Ed Martin Increasingly Disconnected From Reality

You know Ed Martin is losing his grip on reality when even the conservative-leaning Globe-Democrat can't make him sound coherent. Martin recently attacked Russ Carnahan for sending out updates to his constituents that Martin considered "political mailings." However, as noted in the Globe-Democrat article, a bipartisan commission determines whether or not the congressional mailings are "political," and they approved the mailings that Congressman Carnahan sent out:

The content of any Franking piece is reviewed by the Commission on Congressional Mailing Standards (Franking Commission), made up of both Republican and Democratic members, to ensure it contains information about the impact of laws and decisions on local and state governments and individual citizens, as well as reports on public and official actions taken by the House member.

Now, this should be enough for any normal, well-adjusted person capable of reasonably looking at the facts of the world to conclude that Congressman Carnahan was not doing anything wrong by sending out the mailings. The bipartisan group that was in charge of vetting the mailings decided that the information inside them was factual. So even if you took issue with the mailings, the blame should surely lie with Franking Commission's general practices rather than with Congressman Carnahan.

But of course, as we all know, Ed Martin has chosen to identify himself not with well-adjusted rational people but rather with the cynical leadership of the St. Louis tea party that burns effigies of Carnahan and carries coffins to his family's residence. So naturally, he continued to try to attack Carnahan for the mailings in spite of reality. His first line of attack was to claim that the mailings were created by a D.C. consulting firm. However, that turned out to be wrong, as Carnahan spokesperson Sara Howard explained that the mailings were printed in St. Louis. Martin then pivoted to a new desparate attempt at an attack, saying:

He has sent constituents this Franking mail trying to sell them on everything from the takeover of health care to senior’s issues.

Huh? So basically Martin is claiming that the mailings would be "political" unless they called healthcare reform a "government takeover." Martin is so far into tea party land, that he apparently can't even tell the difference between fact and fiction anymore. With (unfortunately) no public option in the final health care bill, there is no reasonable way of claiming that the reform was a "takeover" (not that it would have been even with a public option).

Martin's final act of desperation was to say the following:

“If you look at the Wall Street mailer he has the gall to use a photograph of himself introducing an amendment that’s supposed to stop the AIG bonuses,” Martin says. “Well, he and his buddy (Connecticut Senator) Chris Dodd put it in the bill and he didn’t read it so they all voted for it, so it’s hard to claim that.

So in this case, Ed Martin can't even come up with a real criticism of the bill, so he instead just makes up on the spot the claim that Carnahan "didn't read it." Martin is drifting so far away from reality that even when the Globe-Democrat prints one of his attempts at an attack story, Martin ends up looking ridiculous.