GOP applause lines

This isn't the only troublesome talking point audiences cheer as the GOP's Carnival of Clowns tour through Iowa but Rick Perry delivers the funniest applause line of the silly season, so far.

“Every barrel of oil that comes out of those sands in Canada is a barrel of oil that we don’t have to buy from a foreign source,” Mr. Perry said in Clarinda, earning a loud round of enthusiastic applause.

OK, so maybe those furriners up north aren't so threatening because they're mostly white folks and mostly speak English, so it's not really like a foreign country. Not like those evil furriners on the south border who don't even understand our language and refuse to learn to speak Amurkin at all. But it wasn't that long ago this same crowd was all hyped up about the existential threat of the imaginary NAFTA Superhighway which was going to destroy our sovereignty and create a North American government allowing them there Mexicans free passage all over our great land. A grave concern that still hadn't completely died as late as last year.

Back in those days, current Iowa frontrunner, Ron Paul warned Rick Perry was a mastermind of this heinous plot as evidenced by Perry's unrelenting support for the southern end of this behemoth roadway to hell, namely the Trans-Texas Corridor. But now they cheer a transcontinental pipeline that was an integral part of the NAFTA Superhighway blueprint? Gotta love those kooky cons.

But maybe all is forgiven because Perry pledged to ignore Supreme Court decisions that conflict with the social conservative agenda. Just as any God-fearin "strict constitutionalist" would do.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]