Samuel Wurzelbacher, who has been milking his 15 minutes of “Joe the Plumber” fame for four years and counting, is running against Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur for a Congressional seat. Apparently a tender blossom despite his rugged, wipe-clean exterior, Wurzelbacher thinks it’s out of bounds to be asked about homophobic comments he made a few years ago (i.e., “I wouldn’t have them anywhere near my children”):
“Listen, in my dictionary and in everyone’s dictionary from the 1970s, the word queer did mean strange and unusual. There was no slur to it. Do you challenge that? Come on. You’re trying to do a gotcha moment, it’s quite obvious. I’m allowed to have my opinion as an American but it seems the left becomes very intolerant when you have an opinion other than what they state. My opinions are mine.”
Once again, an ignorant Constitution-humper confuses “free speech” with “freedom from criticism.” It will be a pleasure to watch Marcy Kaptur plunge this gargantuan turd down the drainpipe.
[H/T: The Raw Story; X-POSTED at Rumproast]
The Other Chuck
Is Joe the Dumber running for the local GOP nomination, or is he running as an independent to siphon off votes from the Republican? Can’t say I’m unhappy either way…
PeakVT
Kaptur is going to flush that guy.
Betty Cracker
@The Other Chuck: I could be wrong, but I think Not-Joe the Not-Plumber already won the GOP nomination. Kaptur will squash him like a bug.
Martin
‘Retarded cracker’ used to mean different things in the 19th century. I guess it’s fair game again by the same reasoning.
merrinc
Ohio should be deeply, deeply ashamed of themselves for keeping this loser in the public eye. But given the lack of logic or even acceptance of reality I see from my wingnut relatives in that state (all of whom I’ve had to block on Facebook), I’m not surprised. He’ll get more than 27% prolly.
Comrade Dread
Really, dude, what’s so hard about saying something like:
“I’m a devout Christian, and I believe the Bible, so I think homosexuality is a sin, but I’m not running to be your pastor, I’m running to be your representative, and if elected, I pledge to you that I will ensure that every one of my constituent’s rights are fully respected and honored by the United States government.”
kay
She’s going to slaughter him. I will bet you TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS :)
Marcy Kaptur’s supporters love her very, very much. They’ll work their little hearts out. I once lived in her district. She inspires devotion.
Sad_Dem
So, when do we see his gay-hookup-site pics?
fasteddie9318
On the plus side, if her flushing causes a clog, she can always ask Joe to clear it out for her.
Oh wait, no she can’t, because he was never a fucking plumber in the first place. Sorry, I forget stuff.
cathyx
How embarrassing to vote for someone named Joe the Plumber for House of Representative.
Schlemizel
So Sam the not plumber beat Mean Jean in the GOP primary? HAHAHAHAHA
Sadly, this stunt will play well with the hillbilly buckeyes that are going to vote for this clown.
Nutella
“My opinions are mine.”
IGMFY
shortstop
I wish these people could bring themselves to trust the free market in public discourse. If their ideas have merit, we won’t ridicule and humiliate them for airing them.
Bud
Yeah, ol’ Joe there was just using the dictionary defition of “queer” and not the colloquial version.
I’ll bet this asshole hasn’t cracked a dictionary since 5th grade.
I understand that many people now regret their homophobic rhetoric, but he’s a wimp for not admitting it.
Ash Can
This is so awesome. Please tell me there will be debates, and please tell me they’ll be live-streamed.
Democratic Nihilist, Keeper Of Party Purity
@Comrade Dread: Those words are too big for him. Plus, the few limited goals running through Samuel Wurzerbacher’s head definitely do NOT include:
“I pledge to you that I will ensure that every one of my constituent’s rights are fully respected and honored by the United States government.”
That’s not a goal of the GOP, and is not the goal of this perennial grifting loser.
Ben Franklin
So, the unlicensed, unemployed plumber who was worried his future business might have to pay taxes, may actually find a job? He is the Bizzaro World Romney. May he make a fine living running for office.
BGinCHI
I always assumed “Joe the Plumber” was his gay porn handle.
No?
PeakVT
@Schlemizel: Schmidt lost down near Cincy to somebody to her right. This race is up along Lake Erie in a district that is a Democratic vote sink.
Democratic Nihilist, Keeper Of Party Purity
PS: Wow, this guy has not gotten any smarter, has he?
kay
@Ash Can:
Kaptur is a really smart person, and she’s quick, so a debate would be great, but I don’t think she’ll do it because she doesn’t have to.
TK-421
No, Sam/Joe, you’re doing it wrong. That’s not the way Republicans do it. Here, let me help you out:
GregB
Joe the Plumber should have learned by now that excrement always flows downhill.
Enjoy the ride Joe.
Perhaps he should hire Chris Crocker to do a trademark Leave Joe alone! TV spot for the general election.
Gypsy Howell
I’m sure Mean Jean presented a low barrier to entry in this race, but how did Not Joe The Not Plumber beat an incumbent anyway?
Loneoak
He’s such a giant turd that he’s likely to clog the pipes when Kaptur flushes him. Unfortunately, since he’s a not-plumber he’s not going to be able to help.
JPL
What would Sarah say?
JPL
@GregB: If he were a plumber, he’d know that but alas he’s not.
dmsilev
@BGinCHI:
If by ‘gay porn’ you mean ‘Republican Party’ (an easy mistake to make), then yes. His real name is Wurzelbacher.
Ash Can
@kay: For the sake of sheer entertainment, I hope you’re wrong, although given your track record I’m not holding my breath. :) It’s not as though Wurlitzerbacher won’t be imparting comedy on his own on a regular basis during the campaign, but a debate would be a freakin’ mother lode of laughs.
Kilkee
So why didn’t he buy that fictitious plumbing company, anyway?
kay
@JPL:
I don’t know what she’ll say but Joe the Fake Plumber is going to meet Kaptur’s grass roots army of really smart, hard-working women, all of whom Kaptur has spoken with personally. Marcy Kaptur works all the time. That’s what she does.
Nutella
@Gypsy Howell:
He didn’t beat an incumbent. Due to redistricting there were two D incumbents in the primary, Kaptur and Kucinich. Kaptur won that and Joe won the R primary against some other unknowns.
Schmidt is in a different district. The guy who beat her in that primary is apparently even more of a Tea Bagger.
Ash Can
@Gypsy Howell: Mean Jean lost to Brad Wenstrup. Different clown.
kay
@Ash Can:
Kaptur had a district that included a rural county in Ohio. That was two redistrictings ago. The Democratic women there still love her.
I went to a town hall she had on Lake Erie water issues, and I don’t think there is a single person in this country with better broad-based understanding of that lake: economic, environmental, legal, treaty issues (we have a Great Lakes compact that includes Canada).
fasteddie9318
Do people like notJoe the notPlumber react like this to all questions, or just uncomfortable ones that get asked by reporters? I imagine him sitting in a restaurant, the waiter says “Sir, may I take your order?” and his response is “Come on now, the American populature can all perceive what you’re manufactiving here. You’re trying to do a gotcha moment, it’s quite oblivous. My own personal ideas and plans with respect to the consumption of combustibles or not to compulse such, and which variants of nutruitives I may or may not want to consummate, are mine and I see no rationation why I should divestitute them upon such as yourself.”
burnspbesq
@Comrade Dread:
If you don’t believe it, it can be extremely hard to say. That’s the thing with fundies and bishops: they know that they are carrying around God’s revealed truth, and they can’t stand the idea of not “sharing” it with you (i.e., cramming it down your throat whether you believe it or not).
Culture of Truth
Is it too late to draft him in a brokered convention?
redshirt
In Rethug speak: Non Fox media asking questions = GOTCHYA LIBERAL JOURNAMALISM!
PeakVT
Schmidt – District 2. Wurzelbacher – District 9.
Culture of Truth
OBAMA!!!!!!
Linda Featheringill
@Schlemizel:
Not in this section of the state, probably [Cleveland to Toledo, loosely].
[And I really wish you wouldn’t use “hillbilly” in that way. I know you meant no harm, but still . . . Thanks.]
Steve
@kay: What’s to understand? The Great Lakes water belongs to Michigan, full stop. At least that’s how politics works where I come from!
Anoniminous
Tea Baggers don’t have positions they have opinions. Opinions are not arrived at through reason so they can’t defend them with reason.
“GOTCHA URINALISM” = “I have no idea why I spout this crap.”
Betty Cracker
@kay: I think Kaptur’s terrific too. I was sorry to see Kuchinich redistricted out of Congress (he can be a pain in the arse sometimes, but we need all the hardcore progressives we can get), but between the two of them, I was totally rooting for her and very glad she won.
Nutella
@Culture of Truth:
And that big, bad ObamaCare that’s ruining wholesome American businesses everywhere, even the imaginary ones.
Comrade Dread
@Democratic Nihilist, Keeper Of Party Purity: He doesn’t have to believe it, he just has to say it with enough conviction to look like he believes it.
I’m pretty certain 95% of what comes out of the mouths of politicians is stuff they only ‘believe’ because they ran it through focus groups, and that’s how the game is played.
middlewest
So is anyone going to ask what newspapers he reads?
The Other Chuck
Looking at Kaptur’s voting record, she looks quite a bit like a Blue Dog. Infinitely better than any Republican, but I’d still have preferred Kucinich, with his nutty purity trolling and all.
Nutella
Bachmann, Palin, and Santorum are good at that. They’ve got the smooth politico’s patter down, even when they are saying completely batshit crazy sentences. Joe hasn’t learned to do it at all and Romney has never been good at it.
It’s weird to see people trying so hard to get jobs they lack the most basic skills for.
KG
can someone explain to me how the most recent polls out of Alabama have Romney leading?
Romney? In the deep south? Really? I thought he was supposed to lose there very badly?
kay
@Betty Cracker:
The interesting part of that race for me was, Kaptur is anti-war. She’s persuasive on it, and she reaches a different demo than Kuchinich, a demo that might be less inclined to be anti-war (she’s not preaching to the choir) so in a way she may be the better progressive voice in that area.
I think the Joe the Plumber race will be amusing, she’s tiny, and she (actually, I don’t mean this unkindly) looks like a nun, prim and proper, but she’s sharp as shit and she’s a Toledo person. She’s tough. She’ll rip his head off before he even notices :)
phantomist
I heard he was a former prisoner of sewer who wrecked five drains.
KG
@Nutella: I think Bachmann, Palin, and Santorum actually believe the batshit crazy stuff they say. There are politicians who say shit they don’t believe and can be convincing at it (in my life time, Clinton and Reagan were probably the best at it). But of the current crop? Nope, true believers or bad liars.
4tehlulz
@KG: Poll, singular. And a new poll out today has Slick Rick up by 4.
Nemesis
I seem to remember a word from, say, the ’50’s, that began with “n” and ended with “r” that was spoken quite often back in the day.
That word just aint used so much anymore in public. Wonder why?
The floor will be mopped with Sam-the-not-plumber.
Cermet
If you think that guy is bad, try seeing what Andrew found – the uber asswipe Glenn McCoy made a ‘cartoon’ with Obama in a dumpster filled with babies sitting outside an “Abortion Clinic’ and he is holding a baseball bat (blood dripping off) and says “I was making sure they were dead.” Never in my life could I ever dream anyone (even on the right) would go that low. Never since the civil war days has anyone gone so far over the top. The WP should be ashamed they carry that monster – it makes the gas bag look like a nice guy.
Thor Heyerdahl
@Steve: All Great Lakes waters drain into Canada…so they all should be ours – even the one (Michigan) not within our boundaries :)
Edit: What secret word did I use to have this comment go into moderation?
Narcissus
Wait is it still the seventies
is that why we’re using seventies dictionaries
Am I hallucinating the year 2012
Did I do some bad LSD
Anoniminous
@KG:
What polls are you talking about?
From what I can tell the CW is Santorum is doing well, Romney is doing eh?, with Gingrich lagging.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Schlemizel: No. Brad the podiatrist who was chief of surgery for the hospital at Abu Ghraib from 2005-2006 took down Mean Jean. You cannot make this stuff up.
Joe the not plumber is in northern Ohio. Where he will be annihilated in the actual election. By laughter as well as votes.
KG
@4tehlulz: ah, ok, I saw two listed on wikipedia, hadn’t seen the new one today with Rih leading. I’m figuring outliers because, well, Mitt Romney, Deep South, but still, was surprised by it.
Southern Beale
Just saw this:
God I’m so sick of these illiterate, ignorant phony “patriots.” On behalf of all the soldiers who were forced to follow Dumbass Dubya’s folly into the hell that was Iraq because THAT IS WHAT YOU DO when you enlist, I offer Marine Sgt. Gary Stein a hearty FUCK YOU.
Sorry. Guess I’m not supporting the troops enough.
Democratic Nihilist, Keeper Of Party Purity
@Narcissus: I ask the same question all the time.
KG
@Anoniminous: wikipedia has two recent polls (same pollster) up showing Mitt ahead.
beltane
@kay: Based on everything I’ve seen about this gentleman, it might be quite a while before he notices that Marcy Kaptur has torn his head off. I beieve wingnuts such as this can exist for quite a while without a brain as long as they are receiving neural impulses from their spinal cords.
Poopyman
@Narcissus: Is your keyboard lacking a question mark
pragmatism
@Southern Beale: military oath-queefers. he gives it away when he talks about which specific orders he wants to avoid.
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
The real gotcha question was along the lines of ‘what makes you qualified to run for office?’ He got kind of defensive over that one.
Ben Cisco
@phantomist: I see what you did there.
TK-421
@The Other Chuck:
I’m pretty sure she has some conservative leanings, but in my limited observations Congresswoman Kaptur does not appear to be a preening a–hole troll. So, you know, this liberal commie emoprog etc. sees no need for concern.
OTOH the redistricting has probably changed the makeup of her constituency, so it remains to be seen if she will still be representative of said constituents.
Another Halocene Human
I’ve been watching the UK Kitchen Nightmares and I’ve been having a little trouble with the lingo, but I finally think I’ve got it:
Samuel “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelbacher is the human embodiment of “taking the piss.”
The Moar You Know
@Southern Beale: That’s a pretty stupid move for an enlisted guy, and only marginally less stupid for an officer. It’s happened before. They usually get some things explained to them and the issue goes away.
Then again, sometimes you get a guy like Choi who wants to renege on his commitment and do as much damage as he can on the way out. The military’s wise on how to handle guys like that, too.
I might add a couple of things: I’m in San Diego, I have my own business, and that business ends up hiring a lot of ex-military folks. And I do Google their names before hiring. A guy who has pulled a stunt like this is:
A. Not going to be a good employee. He doesn’t obey orders and thinks he can “jailhouse lawyer” his way around rules. Literally the last kind of guy I want on the team.
B. Probably going to be a security risk.
He ain’t workin’ here when he gets out.
Another Halocene Human
@Sad_Dem:
More like gay-bashing pics, because he looks like the sort of puke who would team up with four or five other punks to find some “quee-yahs” to harass after all the grown-ass women they tried to hit on in the local dive called their husbands over or just threw beer in their faces.
Anoniminous
@KG:
Without digging into their “innards” …
Both polls are from Capital Survey Research Center. (Who?) Which makes me wonder about their “Likely Voter” Screen and polling procedures. They may be a reputable firm. They may be doing a ‘Rasmussen.’ I don’t know. I do know when a poll is an outlier to other polls and situational analysis it is almost always wrong.
Can Romney win Alabama? Sure, in the sense there isn’t a Law of Nature standing in the way. Is it likely Romney will win Alabama? Everything we know about Alabama says no.
rea
@Steve: “The Great Lakes water belongs to Michigan, full stop.”
Well, maybe not Lakes Erie or Ontario.
Another Halocene Human
@Bud:
Like a burnt corndog, his tough-guy exterior conceals the limp weenie in the center.
KG
@Anoniminous: yeah, I haven’t heard of them either, and don’t really have the time/energy to dig into it. There’s just be so little polling, it’s hard to just dismiss it as an outlier; we’ve really been running on CW for a lot of these smaller races.
ETA: also, can’t seem to find the raw data online.
Another Halocene Human
@Anoniminous: lol’ing at your comment so hard right now (I wish we had a “like” button)
Another Halocene Human
@KG:
Duz it 2 yew?
Which is my way of saying, political ad blitz? Hey, it got ‘Bamans to vote against their rational self-interest on a ballot measure in 08.
KG
@Another Halocene Human: but they were apparently conducted before Super Tuesday, and what I’d heard is that Romeny hadn’t spent money there yet.
Another Halocene Human
@Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937:
That’s funny. No, really. Just smiling over here.
Another Halocene Human
@KG: Ah, well, I will bow to the wisdom of the others in this thread.
Democratic Nihilist, Keeper Of Party Purity
Can’t wait to watch Wurzelbacher’s dismemberment at the hands of a woman. And he so very, very obviously hates women.
Hmmmmm.
geg6
OT, but I found this entertaining and true on this, International Women’s Day:
http://annfriedman.com/blog/slutty-women-gifable-0
harlana
any question they don’t like or don’t want to answer is a “gotcha” question
merrinc
@beltane:
So the difference between wingnuts and zombies is…? Oh, never mind.
harlana
mmm, can we take a gander at those tax returns, “Joe”?
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Southern Beale: Someone brought this up on the last thread, and as Soonergrunt and I pointed out, he can end up in military prison for this. The UCMJ has an entire section on speaking bad about your commanders, which includes the president. As I was told while I was in the military, he’s there to defend the constitution, not live it.
artem1s
@merrinc:
I think it a fair assumption that his funding is not local. It’s not Ohioans who are keeping this guy in the lime light. You can position that one at the Village idiot’s door I think.
rikyrah
dear FrontPagers,
here’s an article for you.
http://decoded.nationaljournal.com/2012/03/the-bucket-list-why-older-whit.php
the numbers in the article are very stark
harlana
@Another Halocene Human:
(clicks “Like” button!)
Betty Cracker
@merrinc: Or cockroaches…
Marcellus Shale, Public Dick
wait a second, i thought a couple of years ago joe the sockpuppet said that he asked god if he should run for kaptur’s seat, and god said no.
so apparently god had a change of mind?
wow, that puts a new spin on everything.
someone needs to ask joe, or, well, every republican what else god changed his mind about.
athena2
I wonder if Mr. Wurzelbacher will do what Christine O’Donnell did in Delaware, and live off the campaign contributions? That is the only reason I can think of for his campaign.
Betty Cracker
@athena2: Has he done an honest day’s work since he lied to then-candidate Obama about his “plumbing business” that it turned out he never owned? Yep, he’s angling for perpetual wingnut welfare.
pseudonymous in nc
NotJoe won his primary with 50.3% of the vote against some random guy whose website looks like a 1997 Geocities page. I don’t think he’s headed to Congress.
artem1s
@geg6:
thank you so much for that link. summed up much of what I have been thinking lately!
Daaling
Awfully quite around here. I think all the gloom porn addicts are saving up for tommorrows jobs report which promises to be far too positive for them to handle. Cole will probably post a bunch of pictures of his fat lazy cat and talk about what he ate and what he watched on TV as if anyone gives a shit.
Anything to distract from good news.
JC
Off-topic – but now FBI Director Mueller says he doesn’t know whether he can assassinate US citizens on U.S. soil under the new Obama doctrine, or not.
That’s awesome, isn’t it?
Schlemizel
@Marcellus Shale, Public Dick:
He is a fickle hairy thunderer that one. By their own admission he told Rick Perry. Batshit Bachmann, Ol Frothy, Herman Cain and at least a couple of others to run for Prez. Maybe He thought the humiliation would be good for them, there is no way it was because He wanted them to win or He would have taken care of that.
Thats the question I would ask them. You said God told you to run. It id obvious God did not want you to win so why do YOU think God wanted you to run so badly?
Schlemizel
@Daaling:
Is there a lot of room under that rock there with you or do walk to work?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
As John McCain scolds Obama for not expanding our war zone to include Iran and Syria, I’d just like to remind everyone: “An American hero! My role model!“
Bubblegum Tate
@KG:
I dunno…Bachmann and Santorum are true believers, no doubt, but Palin’s all about the grift. She’s conspicuously unintelligent (which certainly explains some of her more ludicrous statements), but one thing she does know is her marks, and she knows how to say what they want to hear. Maybe she does believe some of what she says, but I doubt she believes all of it, or even the majority of it.
Daaling
Where is the gloom porn?! Come on BJ’ers you are better than this. Surely ABL v3.0.1beta can find some crumb of racism in some nook or cranny of the innertubez. Surely Cole can find someone somewhere who said something stupid and make a case for why that means we need to end all wars now forever.
Come on people. It’s only going to be harder to be gloomy when tomorrows jobs report comes out. Hard times for gloom porn addicts these days….hard times.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@KG: I’d argue with you about Reagan. I think he believed every silly word that came out of his mouth. I can’t remember the context, but there was a story about one of his own cabinet members, maybe even Weinberger, explaining some stupid facts to him that contradicted his comic-book world view, and Reagan blinked, the happy twinkle and grin came back and he said, “Oh, I don’t think that’s so.” Like a happy Gingrich.
Palin is stupid, I absolutely believe she didn’t know there were two Koreas and that Betty Windsor ran the British government. But as you say, she knows her marks, like when she tried to hint that the reporter who rented the house next to hers was trying to peer in her fourteen year old daughter’s bedroom window.
Steve
@rea: Michigan is the “Great Lakes State.” It’s not the “3/5 of the Great Lakes State.” We’re way past that 3/5 stuff in this country.
chopper
if only joe the plumber had to face off with larry the cable guy over the GOP nom. that would have been an epic white trash fight.
Davis X. Machina
@Bubblegum Tate: Palin’s picture is in the dictionary next to “low cunning”. The last GOP president had been the poster boy for the concept.
KG
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I was thinking more on some of the social issues with Reagan. I don’t think he was necessarily anti-gay or rigidly pro-life. I think those issues were low priority for him and so he said what the base wanted to hear (and did some symbolic things), and then appointed O’Connor and Kennedy to the Supreme Court. But I was a kid during his presidency, so maybe I’m wrong.
Nutella
And then immediately forgot everything he said. But he was such a nice guy! The press loved him because he was just so loveable.
Chris
@rikyrah:
How much of their “coalition” is actually working-class whites? I know a non-trivial number of them jumped ship in the seventies, but my impression was that the GOP was still much more a middle-class than working-class party, even after that. And while college-educated whites have been trending Democrat, that’s a pretty recent development – until the last few years they were mostly Republican.
gnomedad
Needs more quotes.
Punchy
Unless the ballot said “Joe the Plumber”, I cannot believe he unseated an incumbent, as those rubes couldnt possibly have known what his real name was.
Edit: Now I see he didn’t unseat anyone. Still cant believe hick peeps knew his real name though….
Bubblegum Tate
@Davis X. Machina:
Oh, no doubt. But she’s just cunning enough to grift her marks. It certainly would explain her word salads, you know? Like, “These are the words that they want to hear, so just say them without any rhyme or reason.”
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@JC:
I can’t click on your link at work, and I don’t have the time to follow through to any original source. Here’s what the NY Times had written about Holders comments the other day:
Turley does tend to want to overreact, and if you look at what Holder said, it’s easy to capture someone in the US in the sense that we can place cops or someone around their house, which requires a warrant. I’ll have to look at the links this evening.
PeakVT
@KG: No matter what Reagan believed, he was pragmatic enough to take what he could get from a Congress that was still well left of what we have today, the presence of Helms and Thurmond and others not withstanding.
Ben Cisco
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
You got that right.
__
Reagan, Bush the Elder, Clinton too – all inspired some would-be scorners during my time, and that shit got squashed PDQ. But then again, you know…
gypsy howell
@Nutella: @Ash Can:
Obviously I have been averting my eyes from the clown show fail parade, and I’m not keeping up here.
Thanks for clearing that up.
Chris
@KG:
I think most issues were low-priority for Reagan. Most people who served under his administration report that for all intents and purposes, they were the ones running the country and Reagan didn’t do much more than sit there and grin (Powell’s autobiography has a part where he complains that they’d walk into Reagan’s office, tell him what they wanted to do, then walk out and ask each other “was that a yes?”)
It fits with the rest of his life story. Was a Democrat in the thirties when it was the rage, switched sides when the Red Scare suddenly made it inconvenient to be a liberal, then eventually adopted his wife’s politics. The guy seems to’ve been a lot like Palin, actually, no ideas to speak of, he just went with the flow and enjoyed the perks. “Amiable dunce” seems to describe him to a tee.
Gravenstone
@fasteddie9318: Dude, step away from the concentrated Palin dust, or whatever the hell it is you’ve been snorting.
Davis X. Machina
@Chris: As my AP-USH teacher said — back in Nixon-time: “Great presidents get elected to do something. Mediocre or worse presidents get elected to be something.”
Reagan was, I think, the second kind. He’s their JFK.
The Ancient Randonneur
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
Nixon and Westmoreland–actually almost the entire chain of command–were reviled by many of us boys out in the line companies, but believe you me we never said one word in front of anyone we thought would rat us out or have the authority to do anything about it. The UCMJ is very clear on the matter. You may not like one swinging richard in the chain of command but you WILL respect the office. Period. They take that stuff very seriously.
Oh, and, Not Joe the Plumber’s Helper? hahahahahahahahahahaha the FSM does truly love the people of Ohio and Marcy Kaptur!
PeakVT
@Chris: Here’s some race/income identification polling from last summer. Vs. 2008, there was about a 10 pt gain (37 to 47) gain for Republicans, and a 9 pt decline (52 to 43) for Democrats for whites earning under $30K.
Davis X. Machina
@Gravenstone:It’s not Palin-dust, it’s Reactionary Poetry Magnets™.
The Ancient Randonneur
@PeakVT: Nice. The GOP is picking up the underachiever and Klan demographic.
Soonergrunt
@Comrade Dread: Well, there’s the part about devout Christians shouldn’t lie because it wouldn’t be Christ-like, so the thing about defending all of his constituents’ rights? He can’t actually say that.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@KG: I think you’re right about that. In Reagan’s case, there is the short attention span. Of course I love babies! but he didn’t care the way nutty Santorum does. I think most GOP pols are indifferent to abortion (McCain, Dole) , if not actually lying about their opinion (GHWB), it’s just red meat to get my near poverty-level aunts to vote to protect the Romney and Walton fortunes.
merrinc
@artem1s:
Good point and my apologies if it seemed I was casting aspersion at all Ohioians due to the idiocy of my wingnut relatives (most of whom live in the Columbus area, if it makes any diff.) I’m a little crabby today due to trying to explain to my 13 year old why we are even still talking about this loser 3+ years after McCain plucked him from obscurity.
The Other Chuck
@Comrade Dread:
OBAMACARE SOSHULIZIM SOLYNDRA ALINSKY SHUT UP THATS WHY
Raven
@The Ancient Randonneur:But those peace signs on the boonie hat’s were nice.
eta: We were more worried about the lifer motherfuckers rattin us for whiffin a little bud from a pop-flare bong.
Chris
@PeakVT:
Thanks. And they narrowed their gap considerably among young voters… fuck me running, we never learn.
@The Other Chuck:
I think we’re all indebted to Gabby Johnson for CLEARLY stating what needed to be said!
Death Panel Truck
@Southern Beale: This Gary Stein shithead doesn’t understand that the military is not a democracy. It is a dictatorship. You do what they tell you to do.
Raven
@The Ancient Randonneur: Your tour(s) spanned em both huh?
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
That’s so true it should be committed to needlepoint. I suspect George W. Bush didn’t really give a shit about fetuses (no matter how many jarred specimens he was forced to view) or hate gay people either. He was a little better at pulling off the gen-you-wine clodhopper act despite having been an Andover cheerleader, but it was still all about protecting the class.
shortstop
@Betty Cracker: Come on now! He’s worked his whole life! Look at these calluses!
@The Ancient Randonneur: But Nixon and Westmoreland weren’t black. You don’t have to respect black commanders.
Actually, they were nearly as bad about Clinton. I guess it’s optional to obey/respect Democratic CinCs. Winger CinCs who jumped the line to get into the National Guard and then couldn’t be arsed to show up for duty, no problem.
Kilgore Trout
@cathyx:
We have a guy here in Washington State who is legally named “Mike the Mover” and has run for various offices including (I think) Governor.
He’s associated with the militia movement and is part of a group that attempted to form a breakaway county called Freedom County. Their county “Sheriff” is legally named “fnu lnu”, which I understand is law enforcement jargon for “First Name Unknown, Last Name Unknown”.
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2001/summer/organizing-freedom
shortstop
@Kilgore Trout: Your state, it has layers upon layers.
kay
@The Other Chuck:
Show me that. She’s not in any way, shape or form a “blue dog”. She’s a member of the progressive caucus and she was once named “most valuable member of the House” by The Nation.
She’s the longest serving woman in the House (and Ohio’s congressional delegation) and she’s on both appropriations and defense, which is a powerful perch for a person with this record:
She was the first Democrat that I heard saying “we should be nation building at home, not overseas” and she was saying it to an older, working class and middle class crowd, hawkish-leaning, who are actually the people we need to persuade.
Chris
@shortstop:
The military insubordination was actually worse with Clinton, I think, probably because he had the whole draft-dodger baggage.
(Of course, when Clinton was replaced by an administration full of draft-dodgers, they found ways to excuse or ignore that. And when bona fide Vietnam veterans ran against draft-dodgers who shared their ideology and had their service shit and pissed on, they found ways to excuse or ignore that too).
shortstop
@Chris: I remember hella bitching about Clinton, but I don’t remember people out-and-out saying they wouldn’t obey him. This is at least the fourth or fifth person to openly tell the press he does not accept Obama as his commander in chief. So they’re getting bolder as their whole party pushes farther and farther past the line of outrageous behavior.
Chris
@shortstop:
I must have missed the first three or four. I’ve heard plenty of wingnuts bluster about how “Obama’s going to force the military to take away our guns and they’re all going to rise up and overthrow him!” but mostly from Keyboard Commando units rather than actual uniformed guys. Must’ve not been paying attention.
ETA: I remember the McChrystal thing, but not anyone else. (And McChrystal didn’t strike me as a wingnut – probably why they didn’t make much noise when he left – just a guy who shot off his mouth about his boss in the wrong place, but not someone with an ideological axe to grind, like this Marine seems to be).
Bruce S
As an American I have every right not to have GOPers like this near my children.
shortstop
@Chris:
This guy had the most notoriety. He stood trial, got six months in prison and a dishonorable discharge.
Then there’s this dude. Note his surname. The Air Force dumped him.
This guy was a reservist and managed to get his orders revoked.
There may be others. The point is that they’re quite open about it.
Privatize the Profits! Socialize the Costs!
The man’s a constitutional originalist?
Great!
Any day now, we can expect to hear him saying those three words “well regulated militia”.
What?
ruemara
@kay: She’s not on FDL, chest beating about her purity bonafides and whining about President DisapointmentObama. She’s effective at legislating. Ergo, she’s a blue dog who will not be as left as Congressman Von Keebler. This is just the facts, people.
shortstop
@Chris: Just provided links to three guys — Terry Lakin, Daryn Moran and Stefan Frederick Cook — who publicly and loudly refused orders from Obama. The comment’s in moderation right now.
Origuy
@Chris: There have been a handful of birthers in the military who have made noises about refusing to obey Obama. The most notable is Lt. Col. Terrance Lakin, MD, who refused deployment to Afghanistan. Got court-martialed, discharged, and spent five months in prison. Bad Fiction’s cast of characters page has more.
Chris
@shortstop:
@Origuy:
Thankee both.
Well, at least that’s 3 (soon to be 4) less wingnuts in the military.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@shortstop: I remember hella bitching about Clinton, but I don’t remember people out-and-out saying they wouldn’t obey him.
I suspect a lot of the notoriety these military have is connected to the new media. This most recent guy started a Facebook page, no? I’d be surprised if this hadn’t gone on under Clinton, but most of it was slapped down before word got out. Wasn’t it Jesse Helms who suggested Clinton would get fragged if he visited a military base?
shortstop
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
That well could be. And in the 1990s, there were many fewer creepy websites devoted to/hosted by self-described Patrick Henrys with low IQs and foreheads.
Schlemizel
@Linda Featheringill:
sorry, if I didn’t use hillbilly what would your suggest? seriously, I understand but I am crude & need a short hand. trail trash is out, white trash is unfair without hillbilly what nasty, pejorative can I use?
Schlemizel
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
how sad – thanks, I thought mean jean was in the district. if there is a pasta in heaven these bastards will eat it raw
Betty Cracker
@Schlemizel: How about slack-jawed yokels? Mouth-breathing nitwits? Lizard-brained troglodytes?