What "squealing" really means…

Do these look like big, strong hands?

According to the Associated Press, U.S. Senator-elect Joni Ernst promises supporters to "cut pork in Washington" just as she once castrated pigs, during an election night rally Tuesday in West Des Moines.

Thanks to you, Iowa, we are headed to Washington, and we are going to make them squeal!

Is anyone fooled? Does anyone really believe that any Republicans are referring to corporate handouts in omnibus bills they so love to pass, and not as Captain Obvious would suggest, President Obama, or his Democrats?

Apparently, polls consistently showed Joni and her competition were separated by single digits, and even the most knowledgeable pundits wouldn’t predict a winner until the end of the campaign; only then was it clear who was edging ahead. As usual, both parties flew in superstars, spend gobs of money, and it was still close. What exactly are pundits for again?

Perhaps more interesting is that Joni Ernst is a war veteran, if you can shake the notion of broken elderly men as veterans, and if you can call invading Iraq a true war. Because if you’ve been following veteran’s benefits bills in Congress, you’ll note Republicans repeatedly vote against them. Either this makes her a hypocrite, or she’s just fortunate enough never to have had to enter the premises of any VA facilities — the kind that were accused of killing members through negligence.

Her opponent Braley, a lawyer, was accused by Ernst’s campaign of being out of touch with ordinary Iowans, but is he? Did becoming a lawyer, to earn a good living, make him so unique? So what exactly does a Lieutenant-Colonel bring to the table as a politician then, ruthless compromise?

Doesn’t Ernst’s insistence on repealing Obama’s Affordable Care Act, and gutting social security, both of which benefit the most ordinary of ordinary Iowans, make her the one actually out of touch? It seems only in America can you be against socially supportive policies, and simultaneously pretend to be for the little guy.

The only squealing I expect will be squeals of joy from the boardrooms of major corporations.

Then there’s the fun bit. Ernst was also readily compared to probably the dumbest woman in politics, Sarah Palin. The one who said she knows all about Russia, because they are less than an hour away from her home in Alaska.

This is quite ironic, as anyone comparing her in a positive light must be focusing on her with the narrowest field of view imaginable, ie. folksy, down to earth, rural values, etc.

Equally fitting might be the comparison with Palin’s other qualities, being ignorant about the rest of her country, delivering her anti-big-govt speeches with a straight face while expressing fascist ideals…

I would hate to think that not having one of Palin’s most renowned traits won her the election, the one about being unable to talk coherently without reading a script, and naturally, confusing herself.