Randi Rhodes: Witches to Nazis

Let’s start off with a little humor from our new best friend, Christine O’Donnell. Christine describes her alleged work in marketing for the movie “The Passion of the Christ” as “nonprofit work.” Ahem. Mel Gibson movies are not non-profit ventures. Well, they might be from now on, but not intentionally. Not only was the movie “The Passion of the Christ” clearly for-profit, it was the work of people like Christine O’Donnell who made it so profitable by taking an intensely sado-masochistic quasi-porn film and peddling it to religious conservatives. Mel Gibson made “The Passion of the Christ” to make money. The only difference between it and “Lethal Weapon” or “Mad Max” is that those movies are watchable.

It turns out that Christine O’Donnell’s father was briefly a fill-in as Bozo the Clown in the 60’s on a local station in Philadelphia. In true Christine O’Donnell style, her father’s stint as Bozo was completely overstated. At least they didn’t say he went to clown college at Oxford. Daddy O’Donnell was a local Bozo on a Philadelphia UHF station that became Fox channel 29. Now his daughter is a national Bozo. And they both only appeared on Fox!

And now, from comically inappropriate Republican candidates to tragically inappropriate ones. A Republican running for Congress in Ohio likes to pretend he’s a Nazi… unlike most Republicans, who like to pretend they’re not. It’s true. Republican Congressional candidate Rich Iott of Ohio is a Nazi re-enactor. Being a conservative Republican, it’s not that much of a stretch. He’s already got the attitude, all he needs is the SS uniform. And he and his pals all seem to have found them. Where does one go to find an SS uniform these days? Is there an “LL Ich Bean” catalogue?

Iott and his pals re-enact the battles of the 5th SS Wiking Panzer Division. Why are these people re-enacting the Second World War? Probably for the same reason Southerners re-enact the Civil War—they don’t like the way it turned out. Iott says his Nazi fantasy weekends were part of “a father-son bonding thing.” Somebody should have told this guy about Little League. Or, ever hear of the Boy Scouts? I’d rather have my kid learn how to tie knots than learn how to machinegun Jewish peasants.

Today’s Homework Discuss

SNL parodies O'Donnell's "I'm not a witch" ad...