On this date, in both 2014, as well as in 2015, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day shared its first two profiles of Dana Rohrabacher, the sitting U.S. House Representative from California’s 48th Congressional District. Rohrabacher is a man who seemingly has yet to read a conspiracy theory he doesn’t like. Amongst his favorites are the theories that the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 was carried out by Muslims, and not domestic terrorists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, that RFK actually had multiple assassins and not just Sirhan Sirhan trying to kill him (Rohrbacher is believed to have visited Sirhan in prison disguised in drag to ask him about it), that Google was using their search engine to hide “the truth” presented in Dinesh D’Souza’s documentaries, and that President Obama left Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other men to die in Benghazi purposefully during the attacks to help guarantee he’d win the 2012 elections (because that’s the sort of thing that wins votes?). On top of that, Rohrabacher is a renowned figure who stands against the theory of man-made climate change, instead blaming the phenomenon on “dinosaur flatulence”, and welcomed the impending 2013 Government Shutdown by going on CNN while believed to be gleefully drunk from celebrating the failure of his party to compromise and, y’know, govern.
Rohrabacher’s love of those conspiracy theories, idiocy on science, and that he speaks glowingly of Vladimir Putin going back to when they hung out in a pub in Russia and were arm-wrestling back in the 1990s had some theorizing that the California Congressman might be a perfect match for Donald Trump as a VP pick. Alas, that is not the direction the Republican Party nudged Trump in, instead recommending Mike Pence to help cement the Evangelical wing to the thrice married adulterer at the top of the ticket.
Instead, Dana Rohrabacher has continued bumbling his way around the capitol:
- September 11th, 2015: Rohrabacher votes against the United States’ nuclear treaty with Iran.
- September 18th, 2015: Rep. Rohrabacher votes for a bill with most House Republicans to defund Planned Parenthood, based on highly edited “sting” videos submitted by a Pro-Life advocacy group that have been repeatedly debunked by investigators.
- November 19th, 2015: Rohrabacher votes for the American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act, reacting to the terror attacks in Paris by jihadists from France and Belgium by trying to create greater restrictions to keep out Syrian refugees, of whom exactly zero were involved in those attacks.
- February 2nd, 2016: Dana Rohrabacher votes for HR 3762, the 61st attempt by Congressional Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act (which is still working better than was predicted).
- May 19th, 2016: Rep. Rohrabacher votes against House Amendment 1079, which would have prohibited the use of federal funds for discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. So if you were wondering, yes, he’s pro-discrimination, all right.
Dana Rohrabacher has a distinct advantage of remaining in office due to gerrymandering, with California’s 48th District packing a +7 Republican lean in the Cook Partisan Voting Index. He will be challenged in November by Suzanne Savary, a brilliant former colleague of Carl Sagan who helped produce his Cosmos series on PBS. She has the endorsement of Bernie Sanders, and a long, long history of being a positive force in her home district. Rohrabacher pulled down 56.6% of the vote in the primary, so Savary has some work to do to make up the difference (which equates to roughly the district’s lean). Here’s hoping she can prevent Rohrabacher from getting a fifteenth, yes FIFTEENTH term in office.