Richard Shelby is blocking the nomination of Peter Diamond to sit on the Fed board of governors.

Why?

Shelby says Diamond is unqualified.

Diamond is a professor of economics at a little school called MIT.

Diamond won the Nobel Prize for economics.

Diamond was Ben Bernanke's teacher!

"While the Nobel Prize for economics is a significant recognition, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences does not determine who is qualified to serve on the Board of Governors," said Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the senior Republican on the Senate Banking Committee.

Yeah okay. Not that any of this is a shocker at this point, but holy effing crap on a stick. I suppose if Diamond believed, as many of the Republicans do, that math is a liberal conspiracy -- that it's impossible to invest $1 in food stamps and have it return $1.72 in economic stimulus -- he'd pass right through.