There aint nobody here but us chickens

By J. Thomas Duffy

Sue Lowden is a godsend.

The Second Coming ... The Holy Grail.

Who would have thought, in such a short time, less than two-years, we would have such a strong, strong contender, to The Wasilla Whiz Kid, and her partner in denseness, one of our favorite Ignorant Dolts, Michele Bachmann, as the dumbest politician roaming the land?



This is a goldmine.

I recall, last week, Lowden, for her Healthcare platform, suggested "bartering", which most in the press gave her a pass, the benefit of the doubt, saying she must have meant "haggling", doing a little wheeling-and-dealing on the price.

She erased that notion, prompting Jed Lawson to herald "Sue Lowden delivers quote to launch a thousand ads."

We'll let Dave Dayen, over on Firedoglake, tell the tale, from his "LowdenCare: Is This Sue Lowden’s Macaca Moment?";

Sue Lowden was the front-runner for the GOP nomination for US Senate in Nevada. She was favored to defeat Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid and go to Washington in just under a year.

I’m putting this in the past tense after her statement to a local station in Nevada that should, at least, be disqualifying for any public service job.

I’m telling you that this works. You know, before we all started having health care, in the olden days our grandparents, they would bring a chicken to the doctor, they would say I’ll paint your house. I mean, that’s the old days of what people would do to get health care with your doctors. Doctors are very sympathetic people. I’m not backing down from that system.

Say What!

Pay for your healthcare with chickens?

(You can view the video HERE)

The operative word yesterday, throughout the blogosphere, was "doubling down".

Steve Benen;

This is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard from a candidate for statewide office. If there wasn't a video, I might not even believe it. According to nearly every recent poll, Lowden is the clear favorite to defeat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) in November, but that was before she started talking about trading livestock for medical care. It's a permanent credibility-killer. It's one thing to be a confused, far-right candidate. It's another to be a laughingstock.

Steve M, over on No More Mister Nice Blog;

James Carville is reported to have said, "When your opponent is drowning, throw the son of a bitch an anvil." Lowden slipped into a bit of water, but she's not drowning yet; as I said a while back, the notion of barter isn't regarded as completely crazy by a lot of people.

But it is crazy in this case, for a lot of reasons. One is that it offers no help to people in desperate life-or-death situations that require far more treatment than painting a house could possibly offset. The other is that she hasn't thought through the implications of just what some people might offer in trade for health care -- nor have most of the citizens of Nevada.

Somebody needs to make the implications explicit. That's the anvil. And you'd better believe that if the parties were reversed, some GOP-friendly operative wouldn't hesitate to do just this.

And, Matthew Yglesias has this;

Lowden could very plausibly be representing Nevada in the US Senate a year from now, so it’s worth noting how terrible this would be. Checkups for chickens might work if we were all farmers, but what’s a blogger supposed to do? Maybe I could offer the guy free publicity with a few posts touting his services. A Web designer could build a website for the doctor. But what does the designer do if he needs to see the doctor again? Or what if the doctor needs to run a test that costs money, do you mail a chicken to the lab? It’s frightening that anyone this ignorant of how a modern economy works could be anywhere near political power.

Last night, on 'Countdown', sub host Lawrence O'Donnell wryly wondered, since Lowden is an executive at at gaming investment company, if she has gone to her bosses to ask if people can pay gambling debts with chickens.

We do have some ambivalence here.

While we don't want to see the Democrats majority dip in the Senate, on one hand, we pray, we get down on our hands-and-knees, to beseech the high heavens, to get Sue Lowden elected.

You gotta believe the "chickens for healthcare" only scratches the surface.

And Sue, we have your new campaign theme song.

Go with it ... Run with it ... Bask in it ...

Take it away, Louis Jordan!

There Aint Nobody Here But Us Chickens-Louis Jordan




Bonus Links

John Amato: Sue Lowden's 'Chicken For Checkups' health care plan is Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs

Greg Sargent: Dems To Attack Sue Lowden With “Chickens For Checkups” Web Site

Greg Sargent: Sue Lowden Triples Down, Says Doctors Support Chickens For Checkups

(Cross Posted at The Garlic)