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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Late Night Open Thread: Putting the Crass in Classy

Late Night Open Thread: Putting the Crass in Classy

by Anne Laurie|  September 29, 201412:41 am| 55 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Assholes, Our Awesome Meritocracy

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Chelsea was going to have a Hispanic boy named Orlando -but while the overnights were positive, it just didn’t focus group

— David Frum (@davidfrum) September 27, 2014

A terrific example of why I ran screaming away from the right. https://t.co/B4mbQibDQQ

— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) September 27, 2014

Axis of weasels evil — never forget.

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55Comments

  1. 1.

    Soonergrunt

    September 29, 2014 at 12:43 am

    It gets worse.
    http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/09/new-york-post-welcomes-clinton-baby.html

  2. 2.

    GregB

    September 29, 2014 at 12:51 am

    And Frum-Bag always gets held up as a sensible wing nut.

    Looking forward to the news scoops mocking the infant for shitting itself.

    This poor kid is going to get the Rosemary’s baby treatment from the family values coalition.

    Blech.

  3. 3.

    Anne Laurie

    September 29, 2014 at 1:07 am

    @Soonergrunt: “Can’t you lie-brals take a joke?…..”

    Give ’em this, the tabloid was known as the Com-Post even fifty years ago. Frum, on the other hand, considers himself better than white trash like the Clintons, for no reason I’ve ever been able to grasp.

  4. 4.

    Warren Terra

    September 29, 2014 at 1:12 am

    This is weird, Frum has put so much effort into being the conservative who can be reasoned with, and then he pulls this crap. Maybe he’s finally realized there’s more money in (re)joining the pack of baying jackals?

  5. 5.

    jl

    September 29, 2014 at 1:16 am

    @Anne Laurie:

    “Can’t you lie-brals take a joke?…..”

    But, first, they need to give us an actual joke to work with. Besides being an ugly cheap shot, tired used up tripe themes.
    And I note in the Post headline, I don’t see any evidence at all that the poor kid was crying. So, total fail from every point of view.
    It is ugly, but if they think this garbage is a winner in any way except for the most rabid base, fine, let them go with it (which they will, no matter how much people complain, or even if one of a high profile apostate from their cause warns them that this stuff is a loser).

  6. 6.

    Ms. B

    September 29, 2014 at 1:17 am

    I’m not much in love with Dave Weigel’s tweet, either.

    Congratulations to Jim Traficant for being reincarnated in the Clinton family.— daveweigel (@daveweigel) September 27, 2014

  7. 7.

    cokane

    September 29, 2014 at 1:18 am

    @Warren Terra: Frum’s only goal is to chase dollars while basically doing nothing for a living. He’ll play whatever part in the conservative pundit sphere that serves those interests. I never understood why he was ever considered intellectual. His writing often reveals a deeply incurious nature.

  8. 8.

    Mnemosyne

    September 29, 2014 at 1:24 am

    @jl:

    I thought the “Party Pooper” headline was kind of funny. The rest of it was trying too hard.

  9. 9.

    Gian

    September 29, 2014 at 1:24 am

    @cokane:

    compared to “choked on a pretzel and busted up my face” Bush, he’s a freaking nobel prize for physics guy. (he’s graded on a curve)

    we all know bush fell off the wagon and landed on his face.

  10. 10.

    suzanne

    September 29, 2014 at 1:27 am

    Christ, what an asshole.

  11. 11.

    The Dangerman

    September 29, 2014 at 1:33 am

    A pox on everyone involved: Frum, the Post…

    …and the Clinton’s for releasing the photo (pox removed if this was some Pap with a zoom lens).

  12. 12.

    PurpleGirl

    September 29, 2014 at 1:34 am

    Frum could do a little bit of research on-line. According to Wiki.name.com

    The name Orlando derives as an Italian version of the name “Roland,” which stems from the Old High German “Hruodland” meaning “renowned land,” “famous land” or “fame of the land.” It is a combination of “hruod” meaning “fame” and “land” meaning “land.”

    The name Orlando has been utilized frequently in the literature and artistic realms since the 15th century. Recent popularity of the name Orlando may stem from the surge in popularity of location names as given first names.

    I think the most recent famous Orlando was Orlando Bloom. (Who I don’t think is Hispanic. Frum is a jerk.)

  13. 13.

    Arclite

    September 29, 2014 at 1:39 am

    @Warren Terra: I was going to say the same thing. Making fun of the Clinton I get. Making fun of their granddaughter is just assholish. Guess true colors coming out.

  14. 14.

    Alison

    September 29, 2014 at 2:01 am

    @The Dangerman: Why should they not release a photo, if they choose to?

  15. 15.

    Ruckus

    September 29, 2014 at 2:11 am

    @Alison:
    Really.
    If one didn’t get released or published can you imagine the howls about the kids looks, or color, or whatever? Bill and Hillary shouldn’t be proud grandparents? Conservatives can’t even give them that?

  16. 16.

    cckids

    September 29, 2014 at 2:17 am

    The words “Christ, what an asshole” should be engraved on David Frum’s bathroom mirror, so it frames his face every day.

    On a sad, disturbing note, this just happened tonight in N. Las Vegas. House fire, at least 30 animals are dead from burns & smoke; the house had at least 100 animals in it.

    How is that even possible?? And the neighbors knew nothing? WTF??

  17. 17.

    srv

    September 29, 2014 at 2:50 am

    When you’re exiled to the Siberia of Wingnutia, you’ll do some mighty desperate things to fit back in.

  18. 18.

    Villago Delenda Est

    September 29, 2014 at 3:02 am

    And these people wonder why we talk about tumbrel rides for them all the time.

  19. 19.

    PurpleGirl

    September 29, 2014 at 3:02 am

    @cckids: The neighbors probably knew but didn’t want to get involved. They didn’t even want to inform the animal control people. With that many animals, there would have been smells coming from the house. It’s a pretty bad situation and I’m sorry that a number of dogs have died. The original owners probably thought they were helping the animals by keeping them but they weren’t really caring for them.

    The kitten cam I watch in CT is hosted by a young woman who is very concerned with animal health and safety issues. I’m not sure how she became involved but she has been helping a family which had many cats. She has been fostering the young kittens, getting the older cats fixed and finding homes for them all.

  20. 20.

    Origuy

    September 29, 2014 at 3:05 am

    @cckids: Most of those animals must have been small, like hamsters or birds. I looked at the block mentioned in the article in Google Street View. The houses are all small, single story bungalows, not much bigger than a doublewide trailer. Hard to imagine more than a couple of dogs escaping the neighbor’s attention.

  21. 21.

    AT

    September 29, 2014 at 3:24 am

    @PurpleGirl: I think it’s a Florida reference. In terms of positioning for the voters of that state

  22. 22.

    PurpleGirl

    September 29, 2014 at 3:25 am

    @Origuy: The size of the house has little to do with how many animals the people had in the house. They thought they were helping the dogs but they weren’t really caring for them. They just let the dogs in and also didn’t keep the dogs from having babies. The people need to do some jail time, to take responsibility for not caring for the animals.

    ETA: I read the article and it definitely said the animals were dogs. I’ll take it that there were upwards of 100 dogs in the house.

  23. 23.

    PurpleGirl

    September 29, 2014 at 3:27 am

    @AT: Could be, but Frum is still a jerk.

  24. 24.

    cckids

    September 29, 2014 at 3:40 am

    @PurpleGirl: Yes, according to the local news here, they were mainly, if not all dogs. They also interviewed several neighbors who reiterated that they hadn’t known about the number of dogs – they thought there were 10 or so. Just seems so tragic.

  25. 25.

    Major Major Major Major

    September 29, 2014 at 3:55 am

    Animus. It’s at the heart of everything Republicans think and do. Even if they’re fucking Canadian.

  26. 26.

    raven

    September 29, 2014 at 5:23 am

    David Perdue is in great company:

    Georgia Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Michelle Nunn is out with a new TV ad in which she directly rebuts her Republican rival David Perdue’s claim that she “funded organizations linked to terrorists” while running former President George H.W. Bush’s Points of Light Foundation.

    “That’s a terrible lie and an insult to the millions of volunteers I worked with to make a difference,” Nunn says in the new ad. “David Perdue’s ad has been called the worst in America and President Bush’s son called it ‘shameful.’”

  27. 27.

    SRW1

    September 29, 2014 at 5:54 am

    @GregB:

    And Frum-Bag always gets held up as a sensible wing nut.

    CDS is not curable. It can be contained if well managed, but there will be seasonal flare-ups.

  28. 28.

    MattF

    September 29, 2014 at 6:06 am

    I suppose we can now deduce that Frum always poll-tests his potential views before actually publishing them. It’s called projection, folks, and it’s what they always do.

  29. 29.

    R. Porrofatto

    September 29, 2014 at 6:28 am

    @Anne Laurie: the tabloid was known as the Com-Post even fifty years ago.
    You’re right, it’s been a rag for decades but you’re off by a few years. The Post was actually a decent newspaper 38 years ago when Murdoch bought it. It was the only genuinely liberal paper in the city at the time (despite what conservatives say, the NY Times isn’t liberal) and its roster of columnists included the likes of Murray Kempton and Pete Hamill. It went downhill — actually more like plunged off of a cliff — once Murdoch got his sleazy right-wing hands on it. It loses tens of millions of dollars each year and functions solely as as his withered propaganda organ.

  30. 30.

    Splitting Image

    September 29, 2014 at 6:38 am

    @Anne Laurie:

    Frum, on the other hand, considers himself better than white trash like the Clintons, for no reason I’ve ever been able to grasp.

    It’s perfectly simple. Frum had rich parents. Bill Clinton didn’t.

    “Old money is always better than new money, and the newly rich are never to be as highly esteemed as the newly poor.” – Joseph Heller, Catch-22.

  31. 31.

    debbie

    September 29, 2014 at 6:39 am

    @MattF:

    Luntz did the polling.

  32. 32.

    Bobby Thomson

    September 29, 2014 at 6:54 am

    @Ms. B: I don’t get it.

  33. 33.

    delk

    September 29, 2014 at 7:04 am

    And they wonder why the Clinton’s treat the media the way that they do.

  34. 34.

    brantl

    September 29, 2014 at 7:19 am

    David Frum, self-important gas bag. This should follow him around like the coyote’s ‘Wyle E. Coyote, super-genius’ line.

  35. 35.

    PurpleGirl

    September 29, 2014 at 7:28 am

    @R. Porrofatto: Yes, you’re right. The NY Post was a liberal paper when it was owned and published by Dorothy Schiff. Unfortunately she felt that afternoon papers would not survive in NYC and with it’s up and down finances she sold it to Murdoch. Most of the purchase price went into a foundation that she helmed for many years and which her children continued for some years. They liquidated the foundation in the early 2000s. (The non-profit I worked at received numerous grants from the foundation for years.)

  36. 36.

    El Caganer

    September 29, 2014 at 7:38 am

    @Major Major Major Major: I didn’t have my glasses on when I first read your statement, and thought the first word was “anus.” Although that kinda fits, too.

  37. 37.

    Cervantes

    September 29, 2014 at 8:00 am

    @Anne Laurie:

    Frum (maybe):

    white trash like the Clintons

    Bill grew up poor.

    Hillary grew up upper-middle-class Republican.

  38. 38.

    Cervantes

    September 29, 2014 at 8:13 am

    @PurpleGirl: Worse, if he did not encounter Orlando furioso in four years at Yale, either he was not paying attention or he should ask for his money back.

    Re his “tweet”[*]: Apparently, making oafish remarks about Chelsea Clinton is a “conservative” sport that will not grow old even as she does.

    [*] Did songbird ever sing that deserves to be so maligned?

  39. 39.

    Cervantes

    September 29, 2014 at 8:22 am

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Presumably he is, and she’s no better than he is.

  40. 40.

    NonyNony

    September 29, 2014 at 8:44 am

    Remember when Limbaugh referred to Chelsea Clinton as the “White House dog”? She was something like maybe 12 or 13 years old at the time too.

    Oh those Republicans – so hilarious when they take pot shots at little kids. Good to see that Frum could take some time off from kicking puppies and stealing candy from orphans to crack a joke at the expense of a newborn. That’s what being “pro Family” and “pro Life” is all about – cracking jokes about newborns because you hate their grandparents.

  41. 41.

    Senyordave

    September 29, 2014 at 9:02 am

    @R. Porrofatto: It loses tens of millions of dollars each year and functions solely as as his withered propaganda organ.

    That’s a disturbing image that will be with me the rest of the day.

  42. 42.

    Amir Khalid

    September 29, 2014 at 9:26 am

    In the sacred name of Nancy Reagan, Politico has consulted astrologers to find out about little Charlotte’s future. (Link goes to TPM.)

  43. 43.

    wuzzat

    September 29, 2014 at 9:40 am

    @Cervantes:

    Yes, let us be accurate. Bill’s white trash. Hill’s a carpetbagger.

  44. 44.

    Karen in GA

    September 29, 2014 at 9:43 am

    @Arclite: Their true colors have been out. The right was attacking Chelsea when she was a child in the White House.

  45. 45.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    September 29, 2014 at 9:55 am

    @Ms. B: That’s actually more disturbing than what Frum wrote. It’s tastelessly insulting to 2 families. granted Traficant was a spectacular monument to corruption, and distinctly honored by expulsion from the Senate. But he has a family who no doubt miss him following his recent death in what seems to have been a catastrophic tractor accident.

  46. 46.

    Kathleen

    September 29, 2014 at 10:02 am

    @Ms. B: Whaaaaa???? First, it’s not funny at all. Second, it makes absolutely no sense.

  47. 47.

    Cervantes

    September 29, 2014 at 10:23 am

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):

    Just a detail: James Trafficant was never a Senator; he represented Ohio 17 in the House.

    (Or rather, that’s whom he claimed to represent.)

  48. 48.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    September 29, 2014 at 10:31 am

    @Cervantes: Duh. Thanks; I actually knew that and typed “Senate” for “Congress.” Color me embarrassed.

    Actually, given the rampant corruption in OH 17, that’s a pretty accurate claim! The investigation that led to his charges included lots of local OH 17 pols as well. Ohio – oddly, proof that the Rs got no monopoly on corruption.

  49. 49.

    Cervantes

    September 29, 2014 at 10:45 am

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):

    proof that the Rs got no monopoly on corruption.

    Yes, he was quite an embarrassment, and in the House, more often than not he voted with Republicans — with his vote against impeaching Bill Clinton being a notable exception.

  50. 50.

    Bobby Thomson

    September 29, 2014 at 11:42 am

    @Kathleen:

    Whaaaaa???? First, it’s not funny at all. Second, it makes absolutely no sense.

    Yeah, that’s where I am. Traficant died after the baby was born, and there’s also no hook for the “joke” (for example, no huge clump of hair). Just Weigel being a dickhead to be a dickhead.

  51. 51.

    priscianus jr

    September 29, 2014 at 12:05 pm

    Explain to me why I’m not supposed to think it’s funny.

    It’s not attacking their granddaughter, it’s just a Billary joke. Nor am I a right-winger.

  52. 52.

    Jebediah, RBG

    September 29, 2014 at 2:44 pm

    @NonyNony:

    Remember when Limbaugh referred to Chelsea Clinton as the “White House dog”? She was something like maybe 12 or 13 years old at the time too.

    Oh, hell yes I remember that. I was gobsmacked. At the time I was surprised that even Limbaugh would stoop to make such cruel fun of a child at an age when they are particularly vulnerable to cracks about their appearance. Fuck him forever. If he’s ever drowning, that is the “joke” I will remind him of as I “jokingly” throw him anvils, rocks, and both ends of a rope. Maybe he will be able to bootstrap his way out of the water.

  53. 53.

    The Other Chuck

    September 29, 2014 at 5:46 pm

    Here’s how the joke would have been funny: “Chelsea Clinton originally planned on having a son, but it didn’t poll well.”

    Even somewhat offensive humor takes a light touch. But I’ll give Frum one thing: it takes a certain talent to overwork a joke in 140 characters to make it both personally crass and generally racist.

  54. 54.

    chris9059

    September 29, 2014 at 11:07 pm

    Taking shots at a newborn is pretty despicable, however at this point Chelsea is fair game. Chelsea has been happy to cash in on her parents sellout to the banksters so I see no reason why she should be treated with kid gloves anymore.

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