Unfortunately for the junior senator from New York, it takes more brains than she possesses to pull off unprincipled political pandering.  Over the course of her political career, Kirsten Gillibrand has demonstrated a willingness to embrace any policy or group that she thinks will work to her advantage. When she represented a rural-ish upstate New York congressional district, she was all for the Second Amendment, but when elevated to the Senate (to replace Hillary Clinton), her principles reversed themselves.

But then again, Bill Clinton was flexible in his principles depending on political advantage and got away with it with enough voters to get re-elected as president. Gillibrand’s problem is that she isn’t bright enough to pull off the slipperiness with aplomb.

This lack of the finesse necessary to be a good political con artist was all too evident Friday in Des Moines, when Gillibrand visited a gay bar, The Blazing Saddle. She actually went behind the bar (at least she didn’t jump on top of it, Beto-style) and appeared to be (or feigned) drunkenness.

Twitter is full of embarrassing moments:

.@LATSeema gets in a question and drink order to @SenGillibrand at The Blazing Saddle #IACaucus pic.twitter.com/xz3FWM3TSU

— Iowa Starting Line (@IAStartingLine) June 8, 2019

She even gets jiggy and shouts, “Gay rights!”

Kirsten Gillibrand relaxes after working a gay bar in Iowa pic.twitter.com/JYiU3c0Oc9

— 2020 behind the scenes (@Behind2020) June 8, 2019

And she’s got so much rhythm that she keeps bustin’ those moves:

Ok which one of you animals gave her MDMA pic.twitter.com/iv6acM5Bnd

— Will (@Oil_Guns_Merica) June 8, 2019

Sooo out of place:

Gillibrand is running as the annoying straight woman at a gay bar https://t.co/hwd7eRBSOB

— Jeff GieseaрџЊї (@jeffgiesea) June 8, 2019

And by this point, Gillibrand has got to be at least a little bit desperate, as her public support in the latest Harvard Harris poll doesn’t even round up to one percent,  placing her behind such unknowns as John Hickenlooper, Mike Gravel, Tim Ryan, Andrew Yang, Julian Castro, Jay Inslee, and John Delaney – none of whom represent media-heavy New York.

I can hardly wait until Gillibrand campaigns at the Iowa State Fair and sees the crowd at the pie-eating contest.

Photo credit: Twitter screen grab