HANK JOHNSON: GUAM COMMENT A METAPHOR

On April 1st, a video of Representative Hank Johnson (D-GA) expressing his concern to Admiral Robert Willard at a March 25th Armed Services Committee hearing went viral. Amazingly, Johnson conveyed that he was concerned that the island of Guam would "tip over" or "capsize" if it got too populated.

Since then, the reasons attributed to the absurd statement ranged from Johnson's lack of intelligence to an illness he suffered which prevents him from censoring his speech. In either case, he should be viewed as unfit to serve.

What to do, what to do? DAMAGE CONTROL! According to a post on Yahoo's Buzz Log, the strategy appears to be to blame those who took him seriously by saying that the whole thing was a metaphor that fell flat. Here is the statement from Johnson's spokesman:

"I was using a metaphor to say that with the addition of 8,000 Marines and their dependents -- an additional 80,000 people during peak construction to the port on the tiny island with a population of 180,000 -- could be a tipping point which would adversely affect the island’s fragile ecosystem and overburden its already overstressed infrastructure."

I didn't think the fact that Johnson's words indicated he believed that islands float could be easily trumped. This explanation does just that.

If this was a metaphor, Johnson's competence should be questioned in that area as well.

Judge for yourself....