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Wingnut Index

One week after the massacre in Tucson, Wingnuts author John Avlon examines the burgeoning movement that inspired Jared Loughner—and threatens to spawn similar hate-fueled attacks.

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Ethan Miller / Getty Images
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Wingnuts Index: 90/100
In a year of Wingnuts, Sharron Angle still stands out as an All-Star. To some, her crown was taken by Christine O’Donnell, but Angle has used the lack of attention to strengthen her position in the polls.  By comparison, she seems less unhinged.  But don’t be fooled—beneath the commitments to be a "mainstream" senator, Angle’s positions and opinions remain the same.  Yes, she’s talked about "Second Amendment remedies."  She’s advised young girls who’ve been raped to take lemons and make lemonade, by way of explaining her opposition to abortion even in cases of rape and incest. She wants to shut down the Department of Energy, the Department of Education, and the EPA.  She wants the U.S. out of the U.N.  She’s opined about a fictitious imposition of Sharia law in Michigan and Tennessee—but overall, she thinks separation of church and state has been taken a little too far in the USA.  And even though her campaign is predicated on railing against big government, her family is supported by her husband’s government pension.  This is just a partial list of her greatest hits.  But here’s what’s most impressive—Harry Reid is so unpopular in his home state that Angle still has an excellent chance of winning this election.
Quote: "I hope that's not where we're going, but you know if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies and saying my goodness what can we do to turn this country around? I'll tell you the first thing we need to do is take Harry Reid out.”

Ethan Miller / Getty Images
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Wingnuts Index: 85/100
This South Carolinian is the architect of the RINO-hunting that’s dominated the closed partisan primaries this year.  He is an old-school conservative ideologue, invoking the rhetoric of small government and less spending, masking an unrepentant social conservatism that includes opposition to having gays and single mothers teach in public schools.  He gets coinage credit for declaring that conservative opposition could make health care Obama’s “Waterloo.”  He gets 100 percent ratings from most conservative activist organizations. Controversial in the GOP caucus for backing candidates like Christine O’Donnell, now there are whispers that the next stop on DeMint’s conservative crusade might be a run for the White House.
 Quote: "If we’re able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him."

Jacquelyn Martin / AP Photo
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Wingnuts Index: 85/100
It’s a measure of the surreality of this election year that Christine O’Donnell, two-time Senate loser, social conservative TV commentator and anti-masturbation crusader, could enter the U.S. Senate next year. She’s like a third-generation carbon copy of Sarah Palin—the same base alloy of appeal but none of the experience (seriously).  O’Donnell’s presence toward the top of this index is a tribute of sorts to the neverending outer-limits quotes from her past that keep bubbling up, ranging from evangelism to public policy. And then there are the brand new gifts, the unforced errors like the ad that begins with the immortal words “I am not a witch.”  
Quote: "American scientific companies are cross-breeding humans and animals and coming up with mice with fully functioning human brains."

Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP Photo
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Wingnuts Index: 75/100
The son of libertarianism’s first family rode the Tea Party wave over Mitch McConnell’s handpicked establishment candidate in Kentucky.  He’s got the courage of his convictions, but his positions are outside the mainstream of modern American politics—wants the U.S. out of U.N., criticizes the ADA, and wants to block citizenship for children of illegal immigrants. His vision of limited government and individual freedom allows for his opposition to abortion even in cases of rape and incest.  Most controversial, he defended the Goldwater-era libertarian opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Act on the grounds that private businesses should be able to discriminate on the basis of race—a stand he later tried to walk back. 
Quote: Talking Points Memo has a handy list of his greatest hits: 

“The fundamental reason why Medicare is failing is why the Soviet Union failed—socialism doesn't work.”

Ed Reinke / AP Photo
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Wingnuts Index: 65/100
It’s not the hypocrisy of his implication in a prostitution scandal. It’s this former Rhodes scholar and freshman senator’s amazing ability to play to the base without any sense of shame.  There he is backing the birther lawsuits, arguing for abstinence-only education, pushing for a gay-marriage ban to the U.S. Constitution and applying the 14th Amendment to fetuses. Vitter’s calculated that as long as he watches his right flank, the voters will forgive him for a four-year old scandal.  And so far he seems to be right.    
Quote: “I personally don't have standing to bring litigation in court. But I support conservative legal organizations and others who would bring that to court. I think that is the valid and most possibly effective grounds to do it.” [On birther investigations]

Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP Photo
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Wingnuts Index: 60/100
Sarah Palin picked him out of obscurity to oppose her local GOP nemesis Lisa Murkowski, and since his primary victory Joe Miller has been an emerging Tea Party rock star.  He hits all the bases—eliminating the Department of Education, questioning the constitutionality of the federal minimum wage, and repealing the 17th Amendment. He also opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest.

Quote: 
“That is not within the scope of the powers that are given to the federal government…That is clearly up to the states.” [On federal minimum wage]

Chris Miller / AP Photo
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Wingnuts Index: 55/100  
This liberal senator from California made our list as a representative of the Left-Wingnuts in part because she’s managed to be a partisan, polarizing figure even in the dependably Democratic-leaning California.  In contrast to her colleague Dianne Feinstein, Boxer’s never really tried to broaden her left-wing base.  And Politifact’s called her on several attempts to scare her base into acting this year—not just the "conservatives are coming for your Social Security" boogeyman, but an outright Pants-on-Fire claim that opponent Carly Fiorina’s antiabortion beliefs would “mean women and doctors in jail.”  
Quote: “She wants to make [abortion] a crime, and that would mean women and doctors in jail…That is so out of touch with Californians.”

Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP Photo
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Wingnuts Index: 55/100
The former president of the Club for Growth is one of the original RINO hunters—a hard-core fiscal and social conservative whose voting record in Congress was to the right of Jesse Helms. His voting record makes Rick Santorum—the former conservative Pennsylvania senator who got kicked out of office because he was too far right for the purple Keystone State—look liberal. But against the Wingnut tide of Angle and O’Donnell, Toomey almost looks like a statesman.  
Quote: For a more detailed profile of Toomey surfing the cycle, check out The Beast’s Benjy Sarlin’s excellent analysis of the race.

Jacqueline Larma / AP Photo
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Wingnuts Index: 55/100
Many political observers expected Carly Fiorina to tack toward the center, like fellow ticket-mate CEO Meg Whitman, in her attempt to take Barbara Boxer’s California Senate seat.  But she’s chosen to stay true to her “Demon Sheep” roots, as a candidate who engaged in some primary RINO hunting herself, backing Prop 8 and Arizona’s illegal-immigration law. Politifact’s been particularly harsh about her campaign claims to date. 
Quote: "Barbara Boxer's worried about the weather" instead of terrorism as the biggest threat to national security.

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
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Wingnuts Index: 50/100
There’s a reason that a sitting Senate majority leader is tied with a train-wreck of a candidate like Sharron Angle—he’s been a polarizing rather than unifying figure, both at home and around the nation.  While Joe Wilson’s “You Lie!” outburst rightfully angered most Americans, Harry Reid’s similar on-air outburst at President Bush has been largely forgotten. More recently, he’s played the race card, saying “I don't see how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican”—in a state where a Hispanic Republican is easily beating his son to be the next governor.  
Quote: “President Bush is a liar. He betrayed Nevada and he betrayed the country.”

Alex Brandon / AP Photo
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Wingnuts Index: 50/100
This Oklahoma senator is a deeply principled conservative who can occasionally go off the rails in defense of his political beliefs.  Among his policy positions are attempts to have fetuses declared persons under the 14th Amendment—and no strict constructionist, he supports a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and a constitutional amendment for school prayer.  On fiscal issues, he has been steadfast—some liberals might say an obstructionist—but to his credit, his Senate career has been distinguished by a civility that is uncommon in today’s Washington.   
Quote: “Lesbianism is so rampant in some of the schools in southeast Oklahoma that they'll only let one girl go to the bathroom. Now think about it. Think about that issue. How is it that that's happened to us?”

Sue Ogrocki / AP Photo
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Wingnuts Index: 45/100
This may go down as a dysfunctional Walter Mitty type of campaign—epic in all its strangeness and unfortunate hilarity. It’s not like anyone was going to beat Jim DeMint this election year, but the collective "who?" that greeted Greene’s primary win was just the pre-game for the main event.  Greene has no voting record to judge, and so his appearance in the index has mostly to do with his inspired policy proposals—like stimulating the economy by making dolls of himself—straddle the line between absurd and extreme. Despite the lack of a résumé, and his habit of howling “Nooooo….Goooo…” when reporters come to his house, Alvin Greene wins lifetime achievement points for his non-campaign. One day they’ll talk about this campaign in amazement.  We get to enjoy it in the present tense.   
Quote: “Another thing we can do for jobs is make toys of me, especially for the holidays. Little dolls. Me. Like maybe little action dolls. Me in an Army uniform, Air Force uniform, and me in my suit. They can make toys of me and my vehicle, especially for the holidays and Christmas for the kids. That's something that would create jobs. So you see I think out of the box like that. It's not something a typical person would bring up. That's something that could happen, that makes sense. It's not a joke.”

Mary Ann Chastain / AP Photo
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Wingnuts Index: 45/100
This influential former Democrat turned Republican has always been a conservative.  An influential former committee chairman, Shelby’s rise in the Wingnut Index was a surprise, made possible largely by his surprising apparent endorsement of birther claims.  
Quote: “Well, his father was Kenyan and they said he was born in Hawaii, but I haven't seen any birth certificate.”

Charles Dharapak / AP Photo
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Wingnuts Index: 40/100
The self-funded co-founder of World Wrestling Entertainment has spent most of her campaign trying to avoid replays of her inside-the-ring antics. But multimillion-dollar ad-buys can cover up a lot of damage, and angry CT voters have been giving her a real chance at the Senate in what was, after all, PT Barnum’s home state. She's moderate on most social issues, but lately she’s been fending off slips about an openness to reviewing the federal minimum wage with an eye toward its reduction.  And it doesn’t take a crystal ball to see how the still unfolding steroids saga of Clemens and Bonds could end up having a personal impact.  
Quote: “So I still don't think we know the long-term effects of steroids. They are continuing to study it more and more, but I don't believe there are a lot of studies out there today that are conclusive."

Richard Messina / Getty Images
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Wingnuts Index: 40/100
This Tea Party-backed Senate candidate is looking like the only bright spot for Republicans in Colorado, with Dan Maes and Tom Tancredo splitting the conservative vote for governor.   The Weld County district attorney, Buck gets common-sense points for criticizing the birthers but he’s been controversial enough that his statements and positions are being featured in Democratic ads up in New Hampshire.  He opposes the Departments of Energy and Education, supports a constitutional ban on abortion, even in cases of rape and incest.  He wants to end government support for Amtrak and the Postal Service, and says the government should get out of the retirement security business.   
Quote: 
“You are taking a very small group of cases and making a point about abortion. We have hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of abortions in this country every year. And the example that you give is a very poignant one, but an extremely rare occurrence.” [Defending his opposition to abortion even in the case of rape and incest]

Eric Bellamy / AP Photo