Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

White supremacy is terrorism.

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself. We’re allowed to grow past that.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Please don’t feed the bears.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

The Supreme Court is corrupt. Democrats must win in November and force court reform.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

Fight them, without becoming them!

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Even though I know this is a bad idea, I’m off to do it anyway!

You are here: Home / Barton fink

Reader Interactions

34Comments

  1. 1.

    mcd410x

    No, O.J.’s “suicide” letter was the most.

    I feel I’ve done most of the right things so why do I wind up like this. I can’t go on. No matter what the outcome, people will look and point. I can’t take that. I can’t subject my children to that. This way they can move on and go on with their lives. … Don’t feel sorry for me. I’ve had a great life. Please think of the real O.J. and not this lost person. Thanks for making my life special.

    White Bronco Day is almost over!

  3. 3.

    asiangrrlMN

    I actually think Barton’s is more ridiculous than the one from the guy Cheney shot in the face. Obviously, people are terrified of Cheney and do not want to have him shooting them again on purpose, but Barton? Taking the side of the oil company who caused the biggest environmental disaster in our modern era? Stupefying.

  5. 5.

    jl

    According to Open Secrets, oil and gas is second largest contributor to Barton, as would be expected for a ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee. Three quarters of that is from oil and gas PACs.

    Shows how irrationally scared politicians get if they are afraid of getting grabbed down in their money parts.

    http://images.opensecrets.org/barton.html?cid=N00005656&cycle=Career

    So, yeah, I would say that ‘shooting victim apologizes to vice president’ is more bizarre, at least outside of a place like North Korea. And I can think of no places like North Korea other than North Korea.

  6. 6.

    Brian J

    Why is this being made public?

    I can understand that what happened was an accident. I think very littl of Cheney, but I don’t think he’d shoot a guy intentionally. If this guy is close enough to Cheney to spend some time in private with him, and apparently feels that what happened put the Cheney family through undue stress, why can’t he simply pick up the phone and tell him this? I just don’t see the reason to bring this back into the news cycle.

  7. 7.

    kdaug

    I think there’s a difference between

    1.) Saying what you really think, and then having superiors saying “Jesus Christ, man, shut the fuck up – you can’t say that shit on national TV! Get your ass out there and retract it or we’ll strip you of every senior position that you’ve even glanced at!”, and

    2.) Being shot in the face by a man who, should you implicate him in the least, will have you, your children, and your grandchildren renditioned to Kazakhstan to be boiled alive.

    A difference of degrees, to be sure – but the sentiment is the same.

  8. 8.

    Mr Furious

    I’d like to think even the people in Texas are thinking, “He fucking did WHAT?”

    Seriously. Say you’re Joe Barton, a wholly-owned petro-subsidiary, don’t you believe you and your benefactors are better served by laying low on this?

  9. 9.

    TuiMel

    @asiangrrlMN:
    I agree. At the end of the day, I think many people felt some compassion for Cheney’s victim. Barton earns only contempt. Even the real “GOS,” John Boehner, turned on him.

  12. 12.

    Martin

    @Brian J: Wait, you think the stress to the Cheney family from accidentally shooting someone is worse than the stress of being shot in the face?

    Yes, I suppose BP should be apologized to for the stress their CEO must now be going through.

  13. 13.

    fucen tarmal

    barton’s apology was a standard play. you have the watercarriers on the talky no picture box talk about slush funds and so on, blaming obama for exploiting a crisis because that is what they did/would do…appealing to the drill baby! part of the base who loves big awl. they usually have one elected stooge say what the media echochamber will be saying, to give it creedence in the non-talky no picture box world….s.o.p.

    of course the other explanation is that burton simply hates himself as a wholly owned stooge, and the only satisfaction to be derived, is by cling to those who have made him a fool already, and feeling the masochistic pleasure of being hated for his loyalty.

  14. 14.

    Mike Kay

    Don’t forget, not only did Harry Whittington get shot in the face, some of the pellets lodged in his chest, which triggered a heart attack while he was recovering in the hospital.

  15. 15.

    fucen tarmal

    @Brian J:

    because guns are involved, and even though its apparent cheney hunts like a wuss

    it had to be clear that cheney isn’t so stupid as to mishandle a fire arm while hunting birds with wings clipped so they can barely fly, who were released at close range, after cheney drove up to sit in the blind and wait for their prey to be properly prepared and released.

  16. 16.

    kdaug

    @Mr Furious: Hola from Tejas, amigo.

    This is exactly the way it works out down here, every time. The R’s invariably overreach in their overzealous orthodoxy, cross the line, and get slapped back into oblivion for 8-12 years.

    Lemme tell you a story: there was a jackass down here named Clayton Williams (R). Ran against Ann Richards for her second term as gov. During the campaign, he told a joke to bunch of reporters around a campfire that was, shall we say, a bit off-color (something about how “weather’s like rape – if it’s inevitable you might as well lie back and enjoy it”). Got a lot of cluck-clucking in the press but really didn’t do much to his standing in the polls.

    HOWEVER, at their first debate, Ann reached out to shake his hand, and he literally turned away and said “I ain’t shakin’ your hand”. That was it – Ann won handily.

    (Of course, next cycle some jackass named Karl Rove is representing the silver-spooned son of a former Vice President and starts a whisper campaign that Grandma Richards is a secret lesbian – and here we are).

    But to be honest, if the gulf stream doesn’t wash the oil up on Houston or Corpus, he can probably get away with it down here.

  18. 18.

    mai naem

    Harry Shearer has a segment on apologies on his show. I have to believe he’s going to have a ball with this one. Also too, if this crap is ever turned into a movie, Colin Firth is a ringer for Tony Hayward. I am sure Colin Firth is disappointed by this.

  21. 21.

    jwb

    @Brian J: It was because the media was having a big spaz at the time over how Cheney shot some dude and so basically the dude came out to apologize to get the media off Cheney’s back. Seems to me the media never was the same after that.

  23. 23.

    kdaug

    Oh, BTW, W. shook Ann’s hand at the debates.

    There’s a line, but it’s not always clear where it is.

  24. 24.

    MikeJ

    @Mike Kay: Not actually resign, but swap jobs with Hillary. Which is dumber.

    She says Hillary has done a great job at State. And she has. So she should be put in a do nothing job where we’ll only hear from her if she has to go to a funeral? And we should replace her as the head of the US diplomatic effort with “big fucking deal” Biden?

  25. 25.

    jwb

    @MikeJ: That’s one of those columns where the stupid is so strong that you come out stupider having read it and tried to make sense of it.

  26. 26.

    hamletta

    @jwb: Exactly. I realize she’s fucking the boss emeritus, but really. Does the WaPo really want the Superannuated Party Girl making suggestions as to the governance of this country?

    Katharine Graham had more gravitas in her pinky than that horrible woman could ever possess, or even aspire to. And she would never be so arrogant as to suggest such a thing, even in private.

    Gawd, that woman is an embarrassment. To women, to the people of the District of Columbia, to the nation.

  28. 28.

    Calouste

    @Mike Kay:

    Sally got her “job” at the washington post even though because she had no “experience”.

    Fix’t.

    Can’t have people doing journamalism and research and stuff.

  30. 30.

    Paul

    A friend of mine pointed out that the Cheney incident apology wasn’t quite as crazy as one might think, given the dynamics of hunting, especially in groups.

  31. 31.

    RR Mikey

    @Brian J: Maybe if Cheney and the beast (his daughter) stayed out of the news cycle, the shooting incident would as well. It’s way too difficult to feel sorry for him (or her). Monsters both…..

  33. 33.

    Emma

    Mike Kay: The comments are even worse. Especially the one who swears Obama is selecting his successor from a list of colored governors… swelp me God, that’s what it said.

    It’s impossible to read most comment threads in major newspapers anymore. I don’t have wading boots that reach my neck.

Comments are closed.