Joe Walsh: Crazy Like FoxNews

Eighth District Congressman Joe Walsh has been chewing up the carpets lately with the gusto of a soon-to-be-deposed Mideast dictator. Walsh was most recently seen mugging for the abcNEWS cameras:

Tea Party Freshmen Return Home

Walsh's talking points tend to be over-the-top cracks on the order of ...

We will do what we have to do, to shut down the government if we have to.

Think Progress

While the anarcho-libertarian schtick may play well with his Tea Party base, this sort of overheated rhetoric typically serves to only frighten the normal voter. Even the Northwest Herald's alpha-krug, Chris Krug, was taken aback by (while trying to soft-peddle) Walsh's histrionics:

Walsh, R-McHenry, is a wild card, vowing again on Friday to be true to the supporters who launched him into office.
Walsh in Washington: Doing it his way

As Krug concedes (albeit between the lines) this is not a strategy for re-election. So what's up with Walsh? Walsh-watchers are divided between three schools of thought:

1. I'm Ready for My Close-Up
   Guess what, being a Congressman is hard work. And Walsh either doesn't want or doesn't expect to be re-elected. So the show-boating for the benefit of the cameras is actually Walsh auditioning for a high-paying gig on FoxNews. It worked for Sarah Palin.



2. Redistricted into Rural Iowa
   Walsh expects to be redistricted out of the Eighth. He will end up in a right-turn-on-red district extending west from his Fox-Lake base down into Deliverance Illinois, where Walsh expects his biggest re-election hurdle will be the Primary. Long story short, Walsh is running to the right of Don Manzullo.



3. Walsh Really is Nuts
   Nuff said!