Anyone who pays attention to politics will know that there are a plethora of elected officials in the 113th Congress that qualify as dumb beyond belief (especially among the Republicans) -- so it was not easy to whittle my list down to only four. But I think these four bring a whole new meaning to the word "dumb" (and the picture of any of the four would fit beside that word in a dictionary).
My first nominee is Louie Gohmert, from the 1st Congressional District of Texas. Louie says so many dumb things that you may wonder whether he grew up on this planet. Evidently the voters of his district don't think rational thinking (or sanity) is necessary in an elected official -- and Gohmert proves almost daily that he is neither rational nor sane.
But while Gohmert may be the frontrunner for "Dumbest Member of Congress", the other three on my list have shown they are worthy contenders for the crown. They are Steve King (4th Congressional District of Iowa), Marsha Blackburn (7th Congressional District of Tennessee), and Blake Farenthold (27th Congressional District of Texas). If Gohmert was to stumble, and show the least bit of rationality, any one of these three could easily spring into the lead.
You may be wondering at this point how I could leave Michele Bachmann (6th Congressional District of Minnesota) and Steve Stockman (36th Congressional District of Texas) off this list -- and I would agree that normally both would be worthy of being nominated. I left them off because when the new Congress meets early next year, they will not be in it. Bachmann chose not to run for re-election this year, and Stockman chose to run for Senate instead (and was thrashed by Cornyn in the GOP primary).
Unfortunately, unless the voters in their districts miraculously develop some common sense before November, it looks like Gohmert, King, Blackburn, and Farenthold will be returning to Congress -- and continuing to display their special kind of dumb (to the detriment of their states and their country).
Those are my nominees for that dubious honor (Dumbest Member of Congress). You may have a different member of Congress that you think is worthy of being nominated. If so, please leave your candidate in the comments section. I'd love to hear your opinion.