I have a new post up at The Grio:
In an interview with Brent Bozell of the conservative Media Research Center this week, Congressman Joe Walsh (Republican of Illinois) invoked President Obama’s race in an attempt to explain what he views as the media’s refusal to expose the “dishonesty” in President Obama’s deficit reduction plan; the dishonesty being, of course, the president’s recently-stated policy — the so-called “Buffett Rule” that millionaires should not pay a lower tax rate than those in the middle class.
Walsh has a history of disrespectful behavior toward, and of making insensitive racial remarks about, President Obama. He recently claimed that Obama was elected only because he was an articulate black man and appeased “white liberal guilt.”
…
(click here to read the rest)
[via The Grio]
[cross-posted at Angry Black Lady Chronicles][As of yesterday, I’m officially on the roster of paid contributors at The Grio. ::toots horn:: I’m pretty jazzed — like “jazz hands” jazzed. Now let’s see if I turn in my W9 in a timely fashion, or if I procrastinate until the end of time as is my nature. -ABLxx]
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
Way to go!
Linda Featheringill
Congrats on the paying gig!
Walsh thinks there is enough white guilt to actually elect a president? I don’t think so. Not in a voting booth where no one can actually see what you’re doing.
Svensker
Yay you!
Can’t say the same re Bozell and Walsh.
artem1s
Congrats!
harlana
Congrats, ABL! that is great news
ugh, just don’t have to energy to comment on Walsh right now, maybe after a couple of belts
Citizen Alan
What’s hilarious to me is that probably 90% of the Tea Party/GOP will see absolutely nothing racist about what Walsh said! Also, if Obama only got elected because of white guilt, then why didn’t everybody who would have voted Republican but for their overwhelming compulsion to vote for a black man just rally behind Alan Keyes?
Yutsano
SCHWEET!!
Already gave you my opinion on Book of Faces. I shan’t be redundant. :)
eemom
Tee hee. SUCK on it, Cornered Stone. Et al.
eemom
My dumbass wingnut sister in law, bless her heart (not) posted on FB a picture of a billboard preaching the gospel according to joe:
I “shared” it on my page noting that I am disgusted to be associated with someone who would post that, which may precipitate a family feud. Or it might not. She really is stupid enough not to “get” that.
Anya
Congratulations, ABL for the paid gig. But why should anyone really care about Deadbeat Dad Congressman Joe Walsh? He’s a big nothing who will be redistricted out of his seat. IMO, he does not deserve the attention you’re giving him.
Chris
@eemom:
Hey, same thing my uncle posted the other month. Enjoy the family feud!
harlana
Hm, by all libertarian and winger accounts, this guy is a L-O-S-E-R
why is anyone listening to him? b/c he yells the loudest? and then it’s like, aw it’s cute how he yells and screams all this nonsensical shit, let’s give him a bigger megaphone – IOKYAR
(oh yeh, forgot to answer my own question: b/c he says exactly what they want to hear)
Origuy
Obama can count on the “white guilt” vote like Walsh can count on the deadbeat dad vote. Neither is enough to get you elected.
No article about Walsh should leave out his child support case.
Congrats on the gig!
Sly
Can Walsh use race to distract a county judge from the fact that he owes 100K in back child support but had the money to “loan” his congressional campaign 35K?
Nope.
TFinSF
Seems like a recycled version of Limbaugh’s criticism of Donovan McNabb, which got him fired from ESPN:
Not surprising that this asswipe can’t even come up with his own racist whine.
Nutella
A meta comment: That post at The Grio is written in such a measured, temperate style that it’s hard to believe it’s the same angry writer we all know as ABL.
And a comment on the content: It really pisses me off to hear these shits babbling about class war when the middle class is trying to claw back some of the money they lost in the Reagan/Bush class war.
dmsilev
@Anya: Walsh’s current seat will vanish with redistricting, true, but he’s announced plans to challenge some other wingnut in the primary.
Pray for injuries.
SiubhanDuinne
Hey, ABL! congratulations on the Grio gig. Way to go!
Chris
@Origuy:
This.
I have yet to encounter this mythical “white guilt” creature anywhere, and I went to a pretty damn liberal college.
Even if it exists, for every “white guilt voter” there’d be at least five “I’m outraged because people are acknowledging that minorities have gotten a lot of shit and that makes me feel guilty and I don’t like it!” assholes who’ll vote on that issue alone. White guilt couldn’t even come close to putting Obama over the top.
contessakitty (AKA Karen)
Didn’t Geraldine Ferarro (sp) basically say the same thing in 2008 only it was used as the reason why Obama was winning in the Democratic primaries?
Congrats ABL, btw.
Lojasmo
Congrats, ABL!
Kerry Reid
So I guess, using Walshian logic, all those times black people voted for white people in overwhelming numbers would be attributable to black guilt over how tough white people have it?
Elie
Many congrats, ABL on a paying gig. Know how important that is just getting a new job myself..
As for Walsh, he is just one of the many tantruming white people’s party leadership. I think that they are hurting themselves immensely except with a small group of die hard folks who just cannot get over their entitlement.
We will carry on, however. I am optimistic that these folks are not only seriously sad and crazy, but will be pretty isolated over time…
JPL
Congrats, Imani! You’ll always be ABL to us though. Keep up the good fight.
How many voted for McCain/Palin because they would not vote for a black person? Walsh is the idiot.
Linda Featheringill
@Kerry Reid: @22
LOL! Beautiful!
cmorenc
I am originally from small-town eastern North Carolina, and as a child, had a very close friend who after high school, went off to a different college and we fell out of contact for 35 years. Just by pure chance, I ran into him down at a beach at the coast a couple of years ago, where it turns out he now lives, and we spent the evening together having a few beers and got back in contact, including exchanging emails. We didn’t discuss politics that evening or the couple of times we’ve seen each other since, but he added me to an email list of friends who exchange funny stories, jokes, AND…often wingnut political emails. Turns out, my old friend is an archtypical white southern male GOP wingnut.
WHAT’S PARTICULARLY SCARY PERSONALLY isn’t so much the fact that my old friend turns out at age 60 to be a hard-core wingnut, but the fact that back when he knew me well 35-40 years ago, our mutual worldview was so closely in sync that he presumed I still had a similar political mindset to his! I’ve been a progressive for several decades now, and it’s a rude shock to be so vividly reminded that I once thought as naturally like one of them as fish swim in the sea. NOT JUST THAT, however…it made me realize why I sometimes feel a strangely empathetic understanding of their mindset, not because I agree at all with it or don’t now find many aspects of it repulsive, but because I grew up in a setting where that mindset came as naturally as blue sky and breathing air and so I understand how they feel and their mental framework as a permanent residue of having so long ago once been one of them.
One thing you do have to realize is that aside from being reactionary, often racist wingnuts politically, on a personal level many of them are in fact good people of the sort who make good friends and neighbors, including the few black folk who seem enough like themselves to feel comfortable with. But their comfort level on that front is always mixed with a little tension to be on guard not to say some of the racially charged stuff that naturally rolls off their mind sometimes when no black folk are within earshot.
Chris
@cmorenc:
Well sure, I think that’s true of the average joe in most demographics. Still support some pretty fucked up things though…
I remember reading “To Kill A Mocking Bird” and after the trial, Atticus explained to his son “these are twelve normal, reasonable people in everyday life, but in that courtroom you saw something come between them and reason.” It’s as good a summary as any for the wingnut mindset.
opie jeanne
@Chris: I think he explained it to Scout, his daughter Jean Louise Finch, aka Scout, but I haven’t read it in a very long time and maybe I’m wrong.
Ben Cisco
Congrats on the gig, ABL!
__
Also, deadbeat dad Rep. Walsh (which is how he should be referred to every single time in print – hint hint!) isn’t worthy of the spotlight, but his actions – and the fact that the GOP is in lockstep with him – are. Light is the best disinfectant.
Villago Delenda Est
“White guilt”?
WTF?
It couldn’t have been because John McCain is a senile old coot who selected, without bothering to even give a cursory vetting, a bubblehead bimbo grifter to be his running mate.
Obama was elected because he was the better choice. His skin color is utterly irrelevant to that process. But then again, I’m one of those “guilty white liberals” that deadbeat dad shitbag Joe Walsh (not the Eagles member) disdains so.
flamingRedDingo
@Villago Delenda Est:
WRT to the presidential ballot – I always vote for the 3rd party with the most momentum. ONLY because I don’t live in a swing state (but rather, solidly blue WA)..
I made one exception to that rule in 2008.
In 2008 I voted for Obama, rather than the Green Party *
And yes, it was because he was by far the better candidate (as far as I was concerned), and because at least partly because he was black – but had nothing to do with white guilt.
It had to do with the fact that mccain seemed just moderate enough to capture the “I would never admit it even to myself but I really don’t want a n—er in the oval office) rich white liberal vote (not all of them, but they’re out there)
I didn’t want the deep-red-veins in my state (check the rural eastern parts) and the self-unaware rich white liberal voting bloc to turn my state red. I thought Obama was just black enough to potentially make that a problem for WA’s electoral vote.
I guess in a way the Goopers have a point. *shrug*
But it wasn’t so much white guilt, as it was cynicism on my part, and I was wrong in the end (If I had to do it over I’d have voted green party like I always do)…
——————————————————
*truth be told, I always thought Nader was politically retarded, and half of his policies were outright destructive, but I believe in fed matched funds, and participation in the debates for as many parties as we can muster – no matter who they are – it’s another thing altogether to actually want them to win…
SpaceSquid
Congratulations, ABL. Having money is awesome, or so I’m told…
Triassic Sands
Using one blog to advertise one’s own post on another blog?
There oughta be a law.
Anne Laurie
Congratulations, Imani / ABL!
Kola Noscopy
Grifters gonna grift…
ABL’s new motto: “Fine for me but not for thee.”
MTiffany
I’ll drink to that (not that I need a reason, but a good reason is a good reason) and do some jazz hands.
Congratulations ABL.
And apropos of nothing…
and haters gonna hate
and derpys gonna derp
ABL
@Kola Noscopy: freelance writing as grifting, eh? that dog won’t hunt. when i form my Angry Black Super PAC, then let’s talk.
ABL
Thanks, y’all. :)
Jay
The high – character Democrat Tammy Duckworth is running against Walsh this cycle. Yes, I know Duckworth lost a tough Congressional race once before, but at the very least, we can force national Republicans to spend some money on the blow-dried deadbeat Walsh, right?
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
Imani- you are a badass. Keep on kickin’ it.
cat48
Hey, ABL! Congrats! $$
rikyrah
the the truth ABL on this clown.
I’ll ask again…why isn’t his ass in JAIL for non-payment of child support.
congrats on the paying gig.
Paul in KY
Late to the party, but kudos on the paid gig.