Max Blumenthal (someone I generally dislike) has a long piece up in the Nation on Sen. Coburn’s Chief of Staff:
At the very beginning of our conversation, before I could even introduce myself, Schwartz exclaimed, “I’m a radical! I’m a real extremist. I don’t want to impeach judges. I want to impale them!”
Schwartz struck a slightly more even-tempered tone when discussing Senator Arlen Specter, a socially moderate Republican who had become the bete noire of the Christian right since assuming the chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee. “Specter is the Great Satan, of course,” Schwartz remarked. “But still, I’d rather have him as committee chair than [Utah Republican Senator] Orrin Hatch, because Specter knows how to terrorize the opposition.”
Schwartz expressed dismay over a former colleague, Tom Jipping, who has become one of the Christian right’s point men in the judicial nomination battles. “Tom’s great,” he said, recalling their days together at right-wing think tanks the Free Congress Foundation and Concerned Women for America. “But he’s wrong about judges. He just wants better judges,” Schwartz said mockingly.
So what kind of judges did Schwartz want? Borrowing a common right-wing analogy Roberts would later use in his opening remarks before the Judiciary Committee, I asked him if he wanted judges to behave like umpires, ruling on cases like balls and strikes. “I don’t want umpires,” he declared with a dismissive wave of his hand. “I want to get them out of the way.”
Special. Read the whole story, which makes you want to beat your head against a wall.
Krista
To put it inelegantly…crazier than shithouse rats, the two of them.
Geek, Esq.
Wow, between him and Mother Moonbat, I think you have the poles of insanity covered.
lily
maybe instead of beating your head against the wall you should just vote Democrat for awhile, long enough to drive the wackos out of the leadership of your party.
W.B. Reeves
What’s the problem? The GOP is riddled with folks of this sort. Has been for years. Did anyone really expect the loony tunes to stay in the attic indefinitely? You buy the full package, you get the full package.
stickler
Wow, between him and Mother Moonbat, I think only one has his sweaty little hands on the levers of power. Only one works for a United States Senator and has the same outlook on the world that said Senator has.
One of these people is a woman whose son died in Iraq. One of these people helps make policy for a Senator who supports sending lots of our soldiers to Iraq.
They’re just the same!
Richard Bennett
The guy who wrote that piece, Max Blumenthal, is the son of Sid Blumenthal, Clinton’s “nuts and sluts” guy. It’s unusual for Max to write on any subject other than Christopher Hitchens, so this is progress for the sad little bastard.
I see the Saddam-lovers are out in force.
stickler
I see the Clenis-freaks are coming out, too. Not exactly “in force,” but they’re shambling onto the stage.
“Must … blame … Clinton …”
Mark-NC
W.B. Reeves Says:
What’s the problem? The GOP is riddled with folks of this sort. Has been for years. Did anyone really expect the loony tunes to stay in the attic indefinitely? You buy the full package, you get the full package.
I totally agree.
Add to Schwartz and his boss another Republican favorite – Tom Delay.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said yesterday that Republicans have done so well in cutting spending that he declared an “ongoing victory,” and said there is simply no fat left to cut in the federal budget.
In my world, this is a freak show!
jobiuspublius
Krista
Stickler –
Damned fine point.
DougJ
Oh, boy, John that guy is way out it left, or should I say right field. He’s so atypical of staffers of crazed southern Congressmen.
DougJ
Good one Richard. I laughed so hard I wanted to kill myself. Minus the laughing.
Defense Guy
Why do you love Saddam DougJ? He really wasn’t very nice you know.
I agree that it’s good to see the Blumenthals moving beyond the ‘betrayal’ of Hitchens. Maybe the meds are starting to work.
Krista
But DougJ, haven’t you gotten it yet? You either think that Bush shits sunshine, or you want to hand our country over to Saddam, Osama, et all. There’s no middle ground.
DougJ
Defense Guy, it should be obvious to you why I love Saddam: it’s because I hate America and I hate freedom.
Defense Guy
I thought so DougJ, traitor!!!! Consider yourself on double secret probation mister.
Another Jeff
Sometimes i think Coburn is in the Senate to make Santorum look a little less nutty.
Although, being a little less nutty than Coburn is like being a little less fat than Oliver Willis.
Krista
Double secret probation! Wow…you must feel important now! Fortunately, my library records are safe, as our Prime Minister won’t play along and let the U.S. extend the Patriot Act onto Canadian citizens. Which is a good thing, because who knows what they’d derive from my borrowing habits – Harry Potter books, house plan magazines, and Christie-esque murder mysteries?
Bruce from Missouri
Don’t know why you’re upset. People like that are part and parcel of being a Republican. They’ve been running your party for two decades, maybe it’s time you woke up.
Bruce
Tim F
You people are completely crazy. There’s simply no way that a senator in the dominant branch of the majority party has more power than a lower-middle-class mom pooping in a bucket. I mean, what could this Sesenbrenner guy possibly do that could effect our lives? We owe it to ourselves and to our country to keep that spotlight fixed firmly on Cindy Sheehan.
DougJ
A lot of us have. And there’s plenty of others — John Cole and Defense Guy among them — who woke up and hit the snooze button. They’ll be fully awake at some point. But, you know, at least 2/3 of the memembers of both parties are brain dead politically. Despite what Terri Schiavo and their “Nobel-prize nominated” quack friends think there’s no cure for that.
Geek, Esq.
This guy is a staffer for a junior Senator. Majority party or not, Coburn and his staff are still Frist’s bitches.
jg
I can just imagine the attack ad campaign that must have been run this get this Coburn guy elected. I bet they painted the other guy as a tax and spend baby killing liberal commie while Coburn told how he shares the values of his voters and promised to fix issues that can’t be solved politically.
Why is it that the party that runs around saying the opposition hates america, is doing so much to change america?
DougJ
This is Stormy’s part of the country. Maybe she can enlighten on us on went down during the campaign. A lot has changed in Oklahoma since the election, though: apparently they’ve got the internets now.
Anderson
I see the Saddam-lovers are out in force.
Right, you asshole. I love Saddam so much, I want to fuck him. That’s the only possible reason why somebody would oppose the Iraq war.
Move to a nice totalitarian country, you son of a bitch.
Com Con
You have to admit the liberal media has given her quite a megaphone, though.
Richard Bennett
Saddam would be happy to give you some, Anderson, now bend over.
Krista
Tim – LOL…well done!!!
Com Con
I’m with Schwarz on this. It sounds like he’s crazy — quite frankly, both he and his boss sound like a couple of crazy rednecks to me. But he’s got a point about taking out the umpires (not through violence, I hope that’s not what he means, I’m not for that). The free market should be able to handle most things without these guy poking their nose into it.
kl
Show some respect! That’s how ppGaz wound up on “medical leave.”
Com Con
I’m new here and I’ve got to say that although an awful lot of you are way, way to the left, you’re a pretty funny group.
demimondian
[three bursts on the horn]Newbie alert! Newbie alert! Newbie alert!
OK, folks, everybody on their best behavior. ppG — we need you on the left. DougJ, I know you’re on double super-secret probation (hey, what do *I* have to do to get that?), but, since you hate amerikka, can you please do the right-wing-buck-and-wing for a little bit? Soj, we need you at Kos, out in deep left.
Tim F
demimondian, when you’re done waving and screaming please take the poll. Much obliged.
Krista
demimondian – you’re having so much fun right now, aren’t you? :)
demimondian
Tim F — thanks for the compliment, but I’m afraid that the Republican Party will have to continue soldiering on without my help.
Besides, FDD Demimondian used to survive on NIH grants. I know how paltry they actually are, as well as how much work America gets gratis from the people funded on them. I have no use for SuperGrover, and never did.
demimondian
Krista–
You betcha. I’m trying to find my old Bohemian Paris High mascot outfit. It probably doesn’t fit, but, hey, I might still get to catch the girl on the way down.
I just *love* screaming and waving.
Krista
Duly noted. Although I am kind of piqued that you didn’t see fit to boss me around like the others. ;)
demimondian
Sometimes, even I am at a loss for snark.
Ladies and Gentlemen, you see a broken man before you. I have taught DougJ to fish for bass with a spoon, given shaving advice to those who clearly needed help with personal hygiene, and I cannot think of anything to add to that…priceless…contribution to democracy.
Now, please excuse me while I go beat my head against a wall.
demimondian
Krista–
Well, I admit, I did think of telling you to take North Field, but, you know, you’re Canadian, and I try to respect the sovereignty of the Fifty-first State.
Still, if you’re willing, I want you up there in North Field. We’re gonna need another oil boom to bring this puppy in safe, so, I want you to loyally support our President by cutting the price of oil.
Krista
Honey, I’m paying $1.32 per litre at the pumps. If I had that kind of power, I would have shamelessly exercised it LONG before now.
Oh yeah…and that crack about the 51st state? Blow it “oot” your ass.
Wink.
Com Con
And my posts are “troll-tastic”.
Richard, get with the program, pal. Gay-baiting went out of style many, many years ago.
demimondian
Only if you don’t mean them.
My posts are not troll-tasic, although I like to think of them as troll-competent. (The soft bigotry of lowered expectations, doncha know.) Trollery requires both outrageousness and mockery. I’m afraid that you seriously mean what you post, which would make you a very poor troll indeed.
(That said, Richard, I thought what you posted was out of line, too. There’s nothing funny about rape, ever, and the gay-baiting part of the post only made it worse.)
Com Con
Dez, thanks for explaining what “troll” means. I thought it just meant obnoxious, but it means someone who is faking it.
Where does your name come from? It looks a little like Desdemona, the name of Othello’s wife.
Krista
I think it means the demimonde…people of doubtful reputation and standing.
do I win the cookie?
kl
Sounds like you haven’t been doing it right!
Krista
Oh dear…kl…you’re going to get seriously yelled at in about 3….2….1….
Richard Bennett
Gay-baiting? Please.
That was auto-gay-baiting, you Saddam-loving moron liberals.
demimondian
Com Con asks–
Krista has the right of it (here’s your cookie, dear…)
The demimonde was the name that the papers gaves to the “half-world” of whores and artists in fin-du-siecle Paris. By extension, it means an person of dubious reputation or standing. In my case, it’s also a pun on the techie word “Redmondian”, given to foks who work at a certain large software monopo…err, I mean, behemoth…located in the city of Redmond, Washington.
Com Con
Richard, you said something about Anderson Cooper, who is gay, bending over. That’s gay-baiting.
Tim F
Thank you muchly, demimondian, for the thoughtful reply.
Based on many long years of wasting time in front of the computer, I have developed a fine sense of which posts call for a straightforward reply and which ask for skepticism. On some occasions, for example, folks will appear out of nowhere and drop a number time-tested hand grenades all at once. The usual suspects reply with the usual outrage and the grenadier gets to sit back and tut-tut about the level of discourse in America today.
Safe to say that our visitor appears to qualify. I suppose I could just go ahead and flame him, but if he can’t even get the Republicans here to defend his ideas then there’s hardly any point to it.
But hell, it’s a ten-cent cinch that somebody’ll bite so you guys hardly need my input to carry on. Enjoy your flame war.
demimondian
Tim–
I think you might do well to think about the effective care and feeding of trolls and other vandals. When a troll comes in, there are two responses: you can flame them (which gives them the chance to tut-tut about the degeneration of public discourse in America) or you can make fun of them. In my experience, the true troll (_troglodytes troglodytes_) is looking for the first response, and, being relatively stupid, does not know how to handle the second, leading to endless hours of fun for the rest of the participants — and, usually, the quick exit of the troll.
There are other species in genus Troglodytes, though, some of which do not respond normally to humor. These creatures, however, are often more acceptable drawing-room companions than T. trog.
stickler
Hate to interrupt a flamewar/lovefest, but could someone explain to me the metaphor “crazy as a shithouse rat?” I mean, I’ve only rarely had the opportunity to use an outhouse, which I suppose the metaphor refers to. And though I know the tenements of New York had lots of heavily-used “shithouses” before they were hooked up to the city sewer lines, I’d never heard of people running into crazed rats in them.
So my question is, just how crazy is a shithouse rat? Is there any way to measure if said rat is any crazier than a rat who lives in a warehouse? Or a boathouse?
demimondian
Just how crazy is a shithouse rat? In my experience, about as crazy as a clam is happy at high tide. Which is to say, hallucinatorally so.
That said, there have been a series of interesting ethological studies of experimental rats in traditional showbox enclosures. They are, in fact, every bit as crazy as a fundie on Disney gay day.
kl
…?
Cobble
…?
Contact!
(Sorry, I was a child of the 80s.)
Krista
kl – I thought for sure that Demimondian was going to take serious umbrage with your “Sounds like you haven’t been doing it right!” comment.
Thanks for the cookie, Demimondian.
And yes, I remember 3,2,1 Contact! Mind you, growing up in Canada, my main childhood staples were Sesame Street, Mr. Dressup, The Friendly Giant, and for some perverse reason, Battlestar Galactica.
demimondian
Demimondian *did* take serious umbrage with the comment.
However, Demimondian also has a life, and decided that some comments are so nauseating that it might make more sense to go spend some time with FDD Demimondian and the Demi-offspring.
Tim F
demomondian,
An excellent summary, but in my opinion incomplete. Certainly a little mocking will shoo away your average troll, but a much smaller fraction of the species has enough brains to leverage their sociopathic need to irritate into some truly epic flame wars.
You will never find a finer specimen than the guy we used to call ‘Patwick’ over at The Atlantic, before the briney boards went pay-to-play. Drove some fairly well-adjusted people nearly to tears.
To be fair, I don’t even know that com con doesn’t really believe this stuff. Either way you can pretty much set your watch by the reaction that he’ll get. I figure that we can head off some rollicking flame wars if people recognize that com con’s so far out on the political fringe that he can’t even see land.
kl
Don’t bogart that lemon!
demimondian
Student, in kl we encounter one of the lesser species of genus Troglodytes: _T. vulgaris craniophallus_. Characterized by its prodigious production of the offensive, and some would even say the repulsive, individuals drawn from subspecies craniophallus are typically relatively negligible. Their product is actually accumulated and puffed up by their own hot air.
It appears that specimens of craniophallus accumulate these nests as a part of some bizarre mating ritual. That may account for their sterility.
kl
Okay, that one was sort of clever. You are redeemed.
Krista
I don’t know…he was posting over at the mother Sheehan thread, and wound up having a pretty reasonable debate with ppGaz. I think he arrived with intent to troll, and will still partake just for fun, but when interested enough, will engage in some pretty good discussion.
Tim F
Hm. Com con now claims that he meant to abolish the NEH rather than the NIH, which changes things somewhat. Needless to say there’s a substantial constituency of folks who believe that eliminating those two will make the tiniest damned difference in the federal budget.
I looked it up. Combined they don’t add up to two Don Young “bridges to nowhere”