Congress-watchers cannot recall another incident in which a committee chairman silenced a ranking member by turning off the member’s microphone — but it happened Wednesday when GOP Rep. Darrell Issa of California, chair of the House Oversight Committee, cut off the microphone as Rep. Elijah Cummings, a Democrat from Maryland, was speaking.

But when the time came for apologies, in today’s topsy-turvy tea party world, it was Issa who claimed to have been insulted.

Mugshots are made at taxpayer expense and are therefore public records — a fact that anyone who serves in a high position should know.

Apparently, however, tea bagger Rep. Steve Stockman, who was soundly defeated on Tuesday in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate seat in Texas, does not know this. He has has threatened to sue anyone who publishes the mugshot from his 1977 drug arrest.

In 1977, a young man who would later serve in Congress was charged with possession of Valium in Madison Heights, Mich.

More after the jump »

As Andy Borowitz put it on Facebook:

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer today reflected on her decision to veto the state’s anti-gay law: “The decision was a no-brainer, which is why I was capable of making it

Joy Reid, one of the smartest, insightful and best-informed political analysts in the business, is finally getting her own show on MSNBC. It starts today at 11 a.m., Pacific.

We’re glad she’s getting a show but would much prefer to see her in the network’s primetime line-up — she’s among the best at the network, rivaled only by Rachel Maddow in terms of breadth of knowledge and depth of analysis. So if you like tough-minded political thinkers who do not pull punches or hesitate to call right-wing b.s. what it is, Reid is your gal.

Reid discussed her rise through the MSNBC ranks in a recent interview with Lee Bailey:

Ted Nugent, 65, a has-been rock star whose endorsement has inexplicably been sought by family-values spouting Republican politicians from Mitt Romney in his presidential bid in 2012 to Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott who is running for governor this year, has admitted to having had sex with girls under the age of consent multiple times. Nugent has even written a rock anthem to his compulsion titled “Jailbait” (lyrics follow) which all GOP candidates should play before every campaign event:

John Skvarla, Secretary of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, [bio] has suggested that he believes a theory promoted by World Net Daily contributor Jerome Corsi — one of the originators of Birtherism and a promoter of other conspiracy theories, including one that Pres. Obama is gay — that oil is not a finite resource created by centuries of compression of organic material but is a renewable resource created by the earth on an on-going basis, like wind or solar.

Skvarla is the head of the agency charged with regulating Duke Energy, which is responsible for the third-largest coal-ash spill in U.S. history, an on-going disaster that is still unfolding in North Carolina.

Never heard of it? You’re not alone. As Rachel Maddow says at the end of the segment above, “This North Carolina story, and this federal criminal investigation into what’s happening in North Carolina, is a terrible and amazing story from about a million different angles. Why the Beltway refuses to care about it, I do not know, but it cannot last long.”

Read more about the story here.

While this ad from Saatchi & Saatchi for the “gun responsibility” group, Evolve, is funny, neither the ad’s, nor the group’s, dots connect.

The spot’s creators said they were not taking a stand on gun safety laws.

“When we researched the gun debate in America, we saw that it’s become almost impossible to have a thoughtful discussion about gun safety. What I love about Evolve is that they’re not about taking a side in that debate–they’re squarely focused on promoting personal decisions about gun safety.”

When I saw this sobering warning from Twitter about an image related to the trial of Michael Dunn, the man who fired 10 shots into a vehicle occupied by four black male teenagers, killing one, 17-year-old Jordan Davis, I steeled myself for the worst. I do the same when I suspect I am about to see something that’s going to stay with me, like a tale of horror visited upon an animal.

I braced myself as much as I could, deciding it might be worth the psychic damage, and clicked, “View photo.” Here’s what appeared.

If you want a taste of what passes for honesty and frankness from Republican leaders these days, here’s a quote from Florida Sen. Marco Rubio after he was asked at an educational forum if he ever smoked pot.

“If I tell you that I haven’t, you won’t believe me. And if I tell you that I did, then kids will look up to me and say, ‘Well, I can smoke marijuana because look how he made it. He did alright so I guess I can do it too.’”

So you see, Marco isn’t going to respond because he can’t control what people will do with his answer. If your idea of presidential material is cutesy mind games or outright stonewalling (a term originated to describe Republican Pres. Richard Nixon’s way of blocking information to the press), then Marco is your guy.

Those one-minute Facebook “look back” videos probably held your interest for about 30 seconds. But this one, put out by the Democratic party about Gov. Chris Christie’s (R-NJ) past month, has a little longer shelf life.