The Protectors of power, privilege, and paranoia (also known as Republican politicians) took some time out from coddling lunatics and bashing Obama over the topic of the day to show some sincere and not at all contrived outrage over Ike Skelton utilizing a 5 word phrase/suggestion too close to a mic in reference to Todd Akin (R-ight wing). Such a suggestion is technically less offensive than some of Akin’s votes but I can see how that phrase is not an ideal one to use. Although one could see how working close to Todd Akin might have a drawback or two which could lead one to say that.

No word on if George W. Bush and Dick Cheney will offer a condemnation of this incident. It’s so sad that civility completely broke down over the last 9 months or perhaps the elected officials are near the same as usual for civility, but they’re dealing with more stressful problems and there’s a more obstructionistic Republican party than ever before. One of the two.

And here’s a random note to Jim Abrams: Your standards for what constitutes “cussing out” are a bit low. Curses towards, that works. Cusses out implies at least one more curse word or a stronger statement. Using your standard, Obama cursed out Kanye West.

No word on how a live microphone would fare against Rep. Skelton as an opponent in 2010. The live microphone would emulate Republican politicians by repeating the talking points fed to it and using too much energy for no good reason. The Live Microphone would likely fare slightly worse than Vicki Hartzler and Bill Stouffer. But it’d waste less money while losing by 20 points.

This incident does lead to one very amusing question. What does Todd Akin have in common with Code Pink?