Outrage Of The Week

This week's Outrage comes to us courtesy of U.S. Representative Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) who recently lashed out at Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin (R) while trying to muster support for anti-gun Presidential candidate Barack Obama. 

Hastings has a well-deserved reputation for opening his mouth and speaking his mind.  But this week, when he opened his mouth, he put his foot into it.  Way into it. 

While participating in a panel discussion sponsored by the National Jewish Democratic Council, Hastings unleashed his incendiary rhetoric on Palin, saying, "If Sarah Palin isn't enough of a reason for you to get over whatever your problem is with Barack Obama, then you damn well had better pay attention.  Anybody toting guns and stripping moose don't care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks.  So, you just think this through." 

If you don't follow Hastings' twisted, asinine, exploitive, and, in his mind, politically expedient logic in trying to portray Palin, and America's hunters and lawful gun owners in a bad light, don't feel bad.  It's a connection that can't logically or rationally be made. 

Is Hastings trying to suggest that Palin, because she is pro-gun and a hunter, is somehow dangerous to Jews and African Americans?  Is he trying to help Obama, who in turn is furiously trying to convince hunters that he supports them?  And does anybody know what "stripping moose" even means?   His statements are both preposterous and incomprehensible. 

For those who may have forgotten, or perhaps never knew, Hastings used to be a federal judge. Then he was indicted for accepting a bribe of $150,000 in a criminal case, in return for agreeing to impose a lenient sentence and order the assets of two defendants charged with 21 counts of racketeering to be returned to them.  The U.S. House of Representatives voted 413 to 3 to impeach him.  He was convicted by the Senate a year later, by a vote of 69 to 26, and was impeached and removed from office.  He is only the sixth federal judge to be impeached and removed from office in all of American history.  Sounds like a credible guy.