Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-KS) -- Congrats! You are the recipient of the very first Are you Kidding Me!? post with an honorable mention for Senator Coburn of Oklahoma.

Last week Tiahrt argued on the House floor to restrict public funding of abortions within the District of Columbia. Tiahrt suggested that if such “financial incentives” had been available some 47 years ago, President Obama might not have been born. Continuing in his offensive downward spiral rant, he had one more example of yet another ”great mind” that might not have been born -- he added Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

"If you think of it in human terms, there is a financial incentive that will be put in place, paid for by tax dollars, that will encourage women who are -- single parents, living below the poverty level, to have the opportunity for a free abortion… If you take that scenario and apply it to many of the great minds we have today, who would we have been deprived of? Our president grew up in a similar circumstance."

"If that financial incentive was in place, is it possible that his mother may have taken advantage of it? …Clarence Thomas, Supreme Court Justice, if those circumstances were in place, is it possible that we would be denied his great mind? The opportunity to have tax-funded abortions, a financial incentive, is something that I think most of us want to oppose in America and it's certainly deserves a clean up or down vote."

Is this really how the GOP is trying to reach out to minorities? Is this how they think they are going to build their ‘Big Tent’? Last week during the confirmation hearings of Sonia Sotomayor, Senator Tom Coburn, R-OK, told Judge Sotomayor, a Latina, that she had “lots of ‘splaining to do” as if he were imitating Ricky Ricardo from I Love Lucy.

Are You Kidding Me?!

Watch Think Progress's video here:

Comments yesterday during the floor debate on HR 2920, the pay-as-you-go bill as Congressional Quarterly reported “…raised a few eyebrows.” Republican Congressman Marsha Blackburn (Blackburn’s “preferred term” is Congressman over Congresswoman) said, “we’re not going to cry ‘emergency’ every time we have a Katrina.”

“Let’s agree that we’re going to have PAYGO enforcement. That we’re not going to cry ‘emergency’ every time we have a Katrina, every time we have a Tsunami, every time we have a need for extra spending that we don’t go call for a special appropriation that allows us to circumvent the PAYGO rules.”


There have been over 1,500 deaths because of Hurricane Katrina. To disregard the victims and the gulf coast region as a line item on a budget is callous and undemonstrative.

Blackburn served as the Communications Chairman for the Republican Study Committee in the last Congress. She is described as part of “the conservative core of the House GOP caucus.”

Representative…you might want to brush up on your floor speeches when talking about the worst natural disaster on American soil.

Are You Kidding Me!?