One of the less appreciated aspects of the Reign Of The Morons, now entering its second smash week, is the fact that the country is currently being led into the abyss by an incredible passel of drama queens. People are quick to mention that the people behind all of this are economically innumerate, politically opportunistic, personally mendacious, and often generally as dumb as a big old box of rocks. But their capacity to cast themselves as the stars of their own personal action-adventure movie may be well nigh limitless.

Today's example of this phenomenon is Representative Scott Garrett of New Jersey, who looks in his mirror every morning while shaving and sees William Wallace, face painted blue, staring back at him, and who apparently daily confuses the cab that takes him to his office on Capitol Hill with a Higgins boat lumbering toward Omaha Beach. He is fighting a war, Scott is, and, damn it, he wants a medal for his trouble. Or a cookie. Or your new health-care plan. Scott's not picky.

"They may try to throw the kitchen sink at the debt limit, but I don't think our conference will be amenable for settling for a collection of things after we've fought so hard," Garrett said, according to National Review on Monday. "If it doesn't have a full delay or defund of Obamacare, I know I and many others will not be able to support whatever the leadership proposes. If it's just a repeal of the medical-device tax, or chained CPI, that won't be enough."

You see, if the president angers his most fervent supporters, and makes the lives of millions of elder Americans a little harder, that still won't be enough to compensate this congresscritter for the work he's put in creating the character of Scott Garrett, Hero Man. I, for one, don't know why he ever left Krypton, but there you are.

And then there's Dr. Congressman Paul Brounof Georgia, who has managed to shake off all the "lies from the pit of hell" that they taught him in med school to become strong enough to save the entire nation.

"America is going to be destroyed by Obamacare, so whatever deal is put together must at least reschedule the implementation of Obamacare," he says. "This law is going to destroy America and everything in America, and we need to stop it."

Making sure that another 30 or 40 million Americans can afford health insurance is going to "destroy everything in America." Disneyland. The Grand Canyon. The undefeated Denver Broncos. Everything. And only Doctor Congressman Paul Broun stands in the way.

I'm all for political stagecraft. Occasionally, it's some of the only truly great live theater we have left that we can still see for free. And I don't blame any politician for posturing for the cameras. We decided long ago -- perhaps at that moment when Superman came to the supermarket, perhaps the moment when William Henry Harrison's get-out-the-vote operation cracked open its first keg of hard cider -- that a lot of our political business was going to be showbiz as well. But I have never seen a collection of people like these guys who can create a part for themselves and then bury themselves in it. It's Method politics. It seeks -- nay, it demands --applause just for the effort that its performers put into it. Scott Garrett must have your new health insurance simply because he has worked so hard to take it away from you. All have tried. All must have prizes. Have you no appreciation for the psychological torment Scott has endured to create this role for himself? Have you no appreciation for art, you philistine bastard with your pre-existing conditions? Do they all wear capes every night over their footie pajamas?

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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