The Right Wing Endorsement Sweepstakes

First there was the Twit-Off and now Mark Neumann and Scott Walker are trying to win the Right Wing Endorsement Sweepstakes. We already know that Scott Walker unsuccessfully tried to get the endorsement of Sarah Palin. Newt Gingrich came to town for a Walker fundraiser but he wouldn't actually endorse him. It appears that Walker did get the endorsement of Jeb Bush, but who would really know? After all, the media was locked out and only high rolling special interests were allowed. What we do know is that Mark Neumann just won the endorsement of another nationally recognized reactionary Republican, Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn.

For those that don't know, here are some of Coburn's extreme right wing "credentials":

• Forget terrorists, Tom Coburn is apparently more concerned about the LGBT Community saying that they have "infiltrated the very centers of power in every area across this country, and they wield extreme power…That agenda is the greatest threat to our freedom that we face today."
  
• In 1997 he proposed a bill that would have required reporting the names of those who tested positive for HIV/AIDS to public health authorities and withholding Medicaid funding from states that didn't comply.
  
• At a House subcommittee meeting on the Safe Drinking Water Act in 1996, which included testimony of Milwaukee's 1993 cryptosporidium problem, Coburn praised the spores that made 400,000 sick saying that they "can sometimes…be very helpful – for doctors – because it helps us identify those people who in fact are immune-compromised."
  
• In 1997 when NBC aired the Academy Award-winning movie Schindler's List. Coburn proclaimed that the airing of the movie had taken television "to an all-time low, with full-frontal nudity, violence and profanity." He also was outraged by the "…irresponsible sexual behavior…" of the movie.
  
• More recently Coburn has expressed his right wing cred in other ways, such as blocking things like the extension of unemployment benefits, veterans benefits, breast cancer research funding, child protection legislation.

I could go on forever on Coburn's wildly extreme record and over-the-top rhetoric, but you get the point. Apparently this is just the kind of nationally recognized reactionary endorsement that Neumann and Walker are desperately trying to win right now. Walker has Jeb and now Neumann has Coburn but the story is still developing as each of them tries to win the Right Wing Endorsement Sweepstakes.