Meet Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, an inept Republican politician on the order of, say a Katherine Harris. The Congresswoman hung up on Barack Obama twice today, and then put out a press release about it, and THEN mis-spelled "Barak's" name (and the name of his chief of staff) in the press release. Surely what's going on here is that Ros-Lehtinen, the longest-serving woman in Congress and no stranger to embarrassment, has learned all too well the apparent lesson of Sarah Palin's crank call from fake Nicolas Sarkozy: Dense politicians should not attempt to talk to famous strangers on the phone. But she's still incredibly stupid, as revealed by the hilarious chronology of events she published today:

  • "Ros-Lehtinen received a call on her cell from a Chicago based phone number and an aide informed her that President-Elect Obama wished to speak to her.
  • "A gentleman sounding like Obama introduced himself when Ros-Lehtinen cut him off and said that 'I'm sorry but I think this is a joke from one of the South Florida radio stations known for these pranks'
  • "and hung up.
  • "Cong. and Chief of Staff designate Rahm Emmanuel (sic) called Ileana and stated 'Ileana, I cannot believe that you hung up on the President-Elect.' Ros-Lehtinen told Rahm that she didn't believe the call was legitimate
  • "and hung up on Emmanuel (sic).
  • "A staffer to the Congresswoman informed her that Chairman Howard Berman of the Foreign Affairs Committee needed to speak with her urgently. When Chairman Berman called, Ros-Lehtinen urged him to recount a story only both of them would know [emphasis added], which he did, and told her that she had indeed hung up on the President-Elect."

Then Obama called this insane lady again, telling her "it is very funny that you have twice hung up on me," by which he meant, "please tell me what you would like to see happen in Cuba, so that I know how not to conduct diplomacy there, because you sure suck at that kind of thing."

Being idiotic is basically incurable, and was Palin's real problem to begin with, not the red herring crank call thing.