Today's Reading - Of Cranks, Charlatans, Deadbeats And The Stupid

Today, we're starting off with Paul Krugman's discussion of deadbeat Gov. Scott "Kochhead" Walker's  (R-Kochland) pandering to the Republican Party's economic charlatans and cranks:

Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin, is said to be a rising contender for the Republican presidential nomination. So, on Wednesday, he did what, these days, any ambitious Republican must, and pledged allegiance to charlatans and cranks. [snip] 

But, on Wednesday, Mr. Walker, in what was clearly a rite of passage into serious candidacy, spoke at a dinner at Manhattan’s “21” Club hosted by the three most prominent supply-siders: Art Laffer (he of the curve); Larry Kudlow of CNBC; and Stephen Moore, chief economist of the Heritage Foundation. Politico pointed out that Rick Perry, the former governor of Texas, attended a similar event last month. Clearly, to be a Republican contender you have to court the powerful charlatan caucus. (our emphasis)

By the way, that would be the same gathering of charlatans and cranks that were treated to has-been demagogue and philanderer Rudy "Noun, Verb, 9/11" Giuliani's characteristically despicable remarks about President Obama not "loving America."

Why did we call Scott "Kochhead" Walker a "deadbeat"?  Let Beth Ethier explain:

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker touts the generous tax cuts he's pushed through since 2010 to bolster his image as one of the 2016 GOP presidential field’s most high-profile fiscal conservatives. (One economically conservative activist told Slate's Betsy Woodruff that Walker's 2014 gubernatorial election was more important to him than every other election in the country combined.) But those tax cuts have not created the hoped-for economic growth, and even after big reductions in public spending, Wisconsin is in the midst of a budget crisis: Bloomberg reported Wednesday that the Walker administration will skip a debt payment of $108 million that is due in May.

That would be the same "Kochhead" Walker who wants to give the owner of the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team $200 million for a new arena Walker.

As for The Republican Stupid, readers of this blog should be well versed in The Republican Stupid, given our long-running, on-going feature "Today's Dispatches From The Stupid Party."  Damon Linker (a great name for an aggregating blogger, by the way), opines that even more outrageous than the Republican pandering to the economic charlatans and cranks is their pandering to another of the party's "demographics":

And really, isn't that what's most outrageous about the contemporary Republican Party — how ready and even eager it is to go slumming for support in the fever swamps of white cultural resentment? [snip] 

Far greater civic damage is done by the GOP pandering to (and flattering the prejudices of) right-wing cultural populists. [snip] 

That's what's inspired such sparkling policy gems as Mitt Romney's proposal that undocumented workers "self-deport" and Herman Cain's 9-9-9 tax cut gimmick. It's also given us Sen. Ted Cruz — a politician whose every word and action seems driven by the singular desire to transform himself into an archetype of the median Fox News viewer.   

And then there's Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who's already in the lead to win this election cycle's award for Achievements in Pandering.

Linker then discusses "Kochhead" Walker's adventures in edumacational gutting "reform" at the University of Wisconsin and his pandering on whether or not he believes in evolution.

So, there you have it:  a party that's of the worst, by the worst and for the worst.