Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) appeared in Idiots 254 after he insulted a group of firefighters at Billings airport, and last week the gaffemeister was at it again. The Associated Press reported that Burns, who is a staunch proponent of strict penalties for illegal immigrants and those who employ them, may actually be employing illegal immigrants himself.

At a meeting in June, Burns apparently told an anecdote which went like this:

The other day, the little fella who does our maintenance work around the house, he's from Guatemala, and I said, "Could I see your green card?" And Hugo says, "No." I said, "Oh gosh."

Fast forward to August 15, when Burns was interrupted by a cell phone call during his stump speech at a campaign event. On the other end of the phone? None other than the man himself, Hugo Reyes!

According to the Associated Press:

"Hugo is a nice little Guatemalan man who is doing some painting for me ... in Virginia," Burns told the audience, to laughter, after hanging up on the call. "No, he's terrific, love him."

This obviously didn't go down too well with Burns' conservative base.

"A U.S. senator hiring illegal immigrants is not a joke," said Michael Dougherty of The American Cause, a conservative group founded by Pat Buchanan that supports strict immigration controls. "He could easily dispirit his voting base."

"If you have the very people who are responsible for making the laws mocking them, it's a pretty good indication of why we have 12 million people breaking the law," said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for Federation for American Immigration Reform.

So is Hugo an illegal immigrant? The AP reported that "efforts to reach Reyes were unsuccessful," so I guess we'll have to wait and see.
The Top 10 Conservative Idiots - The Top 10 Conservative Idiots, No. 257

I'm with ya on this one. This is my biggest gripe about republicans.