As a conservative talk radio producer by trade, always on the lookout for actualities of Democrats ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous, I must say this transition to day shift from nights has been very prosperous this week. 

I usually know I've struck gold when the host of the program, Hugh Hewitt, turns to me during a break and says, "They really didn't say that, did they?" And by the time I wrapped up taping for the latest edition of my Duane's World podcast a little later, the idea percolated for encapsulating the day in a top ten list, not having any idea if there were really 10 dumb things that could legitimately make the list. 

There are. Your arrangement may vary, but it's hard to defend the collection of inanity. So without further ado...

#10

Claire McCaskill - Republicans made the Hegseth nomination partisan for the first time

Appearing on MSNBC with Joy Reid, not a bright move to begin with, the former Missouri senator criticized the confirmation hearing in Senate Armed Services for Defense-nominee Pete Hegseth. Her beef? Those bad Republicans just aren't for caving. 



The vote for Pete Hegseth to be the Secretary of Defense unfortunately will be partisan, but only because the Democrats have made it so. Presidents for decades have usually been provided deference from both sides of the aisle for the nominees of their choice, unless there was some glaring personal scandal so egregious, the nomination cannot go forward. 

All sorts of anonymous allegations have been thrown at Hegseth about his personal life, but when a full field FBI report came back with nothing out of the ordinary, Democrats in the Senate and within regime media instantly attacked the FBI report for not digging hard enough. Their desired outcome was set the moment he was selected by Donald Trump, precisely because he was selected by Donald Trump. Facts and testimony are irrelevant. Hegseth was perceived by the left from the outset as the most vulnerable of his nominees, so they've put all their eggs into this basket to destroy. 

As for partisan history of nominees, while the last few Defense secretaries have gotten wide support, nominees for other cabinet positions have been squeakers. Just going back to the beginning of the Biden administration, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, then a member of Congress, only got a 51-49 vote in a 51-49 Democratic Senate. Members of Congress and Senate usually get a little extra deference from their colleagues than outsiders, but Haaland was perceived dim and radical enough that no Republican supported her. 

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra didn't even get a positive referral out of his confirmation hearing, and eked out a 50-49 vote, as did Council of Economic Advisors, Jared Bernstein. Both sides since the George W. Bush era have seen the Senate become much more partisan to cabinet officials, judicial appointments, and executive staff. That process began with George W. Bush's appellate court nominees in 2002. For McCaskill to bemoan the woes of partisanship is ignorant of the history of the last two-and-a-half decades. And ironically, she's making her statement about partisanship on this most partisan television network in the history of American television.

#9

You people against boys playing in girls' sports are bigots, you know. 



Only 9 of the 215 House Democrats ran away from the vote Tuesday. Two, most likely from Trump districts, voted for the ban. The other 7 didn't vote or voted present. 206 Democrats continued to walk the plank that 85-90% of Americans want to saw off. To further alienate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her party from the American mainstream by calling them bigots is a special kind of stupid. 

#8

Jack Reed - What's a Jag-off?

I have to admit, when I had the Hegseth hearing on in the background and ranking member Reed came out with this question, I looked up to make sure it wasn't really Rhode Island dimwit Shelly Whitehouse trying to offer another inquiry into boofing.

No, it was the human lizard, Jack Reed, always on the lookout for that wandering fly to snatch out of the air with his tongue, who decided to ask the question on which our friend Salena Zito could write volumes. 


 
Just as Whitehouse's boof went poof, Reed's JAG-off didn't produce the happy ending for Democrats it intended. Hegseth, after initially dismissing it as the stupid question it was, defined it squarely - someone who puts their own personal priorities ahead of war fighters. Reed had nowhere to go afterwards, and looked silly having asked it. 

#7

Mazie Hirono - When Is the D-Day Invasion of Greenland and the Panama Canal?



You knew this had to be on the list somewhere, and I'll bet you're surprised it's this low on the list. The problem is no one, even in my business, can stand to watch her for seven minutes straight. So the first dumb thing that comes out of her mouth becomes the hot cut, and people don't get to the even better stuff later on.

I come from the Golden, or now smoldering black state of California. We used to be represented in the Senate for a decade and a half by the Kelvin of Senators - absolute zero - Barbara Boxer. There simply was none of the other 99 who could out-stupid Boxer. She retired, and as with everything in the universe, nature abhors a vacuum. Enter Hawaii's Hirono. She may not be Boxer, but she's plenty dumb enough to wear the crown, or the dunce cap, for now. 

#6

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass - No Ragrets 



I'll give her this. She may be dumb as a post, but she's consistent and stubborn about holding onto it. Here's the correct answer, after an area the size of Paris has burned to ash, is still burning, and the body and damage count continues to climb. Yes, in retrospect, had I known this was coming, I probably should not have taken the trip to Ghana. Not Bass, though. That winsome, charming smile and steadfast refusal to accept the obvious is what's keeping crisis PR firms awake at night staring at the ceiling. 

#5

Dick Blumenthal - Come on, you haven't run anything as big as the Pentagon

One of the only two Dicks in the upper chamber, Blumenthal seems to think it's unwise to turn over such an important government apparatus to an amateur. 



Oh, did I forget to mention that while running for the Senate as Connecticut Attorney General, he held several fundraisers as a megadonor for Barack Obama, whose qualifications to run the Pentagon, and the rest of the American Executive Branch for that matter, was serving as a community organizer out of the South side of Chicago? He might want to sit this one out. 


#4

Joe Biden - All hail the head of ASEAN, the president of Columbia 



For you geography buffs out there, you might be surprised to learn that Colombia, in South America, is part of the Association of South East Asia Nations. Don't worry, you aren't crazy. It isn't. Cambodia, though, whose president currently holds the chair of ASEAN, is part of Southeast Asia. Five more days of this, folks. To Joe Biden, Colombia, Cambodia - what's the difference? He's on a roll. 

#3

L.A. County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone - What's the DEI reference for homeless again? 



I don't have a negative word to say about the rank and file cops and firefighters that are fighting a two-front war in the Southland - fires and governmental incompetence from Washington, D.C. through Sacramento to Los Angeles. But this guy? He's been the County fire chief for just under two years, and has overseen the implementation of all sorts of fun stuff, according to this Fox News report. 

For example, the budget allocated $14,010 to the "Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles" this year, a group that seeks to "create musical experiences that strengthen our role as a leader among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and performing arts organizations." 

Another $190,000 was allocated to the Homeless and HIV Program, which includes a "syringe exchange" program that gives sterile syringes to homeless drug addicts. 

An additional $100,000 of county funds was put aside to pay for Juneteenth celebrations, while $13,000 was allocated to "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Heritage Month Programs." 

The Civil + Human Rights and Equity Department was also granted $100,000 for a "Midnight Stroll Transgender Cafe" to fund housing for homeless transgender individuals in Hollywood.

This cut, for me, is a two-fer. Not only is he referring to the homeless as 'our unhoused neighbors,' he's insinuating that the homeless, not climate change, are starting the fires. And not one member of regime media, again at a press conference, picked up on that little nugget and pressed him on it. Not one. You'd think, wouldn't you, that homeless people in Los Angeles, a city that currently has seen those ranks swollen 70,000 at a minimum precisely due to progressive policies and governance, might warrant a follow-up question or two? 

#2

Kamala Harris - All we need is just a little patience

I have to admit, with all of the stuff on the docket Tuesday, I didn't have Kamala Harris doing a dramatic reading of a Guns N' Roses song on my Bingo card. This clip easily could have been number one, but then again, Kamala Harris will always be Number Two to me. 

There's a lot of different feelings going on around the City of Angels right now, but patience isn't one of them. Especially after her boss, Joe Biden, just moments before came up with the panacea for all the burned out Angelinos - $770 one-time dollars. Don't spend it all in one place. Not even Helen Keller was this tone deaf. 

#1

Mazie Hirono - I take it that you'd shoot protesters in the leg if ordered. 

I couldn't even make it past this point, and I'm a professional. I get paid to watch this nonsense. I'm not sure who she thought she was convincing. Did she have some random neuron in her head that told her this gotcha moment would cost Hegseth Joni Ernst? Susan Collins? Lisa Murkowski? John Curtis? 

What popped into my head when she sprung the trap here was a scene out of Rustler's Rhapsody, starring Tom Berenger. 



Now there were a couple of contenders that didn't make the cut, chiefly Tim Kaine trying to call out Pete Hegseth on marital infidelities. This is rich coming from the guy who was the running mate of Hillary Rodham Clinton. As soon as he became the vice-presidential nominee in 2016, all that ugliness about William Jefferson Blythe Clinton, the walking STD petri dish, went out the window. 



Oh, sure, the President of the United States got caught diddling with an intern in the Oval Office, leaving the essence of Bill behind on Monica Lewinsky's blue dress as a souvenir, but that's not worthy of scorn from Tim Kaine. That's in the past, don't you know. 

But then you go all the way back to...October. 

Tim Kaine has a lot to say about Pete Hegseth’s conduct during his marriage

Here’s Tim Kaine campaigning with Doug Emhoff, who - while married - impregnated his nanny and forced her to get an abortion pic.twitter.com/0UJQkjQ3Ti

— Will Chamberlain (@willchamberlain) January 14, 2025

Doug Emhoff was married, shtupped and knocked up his babysitter, forced her into an abortion, divorced wife number one shortly thereafter, allegedly slapped around his next girlfriend before landing Kamala and becoming the Second Fella, and Tim Kaine is all smiles. He's shoulder-to-shoulder with him. I guess personal foibles don't seem to matter so much if you're a Democrat. 

I could have thrown in the magnanimous Joe Biden, throwing around $770 dollar checks to fire victims in L.A. If you're a family of four that no longer has a home in which to reside, that will get you one night at a Residence Inn, one dinner out, and a tank of gas. Then, it's Thursday and you're back out on the street. 

Yes, all those clips really did happen. None of them were AI-generated, although now that I mention AI, you've now seen two doses of raw but real stupidity on display by Mazie Hirono. Imagine, if you will, what she would be like if someone with a little knowhow in artificial intelligence, combined with the emotional development of an eight-year-old. This is what you'd get. 



It's going to be a brave new world in a few years.