DUMB VS. DUMBER

Ike Skelton will, of course, win another term to Congress in Missouri's 4th District. He's being challenged by Jim Noland -- again -- and this fourth match-up will end the same way the first three did, with Skelton crushing Noland.

But that doesn't give either gentlemen a pass for some genuinely boneheaded remarks made to Dave Catanese, KYTV's political reporter. KY3's Political Notebook includes examples of why Skelton and Noland need a good spanking.

First, from Skelton, this exchange with Catanese on Iran:

When I asked Skelton if he would in any way support surgical airstrikes in parts of Iran believed to have nuclear weapons or facilities, he signaled he didn't want to talk about that.

"We don't talk about that. We hope that doesn't come to pass," Skelton replied.

When I pressed Skelton on why this topic wasn't relevant for discussion, he stopped me. "Did you hear what I said?," Skelton asked.

"We don't want to even think about that because Iran could very well be a tinderbox. I hope we can handle this Iranian problem diplomatically. It's going to be difficult but we don't need another war."

La la la, click my heels and let's not talk about it. Shameful.

Noland fares no better. Asked about the war in Iraq, Noland talked about the terrorists who "knock[ed] those towers down." Catanese called him on the misdirection; Noland said it didn't matter because "terrorists are terrorists."

And then he really started eating his own foot:

We had a different policy in World War Two than we have today. People are much freer about speaking out. We say we can't do anything about illegal aliens. Let me tell you for sure, these people were not even illegal and they weren't aliens but President Roosevelt went around and he picked up every transit, every person that was un-American in any way and put them in camps. And they stayed there until the war was over.

Is Noland saying it was good to round up Americans and put them in camps, just because they happened to be Japanese? Hope not.