Romney falling star made Atlas weep

I just have to ask: What the hell is the deal with Republicans and their 15-minute Hall of Famers who embody the opposite of the snake oil they're trying to sell?
 
Last election cycle, the GOP candidates spammed us with Joe "Not a Licensed Plumber and Whose Name Isn't Even Joe" Wurzelbacher and anticipated that rational Americans would buy his schtick. He was crafted into a Conservative icon based on the fact that he was able to wake up one morning, walk his neighborhood and form a cogent (if fact-free) question.

Now, now, Sam "The Tax Dodger" Wurzelbacher can be forgiven his idiocy in the public square, since he was dragged into it by Snarly McCain and Sarah Starburst. Then, after the campaign closed down and the lights turned off, left him to brood on his own.

This time around we get Jack "The Galt" Gilchrist, courtesy of the Willard Romney campaign. We're supposed to put our brains in deep freeze as we listen to the Libertarian stylings of Ayn Rand as told by the deeply offended New Hampshire businessman.

"Through hard work and a little bit of luck, we built this business," he says apparently to The President. "Why are you demonizing us for it?”

Yup, no one disagrees with much of what Jack's selling, except the bulk of it that's a lie. We haven't even gotten through the ad's full cycle when the truth about Gilchrist's million-dollar government bailout hit the headlines.

Star of Romney ‘My Hands Didn’t Build This’ Ad Received
Millions in Government Loans and Contracts

They started pouring in as the lie was put to his "laissez-faire" claims, pointing out government assistance of a $500,000 loan, $800,000 in tax-exempt bonds and Navy sub-contracts totalling $83,000 then some. In fact, when called upon to defend his assertions, he folded like a bad poker hand.

“I’m not going to turn a blind eye because the money came from the government,” Gilchrest said. “As far as I’m concerned, I’m getting some of my tax money back. I’m not stupid, I’m not going to say ‘no.’ Shame on me if I didn’t use what’s available.”

When it's all said and done, Gilchrist, like rejuvenated Tea Party heroine Ayn Rand, are nothing more than trash-talking "do as I say, not as I do" hypocrites. Talking the talk, they fail miserably to walk the walk, bearing false witness at every turn. And before we let these weasels off the hook, remember this ... in Rand's own words ... that she compromised her convictions, herself descended into Medicaid Queen with her very own social worker:

"There can be no compromise on basic principles. There can be no compromise on moral issues. There can be no compromise on matters of knowledge, of truth, of rational conviction."