From the Bundy Ranch to the Senate?

Iowa Republican Senatorial candidate Joni Ernst speaks during a meeting with supporters, Wednesday, May 21, 2014, in Waukee, Iowa. Some Iowa Republicans are quietly anxious that issues addressed during the U.S. Senat... Iowa Republican Senatorial candidate Joni Ernst speaks during a meeting with supporters, Wednesday, May 21, 2014, in Waukee, Iowa. Some Iowa Republicans are quietly anxious that issues addressed during the U.S. Senate primary campaign will haunt the party come November, despite chipper talk that the five-way race is a healthy way to ignite the GOP. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

In each state we have our own senators. But we all have a national interest in the kind of people who get the Senate, whether they have extremist beliefs or are simply dangerous in a general sense. Which brings us to Iowa’s Joni Ernst. As we reported exclusively on Friday, Ernst told supporters that she supports allowing your county Sheriff to arrest federal officials who are involved in implementing the Affordable Care Act. This is thinking right off the Bundy Ranch and the militia compounds up in the inland Northwest – preposterous in terms of US law and insane in general terms. And she stands a good chance of joining the US Senate next year. We’ve had fringers militia types of this variety in the House before. But it’s been a very long time since one has slipped into the Senate.

Latest Editors' Blog
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: