I love Republicans - they provide so much amusement.

Yet, somehow, I wish I were a comedian.  Republicans do provide so much fodder for us bloggers, but damn, the amount of ripe, juicy material just sitting there, waiting for some comedian to take it up and use it is simply astonishing.

Take these two items for instance, that Rachael Maddow has on her blog:

'That's absurd beyond the word absurd'

Perhaps the most controversial of the gun-related items, HB 1076 would ban state agencies from enforcing any new federal gun laws, including background checks. The bill passed the Republican-led House on a largely party line vote Monday, but legal experts say the attempt to "nullify" possible future federal laws likely wouldn't pass the scrutiny of the U.S. Supreme Court.

and:

When Reagan worship goes awry

President Reagan would insist that all illegal immigrants return to their native countries and get in line to be legally admitted into the country if faced with the issue today, according to Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.).
"President Reagan would insist that those who are here illegally must repent and atone for their illegal conduct by returning to their country of origin and getting in line with everyone else," Brooks said on the House floor.

Let's back up and look at the historical record. In 1986, then-President Reagan signed a bipartisan immigration reform package that extended amnesty to any immigrant who entered the country illegally before 1982. This was, of course, before Republicans were told to perceive "amnesty" as the moral equivalent of a crime against humanity.
And by all accounts, Reagan supported the policy and its goals. 

Reagan "knew that it was not right for people to be abused," [former Wyoming Sen. Alan K. Simpson] says. "Anybody who's here illegally is going to be abused in some way, either financially [or] physically. They have no rights."
Peter Robinson, a former Reagan speechwriter, agrees. "It was in Ronald Reagan's bones -- it was part of his understanding of America -- that the country was fundamentally open to those who wanted to join us here."
Reagan said as much himself in a televised debate with Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale in 1984. "I believe in the idea of amnesty for those who have put down roots and lived here, even though sometime back they may have entered illegally," he said. 

Now, I see three possible reasons for this idiocy.

First, they are stupid.  Tempting, I know.

Second, they are purely politically grandstanding on the theory that their constituents are stupid.  Also tempting!

Third, they think we all are.

I think the last one is really the case.  In my experience, people who want to run roughshod over others are of the opinion that they are right, everybody else is wrong, and furthermore, they'll get away with it because everybody else is too stupid to notice. Or, in this case, god is going to somehow wave a magic wand and make them win.

I can hear Bob Hope now, he would have loved this, it has so much potential.  And when I think of what George Carlin would have done with this material, I could almost laugh and cry even without hearing it.

It's a shame neither man is with us to put these morons to shame.