Drunk Republicans?

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Salon:

In a Tuesday interview, Rep. Alan Grayson charged that Republican House members have been literally intoxicated while casting votes on the continuing resolutions that set the stage for today's government shutdown. Noting "a number of public reports that you can smell alcohol on their breath as they're voting gleefully to shut down the government and create chaos," Grayson said that he had personally witnessed GOP colleagues smelling like alcohol. "Many of them seem loaded," said Grayson. The Florida congressman declined to name names, saying, "it's the usual suspects," but that he didn't "really feel like getting that personal with people."

A spokesperson for Speaker John Boehner did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Politico reporter Ginger Gibson tweeted Saturday that she could "smell the booze wafting from members as they walk off the floor."

Grayson said he thinks on-the-job alcohol consumption by GOP House members has "been a problem all year long."

"It's a fact we all have to live with," Grayson told Salon, "and it's making them violent and abusive towards America."

Well, that would explain a lot, but for most people drinking booze doesn't turn them into right-wing extremists. So there are probably other reasons as well:

Grayson also blamed today's shutdown on Republicans' "anarchist ideology" and "blind hatred of government," saying they've become "the Captain Ahabs of 21st century American politics."

Well, it's more fascist than anarchist, but, yes, there is that blind hatred of government, although personally I wouldn't link them in any way to great American literature.

The point is, I don't think Republicans need alcohol to push their far-right agenda, nor to wage their relentless war against government, nor to wage their campaign of terrorism against President Obama, nor to shit all over the American people (other than their beloved plutocracy).

The alcohol probably just makes them even less coherent, and perhaps a little more violent as well.