Yesterday the U.S. House passed a bill which, as PoliticalTicker puts it, was “aimed at modernizing language referring to the mentally ill.” One “modernizing” step was to remove the word “lunatic” from federal law.
The vote: 398 votes to remove; 32 not voting; 1 vote to retain the word.
That lone vote came from Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX-R). The same measure, Political Ticker reports, passed the Senate in May, with no opposition.
‘I don’t have a problem with lunatic being used in the federal law and apparently I was the only one on the floor here that didn’t have a problem using the term lunatic,’ Gohmert said, in a speech on the House floor criticizing the Obama administration’s budget proposal.
From David A. Graham, at The National Journal:
The Republican’s office issued this statement explaining his stand as the lone ‘no’ vote on the measure.
‘Not only should we not eliminate the word ‘lunatic’ from federal law when the most pressing issue of the day is saving our country from bankruptcy, we should use the word to describe the people who want to continue with business as usual in Washington.’ I asked Gohmert’s office to clarify the statement as to whether his objection was to the removal of lunatic or just to the House focusing on issues like this rather than the fiscal cliff, but I’ve received no response.
Louie Gohmert, once again making news in a way only a lunatic standing-by-his-convictions Elected can.
(Louie Gohmert via Gohmert.house.gov)
I don’t mind using the word either. Gohmert is a lunatic.
Really…if we dispense with the word “Lunatic” how can we accurately describe the repugnantKLAN.teabagger/UBERChristofascists in the House?