Roy Blunt, as in Dull, Obtuse

Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri is an announced candidate for the job of majority leader in the US House of Representatives. I live in Florence, Oregon, population about 8000. It's 15 miles from Mapleton, population about 1000. Almost two years ago, I wrote the following:

Congressman Roy Blunt, the third ranking Republican member, told a joke to the Missouri Republican Convention. "How many Frenchmen would it take," he asked," to defend Paris? It's not known. It's never been tried." The audience laughed and applauded.

I was in France in September, 2001. I recall vividly a monument in a small French village, definitely smaller than Florence, perhaps the size of Mapleton. It commemorated the young people from the parish who had died defending their homeland in the Great War. There were more than 50 names.

On September 11, fewer than 3000 Americans died. Between July, 1914, and November, 1918, the French lost 1,357,000 defending Paris. In proportion to their smaller population, they lost as many as we have lost in the war on terrorism. Every day. For 50 months.

During the battle of Verdun in northern France, a ton of high explosive was dropped on every square yard. Decades later, nothing grew there. A half century later, one could still sometimes see green chlorine gas collecting in the bottoms of old shell craters after rain.

The French know something about death during war. They know something about chemical warfare. Representative Blunt, who represents the Ozarks, is the sort of person who gives hicks a bad name.

If this moron is the best that the Republican Party can find to lead them in Congress, they deserve to lose control in November.