Dave "Doctor" Gonzo is a former disgruntled senior executive of a large media company that went south when it was bought out by another large media company. He is now a high-priced consultant in the beer and communications industries. His political rants appear exclusively in American Politics Journal.

Friday, October 23, 1998 -- LAS VEGAS -- Lock and load, politics fans, because The Doc has yet more unsettling news from the world of weird politics.

DATELINE: CROSSVILLE, TENNESSEE -- The Republican nominee for a Tennessee state senate slot was arrested in the early hours of this morning and charged with the murder of the Democrat incumbent!

Byron Looper was charged in the death of State Senator Thomas "Tommy" Burks, who had been found dead from a single point-blank bullet wound to the head in his pickup truck on Monday at some time before a school group had been scheduled to visit a pumpkin patch on his hog farm in the town of Monterey.

Looper, it turns out, has had previous run-ins with the law, including lawsuits filed by former Putnam County, Tennessee employees who worked with Looper when was county assessor. Looper was also involved in a fistfight between one of his employees and a taxpayer.

He was indicted last March on charges of theft and misuse of office, with the trial scheduled for December. The misuse of office charges involve allegations that Looper asked a local developer for a campaign contribution, saying he would be able to reduce property taxes, and then jacking up the tax assessment on property owned by the developer's parents not long after the developer declined to make a contribution.

If you think that's not enough -- and who wouldn't -- Looper is also being sued for over one million dollars by an ex-girlfriend who claims he forced himself upon her and illegally transferred ownership of her home to his name.

Speaking of names, Looper had his middle name legally changed to "Low-Tax" earlier this year.

Looper managed to snag the GOP nomination for the state Senate slot because no one else ran for it. The Republicans found themselves caught between a rock and a hard place -- two seats short of a state Senate majority, they appear to have looked the other way regarding Looper's pattern of pernicious peccadilloes. It was only in a statement issued two days ago that the state Republican party that they decided to publicly distance themselves from Looper.

Now, this sort of surprises The Doc. Face it -- Looper would seem to be the poster child for so many conservative positions -- his alleged conduct presumes support of less regulation of campaign finance, a return to the good old days when women were chattel and not voters, and, of course, the right to bear arms.

It's truly disturbing that a candidate would stoop to assassination in an attempt to "steal" an election. And Looper, as of today, remains on the ballot. The Doc wonders what NRA President Charlton Heston might have to say about this bizarre incident! Probably something along the lines of "Guns don't kill people, people kill people."

He'd no doubt fail to point out that when people with guns and a political vendetta kill people, that might just be something to seriously worry about.

More kooks with guns news -- DATELINE: BOZEMAN, MONTANA -- Bob Davies, a Republican candidate for the Montana State Legislature, reportedly declared that President Clinton "should be shot" during a speech at a Republican fundraiser near Bozeman on October 9th.

Davies reportedly said that he responds with those words when he goes door to door and is asked by potential voters whether Clinton should be impeached -- and adds that Clinton should be executed for treason for selling satellite technology to the Chinese government, and that the President's conduct on this matter was no different than that of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

Hold it... did I miss something here? I was never aware that the Rosenbergs sold sattelite technology to those nasty Red Chinese. Did I miss something in history class? And shouldn't George Bush join the President on the firing line for doing the same thing?

More importantly, in the partisan and supercharged atmosphere sweeping American politics, does Davies engage brain before opening mouth? Turns out that even though the district leans very conservative, a number of high-powered liberals (including Jane Fonda) maintain homes there.

Among those who were present for Davies' comments were Montana Governor Marc Racicot, who refused to respond to questions from the press about Davies' remarks for nearly a week after the comments were made public in a letter to the editor in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle by an attendee at the fundraiser. Racicot then issued a perfunctory statement disassociating himself from the threats against Clinton.

The Republican National Committee has not commented on the incident -- yet.

And Davies himself had weasel words about his comments to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, to which The Doc has appended his asnides:

"I'm certainly not advocating any paramilitary development."
The execution should take place before a firing squad of noncommissioned officers in the US military.

"It was a Republican meeting. It was a light-hearted thing, kind of a joke."
Nothing brings a smile to our face like the idea of "getting" Clinton once and for all.

"And no one took it seriously except for [the letter-writer who blew the whistle], who was obviously a Democratic plant."
He HAD to be one of those lying socialist weasel Democrats -- God knows, REEEAL Conservative Republicans keep it in "the family" like the Corleones.

"I didn't make any suggestion that I or any other private citizen should do the executing."
See my firing squad comments.

Now, The Doc knows just about as well as anyone with the slightest idea about American Politics that the GOP love their guns.

It's what is commonly referred to as a "codependent relationship." And it's not funny anymore -- it's getting damned scary.

'Nuff said.

Dave "Doctor" Gonzo"