Down in the land of Cotton

One of Waldo's newer guilty pleasures is the daily politics posts of Charlie Pierce at Esquire.  We knew Pierce as a Boston journo who frequently popped up on NPR shows like Only A Game and Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!

Now Pierce is menacing the political classes from his perch at the men's mag of ancient vintage, and doing a bang-up job (his moniker for Governor Mike Pence is "the bag of hammers").

Here's his take on Oklahoma's Boy Senator's latest foray into grownup issues:

Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, pen-pal to the mullahs and unrequited love object of Jen Rubin, has an interesting Hot Politix Take on the outbreak of Fabulous Crow laws aimed at codifying discrimination against our fellow citizens who happen to be L, G, B, or T. He shared it with the nation via CNN. 

"I think it's important we have a sense of perspective," Cotton said. "In Iran, they hang you for the crime of being gay." 

By the interesting big-brain logic on display here, Martin Luther King, Jr. needed "a sense of perspective" because, in South Africa, they would have shot him long before anyone in America got around to it. 

Like his role models, Cotton has the potential to do big things in Congress at a time when bombast often substitutes for smarts and ego trumps common sense. 

How do you like your blue-eyed boy now, Ms. Death?

This sort of bosh is,of course, nothing new in southern Republican circles. On November 19, 2008, John Campanelli reported at Daily Kos:

Yesterday Mike Huckabee went on "The View" and the discussion turned to Obama's election. After Huckabee recounted his memory of a segregated South and celebrated the fact that we as a country have come so far in terms of civil rights, Joy Behar asked Huckabee about his stance on gay rights. Watch what unfolded:

   HUCKABEE: It’s a different set of rights. People who are homosexuals should have every right in terms of their civil rights, to be employed, to do anything they want. But that’s not really the issue. I know you talked about it and I think you got into it a little bit early on. But when we’re talking about a redefinition of an institution, that’s different than individual civil rights.

   BEHAR: Well, segregation was an institution, too, in a way. It was right there on the books.

   HUCKABEE: But here is the difference. Bull Connor was hosing people down in the streets of Alabama. John Lewis got his skull cracked on the Selma bridge.

In essence, Huckabee is saying that civil rights are only important if you're getting your skulls cracked open, that we have to wait to protect a minority from the beliefs of the majority only when it turns to violence. Interesting, coming from a Christian minister.