{"id":14931,"date":"2013-10-23T12:42:34","date_gmt":"2013-10-23T16:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/?p=14931"},"modified":"2013-10-23T12:42:34","modified_gmt":"2013-10-23T16:42:34","slug":"house-republicans-unique-appreciation-for-expertise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/2013\/10\/23\/house-republicans-unique-appreciation-for-expertise\/","title":{"rendered":"House Republicans\u2019 unique appreciation for \u2018expertise\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>The Rachel Maddow Show<\/em> has the segment <a title=\"The Rachel Maddow Show episode\" href=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.com\/rachel-maddow-show\/the-house-gops-unique-approach-experts\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>House Republicans\u2019 unique appreciation for \u2018expertise\u2019<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>From time to time, Republican officials will seek out advice from those who are a little \u2026 what\u2019s the word \u2026 unusual.<\/p>\n<p>For example, earlier this year, the Republican National Committee invited far-right provocateur David Horowitz, author of books such as \u201cKilling Whitey,\u201d to help the party \u201cbroaden the GOP\u2019s appeal with voters.\u201d His lack of credibility on the subject didn\u2019t seem to bother party leaders. Similarly, around the same time, House Republicans sought out Dick Cheney for guidance on foreign policy, untroubled by his track record, too.<\/p>\n<p>There is, of course, nothing wrong with seeking out experts for advice \u2013 indeed, it\u2019s generally a good idea \u2013 but the key is identifying reliable, trustworthy authorities who can help others better understand complex issues and add value to a serious conversation.<\/p>\n<p>It you missed Rachel\u2019s opening segment last night \u2013 and my oh my do I hope you saw this one \u2013 there\u2019s fresh evidence that Republicans\u2019 appreciation for expertise is a little, shall we saw, skewed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Rachel Maddow probably ought to get an award for telling the shaggiest shaggy dog story ever told.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align:center\">\n<object width=\"420\" height=\"245\" id=\"msnbc372568\" classid=\"clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=10,0,0,0\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/32545640\" \/><param name=\"FlashVars\" value=\"launch=53348769&amp;width=420&amp;height=245\" \/><param name=\"allowScriptAccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\" \/><embed name=\"msnbc372568\" src=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/32545640\" width=\"420\" height=\"245\" FlashVars=\"launch=53348769&amp;width=420&amp;height=245\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" wmode=\"transparent\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" pluginspage=\"http:\/\/www.adobe.com\/shockwave\/download\/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash\"\/><\/object>\n<\/div>\n<pre>\r\n<\/pre>\n<p>It took me a while for her to remind me who this guy is, and then even longer to tie this in, although the headline ought to give this away almost from the start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Rachel Maddow Show has the segment House Republicans\u2019 unique appreciation for \u2018expertise\u2019. From time to time, Republican officials will seek out advice from those who are a little \u2026 what\u2019s the word \u2026 unusual. For example, earlier this year, the Republican National Committee invited far-right provocateur David Horowitz, author of books such as \u201cKilling [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[166],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14931","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-stevegsposts","7":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14931"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14932,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14931\/revisions\/14932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}