By Golly . . .

My nominee for this year’s nuttiest congressional candidate is Wayland Smalley, a Republican running for the open seat in Oklahoma’s 2nd District. Campaigning under the slogan of “By Golly, Vote for Smalley,” Smalley, a racehorse breeder, is raising his profile by sponsoring “shoot for Congress” gun events around the district.

Most original is his take on gay marriage, which he compares to legalizing polygamy, something that he contends would threaten national security."On 9-11," Smalley contended in a recent op-ed, “we saw what harem life can produce. A 47th son, such as Osama Bin Laden, rarely gets the quality time he needs with a father. Apparently, the results can be disastrous.”

The district was gerrymandered to elect a Democrat (it contains the remnants of Carl Albert's old political base), and so it seems rather unlikely that we'll see a Congressman Smalley in the House in 2005.