rep. John Fleming (R-LA) warned that ending the policy would “drop the bomb of social experimentation” on the military. Rep. Louie Gohmet (R-TX) delivered the most impassioned speech against repeal, suggesting that the countries with open services were “near the end of their existence” and saying that homosexuality could be tolerated if gay people could control their hormones:

GOHMERT: To my friend who said that history would judge us poorly, I would submit if you would look thoroughly at history — and I’m not saying it’s cause and effect — but when militaries throughout history of the greatest nations in the world have adopted the policy that “fine for homosexuality to be overt” — you can keep it private and control your hormones fine, if you can’t, that’s fine too — they’re toward the end of their existence as a great nation.

Watch his remarks:

The bill will now move to the Senate as a privileged “message.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will be able to call up the measure without voting on a motion to proceed, saving some 30 hours of debate in the Senate, and will have to hold firm against Republican efforts to filibuster or attach amendments to the legislation. Under this scenario, the Senate bill would have to be identical to the House version or else it would have to return to the House for another vote. Reid has pledged to keep the Senate in session as long as possible to bring repeal to the floor, but his office has not yet issued a possible time frame for floor consideration.

Congressman calls Obama-Hitler comparison ‘brilliant

By John Byrne

A Texas Republican congresswoman told colleagues on that House floor Wednesday that a columnist who accused Obama of planting the seeds for a Nazi state is a "brilliant man."

The little noticed quip was picked up by the liberal blog ThinkProgress late Wednesday.

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) quoted conservative columnist Thomas Sowell, who declared in an opinion piece that Obama's effort to set up a $20 billion fund for those whose livelihoods were damaged by BP's oil spill signals that “American democracy is being dismantled, piece by piece, before our very eyes.”

Gohlmert's remarks?

There’s a brilliant man named Thomas Sowell. And, um, I didn’t vote for Barack Obama in 2008, but I sure would have voted for Thomas Sowell. This man, well, his article says quite a lot. His editorial, um, says here — and it’s just been posted this week — but it says, “When Adolph Hitler was building up the Nazi movement in the 1920’s” — and I’m quoting from Thomas Sowell in his editorial:

‘leading up to his taking power in the 1930s, he deliberately sought to activate people who did not normally pay much attention to politics. Such people were a valuable addition to his political base, since they were particularly susceptible to Hitler’s rhetoric and had far less basis for questioning his assumptions or his conclusions. ‘Useful idiots’ was the term supposedly coined by V.I. Lenin to describe similarly unthinking supporters of his dictatorship in the Soviet Union.’

And this isn’t in the article — this is my comment — but we do have useful idiots today, who are heard to say, ‘Wow, what we really need is for the president to be a dictator for a little while.’ They know not what they say.

M.C.L Comment: Reason 3 billion and one why I hate conservatives and Republicans because this sort of crap if an elected Democrat compared Bush to Hitler during the great 9/11 exploitation era that Democrat would be either force to resigned or the Republicans and their allies in right wing press would use that Democrat as a weapon against the entire Democratic party. The article highlights another tactic of the right when a white right wing either elected official or a lame pundit wants to attack President Obama without sound super racist they find the few black conservatives they have in the field house to do it for them.