Frouning at Broun: Rep. Paul Broun's recent statements that the Big Bang and evolution are "lies straight from the pit of Hell," the Earth is 9,000 years old, and it was literally created in six days have the rest of the country wondering, yet again, just what exactly is in the water in Georgia's 10th Congressional District.

Bill Nye the Science Guy pronounced Broun unfit to serve on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. A group of University of Georgia science professors wrote an open letter explaining something that ought to go without saying: Their teachings are based on evidence, not their own personal beliefs. Charles Pierce, proprietor of Esquire's terrific political blog, took local Democrats to task for not running anyone against Broun.

"We do everything we can to encourage people to engage politically and to run as Democrats," Clarke County Democratic Committee Chairman Joe Wisenbaker told Pierce. "Last time, we had a good candidate, a lawyer named Russell Edwards, and he went to work full-time to run against Paul Broun, and he got a third of the vote."

This just in: Einstein endorses Darwin as a write-in candidate against Paul Broun.

Since every time Broun goes cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, it sparks another round of embarrassment, here's why getting rid of him is impossible. Athens Democrats, to their eternal chagrin, are responsible for putting him into office in the first place. He won 90 percent of the vote in Clarke County in a 2007 special election runoff against Augusta Republican Jim Whitehead—who had suggested that UGA ought to be blown up, except for the football team—providing Broun's 494-vote margin of victory. Incumbent congressmen are like bedbugs: No matter what you do, they keep coming back again and again.

In 2008, another Augusta Republican, Barry Fleming, spent $1 million trying to off Broun, only to win a mere 29 percent. That November, Bobby Saxon, a Democratic Iraq war veteran from Nicholson, won 39 percent of the vote. As Wisenbaker noted, Edwards won 33 percent of the vote in 2010. And just this past July, another veteran, Republican Stephen Simpson of Milledgeville, garnered 31 percent of the vote against Broun.

What did these campaigns have in common? They all attempted to paint Broun as an unhinged extremist. But the fact is, outside the cozy blue confines of Athens, most of his constituents agree with him. When Broun says things that make Athens liberals slap their foreheads, it only makes him more popular in the rest of the district.

Business Unfriendly?: Athens-Clarke commissioners are constantly pushing back against the notion in some circles that they are unfriendly to business. Commissioner Ed Robinson spoke at length earlier this month about what an awful time Terrapin Beer Co. had securing permission to put a gravel parking lot at its Newton Bridge Road brewery, but an email from co-founder and President John Cochran tells a different story.

"Over the years, I have heard business owners complain about how hard it is to work with the ACC government," Cochran wrote to the mayor and commission Oct. 5, three days after the vote to approve the zoning change. "I have to say, my opinion at this point is the exact opposite. Admittedly, it was a learning process for us to figure out the proper steps to take leading up to Terrapin's rezone application. However, at each step of the way, everyone at the planning department, as well as the mayor's office and the commission, has gone out of their way to help us whenever possible. "

Money Can't Buy Me Love: Carter Kessler is going to find out if the Beatles were right. He has poured $90,000 of his own money into his longshot race for the state House of Representatives against Democrat Spencer Frye, who has raised less than half that amount, according to campaign finance records. The libertarian Republican has raised only about $1,000 from other sources. He says he knew going in that mainstream Republicans wouldn't support him, but he's intent on upending the GOP establishment.

It's hard to imagine thousands of voters in the heavily Democratic district pulling the lever for President Obama, then switching over to the Republican side down-ballot; hardly anyone splits tickets anymore. But Kessler's making a concerted effort to appeal to black voters, spending $3,000 to advertise on gospel station WXAG, as well as buying ads in Zebra magazine. Frye, meanwhile, is ramping up his campaign with a fundraiser at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 17, at the CCDC headquarters in the Chase Street warehouses.

A Public Service Announcement: The Athens-Clarke Heritage Foundation has two upcoming events that sound like fun. Preservation expert Jonathan Poston will speak at the UGA Chapel Wednesday, Oct. 17, at 6 p.m., followed by a reception at the newly renovated former Lamar Dodd School of Art building, now home to the College of Environment and Design. ACHF Executive Director Amy Kissane says UGA architects "did a really great job with it."

On Thursday, Oct. 25, is a pub crawl of five downtown watering holes in historic buildings—The Branded Butcher, Volstead, the Mad Hatter, Walker's and the Grotto—featuring a different Terrapin beer at each stop. The deadline to register is Friday. See www.achfonline.org for more.