The Idiot Inhofe Is At It Again (With Update)

I've long held the belief that Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe is the dumbest person in Congress.  I know -- that's a big claim given all the idiocy on the GOP side over there, but I will say this with assurance:  Inhofe is the dumbest U.S. Senator currently serving (from TPM):

Republican lawmakers are pushing legislation aimed at combating a threat to gun rights that even the National Rifle Association has described as pure fiction.

A bill introduced late last week by Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) and Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK) would ban federal agencies, excluding the Pentagon, from buying more ammunition during a six-month period if it currently possesses more than its monthly averages during the Bush administration.

The conspiracy theory that incubated the bill is that the Obama administration is trying to buy up bullets so ordinary Americans have less access to them in the marketplace.

“President Obama has been adamant about curbing law-abiding Americans’ access and opportunities to exercise their Second Amendment rights,” Inhofe said in a statement. “One way the Obama Administration is able to do this is by limiting what’s available in the market with federal agencies purchasing unnecessary stockpiles of ammunition.”

Only it’s false — as no less a pro-gun organization than the NRA declared last year.

The most hilarious part about all of this is that most right wingers would probably believe that all this stuff about the gubmit taking bullets away is true.  In fact, they'd convince themselves to believe it even if they had doubts simply because it gives them another reason to hate the evil President Blackenstein.

By the way, this is encouraging:

Public Policy Polling released the latest in a series of surveys it has conducted that show five senators who voted against a bill that would have required all gun sales over the Internet and at gun shows to be subject to background checks, are in hot water with voters.

The survey was conducted last week between April 25 and 26. PPP surveyed more than 1,000 voters in Alaska, 600 in Arizona, 500 in Nevada and 600 in Ohio.

"The background checks vote is a rare one that really is causing these senators trouble back home," Dean Debnam, president of PPP said in a release. "All five of these senators ... have seen their approval numbers decline in the wake of this vote. And the numbers make it clear that their position on Manchin/Toomey is a major factor causing the downward spiral."

Well, I guess that's what happens when you oppose legislation that 90% of the country supports. Meanwhile, Republican Senator Pat Toomey actually got a boost in the polls due to his recent co-sponsorship of a bill to expand background checks.

UPDATE:  Speaking of Senator Toomey, here is what he had to say today about why a bill expanding background checks -- which had 90% support in this country -- ultimately failed: “In the end it didn’t pass because we’re so politicized -- there were some on my side who did not want to be seen helping the President do something he wanted to get done, just because the President wanted to do it.”

When I read Toomey's statement, I immediately thought of what Obama said yesterday during his press conference with regard to Republicans in Congress:

Their base thinks that compromise with me is somehow a betrayal. They're worried about primaries. And I understand all that. And we're going to try to do everything we can to create a permission structure for them to be able to do what's going to be best for the country. But it's going to take some time.

Of course, this is nothing new (although the whole concept of a "permission structure" -- whatever the hell that is -- appears to be a new one). The GOP hasn't agreed with Obama on anything, and has even gone so far as to reject Republican ideas that Obama embraces (e.g., Pay-Go, the Bipartisan Deficit Commission, the Individual Health Care Mandate, Cap and Trade, trying terrorism suspects in federal court). But it certainly is interesting to hear a Republican Senator admit to all this.