This Just In - The Right Wing Doesn't Get How Government Works!

From Raw Story comes news that shouldn't come as a surprise, but, amazingly, does.

It comes from wingnut poohbah Jim DeMint of South Carolina - that mythical land where "U.S. Americans, such as, don't have maps." It appeared in his comments today to the Federalist Society in DC. And it's about the Presidency.

Obama's a secret Muslim? Nope. Not born here? Not mentioned. In a criminal conspiracy to destroy the nation? Close, but not stated as such.

Turns out, it doesn't really matter...because the President isn't the leader of the country!

Read that last again. The individual occupying the post at the apex of the Executive branch, whose role is also described as "Chief Executive" and "Commander-in-Chief" and who hosts state dinners because, presumably s/he is considered the Head of State - that person is not the country's leader.

"This whole idea that the President is the leader of our country is a mistake," DeMint said during a speech to the Washington, DC chapter of the Federalist Society, according to Talking Points Memo.

"Leadership starts in the homes in the communities, in businesses, in churches," he said. "I've lived in a community and I know where the leaders are and it's not in Washington. And this pretense that he's our nation's leader... I'm not just talking about Obama, I'm talking about any President."

OK. Let's throw out that last line, right now, because this is sure not the kind of thing you heard from DeMint and his ilk during the Dubya years. In fact, in a piece from 2007, he takes candidates Clinton and Obama both to task for lacking in leadership, saying "It's amazing they can get out and say the president hasn't led when they haven't introduced anything serious since they've been there," and continues at length to describe Presidential mettle as requiring CEO-type experience. Because leading a company helps you lead a country, it seems. Or it did in 2007.

But let's say he's allowed to change his mind. Now, today, he doesn't think that the Presidency is a leadership role. It starts in homes, communities, businesses, churches. (Funny how many shots Obama took for having been a "community organizer" - sounds "leader-y," as a Sarah Palin might say, to me, going by DeMint's lexicon!) Apparently none of it is found in government.

Which begs the question...why does he want to stay in the Senate? Why was he, at one point, gunning for a "leadership" role there? What's he doing in government at all, if all the real leadership is elsewhere? Like so many Republicans, he has stepped into the ideological quicksand of supposedly wanting to shrink government down to its bare minimum while simultaneously spending a small fortune to get voters to ensure he continues to be a part of said government. It's like singing the praises of plain cheese pizza but then loading up on the toppings - or, hell, investing in a pizza-toppings company!

It gets better yet. Later in the speech, quoth DeMint:

After implying that the president has overreached in his desire to reform American society, DeMint curiously claimed Obama isn't going to lead and therefore should be replaced.

"It's pretty clear this President is not going to lead," he said. "We've got to replace this President."

OK, the Presidency is not, de facto, a leadership role. Yet Obama must be replaced, stat, because he's "not leading"?

Someone needs to sit down with DeMint and have the "words mean stuff" talk with him, making it clear that you can't describe a government office as two opposite things simultaneously, nor can you call for the ouster of its occupant for failing to demonstrate a quality that you claim isn't part of the job description anyway.

Someone give that U.S. American a map...and maybe the title of Miss Uncongeniality.