Zombie party

Sen. Shelby, changing the tone in Washington.

This kind of stupidity took a right turn at annoying quite a while ago, and now rests comfortably in the realm of madness. When Alan Keyes launches into a ridiculous tirade about the president's birth certificate, it's not especially surprising -- Keyes, based on all available evidence, is apparently not well. Anyone looking for lucidity from the poor man is bound to be disappointed.

It's far more annoying to have elected Republican officials in Tennessee signing on as plaintiffs in a lawsuit "aimed at forcing" the President to "prove he is a United States citizen."

But the Shelby example is a different magnitude of idiocy. Shelby isn't just some random yahoo with a right-wing radio talk-show; he's a four-term United States senator. He's the ranking member on the Senate Banking Committee, for crying out loud. It's incumbent on him to be somewhat coherent and conduct himself with at least a little sanity.

I'd go further and say that it's incumbent on his GOP colleagues in the Senate to speak out against a baseless and stupid attack, and a charge that was debunked months ago. It's the right thing to do, showing that they won't stand for partisan grandstanding that has no purpose -- he's not opposing the president's policy, he's attacking the validity of the election -- and it's the right political thing to do as well. What, after all, is Shelby thinking in attacking a very popular president in this way? Do they pump right wing talk radio directly into these guys' brains?