GOP candidates Brownback and Thompson are dining on their own feet

This is just amazing. We're still eight months out from the start of the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary, and we've got two GOP presidential candidates that are dining on their own feet during the weekend. Let's start with what Republican Senator Sam Brownback had to say regarding football in Wisconsin. From CNN.Com:

LAKE GENEVA, Wisconsin (AP) -- Note to Sen. Sam Brownback: In Packerland, it's not cool to diss Brett Favre.

The GOP presidential hopeful drew boos and groans Friday at the Wisconsin Republican Party convention when he used a football analogy to talk about the need to focus on families.

"This is fundamental blocking and tackling," he said. "This is your line in football. If you don't have a line, how many passes can Peyton Manning complete? Greatest quarterback, maybe, in NFL history."

Oops, wrong team to mention in Wisconsin, once described by Gov. Tommy Thompson as the place "where eagles soar, Harleys roar and Packers score."

Realizing what he had said, the Kansas Republican slumped at the podium and put his head in his hands.

"That's really bad," he said. "That will go down in history. I apologize."

His apology brought a smattering of applause and laughter. He tried to recover, saying former Packer Bart Starr may be the greatest of all time, but the crowd was still restless.

"Let's take Favre then," Brownback said. "The Packers are great. I'm sorry. How many passes does he complete without a line?"

"All of them!" more than one person yelled from the back.

"I'm not sure how I recover from this," Brownback said. "My point is we've got to rebuild the family. I'll get off this."

Note to Brownback here--stay away from football analogies in Wisconsin. Unless you want to season your foot with some Wisconsin cheddar....

But Brownback's misstatement is just too cheesy. The real winner for the ultimate, foot-in-the-mouth, misstatement would have to go to Wisconsin's former Gov. Tommy Thompson--yes, the Tommy Thompson who claimed, "where eagles soar, Harleys roar and Packers score." On the May 3, 2007 Republican debate, Thompson stated that he believes it is acceptable for a private employer to fire a gay worker, if the employer believes that homosexuality is immoral. Well, Thompson received a lot of flak after making that statement, and tried to correct himself on Bill Maher's Real Time program. Thompson then turned around and apologized for his remarks. His first excuse for the discriminatory remarks was that his hearing aid was not working properly, as he told Bill Maher.

Well, Thompson has now given us a new excuse for his supposed misstatement. Not only was his hearing aid not working, but Thompson was sick with the flu and really had to go to the bathroom at the moment he made that misstatement. According to Boston.com:

LAKE GENEVA, Wis. --Tommy Thompson cited a dead hearing aid and an urgent need to use the bathroom in explaining on Saturday why he said at a GOP presidential debate that an employer should be allowed to fire a gay worker.

Speaking to reporters after giving an address at the state GOP convention, Thompson also said he was suffering from the flu and bronchitis and had been admitted to a hospital emergency room three days prior to the May 3 debate.

"Nobody knows that," Thompson said. "I've been very sick. ... I was very sick the day of the debate. I had all of the problems with the flu and bronchitis that you have, including running to the bathroom. I was just hanging on. I could not wait until the debate got off so I could go to the bathroom."

So Thompson's hearing aid died on him, he was sick, and he had to go potty. I'm sort of wondering what Thompson's excuse will be for next week--did his dog eat his homework? Did liberal-minded space aliens abduct the good governor, and replace him with a robot in order to sabotage his campaign? How do you serve a foot that has been marinated in a toilet bowl?

Sarcasm aside, I'm just amazed at the lacking quality of these Republican candidates. And it is not just Brownback or Thompson here. According to the Carpetbagger Report, John McCain's campaign fired its New Hampshire campaign manager. Former New York Mayer Rudy Giuliani is facing questions on not just his domestic or foreign policy, but even his own 9/11 legacy and the lack of enforcing safety standards for the WTC rescue workers. Mitt Romney is having enough problems trying to court the Religious Right. If the state GOP primaries and caucuses provided a selection of "None of the Above" on their ballots, I'd say that "None of the Above" would win handily next year.

Eight months to go before Iowa and New Hampshire. And we still have another 18 months before the election.