Making a Cass of Himself

Rep. Cass Ballenger (R), from Hickory, North Carolina has had another bigotry explosion. You may remember Rep. Ballenger from the beginning of the year when he admitted to having "segregationist feelings" when he had to be around Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) because she was "such a bitch." You don't figure he really could outdo himself on that one, but you'd be figuring wrong.

U.S. Rep. Cass Ballenger blames the breakup of his 50-year marriage partly on the stress of living near a leading American Muslim advocacy group. He told The Charlotte Observer that he and his wife worried that the group was so close to the U.S. Capitol that "they could blow the place up." Another stress on their marriage was the 1995 decision by "holier-than-thou Republicans" in the House to ban gifts from lobbyists, said Ballenger, a Hickory Republican . He said the meals and theater tickets from lobbyists once meant "a social life for [congressional] wives."

[...]

Ballenger said that in the post 9/11 environment in Washington, his wife was anxious about all the activity at the group, including people unloading boxes late at night and women "wearing hoods," or headscarves, going in and out of the office building . "That's 2 1/2 blocks from the Capitol," he said, "and they could blow it up."

Where does one even begin with something like that? The saddest thing is that, given the district he represents, these sorts of remarks probably only help him.