Then this demonstrates the problem with 'in-jokes'. The audience (and this is an official audience at an official hearing) are not going to understand and come to a certain conclusion. Unless the participants do something to show that they were sharing a joke.

And that conclusion is going to be the one that wins - not the 'in-joke'.

"I would like to offer a spirited defense of the unjustly-maligned Representative Johnson."

I didn't know it was possible to unjustly maligne a Democrat. I think for our purposes we stick to the Johnson is a retard angle and when pressed with the facts deny them just the way the Democrats do. Does anyone doubt that when he's not joking he's still a retard?

At any rate, I would like to give Hank Johnson credit for replacing Cynthia McKinney in Congress. He defeated her in the runoff Democrat primary in 2006.

OK - but Johnson's spokeman released the following explanation:

“I wasn’t suggesting that the island of Guam would literally tip over,” Johnson says via a spokesman. “I was using a metaphor to say that with the addition of 8,000 Marines and their dependents — an additional 80,000 people during peak construction to the port on the tiny island with a population of 180,000 — could be a tipping point which would adversely affect the island’s fragile ecosystem and overburden its already overstressed infrastructure.

“Having traveled to Guam last year, I saw firsthand how this beautiful — but vulnerable island — is already overburdened, and I was simply voicing my concerns that the addition of that many people could tip the delicate balance and do harm to Guam.”

So, I'm not buying Neo-Neocon's spirited defense.

"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood"

Especially on April first.

I thought it was a funny line.
Marxist even.

Insert ===> Sound of my head banging on the table.

So, she got you too? She's a clever one.

Pranked again, you little cutie you.

Talk about subtle in-jokes...

Assuming the defense is true, then the question about the Congressman's senility is less in question.

However, what is in question is his professionalism.

If Bob & Ray never did that bit, they should have.

I heard the clip ad nauseum on the radio yesterday. Deadpan joke or not, the man sounded like a fucking moron.

JWM

I think sog wins the thread.