Script idea: "Thank You for Spitting"

News accounts of the life of a Georgia Congressman who died today from lung and liver cancer seem too over the top to be real, perhaps a case of life imitating art in the manner of Robert Duval’s spoof of a dying southern conservative in Thank You for Smoking. But he was real, and his life and political career explain a lot about the mess the country is in today with the war, climate change and eroded civil liberties.

According to the Associated Press, tobacco-chewing dentist Charles Norwood, Jr. was first elected to Congress during the Republican Revolution of 1994 and was famous for his infrequent use of diplomatic language. One of his proudest accomplishments was cutting a swath through red tape so that a constituent could bring home a stuffed polar bear killed in a hunt in Canada. Last year, Norwood was one of only 33 House members who voted against renewing the Voting Rights Act. A life-long gun rights advocate, as a teenager he shot and killed a close friend at a private boarding school during a quick-draw contest with what they believed were empty guns. If voters are going to continue to re-elect men like this, the least someone could do is make a comedy about it. Otherwise, our future would seem too bleak.