America's Dumbest Member of Congress: Sen. Voinovich

Once again, I'm not the first nor the last to come to the conclusion that the Crying Man, our Senator RINOvich is a mental midget. Here WorldNetDaily columnist Joseph Farah spells it out again:

Do you want to know who I think is the dumbest man in Congress?

I tell you it is Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio.

Personally, I came to this conclusion while listening to the man babble and sputter during what should have been a routine interview with radio talker Sean Hannity – a friendly to most Republicans.

But Voinovich, being the dumbest man in Congress, self-destructed. He imploded. He self-immolated. He nuked himself.

You can hear the whole exchange for yourself if you have never had the pleasure. It will be worth your time – especially if you are from Ohio.

For starters, Voinovich demonstrated he had no clue what the Fairness Doctrine was. This was pretty strange given some of his colleagues were clamoring to reinstate the rule that required broadcasters to provide all sides of important policy issues.

"Fairness Doctrine – I'm all for it, whatever it is," he said. "I think everyone should be open to show the other side. That's what you do every night on Fox. That's great!"

When Hannity reminded Voinovich that the Fairness Doctrine would establish government regulatory bureaucracies to enforce this balance, Voinovich quickly retreated. He also misinterpreted the results of a vote in the Senate hours earlier.

Let's just say he didn't handle himself real well.

Then earlier this month Voinovich was back in the news for a simply astonishing quote attributed to him.

When Sen. John McCain returned from a trip to Iraq, he told some of his colleagues the most dangerous threat for U.S. troops was al-Qaida.

How did Voinovich respond?

"Al-Qaida wouldn't be in Iraq if American forces weren't there!" he retorted.

Of course, he's right. If American forces weren't in Iraq, al-Qaida would be right here!

A little-known U.S. senator from a major U.S. state has emerged from obscurity to become the holder of a real distinction – the dumbest man in the U.S. Congress.

This back-bencher ought to wise up and retire rather than get beat in 2010...

Oh yeah, this is worth repeating too... Guys like RINOvich are hurting the Ohio GOP brand about as much as Bob Taft did...

UPDATE (8:45AM): The Canton Repository claims that RINOvich is getting grief from both sides of the aisle. As a clue for RINOvich, though, I'll go ahead and point out that no matter what RINOvich does or how he votes, those crazy 527s are NOT going to support him in 2010. If he is going to run again, he has got to go where the votes are...and that means getting right with conservatives.

Two of my favorite quotes from this article are from the "right." The first comes from RINOvich spokesperson Chris Paulitz:

“He’s a wonk. He gets into the weeds.”

Maybe someone ought to coach the Crying Man on how to do an interview where it doesn't sound like he's smoking those weeds...

The second comes from (as Matt Naugle has pointed out...) the always available for an interview with the 527 media Mark Weaver:

“George Voinovich is not well-suited to a cross-fire type of environment where the issues are solved in 10-second sound bytes and the answers are black and white.”

Well, like it or not, that is the political environment today. If RINOvich doesn't have what it takes to play in the Big Leagues, maybe he ought to hang 'em up for good.

UPDATE 2 (2:25 PM) - Commenter Joe C. links to this article in the Columbus Dispatch and calls it a defense, but I find it rather illustrative of the point that RINOvich is a dullard. Here is a bit that explains what a President Voinovich would do to "fix" the Iraq problem:

He insists there is plenty he would do differently if he sat in the Oval Office. Much as when he was Cleveland's mayor and Ohio's governor, he said he would bring the major players to the bargaining table and not let them leave until a resolution was reached, and he includes the Iranians. Bush, on the other hand, has refused to take up the Iraq Study Group's recommendation that diplomatic efforts should include Iran and Syria.

Of course, the problem with this approach is that it assumes two things:

1) That the President and the State Department hasn't been trying the diplomatic approach. Note that Condi has set up a second meeting with Iran on Iraq issues... Iran isn't exactly been a partner for peace acting in good faith in the region.

2) That these parties are actually intersted in peace. This approach has had such a stellar success in solving the Middle East Peace process hasn't it? Gosh, it's just so darn peaceful in the Middle East because of all these conferences where the United States serves up some dinner and BS while the Islamofascists regroup, retool, and rebuild their forces...

Yeah, Voinovich is a real genius... Thanks for the joke Dispatch, tell me another one...