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Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

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

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

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

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2014 / Not Even Trying To Hide It

Not Even Trying To Hide It

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Via TPM — Lindsay Graham (R-Who Can We Bomb Today) tells the one true beating heart of the GOP exactly what it wants to hear.  Speaking to the all-male, seemingly all-pale Hibernian Society fo Charleston SC, the Senator forgot a fundamental truth of modern politics:  there is no such thing as a private speech anymore.  Or maybe he just doesn’t care.  Whatever, here’s Lindsay, letting his freak flag fly:

“If I get to be president, white men who are in male-only clubs are going to do great in my presidency,” Graham says …as the audience laughs. (h/t Twitteratus @GrooveSDC)

Rembrandt_Harmensz._van_Rijn_092

Leave aside the cosmic delusion there — is there any geographical location outside the confines of his head in which any sentient being thinks Graham could be elected president? — the glory and horror of this confirmed-by-audio (head over to TPM for a listen) lies with its utter, transparent, total honesty.  Graham speaks the core Republican truth.  The people they server are rich white men.  Full stop.

Please proceed, senator:

“I’ve tried to help you with your tax status,” the senator says in another recording. “I’m sorry the government’s so f*cked up.”

Because, of course, the only thing that the United States government really exists to do is to make sure rich white guys  capture more money.

Friends don’t let friends vote Republican.

Ever.

Oh — and one more thing:  if there is any last deluded teahadist out there who thought until now that the movement really had a chance to reclaim the GOP for the values of some mythic better America, you can apologize to the rest of us anytime.

Image:  Rembrandt van Rijn, Syndics of the Drapers’ Guild, 1661.

Reader Interactions

127Comments

  2. 2.

    Gin & Tonic

    As the fat man says: “You’re the man for me, sir. No beating about the bush, right to the point.”

  4. 4.

    Violet

    Did Lindsey fan himself after uttering the words “male-only clubs”? Just the thought of those probably gets him a bit flustered.

  6. 6.

    Crusty Dem

    @Violet:

    Right. When I saw:

    “If I get to be president, white men who are in male-only clubs are going to do great in my presidency,”

    All i could imagine is that he was thinking of his own personal “Eyes Wide Shut”-sort of club. Which is a far more realistic fantasy than anything where he was president…

  7. 7.

    Belafon

    Once again, refighting the early 1900s. They’ll do everything they can to revoke the rights of minorities and resegregate everything they can.

  8. 8.

    kindness

    Well Republicans have done well with capturing the haters, the embittered, the angry and the delusional. They don’t see a downside as I don’t think they want to capture the Presidency. I think they think they can control the show by running both houses of Congress. I hate to say it but they are probably more correct than I prefer them to be on that score.

  11. 11.

    chopper

    Lol, his statement about ‘clubs’ made me think of Michael D’s joke about ‘it being like Riverdance in the bathrooms’.

  12. 12.

    Amir Khalid

    Say, are Lindsay Graham and John McCain still touring the world on the American taxpayer’s dime? Or has their long honeymoon finally ended, because they’ve run out of countries to visit? (They’ve been everywhere together, those two; they even got here in 2012, two years before Obama.)

  14. 14.

    Suzanne

    @Crusty Dem: I cannot imagine going to one of those clubs, engaging in…activity, and THEN finding out that it was Lindsey Graham under that mask.

    Hurl.
    Dry as a bone.

  15. 15.

    scav

    For me, the white men in male-only clubs brings up a confused image of treehouses with N0 gIrLz signs and gamergate.

  18. 18.

    schrodinger's cat

    Did anyone see Snooze Hour yesterday. I had it on the background while I was making dinner. All the panel could speak of, was how unpopular the President is. I mean, he is not even on the ballot, how about telling us about the actual candidates running for election? I can’t stand that smiling idiot, Gwen Ifill. She is such a lousy interviewer. Judy is not much better, I miss Ray Suarez.

  21. 21.

    Shakezula

    Let the presidential grifting begin! Colonel Lindsay will promise you anything your greedy little white dick might desire, provided you give to his LG for prez PAC and never ask what happened to the money!

  22. 22.

    schrodinger's cat

    The persecution complex of privileged males is a sight to behold, I see that in India too, where upper caste Brahmin males lament the rise of undesirables like lower caste people/women/Muslims. Get over yourselves, idiots.

  26. 26.

    MattF

    Playin’ the race card, the ‘Y chromosome’ card, the money card, the Southern card… But where’s the Jesus card? Lindsay must have jus’ dropped that one.

  27. 27.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    Lindsay Graham (R-Who Can We Bomb Today) tells the one true beating heart of the GOP exactly what it wants to hear.

    He’s dumped his longtime “chief of staff” (I’ll say) and is available?

    “If I get to be president, white men who are in male-only clubs are going to do great in my presidency,”

    Oh yeah, that’s what he’s telling everyone.

  28. 28.

    Gypsy Howell

    @kindness:
    Both houses of congress and even better, the state houses. You can get a lot done for the .01% for real cheap in the states.

  30. 30.

    cmorenc

    @beth:

    I’m guessing they didn’t invite Tim Scott to this shindig.

    The more patrician southern GOP’ers have always (in post-integration times) extended auxiliary membership in their elite to the small minority of blacks who openly embrace hard-core political conservatism, and who seem culturally and socially well-enough assimilated that they could “pass for white” but-for their black skin. Tim Scott and Herman Cain are good examples of this. Michael Steele (former chair of the RNC) was another good example of this (albeit from the border state of Maryland that never joined the Confederacy) until he proved a bit too willing to wander off the hard-right orthodox reservation toward suspected moderation.

    But alas, these black auxiliary members of the GOP do sometimes get left off the invitation list to some private clubs…

  33. 33.

    raven

    @schrodinger’s cat: Small, they are saying it lost an engine on takeoff and hit a building. 10 missing.

    WICHITA, Kan. — Several emergency response crews have responded to a plane crash at the Mid-Continent Airport in Wichita, Kan.

    KAKE-TV reports the plane crashed into the Flight Safety building and that smoke can be seen from miles away. It’s unclear how many passengers were on board or what injuries passengers and/or crew may have sustained. KAKE-TV reports people may be trapped inside. The aircraft is reportedly a King Plane.

  34. 34.

    beth

    And the headline in the Post and Courier here in the Charleston area?

    Lindsey Graham unfiltered: jokes about white men, Baptists

    Just jokes, folks. Nothing to see here. Meanwhile, the school board is meeting today to consider firing the superintendent of schools – why you might ask? It seems the local academic magnet school football team started a tradition of buying a watermelon, drawing a grinning face on it and smashing it to the ground while making grunting monkey noises, after beating schools with mostly black players. The superintendent fired the football coach but was forced to rehire him. That’s not enough for these folks though, they want her job for it. Here’s a comment from one of our fine citizens from that story:

    I find it hard to believe that so many people are being fired for political correctness and not for actual offenses. People need to get over themselves and have a sense of humor. Someone will always be offended no matter what you do or say.

    This is who they are. This will only help Lindsey get re-elected.

  35. 35.

    ottercliff

    I’m guessing that the kind of all male clubs Lindsay is referring to might not include the Hibernian Society.

  36. 36.

    Elizabelle

    President? Lindsey Graham has been hitting the sherry bottle a little hard. He has been known to have the vapors.

  39. 39.

    Bobby B.

    The Hibernian Society has been secretly turning the wheels of the world ever since Cuchallain smoked shamrock tea with St Patrick.

  41. 41.

    raven

    Damn, I just crawled under the house again looking for the dead rat. I decided to take a closer look around the house and, between the house and the rose bush was a dead cat. It was right under he bedroom window and we have had a fan blowing IN thinking it was under the house and the fresh air would help! Duh. Sorry about the cat.

  43. 43.

    beth

    Andrew Sullivan’s readers don’t see anything wrong with the catcall video that may the rounds yesterday. Women are being too sensitive, being told you’re pretty is not a problem, blah blah. Why are even his female readers as terrible as him on women’s issues?

  45. 45.

    Suzanne

    @beth: Because the brilliance of the patriarchy is that it’s gotten women to enforce its bullshit on each other. Women police each other for adherence to norms of appearance even more than men do.

    I have a theory that the rich straight white dude-iarchy makes this happen in all marginalized groups. See the discussion yesterday about Charles Barkley’s comments about black men tearing each other down, and is that or is that not a thing.

  46. 46.

    scav

    @beth: Well, then, how many of the fellow travelers are not the exact same ones in a muck panic about being eyed in locker rooms and showers by the unfettered gheyz gaze? Those over sensitive marines and football players should just learn to accept a complement graciously, I’m sure that was,the universal call that arose. Those whitie-tightiess just look good on you manly men, learn to accept the praise and not shoot people in a justifiable panic murder defense.

  48. 48.

    Shakezula

    @beth: Considering that Mr. Stultified recently announced he loves CH Sommers and gave the #diapergaters an “Aww, poor baby”, treatment I would expect everyone to be uniformly awful.

  50. 50.

    schrodinger's cat

    Speaking of Sullivan, he has also been making of the Dems, War on Women meme, and comparing it to what ISIS is doing and calling that the real war on women. Misogyny is strong in that one.

  52. 52.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    “If I get to be president, white men who are in male-only clubs are going to do great in my presidency,

    The Senator then burst into an apparently spontaneous a cappella version of YMCA…

  54. 54.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @scav: A huge part of the homophobia is that these guys are afraid they’ll be treated like gays the way they treat women. As objects.

    It’s always projection with these douches. Always.

  56. 56.

    beth

    “If I get to be president, white men who are in male-only clubs are going to do great in my presidency,

    So if this had been said by Obama and substitute black for white, would we be reading articles about how he got caught “joking”? I think not – it would be the biggest “whitey tape” the right’s ever seen.

  58. 58.

    Mustang Bobby

    “If I get to be president, white men who are in male-only clubs are going to do great in my presidency. Especially the well-built ones who are into Speedos and chocolate.”

    Well, that’s what it says on Lindsay’s MANHUNT profile.

  60. 60.

    Elizabelle

    NYTimes article today: In Democratic Election Ads in South, a Focus on Racial Scars

    In the final days before the election, Democrats in the closest Senate races across the South are turning to racially charged messages — invoking Trayvon Martin’s death, the unrest in Ferguson, Mo., and Jim Crow-era segregation — to jolt African-Americans into voting and stop a Republican takeover in Washington.

    The images and words they are using are striking for how overtly they play on fears of intimidation and repression. And their source is surprising. The effort is being led by national Democrats and their state party organizations — not, in most instances, by the shadowy and often untraceable political action committees that typically employ such provocative messages.

    … The messages are coursing through the campaigns like a riptide, powerful and under the surface, largely avoiding television and out of view of white voters. That has led Republicans to accuse Democrats of turning to race-baiting in a desperate bid to win at the polls next Tuesday.

    … Republicans have slammed the ad as race-baiting. “Have you heard this race-hustling Kay Hagan ad paid for by Harry Reid’s super PAC?” a new radio ad paid for by a conservative group asks, referring to the Democratic incumbent. “Probably not. Because they’re not running it on this station.”

    Follow the reader’s comments. The Times moderates them, so they are not Red State caliber, but the white privilege crowd is out in force, saying Democrats are the real racists. It’s fascinating.

    530+ comments and the Times is accepting new ones. Get in there!

    Reader comment from acclaimed author, Jane Smiley:

    Whenever Democrats tell the truth, they are accused of race baiting or lack of patriotism.

  62. 62.

    Keith G

    My hero of the week is Kaci Hickox. If we could have had a Democrat leadership embued with her drive and mentality, next week might not be quite the set back it seems to be shaping up to be.

    Edit. ..Sorry about the link fuck up, but I’m on mobile and really can’t fix it. Although, I will try again. As always, FYWP

  63. 63.

    JPL

    @Elizabelle: If Michelle Nunn wins it will be, the black voters that helped her win. That is what the news media will say.
    If Perdue wins, it will mean the old bigoted white guys turned out. That is what I will say.

  64. 64.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Elizabelle: It seems to me that every right wing hysteria of the recent vintage can be traced to their race related fear of the other. The rabid opposition to any and everything Obama proposes to the migrant children from South America to Ebola. Something our MSM fails to even mention.

  65. 65.

    Elizabelle

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    For you, friend Villago: Sally Quinn throws Ben Bradlee one last A-list party

    An invitation to the couple’s historic Georgetown home was one of the most coveted status symbols in the nation’s capital, an entry to an elite salon of the powerful, talented and witty. For Ben’s final sendoff, his wife of 36 years invited 800 or so friends and colleagues to the house for a party on her tented back lawn. The favored packed in like sardines. The uninvited — who not only wanted to pay their respects to the family but wanted the world to see them paying those respects — sulked at home and complained to friends.

    It was, observed one journalist inching his way through the crowd, a unique collection of bold-face names and media heavyweights from around the country. [the usual suspects.]

    … Cameras flashed, hugs were exchanged and the tent quivered with the casual bonhomie of exclusivity, proving Sally’s famous adage: “Good luck and good timing are great, but ultimately, a Washington party rises and falls with its power quotient.”

    … Unless you were there in the 1970s and 80s, it’s hard to fully understand the collective glamour of Ben and Sally. The New Yorker’s Hendrik Hertzberg met the couple in 1976 at the peak of their fame: “Bradlee was fifty-five years old then; Sally, thirty-five. The charisma — the vitality, the sheer erotic energy — that radiated that day from him, and from the two of them together, was stronger than anything of the kind I’ve since felt from any of the movie stars, rock stars, and politicians whose paths journalism has put me in,” he wrote last week.

    … One journalist at the reception, who received an effusive hug from a unknown woman, whispered to her friend: “Who did I just kiss hello?”

    “You won’t believe it,” was the reply, followed by the name of a Washington notable who had Zellwegered herself into unrecognizability. [Me-OW.]

    …As for Sally? Well, there was no time or inclination for gossip on this day. She was in a reflective mood, looking both to the past and the future.

    “I’m going to start my memoir next week,” she said.

  68. 68.

    Mike in dc

    White, male, upper middle-class on up, straight (well, straight-ish if Miss Lindsey is involved), Christian (and Jewish if their checks clear), and, for the most part, over the age of 50. And conservative, across the board. But they’re against all this identity politics and bloc voting.

  70. 70.

    Elizabelle

    The New York Times is doing its pre-election roundup of headlines re “look how badly the Democrats are doing! — they can’t get whites to vote for them and now young Latinos are deserting them too…”

    The reporting in the stories does not necessarily bear that out, but the headlines, which I am convinced is all your average wingnut reads ….

  72. 72.

    piratedan

    @Elizabelle: well based on the real legislation that Republicans have put forth at the state, local and national level, I’d say that those fears are based on more than a fair share of reality….

  73. 73.

    Elizabelle

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Eh, I was going more for corporate media ownership that prizes favorable tax treatment over any ideal of democracy in action …

    But yeah, I think reporters in the majors would rather report inaccurately or incompletely for their prestige employer than cut coupons and live on a sofa working for a more hard-hitting, but poorly-paying and endangered enterprise.

    I don’t buy the “unconscious bias” argument that gets floated.

  75. 75.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Elizabelle: What makes you think that their bias is unconscious? Most Pundits belong to the older demographic which buys the GOP nonsense, hook line and sinker. I don’t think they are immune to their own BS.

    ETA: Your reason is also a good one. It may not be either/or.

  76. 76.

    Gravenstone

    @Elizabelle:

    The images and words they are using are striking for how overtly they play on fears the reality of intimidation and repression.

    Fixed that for ya, NYT eds. No thanks needed.

  77. 77.

    Cacti

    I know white resentment politics are the bread and butter of the GOP, but speaking seriously…

    In the entire history of our republic, when haven’t white males as a group been more prosperous than every other group? When the entire system was set up to favor you by default at the outset, what in the world do you have to complain about?

    White males consistently vote their own interests, but are the only group who don’t get accused of “identity politics”.

    White males also make up less than 1/3 of the national population, but are the default for every measure of what is “mainstream” in this country.

  80. 80.

    Elizabelle

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    C-Span has Bradlee funeral video up on its website. Haven’t watched it yet, but will do so, with popcorn, to see what the eulogists say of the late, great editor Bradlee (and he’s one of my heroes too) and compare that with how said eulogists and conventional wisdom purveyors conduct themselves today.

    The crowd we have now could not save us from Hitler, or even recognize his destructive possibilities.

  82. 82.

    Elizabelle

    @JPL:

    What are you hearing about the judge who declined to intervene re the missing Georgia voter registrations? That could be huge.

    It could also motivate voters even more. How will they handle voters who turn up and are not on the rolls?

  83. 83.

    Elizabelle

    @Kathleen:

    I could not get through “This Town.” Too nauseating. Might try again, in a calmer time …

    Mark Leibovich recently listed the NYTimes’ Peter Baker as the most respected reporter in Washington. Mr. Baker seems to be a GOP whisperer, but I have seen some balanced stories from him too …

  84. 84.

    the Conster

    @Cacti:

    Explaining white male privilege to white males is like explaining water to fish. I have tried on numerous occasions to point this out to men in my life who are largely liberal and white, and all I’ve ever succeeded in doing is eliciting is hurt fee fees for grouping them with men they don’t like or agree with. Their privilege is just simply not seen. If you never see it it doesn’t exist for you, therefore its existence can be denied. This accounts for seeing the world they’ve been born and raised privileged in as natural, organic, and the default. However, it’s something that once seen cannot be unseen. I just don’t know how to get white men to see it.

  85. 85.

    Jerry O'Brien

    “Seemingly all-pale” is what you’d expect of a fraternal organization of Irish Americans.

  87. 87.

    JPL

    @Elizabelle: One of the papers looked into the missing ballots and couldn’t verify it. That was before the judges ruling. I have been staying away from the AJC lately for mental health reasons.

  90. 90.

    Another Holocene Human

    @schrodinger’s cat: Ifill is really dumb, I agree. She can be good sometimes if you want to hear what the guest has to say. She never pulls a Tweety and talks all over their time like a chipmunk on speed. However, there is the downside, whenever she brings political shills on, which is often, she just lets them say whatever stuff unchallenged. From watching her during Fall 2012 I just don’t think she’s very bright. Good voice for radio, though.

    Anybody else have the radio on when Shea Stephens (sp??) is reading the news? Take a drink of water and a deep breath, lady! Five minutes of news reading and she fumbles every night!

  91. 91.

    Another Holocene Human

    @JPL: Aw, RIP Tom. You showed us what a public servant could be.

    I know what my neck of the woods looked like when that jerk Flynn was mayor. Oh, I’ll take your votes and your tax dollars and send them to my buddies in the BRA because that’s how we’ve always done it. Don’t like the way things look/feel/smell? Welcome to Boston! Flynn was a little b*tch as Ambassador to the Vatican (a sinecure if there ever was one) too.

    Menino never had to be a million times better than his predecessor because nobody expected any better, but he was, anyway, because he gave a damn. From Westie, we’ll miss you.

    I hope CP writes a good eulogy. Man, I think I’m gonna cry.

  94. 94.

    Trollhattan

    Equal parts astounding and frightening that Graham has such a powerful job, considering how uninterested he is in performing it. Contrast with my favorite Jesuit:

    However, Brown said, “You raise a point that I want to tell.”

    “In back of your question is the idea that the only thing that counts is whatever happened yesterday. We want new, we want novelty, you know, we want ideological or substantive trinkets that you can report or that other people can talk about,” Brown said. “But the way you build a newspaper or a college or a state or a prison or a water project, it takes time, and taking time of a leader, of experts, of collaboration, not running over people, working with people. That’s a full-time job.”

    By this time, Brown could have stopped. But it was his third campaign event of the day, following appearances in San Diego and Arvin, and the Democratic governor, despite being nearly two hours late, was on a roll.

    “So I said water, I said the budget, because there have never been five years of budget stability in California,” Brown said. “So just saying that is like promising what has never been promised before, or at least never delivered.”

    He discussed education challenges ranging from the common core curriculum to tuition rates at universities.

    “By the way, I didn’t even mention the Delta conveyance or the storage – you know, above ground, below ground – plenty of work there, plenty of meeting with people. And then besides the water, we’ve got, what else have we got? Oh, we’ve got that train to move from north to south, I mean, getting that thing built. That’s going to take some time. I mean, that’s more than a 15-minute coffee break.”

    “Now what else? You think there’s still too much time?”

    The exchange went on for five minutes.

    “Look, you won’t print half of what I say. You won’t. I dare you to, OK? So this whole canard about, ‘What are you going to do, Brown?’ Think about it.”

    http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article3456324.html#storylink=cpy

    Love my governor, love my president, why is nearly everything else so screwed up?

  95. 95.

    the Conster

    @SatanicPanic:

    Visiting won’t do it – you have to live somewhere else. Not sure where white men can live that won’t automatically confer a great deal of male privilege.

  96. 96.

    Another Holocene Human

    The only ‘race hustler’ who is Black that I know of is the one who never, ever gets called out by concern-trolling white supremacists. And that is Wells Fargo Tavis Smiley, sponsored by Wal*Mart.

    Al Sharpton is a not a race hustler and never has been. Don’t piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining.

    Limbaugh, Jim Hoft, James O’Keefe … they can’t stop talking about race and perceived threats to white privilege. And they threaten anyone who tries to stop them. Hm, not unlike Gamergate.

  98. 98.

    Tenar Darell

    @beth: And
    @Suzanne:

    Little late, but….Sullivan is making a very good case for my dropping him entirely rather than just skipping him whenever he speaks of women or feminists or women who are feminists. Or tolerance or free speech or boycotts or Democrats or liberals or…

    He responded to an email from a woman who’s a game developer yesterday with the shiniest backpedaling dreck, as usual, quoting himself to emphasize that he pointed out that he didn’t approve of threats or doxxing. I can live with the Catholic doctrine bit (I don’t understand it, but I can put up with it), but the generalized misogyny and reflexive contrarianism on subjects he has no clue about push all my buttons even when I skip the posts. At this point I’m hate reading the guy most of the time.

    Either of you guys or @Tom Levenson have any suggestions of alternative people who skim through conservative sites and summarize without snark? I’m looking to get away from reading the Dish, but much as I enjoy them, I do need a replacement besides Wonkette or Charlie Pierce.

  99. 99.

    Another Holocene Human

    @JPL: Depending on the margin, I will say that sending voter registrations into a black hole worked. 40,000 of them are missing.

  101. 101.

    Tenar Darell

    @the Conster: I don’t know if this will always work, but suggest they create an account on the web presenting as a non-white female. 1) you can say everything you’d say as you, just have female sounding name and profile picture. 2) Tell them to frequent everywhere they frequent like that for a month 3) extra challenge: see what happens if they post about abortion, birth control, sex, feminism, misogyny, catcalling, gaming etc. They might learn something. Maybe. (Sorry can’t find link to specific story I was thinking of, might have been switching profile pix in Twitter?)

  102. 102.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Tenar Darell: There’s Charles Johnson. He follows the guano faucet very closely. Reading LGF has actually gotten way too depressing for me (although his blog was my go-to during Maidan and the initial Ferguson stuff — Shaun King’s posting on dKos now, btw).

    Tell me, who is nutpicking and snarking these days besides TBogg? And I guess Wonkette. I can’t seem to find anyone picking apart Debbie Schlussel or K-Lo or Ann Althouse anymore.

  103. 103.

    beth

    @Another Holocene Human: The reason I’ve read Sullivan is that he (his staff) does do a fairly good job of curating the more moderate right leaning writings available. There are plenty of sites snarking on the silly stuff but I hold out hope for an intelligent opposition. Lately though, Sully’s awfulness towards women has turned me off. I’d love to find a replacement.

  104. 104.

    Tenar Darell

    @Another Holocene Human: Basically I stick with classic or milder snark, Pierce, Wonkette, occasional TBogg, and on TV, Stewart. I can’t take too much of it, because I get depressed at the firehose of derp. K-Lo et al? Honestly, I think people gave up on them; too easy and depressing maybe?

  105. 105.

    Elizabelle

    Kevin Drum has a good blog, although he’s often conventional wisdom. Some good links, though, and cat-blogging. Link is http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum

    I don’t keep up enough, but Ta Nehisi Coates has a fabulous blog, as does James Fallow, at The Atlantic.

    You can comment on Drum’s blog (although you sometimes want to sort by “best” because he gets trolls) and on TNCoates’ blog, and he participates in the comments.

    Jim Fallows posts excerpts and letters from readers. Google him, or find him off TNCoates’ webpage — there will be a link at the right.

    I have Drum, Coates and Fallows on my bookmarks bar.

  107. 107.

    Tree With Water

    Cue Jon Stewart.

    Visiting white guests of (future CSA General) Wade Hampton in antebellum South Carolina were embarrassed by the number of children he had fathered, only to enslave. He loved that life, too, and fought a hard war attempting to maintain it, first on the battlefield and later in the U.S. senate.. Graham is weak tea compared to Hampton’s 80 proof, but he’s discernably the General’s political descendant. “Too small for a republic, and too large for an insane asylum”, indeed.

  108. 108.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Elizabelle: Ty, Elizabelle.

    That event would have been the ideal opportunity to excise a major cancer tumor on the body of our nation.

  109. 109.

    Elizabelle

    I used to LOVE Steve Benen — he put up some great stuff at Washington Monthly’s Political Animal blog — but he’s moved to Rachel Maddow’s blog and the whole MSNBC interface is such a clusterf*ck I never visit.

    Shame, too. Benen is good.

    Kevin Drum ran the Political Animal blog previously as well. Ed Kilgore is current incumbent. I’m not sure why the commenting numbers have dropped off there. (PS: I love when Martin Longman guest-blogs.)

    Which brings us to: the Booman Tribune!

    Rumor has it Higgs Bosun Mate comments there sometimes.

  113. 113.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Tenar Darell: I found that having been sexually harassed at one point did a lot for my perspective. In a “Jebus, that was awful to go through short period of time; it must really suck to live with this everyday: sort of way. I probably still don’t notice a lot of the little things that add up piece by piece every day. But I am trying.

  114. 114.

    LAC

    That all white males club has strobe lights and balloons released from the ceiling, no doubt. Senator Beverly Leslie strikes again.

  117. 117.

    Matt

    if there is any last deluded teahadist out there who thought until now that the movement really had a chance to reclaim the GOP for the values of some mythic better America, you can apologize to the rest of us anytime

    I’m pretty sure a country run by rich white guys, for rich white guys, fuck everybody else IS the “better MERIKA” the Tea People have been shrieking about…

  118. 118.

    Mandalay

    So this thread has comments lamenting white male privilege, sexual harassment, sexism on the streets of NY, Sullivan’s misogyny, and racism.

    Yet it also has comments gratuitously smearing Graham for his perceived homosexuality and effeminate behavior, but nobody here says a word against that. What a manly bunch you are, with your selective outrage.

  119. 119.

    AxelFoley

    “If I get to be president, white men who are in male-only clubs are going to do great in my presidency,” Graham says

    Lindsay’s coming out of the closet?

  121. 121.

    Elizabelle

    @Mandalay:

    Well, it did stop me from requesting Tom put up an Aunt Pittypat GIF from Gone with the Wind.

    That said, look at the difference in respect accorded Tim Cook of Apple, who is mentioned upthread.

    There is a real tragedy about Senator Graham, that he cannot be open about his sexuality because it would separate him from the job he lives for, and would have endangered his military career before DADT was repealed.

    He was born either a century too late, or too early.

  122. 122.

    Elizabelle

    “bettycracker” uploaded this one to youtube.

    Aunt Pittypat. Don’t you dare faint.

    ETA: It is our Ms. Cracker. Other vids are chickens and running boxers. And dollars to donuts this Pittypat vid came from a previous senior senator from the Republic of South Carolina thread from maybe 11 months ago …

    I can’t see the actual video because of an Adobe Flash issue.

  124. 124.

    Elizabelle

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Well, he sort of does, as a human being. I think having to live a fake life comes out in some of the posturing and inauthentic machismo. Who knows, maybe it’s subconscious and maybe it’s performance art.

    Senator Graham may have a lower view of the most base of his constituents than we do. He was kind of betting on the Tea Party dying out before 2014, per articles from a few years ago. He lucked out in that, what, 4 of them ganged up on him. One challenger, and he might have had an Eric Cantor scenario. The Tea Party is not that strategic.

    It’s a great tragedy for him that he could not move somewhere else and begin anew, years ago. South Carolina is among the most picturesque of backwaters in which to have a political career.

  125. 125.

    steverinoCT

    I actually believe Graham’s explanation on this one– in a Friar’s Club-like atmosphere, a little self-aware humor, that everyone recognizes an all-white all-male club is obsolete and out-of-fashion.

    Same for that guy that tweeted something about there being no Ebola in US before Obamacare– if a commenter here had said it, it would be hilarious; the fellow had a moment of self-mocking and he is taken seriously by the left, much as the right takes so many statements out of context.

    I think they get a pass on this one: we CAN be too serious sometimes.

  126. 126.

    TG Chicago

    @beth: I thought the exact same thing. If a black person made this “joke” the media reaction would be far less forgiving.

    Also, when Graham was confronted by this tape, he said he was just joking. I would be willing to entertain that except for the fact that he threw the word “white” in there. I see two options:

    1) This is an all-white club (or virtually all white). This raises the question of why Graham wants to be involved with such a group.

    2) This is a fully desegregated club, but the particular group Graham was speaking to was all-white. In which case, the “joke” is very troubling.

    I find it very hard to believe that it was a fully desegregated club AND that there were people of color present. In fact, I was quite disappointed that Graham doesn’t seem to have been asked if there were any people of color in the room.

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