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They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

Republicans do not trust women.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

T R E 4 5 O N

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

75% of people clapping liked the show!

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

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fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

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Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

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The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

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When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

Second rate reporter says what?

You are here: Home / Liar’s poker

Liar’s poker

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This one’s got it all — allusions to slavery, a homoerotic subtext (even though everyone here is a super-manly hetero!):

Barbour offered a brief assessment of the Republican National Convention. “While I would love for [Chris] Christie to put a hot poker to Obama’s butt,” said Barbour of the RNC keynote speaker, “I thought he did what he was supposed to do.”

Reader Interactions

67Comments

  1. 1.

    EconWatcher

    That is just a very weird thing to say, and makes me glad that I have no idea what Haley Barbour does for fun on a Saturday night.

  3. 3.

    Violet

    For some reason I’m hearing the Deliverance banjos. I think they’re coming from Barbour’s front porch.

  4. 4.

    Gin & Tonic

    Well, don’t know about you, but when I watch and listen to Haley Barbour, I never think “entitled racist scumbag.” So you must be adding subtext based on your own prejudices.

  5. 5.

    Linda Featheringill

    In his dreams.

    Republicans frequently talk about Obama in a “homoerotic subtext.”

    I’m sure Freud could explain why they do this and why it frequently has such a violent tone. I personally think that at some level they’re pissed off because he’s just not available.

    Thousands [millions?] of women across the country can sympathize, because he’s not available to them either. But they don’t have fantasies of violence. They might dream about how to get that smile, though.

  8. 8.

    MattF

    Barbour’s the one who accused Dems of ‘playing the race card.’ So… well… y’know… He has a self-awareness issue.

  11. 11.

    Suffern ACE

    As a gay man, I want to say that there is nothing actually gay or homoerotic or whatnot about the hot poker. Sometimes I wonder what exactly you straights think goes on when we pull down the shades.

  12. 12.

    PurpleGirl

    Sorry Haley but as a resident of NYC whenever someone references something like what you describe I think of Abner Louima. You’re disgusting and it says more about YOUR pathetic psychopathology.

  15. 15.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Well, don’t know about you, but when I watch and listen to Haley Barbour, I never think “entitled racist scumbag.

    When I see Haley Barbour I think, “Hey, look, somebody put a manatee in a suit and taught it to walk!”

  16. 16.

    EconWatcher

    @PurpleGirl:

    I hear you, but I’m left thinking of “the gimp” scene in Pulp Fiction. So who is Barbour–Maynard or Zed? Either way, Obama is going to get medieval….

  17. 17.

    Cacti

    Isn’t the motto of every other state in the bottom quintile “Thank God for Mississippi”?

    “Mr. Governor, we’re 49th in education and 2nd in teen pregnancy!”

    “Well, thank God for Mississippi.”

  18. 18.

    Tom Levenson

    DougJ @ top;

    This one’s got it all—allusions to slavery, a homoerotic subtext

    You forgot torture. The GOP’s ongoing lust for torture (and hence, I guess, an S-M fixation that is truly terrifying when manifested by those with power.

  19. 19.

    Mnemosyne

    @PurpleGirl:
    @EconWatcher:

    I’m pretty sure Barbour is thinking more of this:

    European, American and other colonial slavers branded millions of slaves during the period of trans-Atlantic enslavement. Sometimes there were several brandings, e.g. for the Portuguese crown and the (consecutive) private owner(s), an extra cross after baptisement as well as by African slave catchers.

  27. 27.

    jrg

    @JPL: No shit. I wonder how the media would have responded to a suggestion by a Democratic governor suggesting that a hot poker be shoved up Commander Codpiece’s ass.

  28. 28.

    eric

    I have little doubt then when watching Roots, Haley Barbour shouted “Toby” each and every time, as if following along a college cheer!

  29. 29.

    quannlace

    Republicans frequently talk about Obama in a “homoerotic subtext.”

    You should check out the ‘Saturday Hate Mail’ column over at Daily Kos.

    Over half of them start with a ‘Hey, Obama, you can just suck…” and spins off into pure hormo-erotic porn. Sometimes these are directed at the Blog’s owner.
    Either way , they’re astonishing in their gleeful salacious detail. Really makes you wonder…..

  32. 32.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @tjmn: and apparently the GOP tent has been reduced to the boner they while thinking of Obama while in bed. Seesh Barbour, that really is a disgusting way to talk about another man.

  35. 35.

    PurpleGirl

    @Mnemosyne: That may be true but I’ll still hold against him that in my time context, Louima is who I get reminded of. (I know you think Barbour is as sick I think he is.)

  36. 36.

    scav

    Don’t forget that King Edward II was (more in legend than probable fact) killed by having a red-hot poker thrust into his anus to disguise his murder. Might be a little high-falluting in-tell-ekt-u-el for some but was done up in plays by dead white guys so . . .

  37. 37.

    scav

    Apparently bringing up the the details of the legendary killing of Edward II of England shocks WP. Consider it a high-falutin’ slightly possible refernce.

  39. 39.

    Ann Rynd

    There must be a way I can put Chuck Todd into the optics of this post. The hot poker is a racial image rather than sexual one, since it reflects ownership and branding and not anything anyone does for pleasure. Haley’s not into sexual denigration as far as I can tell. Can we have Chuck holding O’s arms while Christie is branding him? Graphically it works better for me.

  40. 40.

    Ann Rynd

    Can someone educate me about what words put a comment into moderation. Ra*cial, se*xual, hot po*er????

  44. 44.

    hep kitty

    @Violet: It always, always, always gets worse, every day, doesn’t it?

    Creeps, freaks, closet gay homophobes, racist, r*pe and inc*st enthusiasts.

    I guess you have to consider the source.

  46. 46.

    Geeno

    @Suffern ACE: I think we get that impression due their constant usage of metaphors involving bending over, putting things up asses, and having things rammed down throats. There are plenty of other metaphors they could use, but they’re always, to a man, using the butt and throat centric ones.

  48. 48.

    Ron Thompson

    I saw it as a reference to Edward II of England, who was deposed, and reputedly murdered by having a red hot poker thrust up his ass, so that there would be no visible mark of murder on his anointed body. Overthrow and murder the head of state, but don’t leave any tell-tale marks. Then we can start the Hundred Years War under his successor.

  50. 50.

    Ann Rynd

    @Geeno: All of these images reflecting male terror of penitration and the the projection of that fear into a hatred of homosexuals. Thus: homophobia. But, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and anal penetration of a male by, say, a cop with a nightstick, is just violent assault and not rape.

  51. 51.

    LanceThruster

    @jrg:

    I have no doubt in my mind of Cheney having copies of torture porn of this and worse being done to Gitmo prisoners and others.

  53. 53.

    J. Michael Neal

    @J: Give the manatees credit. They kicked him out of their society, forcing the rest of us to deal with him.

  56. 56.

    Kathy in St. Louis

    Haley, now Chris is going to be maaaad about that remark. You need to apologize. Maybe take him out for dinner. You two could hit the all you can eat buffet at Golden Corral and talk it over. You both appear to know where it is.

  57. 57.

    SectarianSofa

    Clearly another parody, satirizing the … something, and we’re being trolled by Barbour.

  58. 58.

    RedKitten

    Sexual or not, it does seem as though right-wingers have this weird fascination with the butt. Hell, get any of them talking about gay marriage, and invariably they will talk, at length, about the non-procreative features of anal sex. And they won’t just describe it as anal sex…oh no. These folks are DESCRIPTIVE.

  61. 61.

    scott consigny

    Barbour’s comment is more than nasty– a quick google search of red-hot poker and “lynching” turns up the following—-

    The story of lynching, then , is more than the simple fact of a black man or woman hanged by the neck. It is the story of slow, methodical, sadistic, often highly inventive forms of torture and mutilation. If executed by fire, it is the red-hot poker applied to the eyes and genitals and the stench of burning flesh, as the body slowly roasts over the flames and the blood sizzles in the heat.

    There are other citations too– I’m sure shoving the red-hot poker up the Black man’s anus was quite common. The current Republicans are truly an amazing species.

  63. 63.

    Brachiator

    @Ron Thompson: I agree about the Edward I references.

    The Republicans are obsessed with the idea that they must depose a hated ruler. They are obsessed over questions of his legitimacy. They are strangling themselves over their inability to respect Obama and to recognize his legal authority.

    They cannot contain their rage. It will consume them. The trick is preventing it from consuming the country as well.

  64. 64.

    Brachiator

    Crap. Meant to write Edward II in prior post. Could not get back in to edit. The blog is misbehaving.

  65. 65.

    Barbara

    @scav:

    I knew someone would have the same thought I did. This image is almost too horrifying to actually imagine. I have to say that I am actually shocked that Barbour made this comment.

  66. 66.

    Elie

    This is not a personal issue for Haley. He is just following the Romney campaign’s strategic approach to inflame white working class people, hopefully get an enraged response which inflames them more and keep the issue aflame. All with the goal of hitting that “magic number” proportion of the white vote that they MUST capture (since no other group is going to give them any votes). Its their only strategy. Period

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