Here Is a Congressman Sucking on His Finger for a Disturbingly Long Time

I’ll get right to the point: This is Wisconsin Democratic Rep. Ron Kind sucking on his finger for an uncomfortably long period of time during a House Ways and Means committee meeting on Wednesday. Unfortunately, the committee has blocked the full video from playing on our site (nice work, government) but here’s the deeply cursed moment in question in gif form:

Why is Kind absolutely going to town on his middle finger for an unfathomable eight seconds? A terrific question—one which I have asked his office about, and will update this post if they reply.

In the meantime, here are just a few reasons I can think of for a sitting congressman to do this on camera:

• He has a painful paper-cut.
• Sucking down every last fleck of dust after eating a bag of hot Cheetos.
• Making sure all his teeth are there.
• He was bitten by a snake and is removing the venom.
• Aspiring cannibal?

Life is full of mysteries. Hopefully we’ll get to the bottom of this one soon.

Thanks to the Splinter tipster who alerted us to this! Get in touch if you have equally good stuff to share.