Jim Hightower

I have to ask: Does the Republican Party have a secret "Stupid Farm" where it breeds and raises senators?

How else to explain the far-out loopiness of several GOP solons who constantly confuse ideology with intelligence? Recently, for example, we were treated to the spectacle of Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning shutting down the US Senate. This former baseball pitcher hurled himself into a goofball effort to block a one-month extension of unemployment benefits. Never mind that millions of hard-hit Americans are out of work, out of savings, and would be out of luck without the lifeline of unemployment payments, Bunning fell into a ideological snit over this expenditure of public funds. Some of his colleagues finally had to get a net and gently remove him from the public scene he was making.

But Bunning's stunt set off an aftershock of stupidity in the head of Sen. Jon Kyl. Suddenly, this Arizona Republican was up on his hind legs asserting that "continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work."

Yoo-hoo, Senator Kyl, please honk if your spaceship ever comes near earth again.

This is the worst economy since the Great Depression. More than 15 million Americans are jobless, with many of them going without work for months despite desperately searching every day. Apparently Kyl is clueless that corporations are firing, not hiring.

And, by the way, Senator, Wall Street bankers also are not investing in job-creating enterprises, even though you voted to bail them out with billions of taxpayer dollars. It seems they have no incentive to invest in America's grassroots recovery, because – well, gosh, you gave them our money with no strings attached.

We need to shut down this Stupid Farm before it produces more Bunnings and Kyls.