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"To Keep the Alligators Away"

There are a billion different iterations of the joke, usually inflicted upon children by adults:

Child: Daddy, why are you flapping your arms and quacking in the middle of the street?

Father: To keep the alligators away.

Child: Daddy. There are no alligators around here.

Father: See? It's working.

But I confess this, via TPM, may be the first time I've ever seen an adult offer this line of reasoning to other adults in apparent earnest:

Florida GOP chairman Jim Greer appeared on CNN today, and accused the White House of changing the content of President Obama's stay-in-school speech in the wake of conservative outrage at political indoctrination -- outrage that he was instrumental in mobilizing, by the way -- and that the original would have been much more politically-oriented.

"Clearly last week there was a plan with the Department of Education," said Greer. "When you ask students to write a letter to the President on, how we can help you with your new ideas, Mr. President, that is leading the students in an effort to push the President's agenda. Now that the White House got their hand in the cookie jar caught, they changed everything, they redid the lesson plans, they released the text, and tomorrow he's gonna give a speech that every president should have an opportunity to give."

Suzanne Malveaux asked Greer if he had any inside information that the White House changed the speech. "No, I don't," said Greer.

But you don't see any alligators around here, do you?

Coming soon: Limbaugh warns America of Barack Obama's plan to "steal your nose."