2013 March to Madness Insane 16: #1 Marco Rubio vs. #4 Dick Cheney
Jed Lewison - Thu Mar 28, 2013 at 03:25 PM PDT
It's finally here: the third round of the 2013 Daily Kos Republican March to Madness Tournament, aka The Insane 16. This round features eight epic battles as we crown the craziest Republican of them all. Break out your water bottles because this contest is from the GOP Establishment Region and features #1 seed Marco Rubio against #4 seed Dick Cheney.
Compared with Rubio, Cheney has had an easy tournament, taking out John McCain with 76 percent and Grover Norquist with 59 percent. Rubio, on the other hand, barely beat John Boehner with 52 percent, but he managed a bigger win against Reince Priebus with 58 percent. If this was tournament was purely about the past, Cheney would probably win in a walk, but Republicans are now presenting Marco Rubio as their savior and just about the only policy disagreement he has with Cheney is over marriage equality, which Cheney supports and Rubio opposes. Whatever happens, this should be a tough battle.
Whoever wins this matchup will join the winners #1 Rush Limbaugh vs. #5 Glenn Beck in the Right-wing Media Region, #1 Rick Santorum vs. #4 James Inhofe in the Theocons Region, and #1 Ted Cruz vs. #4 Michele Bachmann in the Teabaggers Region. You'll be able to vote on (and track results of) all the Insane 16 matchups here .. http://www.dailykos.com/blog/GOP%20March%20to%20Madness .
As with previous rounds, you're voting for whomever you believe makes for a better poster-child for Republican craziness. That doesn't necessarily need to mean you're voting for the craziest person, because you might also consider their prominence and influence as well as their association with the GOP. It's entirely up to you. Voting on all Insane 16 matchup will continue until Saturday morning, at which point the Crazy 8 will be set. From there, it'll be on to the Freakshow Four.
"You see what they're doing to Michele Bachmann?" Beck asked. "Michele Bachmann is under all kinds of ethics investigations now. Why do you suppose that is? ... She is uber-clear on what's going on. Uber-clear."
But Beck suggested there were other reasons for a supposed radical Islamic-linked backlash against Bachmann. According to him, she'd demonstrated her clarity on what was "going on" because she'd asked the State Department for answers on why it was sending Somali refugees to her district.
Beck is right about one thing. Many Somalis do live in Minnesota -- more than 32,000 [ http://www.startribune.com/132670583.html ] according to census data. But the State Department's decision to select Minnesota and Bachmann's district as a destination for Somali refugees far predates the controversial congresswoman's entrance into politics.
It began in the early 1990s, when civil war broke out in Somalia, forcing refugees to flee to neighboring countries. Many eventually ended up in the U.S., and the State Department sent them to Minnesota, confident that the region's voluntary agencies, or VOLAGS -- groups that partner with the federal government -- could provide a strong infrastructure for their resettlement.
But the Somalis have largely stayed, somewhere around 30,000 of them, partially because of the strength of the non-governmental VOLAGS, and partially because of the strength of governmental programs to help refugees begin a new life ...
After the first wave is assigned here, the second wave of relatives and friends soon followed.
What any of this has to do with the mounting investigations and legal problems Bachmann now faces, only Beck knows.
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