Luckily for Erick (who seems to believe people "become" gay, the doughy rube), there are still a few societies left on the planet that he might feel more comfortable raising his son in -- like Saudi Arabia, Iran, or Uganda.

Should we buy him a ticket?

This reminds us that the big "GOP Rebranding" project I keep reading about -- which is supposed to usher in a more libertarian, less hateful Republicanism -- won't amount to much until the party can purge the Teamams like Erickson. Good luck with that, guys.

Barry Goldwater weeps.

Truly awful people. Really all that needs to be said.

(h/t Heather)

Yep, even after Barack Obama became the first two-term president since Eisenhower to win more than 51% of the popular vote in two elections, giggling wingnuts like Erickson are still using the "Black Jimmy Carter" line. And despite the non-stop giddy SCANDAL! drumbeat by right-wingers, his approval rating is at 49%.

In comparison, after the actual scandals of Iraq, Afghanistan, Katrina, Abu Grhaib, FISA, the US Attorney firings, and Valerie Plame, George W. Bush spent his last three years in the 30s.

How quickly they forget.

Shorter Erickson: fascist death squads are awesome! Erickson later played the "I was KIDDING!" card, but you know what Freud said about jokes.

Anyway, I find it amusing that so many wingers are celebrating the election of a Pope who is known "for questioning free-market policies, which he blames for leaving millions of Argentines impoverished," and once said,

“The unjust distribution of goods persists, creating a situation of social sin that cries out to Heaven and limits the possibilities of a fuller life for so many of our brothers.”

That's right, he thinks wealth inequality is a "sin."

Oh, and he hates austerity, too.

But Francis also seems to be an opponent of austerity, most notably during his time as spiritual leader of Argentina when the country defaulted on its debt in 2002.

A paper by Thomas Trebat, “Argentina, the Church, and Debt,” details the church’s role in the crisis’s resolution. Argentine bishops, including Francis, had long criticized the laissez-faire policies of Carlos Menem, who was president from 1989 to 1999. “The bishops were critical of the economic model as a generator of poverty and unemployment, notwithstanding the stability it had brought to the country,” Trebat wrote.

Looking forward to John Boehner, Paul Ryan and all the other Republican Catholics in this country to abandon their tax cuts for the rich/screw the poor economics, and embrace Pope Francis' teachings.

A few years ago, libertarian Julian Sanchez identified an ever-worsening problem on the right: namely, that with the rise of Fox News, right-wing radio, and right-wing blogs, conservatives have hermetically sealed themselves off from all facts, debate and discussion that don't originate from the conservative echo chamber. He called this phenomenon "epistemic closure."

Naturally, Sanchez was widely mocked by the right, with Erick Erickson dismissing the critique as a product of "vegetarian philosophers." Self-criticism and self-reflection has never been wingnuts' strongsuit.

Now, Newt Gingrich is saying exactly the same thing.

...I think conservatives in general got in the habit of talking to themselves. I think that they in a sense got isolated into their own little world. So our pollsters, many of whom were wrong about turnout. No Republican pollster thought you could get 87 percent turnout in Milwaukee. You just sort of have to say that to some extent the degree to which we believed that the other side was kidding themselves, it turned out in fact in the real world – this is a part of what makes politics so fascinating – it turned out in the real world we were kidding ourselves.

Yes, that was Newt Gingirch admitting right-wingers have lost touch with reality. But please, keep listening to Rush and Glenn and inviting Sarah Palin to CPAC, wingnuts!

Later, Newt says that Republicans like Eric Cantor who insist that the party just needs to improve their message and marketing are kidding themselves.

I’m for a big rethinking. I don’t think a modestly reformed Republican Party has any real chance of competing in the absence of a dramatic disaster. If there was a big disaster, people would be driven away from the Democrats, but in the absence of a really big disaster, if you want to compete in a difficult but not impossible world, we’re going to have to have very large fundamental rethinking.

Translation: we have to stop offering lower taxes for rich people as the answer to every problem and we have to stop trashing government and demonizing the poors, women, immigrants, and the gays.

Good luck with that, Newt.

This is one of my favorite flavors of SRWT, a real classic: the "ZOMG Obama didn't even mention [Arbitrarily Chosen Issue/Event Right-Wingers Demand He Mention That Particular Day]!!!" variety. And she's got a whole bunch more where that came from.

Even Erick Erickson has taken to complaining about wingnuts' fondness for "peddling daily outrage." It's annoying, sure -- but to be fair, what would the Anchor Baby talk about if she wasn't peddling daily outrage?

Erick Erickson, who recently left CNN for the nuttier pastures at Fox News, penned his first column for Roger Ailes today, which begins:

The editors of the New York Times often come across as school girls at a Justin Bieber concert when it comes to the Democrats. Thursday, they upped their school girl skirt just a bit more for the Democrats.

Nothing quite like a doughy, middle-aged white dude conjuring the image of a teenage girl lifting up her skirt, is there?

Erickson will fit right in at Fox.

So, according to CNN's Erick Erickson, the problem isn't that a mentally-ill person had easy access to a .223 caliber semi-automatic assault rifle with high capacity magazines. It's that too many people in this country are having unapproved sexytime. This is exactly, by the way, what Mitt Romney stupidly argued during the campaign.

Republicans and the NRA are going to pull out all the stops on this one. We can't let them win this time.

Not a week after Saxby Chambliss steps out of the Grover Norquist zone, Erick Erickson steps in, ever so humbly, to declare he's considering a primary challenge to Mr. Chambliss. Oh, not just considering. Prayerfully considering.

Evidently there are some billionaires out there who think Mr. "GoatF*ck" Erick Erickson would be a wonderful Senator simply because he wouldn't raise taxes. Or something.

But we won't forget how he denigrated women with this tweet during the Democratic National Convention, or how he tried to commit identity fraud to "entrap" the Obama campaign into accepting overseas campaign contributions.

Or how he defended deadbeat dad Joe Walsh's attacks on Tammy Duckworth, or pushed the false "death panel" meme, or how he was willing to see the country's economy implode by encouraging conservatives to hold the line on the debt ceiling back in 2011.

No, we won't forget how he bullied Stephanie Cutter, or that he thinks Rush Limbaugh is conservative Jesus.

These things will not go unnoticed. Just as Mitt Romney has scored his 47 percent irony, so too will Erick Erickson find himself on the opposite side of his ridiculous 53 percent meme.

But please, Mr. Erickson. Pray over it. Pray harder. We'll wait. Someone pop popcorn, please.

Oh, Breitbart's minions aren't having a very good night. You'd think they'd be running all over the place celebrating their beefcake candidate's debate, but instead they're just bashing Joe Biden for laughing at laughable things.

Even Karl Rove haz a sad, and I include the most classic reply ever for your amusement:

I bet you do, honey. RT @karlrove: I miss Jim Lehrer.

— rob delaney (@robdelaney) October 12, 2012

Chris Bowers describes their delicate fee-fees thus:

Conservatives are delicate & fragile, like tender flowers or a pure white colt. They get easily upset when someone snaps at them. #VPdebate

— Chris Bowers (@ThisBowers) October 12, 2012

Michelle Malkin is very busy calling Joe Biden names (Smirky Malarky McSmirk?) while complaining about Martha Raddatz and Biden interrupting Paulie-poo. Awwww. Pot, meet kettle.

Martha Raddatz, Joe Biden forget their manners: Don't interrupt! bit.ly/Os7LLu

— TwitchyTeam (@TwitchyTeam) October 12, 2012

Meanwhile, over in the "people CNN should fire but won't" side of the camp, Erick Erickson is busy blaming Martha Raddatz, who did a pretty good job of keeping the filibusters on both sides down to a minimum. I hated her question about raising the Medicare age, but otherwise she did all right.

Wow, Martha Raddatz really is in Obama's camp it seems.

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) October 12, 2012

But not to worry, because Erickson has also pronounced this debate "inconsequential." Funny how that goes.

On and on it goes. I had lots of weird sock puppet-ish accounts turn up in my twitter replies, too, denying facts right and left, claiming Joe Biden was lying (he wasn't), and the like. Ryan's online army was ready for battle, except...evidently they just weren't prepared for a laughing Biden. Really.

"The laughter certainly was not something that we expected," Mitt Romney campaign spokesman Michael Steel told Yahoo News after the debate. "On the policy front, I think it was precisely what we expected. I didn't hear any new attacks really. There were a few statistics that were more of a reach than usually, but pretty typicalof the vice president in the limited amount that we've seen him in public in the past few months."

Worst. spin. ever.

They're not talking about Ryan. They're talking about Biden. And bashing the moderator. That means we win. Sorry guys, but tonight you'll just have to cry in your pretzels and keep making excuses. Biden made mincemeat out of your guy. Live with it.