Nothing Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) says surprises us. The guy is a loon on climate change, a birther and has said the 9/11 attacks were God’s vengeance for America’s betrayal of Israel. Not surprisingly, one of the places Inhofe is least informed and most bigoted is on the gays. He once incorrectly boasted: “I’m really proud to say that in the recorded history of our family, we’ve never had a divorce or any kind of a homosexual relationship.”
In other words, Inhofe is pretty much a centrist in the modern Republican Party. Still, every once in a while, even with that context, the senator from Crazytown manages to surprise us with his ignorant and antiquated views. Take, for instance, his recent appearance on American Family Association Radio (actual thing). He was asked about repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and had this to say:
For those of us — and I’m one of them — who have gone through the military, gone through basic training, and you stop and think — it just doesn’t make any sense. Second of all, it’s just not working. You have women, men, then you have a third group to deal with, and they’re not equipped to do that.
And you know — you hear the stories all the time. A military guy — I happen to be Army, and Army and Marines always feel that when we’re out there, we’re not doing it for the flag or the country; we’re doing it for the guy in the next foxhole. And that would dramatically change that.
First of all, let’s note that Inhofe has three classifications of people: men, women and “a third group,” meaning the gays. As a bigoted military guy himself, Inhofe can speak from personal experience when he says that he wouldn’t fight and die for the guy next to him if that guy were gay. Not only that, but he takes it a step further and says other troops are just like that, too. In other words, Inhofe can’t help but say the modern military is bad at its job and full of bigots who’d rather watch their comrades die than fight for a gay person.
Question: Why does Jim Inhofe hate the troops?
Not surprisingly, Inhofe is way off base. From Think Progress:
A December 2006 survey of servicemembers who had served in Iraq or Afghanistan found that 73 percent of those polled were “comfortable with lesbians and gays.” The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network has reported that more than 500 U.S. soldiers are “out” to their colleagues and continue to serve. When Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen announced his personal belief that now is the time to repeal DADT, he cited the fact that he has served with gay comrades since 1968.
Of course, facts have never gotten in the way of Jim Inhofe’s ranting before.
I’d do it for the guy in the next foxhole – I mean, if he was hot.
When Inhofe brags there were no divorces or gays in his family tree, I wonder how many suicides, cases of depression and manic depression, closeted gays, etc. were in that family tree and did anyone ever hang themselves from that family tree?
Something tells me that family tree doesn’t have a whole lotta branches.