Last week, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus compared President Obama to the Italian cruise ship captain who is being held on possible manslaughter charges for the death of 17 people. Priebus then doubled down on his comparison on Faux News.

And Tuesday on Morning Joe, Jack Kingston (W-GA) lamely claimed that Priebus was an "independent contractor" -- and defended his remarks.

BRZEZINSKI: That was disgusting. I'm sorry -- take it back. You all screwed up in a big way. You sat in a room and said, "Oh, this would be so cool to say. Ha, ha, ha." You slapped your knees and then you went out on the air and you spit that you, you vomited that out, and you made a fool of yourself. Does anyone want to add anything?

KINGSTON: I don't know that you can say that was anything but an independent contractor using his own words and his own writing.

Just how exactly is the Chairman of the RNC an "independent contractor"?

Then Kingston defended Priebus.

KINGSTON: There is name-calling there, and I don't appreciate the name-calling anymore than you do. However, there is also a point under it. The president does, in the State of the Union address, kind of revert back to kind of a lot of small ball items and isn't really handling the big issues of the day. Right now on the payroll tax cut, which isn't a huge deal, seems to be his biggest focus...

So, because the GOP didn't like Obama's State of the Union address, he's just like an incompetent, cowardly Italian cruise ship captain who is being held on possible charges for manslaughter? That has to be the lamest defense of a character assassination I've ever seen.

But that's Republicans for you. They don't back down, and they don't apologize -- and the media lets them get away with it. It's difficult to imagine the non-stop wingnut ragegasm that would've erupted if Howard Dean had said something like this about George W. Bush in 2004.

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Boy, do I miss Anthony Weiner. He would have at least given us some comic relief during this ridiculous payroll tax standoff, don't you think?

Here he is forcing Rep. Jack Kingston to admit the Ryan plan ends Medicare as we know it today. Straight up, Kingston spills it.

Take THAT, Politifact.

p.s. Congratulations to Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin on the recent birth of their son.

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On The Last Word, Anthony Weiner maneuvered Rep Jack Kingston (R-GA) into admitting that the Ryan plan ends Medicare and converts it to a voucher plan.

What's so funny about this is how hard Boehner has been working to deny it, because of course, vouchers equal privatization. So Boehner's out there laying it down saying no, it's not privatization, it's transformation. We all know it's bull but then who cares, because he's doubling down on Ryan's plan after the President's speech anyway in order to appease the Tea Party and his insurance company keepers happy.

Keep overreaching, GOP. Keep it up.

During Friday night's Real Time, Republican Congressman Jack Kingston took to the airwaves to echo the right wing talking points of Obama being "not patriotic enough". One of the memes that Kingston brought up was about Obama not wearing his lapel pin. Let's take a look at people not wearing their lapel pin:

(click for larger view)

How interesting. That looks like Rep. Jack Kingston talking about Obama not wearing his lapel pin. What's missing? Jack Kingston's lapel pin.

So does this make Kingston unpatriotic, a hypocrite or just plain stupid.

Of course this isn't the first time Kingston played a game of "open mouth, insert foot". A little over a year ago, Kingston said if families couldn't survive on the old minimum wage then they needed to work longer hours. Just a month before that he was crying that working a 5 day work week in Congress would "take away from families". I guess his family is more important than yours or mine.

(cross posted at IntoxiNation)

Keith Olbermann scooped me on this only because his broadcast is before we put up the Open Thread, but I thought that this little nugget of hypocrisy was worth a laugh or two.

As promised in the First 100 hours of the Democratic-controlled Congress, they have approved a raise in the minimum wage. Jack Kingston (R-GA), however, didn't have anything positive to say:

During the House debate, Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., said Democrats would celebrate the bill's passage because "it's going to be good politics for them."

But he warned that people would not escape poverty through mandated wage hikes. If, instead, people would marry and work longer hours, "they would be out of poverty," he said. "It is an economic fact."

Funnily enough, in every economics class I've ever taken (and there have been quite a few), this "fact" has never been presented as a way to escape poverty.

But the thing that is so ironic is that this is the same Jack Kingston who, upon learning that the Democratic majority planned on Congress working five days a week, rather than his party's 2 1/2, had this to say:

"Keeping us up here eats away at families," said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who typically flies home on Thursdays and returns to Washington on Tuesdays. "Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families - that's what this says."

Um, yeah.

Steny Hoyer tells the House that they'll finally have to work like the rest of us.

"I have bad news for you," Hoyer told reporters. "Those trips you had planned in January, forget 'em. We will be working almost every day in January, starting with the 4th."

"Keeping us up here eats away at families," said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who typically flies home on Thursdays and returns to Washington on Tuesdays. "Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families -- that's what this says."

I didn't know being elected to the House means you don't have to work. Working usually helps marriages because---you know--- it helps to feed their families. As C&Ler Brian says: "By the time the gavel comes down on the 109th Congress on Friday, members will have worked a total of 103 days. That's seven days fewer than the infamous "Do-Nothing Congress" of 1948."

The "do nothing" label fits. Mr. Kingston. You may remember him from his ridiculous Hardball appearance during the Foley scandal.

Quite the Defense
Here is how the GOP leadership describes Jean Schmidt's tirade on Friday against Jack Murtha:

Several Republicans who were on the House floor said afterward that Ms. Schmidt did not appear to know she was referring to a much-decorated veteran. "The poor lady didn't know Jack Murtha was a Marine - she really just ran into a hornet's nest," said Representative Jack Kingston of Georgia. Representative David Dreier of California said, "Very clearly, she did not know that Jack Murtha was a Marine."

Shorter description:

"What she lacks in tact, she makes up for in being a complete moron."

By the way, it would be nice if the New York Times would actually give an accurate description of the Marine she quoted. Colonel Bobp is an Ohio State Representatives and complete GOP shill (is he awash in Noe money too?) Posted by Attaturk