Remember Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-4)? The one who thinks China is spying on Grandmom and Grandpop via microchips implanted in our toasters? Well in late June this intellectual marvel was appointed by House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) to the House-Senate conference committee charged with resolving differences over the FY2016 National Defense Authorization Act.  Boehner’s outline of the bill under question and the issues it raises:

“The House passed a strong defense bill that promises the pay raise and benefits our troops have earned and provides the tools, resources, and authorities they need to keep America safe. It is unfortunate that Democrats, who overwhelmingly backed the measure in committee, withdrew their support to extract more government spending on bureaucracies like the EPA and the IRS. It is even more disappointing that President Obama has threated to veto these promises to our troops in support of his party’s dangerously misguided strategy. I am, nevertheless, encouraged that we have reached the next step in advancing this critical legislation, and I am confident that this agreement will put our national security, and the brave men and women to whom we owe it, first.”

NOTE: In addition to the provisions mentioned above, the House-passed defense bill imposes greater restrictions on transferring terrorist detainees, provides lethal aid to Ukraine, strengthens our missile defense capabilities, enhances our cybersecurity, and more. A summary of the bill is available here.

Pretty important stuff to entrust to a politician who thinks that our appliances are serving up inside info to the Chinese along with our toast. She’s so dedicated to promulgating fear that she advocates against toaster double agents in the kitchen.

To Give Rep. Vicky credit, she’s trying to be responsible and conform to the line the GOP puts out for “respectable” consumption. As evidence that she’s doing her best to show her somewhat less zany colors, we have a more or less adult sounding recent news release about possible cuts to troop strength due to the sequester abut which she opines:

While the impact at Fort Leonard Wood was far less than originally projected, it still reminds us that the defense cuts brought on by sequestration have real-life implications and jeopardize our national security. I have fought time and again to reverse these devastating cuts, helping secure additional funding in this year’s budget-but more needs to be done.

But wait? Perhaps this line isn’t really that grown-up. I hate to break it to Vicky, but the sequester was a GOP idea and was only accepted to avoid the government shut-down disaster many in the GOP were willing to accept if they couldn’t get their way on budget cuts. Something had to be done to divert the fiscal mess that she and her colleagues were driving us toward and Democrats took their share of grief for the greater good.

The sequester, however was a badly constructed compromise that had “real life implications” for far more than the military. One-sided revision of that compromise, revision that mitigates the GOP “give,” is dishonest and wrong. The Republicans should either revisit the entire ugly sequester deal or shut their mouths and take the medicine they bargained for.

Those real-life sequestration implications have been causing major hardships right here in the actual U.S. for civilian (for example, see here and here) as well as for military families, along with the hypothetical and often arguable difficulties for the pork-riddled defense infrastructure that so engages Rep. Hartzler. There is a responsible point of view that takes issue with contentions that the sequester is even part of the DoD mix in any serious way. Maybe Rep. Vicky ought to worry about a few of these considerations before trying to push the paranoia button for her more susceptible constituents.

But should you ever expect nuance and fairness from a mind so acute it believes the Chinese are spying on us through our toasters?

Edited for clarity. Sentence added at end of next to last paragraph and at end of 1st paragraph after 1st quote. (7/10, 4:03 pm).

Tonight (July 20) Rep. Todd Akin (R-2nd), along with fellow travelers Ollie North, Tony Perkins, the hysterically funny Senator James Inhofe, and a few others, will participate in a Webcast to demagogue against the Defense Authorization Act, specifically efforts to lay Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) to rest. The Webcast is sponsored by an organization which shares its name with a turgid thriller by Ollie North, Mission Compromised, and proclaims that its goal is to insure that we not “use the military to advance a political agenda” – which some might view as a novel sentiment coming from the patriotism and warmongers on the right.

What specific political agenda are they worried about?  According to the overheated rhetoric on the Mission Compromised Website, we must “protect our military,” vulnerable and fragile institution that it is, from efforts to repeal DADT, a misguided exercise in “social engineering” that is being used to advance the homosexual “agenda” and secure “special protection for homosexuals.” You name a right-wing, anti-gay buzz word, and you’ll find it on the Website, I guarantee.

Interestingly enough, Igor Volsky over at the Wonk Room suggests that there is another agenda in play here – that of the religious right which seeks to “manufacture fear to make money and hold on to what’s left of their constituency.” Volsky quotes “former AFA insider,” Joe Murray:

The battle for marriage, the fight against Heather and her two mommies, and the fictional “homosexual agenda” were created for one reason – it produced a cash cow. […] Need to see how the cow works? Look no further than the American Family Association (AFA).

In its battle to keep patriots from serving in the U.S. Armed Forces for no other reason than their sexual orientation, the AFA is preparing to educate supporters about the importance of Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell (DADT)….When the reader opens the AFA email, he cannot help but see a picture of what appears to be a U.S. soldier sitting alone on a Middle Eastern street. The solider looks exhausted, isolated, and desperate. His picture is centered and on his right (viewer’s left), are the words “DON’T ASK” and on his left (viewer’s right) are the words “DON’T TELL.”

The insinuation is clear – thanks to the power of the “homosexual” lobby and a complacent administration, U.S. soldiers are left stranded on the battlefield as a new batch of recruits are soon to be inducted into the military under the rainbow flag. In other words, the image is an unfortunate manipulation of U.S. troops to further a profitable political message.

I am not suggesting that Akin is anything but sincere in his homophobia. Not to put too fine a point on it, he doesn’t seem clever enough by half to game the believers like, for instance, one suspects Roy Blunt does with regularity.

Sincere or not, though, I also fervently believe that he is quite aware that ginned up fear of “the homosexual agenda” is a profitable and useful political tool. And it is exactly this awkward combination of stupidity and cupidity mendacity that makes me despair when I drive around my conservative neighborhood and see all the Vote for Akin signs – how, in a just world, could such crude manipulators ever prevail?