Hunter’s ‘sarcastic’ bill to draft women passes House Armed Services Committee

Congratulations and kudos to Escondido Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter Jr. (Insert sarcastic label here.) Or rather ‘Gotcha’ as Politico proclaimed in a headline last week about his efforts.

Last week, the House Armed Services committee passed a groundbreaking bill he proposed. It’s a measure that would change America as we know it should the full House pass it into law on the back of the annual defense authorization bill in two weeks.

Unfortunately, Hunter presented the bill as a “sarcastic” exercise, according to Trevor Noah of “The Daily Show.” He opposed the bill. However, when push came to shove, the bill passed 32-30 with five Republicans breaking rank and voting with the Democrats who thanked Hunter for his kind efforts.

Congratulations, the measure introduced by Hunter requiring women to register for the Selective Service is headed to a full House vote later this month. Survive that and it heads to the Senate, where Sen John McCain (R-Ariz) has said its a pretty good idea and he would bring it to the Senate Armed Services Committee he chairs.

Hunter’s attempt at folly would change a policy that has been in place since 1981, when the Supreme Court ruled that because women could not hold combat jobs, they did not have to register for the draft.

“The House Armed Services Committee took a big and unexpected step toward making women register for the draft as a handful of Republicans joined Democrats on Wednesday night to back a measure whose own sponsor hoped would fail,” according to The Washington Post.

““Right now the draft is sexist,” said Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R-Calif.), who filed an amendment to the House’s annual defense authorization bill to require women between the ages of 18 and 26 to register for the Selective Service, the government agency that keeps records of who is eligible to be conscripted.”

Hunter lampooned on ‘The Daily Show’

The “Bill.”

If this bit of legislative pie in the face weren’t enough, maybe the ever-dramatic Hunter should get a new SAG card. He made it to prime time over the measure with a lengthy discussion of him, his bill and the implications by Noah, The Daily Show host.

As if vaping it in a House Committee, buying violent games, school tuition for his kids, and trips to Hawaii and Israel on campaign donor expense, and more, weren’t enough. As if…

The last time locals made The Daily Show was during last year’s California Drought water cutbacks when some Rancho Santa Fe homeowners pumped enough water to fill several lakes, saying they didn’t care about the money or the water crisis.

Unfortunately, this time, it all was a joke gone bad for Hunter, which Trevor Noah and The Daily Show blew up on all over cable TV Tuesday night.

On the day that Donald Trump — whom Hunter so famously endorsed earlier this year — was winning the Indiana Primary, the joke was on Hunter.

“Recently a congressman named Duncan Hunter introduced a bill that would force women to register for the draft,” Noah said with Hunter’s photo plastered on the screen.

“Now the interesting thing is he didn’t actually want woman in the draft,” Noah continued. “He just heard people debating about it and he wanted to prove that no one would actually vote on a bill to make it happen, so he introduced that bill, which can we take a second to acknowledge is ludicrous.

“Do voters know that there representatives spend time on this frivolous SH**. There are politicians out there campaigning like I’m going to Washington to propose sarcastic legislation (audience laughter). Are people like are you being sarcastic now. ‘No, I’m going to actually help you, idiots.’

“Like there’s real people doing it. Now, here is the weirdest thing about it.This fake bill that Duncan Hunter proposed sarcastically, it actually passed.”

House Armed Services Committee last week passing Hunter’s joke bill to draft women 32-30.

The Daily Show cut to an MSNBC clip of the House Armed Services Committee April 27 session. MSNBC voice-over: “What Hunter found out is many of his colleagues in the House Armed Services committee thought that requiring woman to register in the draft is actually a good idea.”

MSNBC cut to Jackie Speier, (D-Calif.) who said, “While you may be offering this as a gotcha amendment, I would suggest that there’s great merit in recognizing that each of us have an obligation to be willing to serve our country in time of war.”

Then, an April 28 MSNBC clip titled “Drafting Error” with Hunter’s congressional action photo appeared. “House Armed Services Committee backed Duncan Hunter’s amendment by a 32-30 vote.”

Back to Noah with a dumbfounded look on his face, and studio laughter. “I love this,” he said. “They called his bluff so hard. Can you imagine if this is actually how women end up getting drafted? Because we’ll never remember that it started this way.

“Makes me wonder how many things in American history we don’t remember the details of, like maybe with Abraham Lincoln, we don’t know the full story; maybe he was being sarcastic, maybe someone was like hey, Abe, you should treat your slaves better.

“He was like, huh, why don’t we just set them all free. (Different voice) ‘That’s a great idea.’ (Back to Abe) Yeah I guess.

Duncan “Prime Time” Hunter.

Noah went on to a general discussion of women in the military, along with conservative critics and Geraldo Rivera ragging on it being inappropriate because it will encourage sex instead, kind of like a play on the old “Make Love, not War,” chant..

Now, it’s up to the full House to consider Hunter’s joke bill gone wild.

Women drafted into the military just like men should the call be sounded?

Stay tuned.