Who Remembers Joe Wilson (R-SC)?

I suppose some people know Joe Wilson (R-SC) for any number of things-- like the time he got sloshed and fell out of a Sigma Nu frat house window at Washington and Lee University in 1968, landing on alumnus Cy Twombly, who wound up with a severe concussion that is widely credited with a drastic change in his painting style. But most people only know the 5-term state senator and 8 term far right-wing backbench congressmen for only one thing: being officially reprimanded by the House for interrupting a speech by Barack Obama to the joint session of Congress by screaming "You lie!" in 2009.

His constituents remember the incident better than most-- and gave him a taste of his own medicine at a townhill meeting on Monday, held at Aiken Technical College in Graniteville, shouting "You Lie" at him when he lied about TrumpCare and other matters.

Wilson's 2nd district is one of the reddest in South Carolina (R+16). Obama only scored 37% there both times he ran and last year, Hillary did only slightly better (38.6%). Wilson was reelected against Arik Bjorn, an un-financed, un-supported Democrat, 60.3% to 35.9%. The DCCC has never considered party-building in the 70% white west-central part of the state that carefully skirts black neighborhoods in Columbia and includes all or part of 5 counties, with the bulk of the voters in Lexington, Richland and Aiken counties. In other words... America is stuck with this guy in Congress... as well as with others like him.

And as long as we're talking about South Carolina, let's remember there's more to the state than just Southern Charm and crackpot Tea Party congressman. In fact, one of the crackpot Tea Party congressmen, Mick Mulvaney, left his House seat to take Trump's OMB job opening up a seat for a special election in a district very much like Wilson's. The special election primaries are May 2 and then the election will be June 20, same day as the GA-06 special election runoff. This is the one not many people are talking about, primarily because the district is so red and so... Trumpish. There are 7 Republicans, including 2 state Reps-- Tommy Pope and Ralph Norman-- and the former Chairman of the South Carolina GOP, Chad Connelly. The Democrats won't have a strong candidate, although there is a 3-way primary between some Goldman Sachs guy the DCCC is whispering positively about, Archie Parnell and two other sad cases, Les Murphy and Alexis Frank.

A friend in the district told me that Murphy is pretty abrasive on the stump and has taken staunchly anti-immigrant stances, including saying in appearances (more than once!) that immigrants abuse the system "to get free rides home." A local activist my friend knows, whose husband has a green card, remembered him from when he was a CIS officer and told a horrifying story of how her husband was treated by him.

Alexis Frank admitted in a recent forum that she voted for Mitt Romney and against President Obama in 2012--but she's trying to persuade naive Berners she's the "progressive" candidate. She's espoused pro-school choice positions (supporting the local school of choice program, which supports a magnet-style lottery within a district, thereby robbing struggling schools of students and funding). He says her "knowledge of issues is sorely lacking, though she is clearly bright and energetic." She delivered a soliloquy on unions and right to work that clearly showed that she had no idea what "right to work" meant.

He also says that Parnell has a Republican catnip resume but is actually the most progressive candidate in the race. He talks a lot about preserving financial protections, including the CFPB and making sure Dodd-Frank isn't torn up. When asked about Choice he responded that he's "running for Congress, not to be your doctor-- and that's between you and your doctor, period."

Today Is Joe Wilson's "You Lie" Anniversary

From “You Lie” to Swiftboating: Joe Wilson’s Shame

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Republicans are running campaigns based on obstruction, fear, and hate.  
And if you’re Joe Wilson (R-You Lie!) and none of that’s working for you? You turn to the bag of tricks you picked up babysitting young George W. Bush during his father’s 1987 presidential primary. That’s right, we’ve got our first swiftboating attempt of the 2010 cycle.

A year ago Joe Wilson was shouting at the President on the floor of the house; today, he’s spending thousands of dollars to smear his opponent. Take a look at this ad:



Never mind that Joe’s opponent, Rob Miller, is a decorated veteran. Never mind that when he says “Move On” he means “20,000 small donors that thought I acted like a jackass.” Never mind that Joe doesn’t have the credibility or the guts to attack Rob Miller himself. Joe’s willing to turn to any lie, distortion, or cheat if it means he has one more day of being able to use your money for all of the free trips, trinkets, and taxpayer dollars that he could want.

Yesterday we took a look at Rob's issue-oriented campaign ad, about jobs that are so much on the mind of South Carolina voters. Today Congressman "You Lie" is back with the only kind of campaigning he knows: the smear. You know what to do.

What Republicans Don't Want Voters To Know About Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

When Bush pushed CAFTA through Congress, it was a very close win for the GOP's Big Business allies. The final vote was 217-215. Although 187 Democrats voted against it-- only 15 joining the Republicans in favor-- Boehner, Blunt, Cantor, Ryan delivered for their corporate masters once again. For the last month Boehner has been running around the country like a bright orange chicken without a head squawking, "Where are the jobs, Mr. President?"

It's an ironic question coming from one of the engineers responsible for passing trade policies that have systematically decimated the basis of America's manufacturing base. Boehner and his cronies-- their wallets fat with gargantuan payoffs from outsourcers-- have voted for every single bad trade bill that has ever promised to ship American jobs overseas. For Boehner to publicly ask where the jobs are is a slap in the face to every American worker and an insult to the intelligence of every Ohio voter. In the Senate, Obama looked at the exact same CAFTA bill Boehner and the Republicans did. Then-Senator Obama voted against it. Several conservative Senate Republicans voted NO as well (John Thune, Lindsey Graham, David Vitter, Mike Enzi, Richard Shelby...) but voting to send American jobs to slave wage economies: Jim DeMint, Richard Burr, Mike DeWine, Chuck Grassley, Blanche Lincoln, John McCain, Ben Nelson and, of course Miss McConnell. All the Democrats voted against it with the exception of a small handful of corporate whores who habitually vote with the GOP against working families.

But let's go back to the House for a moment, where every member has to face the voters in November. Why are Ohio voters thinking of reelecting John Boehner, who has screwed them on WTO, screwed them on CAFTA, screwed them on NAFTA and has the temerity to be boosting plans for more unbalanced trade legislation with a handful of more low-wage countries. I know he wants to destroy the standard of living of American workers and make them into serfs but who does he think will be buying American goods and services to keep our consumer-driven economy afloat if there are no decent jobs? Not everyone can be a caddy or bartender!

Instead of asking Justin Coussoule for another quote about Boehner's record on jobs and how it has devastated businesses and the economy from Butler County up through Darke, Miami and Mercer, we took a look at a perfectly framed ad by Rob Miller, the former marine running against Joe "You Lie" Wilson. Although South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham warned that CAFTA would be disastrous for South Carolina's textile industry and small businesses (and voted NO), at the last minute Wilson was persuaded by Boehner's slick blandishments and voted YES, along with Gresham Barrett and Bob Inglis, both of whom have been disposed of by tea party activists. Miller's TV ad should leave Wilson reeling:



We caught up with Rob this morning and asked him if Wilson, just one Member of Congress, really hurt South Carolina with his vote. We knew the answer but we wanted to see how Rob would put it. He put it well:

When Joe Wilson went to Congress in December 2001, South Carolina’s unemployment rate was 5.7 percent. Today, 10.8 percent of South Carolinians are without jobs, including 112,500 people who have lost their manufacturing jobs.

Manufacturing was the backbone of South Carolina’s economy, until unfair trade deals like CAFTA went into effect. CAFTA sent thousands of our jobs overseas, and people all across the state knew that would happen before the first vote was cast.

But that didn’t stop Joe Wilson. Joe Wilson voted for CAFTA and broke his promise to protect South Carolina’s workers, sending their jobs to Central America. The real insult is that Joe Wilson cast the deciding vote for CAFTA. If Wilson voted “No” CAFTA would not have passed.

It was that simple, and Joe Wilson didn’t have the courage to do what’s right. South Carolina towns are dying-- people are struggling to put food on the table-- and it all comes down to Joe Wilson turning his back on South Carolina’s workers by voting “Yes” for CAFTA.

I hope lots of Democrats watch Rob's ad. Similar ones would be especially effective against Roy Blunt (R-MO), Mike Castle (R-DE), Mark Kirk (R-IL), and John Boozman (R-AR) four particularly corrupt Wall Street darlings who are all trying to upgrade from the House to the Senate. It may also be useful for Democrats in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and New Mexico to keep in mind as Charlie Bass, Mike Fitzpatrick and Steve Pearce try to slip back into office without letting voters know they were major players in the battles to pass CAFTA and similarly toxic trade bills.

Do You Remember Rob Miller, The Guy Running For The South Carolina House Seat Joe Wilson Occupies?

A few days ago, in an unkind, even thoughtless, throw-away intro to a post about Tarryl Clark that didn't appear at DWT, I kind of lumped South Carolina Democratic congressional candidate Rob Miller in with Elwyn Tinklenberg. Tinkenberg is an unabashed conservative-- he ran against Michele Bachmann in 2008-- who is anti-Choice, against equality for gay people and as backward and reactionary, at least on social issues, as your garden variety Republican. He actually has nothing to do with Rob Miller whatsoever.

Well... he has one thing to do with Rob. Both were the beneficiaries of massive outpourings of disdain for the moronic statements of their opponents. I doubt many of Tink's donors knew he favored a constitutional amendment to make sure same sex couples could never get married under any circumstances or that a woman should not be allowed to ever have the medical procedure that she and her physcian had decided on because it offended his-- Tink's-- religious sensibilities. I mentioned that I had tried to find out about where Miller stood on some of the core issues of the day but had been unable to. Someone from the campaign saw the post and yesterday I had an excellent talk with the former Marine officer, who did a couple of stints in Iraq. Unlike any number of bizarre Republicans claiming military honors they never won, Rob's military awards are breathtaking-- and real, including the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with Combat Distinguishing Device (‘V’ for Valor) for operations in Al Fallujah, Iraq; the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal for leadership during cold weather training in Bridgeport, California; the Combat Action Ribbon for operations in Iraq; the Navy Unit Commendation for operations in Mosul, Iraq; the Good Conduct Medal (X2); the National Defense Medal (X2); the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal; the Iraqi Campaign Medal; the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal; the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal; the Armed Forces Service Medal; the Humanitarian Service Medal for Operation Sheltering Sky in Liberia; the Sea Service Deployment Ribbon (X3); the Marine Corps Drill Instructor Ribbon; and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Medal.

No wonder he wanted to talk about service to the country! To Miller that's what running for office is all about: service. Too abstract a concept? I asked him about the issues-- he's good on them (even having come out publicly against the Stupak Amendment)-- and I asked him if we can expect to see him join the Blue Dog Caucus in Congress. He laughed. "I get asked that all the time." He said he wouldn't be joining the Blue Dogs and an impeccable source told me that the Blue Dogs approached Miller several time bearing gifts-- promising to raise money for him the way they are for conservative corporate shill and DCCC stooge Lori Edwards in Florida-- and he turned them down flat. It takes guts and conviction to turn the kind of easy money the Blue Dogs offer their recruits, the kind of conviction an unscrupulous political creature like Lori Edwards has never imagined and the kind of conviction a patriot like Rob Miller could never get through a day without. "What South Carolinians are looking for is an independent voice that represents hard working people in this district... There is so much corporate lobbyist influence in Washington that you can't get anything done for ordinary families and if you do, it's all watered down." Yep, this guy wouldn't be the right fit for the Blue Dogs.

"The biggest difference between Joe Wilson and me is service. Joe Wilson continually shows that he serves the special interests of Washington and Wall Street instead of serving the hard-working people on Main Street. Whether he's bailing out big banks or sending jobs overseas by casting the deciding vote on CAFTA, Joe Wilson represents everything that's wrong with Washington. While South Carolina's suffering from one of the highest jobless rates in America, Joe Wilson is off trying to privatize Social Security and cut Medicare. South Carolina needs a Congressman who will serve the people who elected him, and unfortunately Joe Wilson has shown that the only job he cares about is his own."

.

Joe Wilson's War

Since South Carolina secessionist and radical right Senator Jim DeMint is the Senate's most ardent obstructionist and votes "no" on virtually everything, it's sometimes difficult to tell when he really means it. When the Senate got back from their long summer vacation, they immediately took up S.1023, the Travel Promotion Act of 2009 and it passed with a huge bipartisan majority, 79-19. DeMint, as usual, was one of the 19. What's he got against promoting travel? Charleston, Hilton Head Island, Drayton Hall, Fort Sumter, Magnolia Plantation, Myrtle Beach, the Riverbanks Zoo and Botanical Garden in Columbia, Murrells Inlet, Mount Pleasant... and all being heavily promoted by South Carolina's burgeoning tourism sector. Now DeMint is still freaked out and hysterical that one year ago his state's tourist industry was catering to gays with an international campaign "South Carolina Is So Gay," a campaign not directly related to the gargantuan number of closet cases dominating the Republican Party hierarchy in the state, from Lindsey Graham and Lt. Gov Andre Bauer to the state Senate President.


But DeMint may not have to worry about gay tourists-- or any other tourists-- coming to his state. Even without any help from Arthur Frommer, it looks like a spontaneous boycott of South Carolina tourism is shaping up.

State and local tourism officials are being flooded by emails and calls from people across the country, saying they won't vacation in South Carolina because they're upset by GOP Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst at President Barack Obama.

The officials said that a number of the out-of-state e-mailers have said they've taken beach trips for years in Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head and other South Carolina resort areas, but don't plan to return.

...In a new USA Today/Gallup poll, 68 percent of Americans said they "oppose what Joe Wilson did during the speech." Twenty-one percent said they support Wilson's behavior.

South Carolina's $1 billion-plus tourism industry, centered around its beaches, had already been hit by the recession as Americans postpone vacations or cancel travel altogether. The state's 11.8 percent unemployment rate is among the highest in the country.

Marion Edmonds, a spokesman for the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, said his agency had received 147 emails from people who cited Wilson by name and expressed displeasure with his remark.

"Some of them have been specific and said they won't be coming to the beach this summer for their family vacation," Edmonds said.

Both Columbia and Hilton Head are major tourist attractions in Wilson's district. His wife, Roxanne, of course, won't be joining the boycott, although she did ask her husband, "Joe, who's the nut who hollered out, 'You lie'?"

At 4pm (EST) House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn introduced a Resolution of Disapproval on the floor:

Whereas on September 9, 2009, during the joint session of Congress convened pursuant to House Concurrent Resolution 179, the President of the United States, speaking at the invitation of the House and Senate, had his remarks interrupted by the Representative from South Carolina, Mr. Wilson; and
 
Whereas the conduct of the Representative from South Carolina was a breach of decorum and degraded the proceedings of the joint session, to the discredit of the House: Now, therefore, be it
 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives disapproves of the behavior of the Representative from South Carolina, Mr. Wilson, during the joint session of Congress held on September 9, 2009.

At a strategy session for the Republican Conference, South Carolina Republican Bob Inglis suggested Wilson apologize to the House. Wilson, who now sees himself as a teabagger/KKK hero, flat out refused and instead launched into a typically Republican victimization act. The House voted 240-179 (with 5 Democrats voting "present") against Wilson, John Boehner demanding a time-wasting recorded on-the-record vote. Conservative extremist Mike Pence's childish "I'm with Joe/vote no" didn't prevent 7 Republicans from crossing the aisle and standing up for the rules and for decency. On the other hand, a dozen Democrats were on the Joe Wilson/Mike Pence team today. In fact 5 of the Democrats who crossed the aisle, also voted with the GOP to censure MoveOn.org in 2007: Mike Arcuri (Blue Dog-NY), Bill Delahunt (D-MA), Gabby Giffords (Blue Dog-AZ), Paul Hodes (D-NH), and Gene Taylor (Blue Dog-MS).

A Guest Post From Rep. Donna Edwards On The Joe Wilson Problem

An Argument for Consequences for Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) – It’s not personal, It’s public

-by Donna Edwards

In the intervening days since President Obama’s speech before a joint session of Congress and the nation about the critical importance of delivering quality, affordable, accessible health care for all Americans, I have been troubled.  I’m not concerned about the policy challenges and differences with which we will struggle over these next days and weeks on health care.  I’m convinced that we will take President Obama’s guidance and the yardstick for measuring reform, the moral imperative he outlined to meet the test of our character, and do the right thing by the American people.

My concern is with Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) and the message that we send going forward when a representative of the people of the United States of America is allowed to shout “You lie” on the floor of the United States House of Representatives  to the President of the United States of America.  This must not stand.  Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) must face consequences for his actions.

Shortly after the incident, Rep. Wilson (R-SC) called White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel  to apologize for his indecorous remarks.  Mr. Emanuel accepted the apology on behalf of President Obama.  It was right for Rep. Wilson (R-SC) to offer a personal apology to President Obama, which he accepted. But, Rep. Wilson would have us believe that this is the end of the story and that he can with arrogance and defiance turn his offense into a fundraiser.

The problem is that a personal apology cannot substitute for a public offense. 
 
The offense was against the office of the President of the United States, against the people of the United States, in the United States House of Representatives sitting in joint session with the United States Senate.  Rep. Joe Wilson’s (R-SC) offense was an affront to our republic in which rules, order and respect for the Constitution of the United States and its officers have meaning.  For Rep. Wilson’s (R-SC) actions to go without consequence is a breakdown in the very governing fabric that distinguishes us as a republic-- more profound than any one debate on any one issue, even one as important as health care reform.  I know that we will get to health care reform, and I share the concern of the President and our leadership that Rep. Wilson’s (R-SC) offense is a distraction.  But this is not about personalities or political parties or policies; it’s bigger and speaks to our maturity as a republic, our character, and our history. 
 
I’ve attended every presidential inaugural since before I could vote even when I’ve voted for the loser-- not as a Democrat, but as an American.  As a young child, I toured the halls of Congress and sat in the galleries with my parents, teachers and classmates.  We live in an amazing system, in which we transition peacefully, and engage in vigorous debate in between.  My love of this country and respect for our Constitution and for those who serve compels me to call on my colleagues to make us whole again.  For people like my father who wore the uniform of the United States of America, the young men and women serving at home and abroad in defense of our nation, the children in our nation’s classrooms learning the simple but everlasting message of our Constitution, and the struggling democracies around the world, Rep. Wilson’s (R-SC) actions cannot go without consequence-- not for today’s debates, but for tomorrow’s. 

It is clear that Rep. Wilson (R-SC) violated the rules of the United States House of Representatives governing decorum in the House-- speaking without being recognized, uttering disorderly words, engaging in disruption, shouting interjections, etc.  It is clear that it is within the power of the House of Representatives to entertain a range of actions to express the will of the House to enforce its rules-- apology, disapproval, sanction, investigation, censure, etc.  The only questions that remain are whether, when, and how Rep. Wilson (R-SC) will face the consequences for his actions for his public offense to the republic.  And, it is our responsibility as representatives of the people of the United States to establish those consequences.




UPDATE: A Component Rep. Edwards Didn't Delve Into

Maureen Dowd addressed the ugly, unspoken impetus for the teabagger rage expressed so ineloquently by Wilson in today's NY Times.

Surrounded by middle-aged white guys-- a sepia snapshot of the days when such pols ran Washington like their own men’s club-- Joe Wilson yelled “You lie!” at a president who didn’t.

But, fair or not, what I heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy!

The outburst was unexpected from a milquetoast Republican backbencher from South Carolina who had attracted little media attention. Now it has made him an overnight right-wing hero, inspiring “You lie!” bumper stickers and T-shirts.

The congressman, we learned, belonged to the Sons of Confederate Veterans, led a 2000 campaign to keep the Confederate flag waving above South Carolina’s state Capitol and denounced as a “smear” the true claim of a black woman that she was the daughter of Strom Thurmond, the ’48 segregationist candidate for president. Wilson clearly did not like being lectured and even rebuked by the brainy black president presiding over the majestic chamber.

I’ve been loath to admit that the shrieking lunacy of the summer-- the frantic efforts to paint our first black president as the Other, a foreigner, socialist, fascist, Marxist, racist, Commie, Nazi; a cad who would snuff old people; a snake who would indoctrinate kids-- had much to do with race... Wilson’s shocking disrespect for the office of the president — no Democrat ever shouted “liar” at W. when he was hawking a fake case for war in Iraq-- convinced me: Some people just can’t believe a black man is president and will never accept it.

She just figured that out? Oh, and by the way, Wilson was on Fox today saying he has no intention of apologizing to his colleagues for his outburst. And he almost says Maureen Dowd is wrong and that he's not a racist. Watch the video on the link and you'll see a very confused and conflicted political hack.

Teabaggery Isn't Just About South Carolina Republicans

Today Politico asked two very related questions: What's the matter with South Carolina? and How is it that the GOP allows its most extremist cranks to dominate the health care national debate? And it isn't just Joe Wilson fitting so smoothly into both stories that makes them related. Sure, Wilson's possibly drug-fueled, possibly premeditated, outburst has "Republicans worried that their party is becoming known less for the power of its ideals and more for the pettiness of its vitriol." But the image of Republicans as a bunch of dangerous kooks and unsavory whackjobs and sex perverts goes way beyond the problems of South Carolina's Republican Party.

Here’s Orly Taitz, insisting that the commander in chief was born in Kenya. There’s a flock of town hall protesters, waving photos of the president in a Hitler mustache. Former GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin warns darkly that Obama is planning “death panels” for senior citizens. Georgia Rep. Paul Broun equates the president’s plans with “Nazi” policies. Ohio Rep. Jean Schmidt-- last heard calling John Murtha a “coward”-- tells a birther: “I agree with you, but the courts don’t.”

And then, in the midst of all the catcalls, hand-held signs and “I’m not listening” BlackBerrying, Wilson interrupts Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress by shouting, “You lie!”

...Republican leaders were quick to distance themselves from Wilson’s outburst. John McCain said Wilson should apologize, and he did-- although he also insisted that he was right about Obama’s lack of candor.

Brian Jones, a former communications director for the Republican National Committee, finds it frustrating when lawmakers like Wilson hijack the party’s public persona.

“You have a little bit of tyranny of the minority with these people,” he says. “It may raise their profile, it may make them more attractive in their district-- but does it really help the image of the party in the midst of an important debate? I think no. Obviously, there are some who will be cheering this, but I think the cake is baked with them in terms of how they feel about Obama and health care.”

But Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the chairman of the Republicans’ campaign arm in the Senate, suggests that it’s not fair to tar the GOP with its fringier elements-- and that the criticism won’t last anyway.

“I think that it’s a free country,” he says. “Anybody can say what they want, they can identify themselves as a Democrat, independent, a Republican, a socialist or whatever they want to call themselves. That doesn’t mean they were representative of a political party or the mainstream of a political party.”

All that and not even a mention of Michele Bachmann, Jim DeMint, Lord Boustany, Virginia Foxx, Dick Cheney, Glenn Beck, Newt Gingrich, David Diapers Vitter, Mark Foley, Tom Coburn, Patrick McHenry, Larry Craig, Rush Limbaugh, or California's latest Republican Party dynamic duo, Mike Duvall and Jeff Miller.


As for South Carolina, it's following old secessionist patterns that go back before Abraham Lincoln's time and has not just "emerged as a beachhead for the president's most aggressive conservative critics, a secure launching point for some of the harshest attacks on the administration’s policy initiatives," but as a place where the worst fringe elements in contemporary American politics are perfectly comfortable spouting their racism and anti-American poison in public, more often than not to the cheers of their fellow kooks. Almost every top Republican leader in the state is a sexually repressed deviant whose frustrations and self-loathing seem to be expressed in extremist politics.

But Republicans are striking back and claiming that sexually related mental illness isn't strictly a GOP dilemma. An Ohio Republican Party activist points an accusatory finger at Blue Dog Zack Space. He even wound up on the Republican Party TV network. GOP sociopath David Daubenmire, a religionist fanatic who's been sleeping in front of Zack Space's office for a week, claims he represents "hundreds and thousands of Joe Six Pack men and women" and refuses to take up Space's offer to spend some time with him "back in some smoke-filled room." Now, DWT hasn't had anything much nice to say about the corporately-oriented Space, but local Republican Party operatives seem to be barking up the wrong tree when they make allusions to Space slamming right-wing loons with sexual innuendoes.

After my prominent appearance at a teabagger rally in Alhambra, I've been placed on the mailing list of dozens of crazy right-wing mailing lists. Mostly I just forward everything to Secret Service and FBI agents but now and then I read some of the crackpot rantings. Here's one I saw yesterday after Space's office commented on the kook-- previously best know for burning copies of the Koran in public-- sleeping on the sidewalk and whining that the congressman knows the etymology of the word "teabagger":

"Coach doesn't comprehend reality.  The rain or fatigue must be getting to Mr. Daubenmire.  There was a town hall meeting yesterday five blocks from where he is setting up camp featuring Secretary of Energy Tom Vilsack, Senator Brown and Congressman Space.  It had been publicized for days by all offices.  If it was "secretive," then more than 300 people found out the secret, including a number of Mr. Daubenmire's teabagger colleagues who were there and talked to the Congressman."
 
Local small business owner Darin Hill took offense to Space's remarks.
 
"The unmitigated gall of Mr. Space's comments is shameful," says Darin Hill, owner of Hillsway Ag and Turf in Gratiot, Ohio.  "Those words are disrespectful, condescending, and more than that, they're dishonest.  Mr. Space is completely misrepresenting the event.  The meeting with Secretary Vilsack was not billed as a town hall.  It was explicitly addressing the concerns of farmers and our district's agricultural industry.  If Representative Space hosted a true town hall, a lot more than 300 people would have shown up."
 
Although Space's office claims that they announced the event beforehand, the event wasn't promoted as a town hall nor was it widely known that the Congressman would be in attendance at the event.  But Mr. Hill is more concerned about the insult.
 
"I don't feel comfortable with my Congressman using sexually perverse terms like teabagging.  He shouldn't be talking that way to constituents," continues Hill.  "If Zack Space needs a history lesson on taxation without representation and the Boston Tea Party, I'd be happy to enlighten him.  There's nothing perverse about an American citizen questioning his government."
 
Darin Hill has no affiliation with Daubenmire or Fairfield Christian Academy, but he plans to be at Daubenmire's rally on the Zanesville courthouse steps on Thursday at 6 PM.

And like flies to cowshit Michael Steele and Ohio Republican Party Chairman Kevin DeWine showed up as well. I mean, how can anyone expect to have a serious discussion of the ins and outs of teabagging without Steele and DeWine in the peanut gallery? Do you think showing teabaggers this video would help at all?



No? How about this one? It's more up their emotional alley, don't you think?

Bob Novak (1931-2009): R.I.H.*

by Ken

So Bob Novak has gone to his reward -- presumably, the torments of hell for all eternity. (Could we maybe make it two eternities?)

Good riddance. Novak was an ideological zealot of the Far Right masquerading as a journalist. He was a bully, a thug, and a serial liar whose agenda was built on a volcano of (well-earned) self-loathing -- he seems just naturally to have assumed that the world at large was as irredeemably savage and hateful as the heap of toxic sludge he saw whenever he looked in a mirror.

And that has nothing to do with his outing of Valerie Plame Wilson as a CIA agent -- except insofar as his entire career establishes him as just the sort of sleazeball who would commit an act of treason for the sake of punishing Joe and Valerie Wilson, two people who had served their country honestly and admirably while he struggled with the torments of his ideological delusions and vendettas.

Right-wing campground HumanEvents.com has a tribute to this cancer by Karl Rove crony Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, the former Reader's Digest editor who was unleashed on the Voice of America and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting by the Bush regime, with a mandate to transform them into puppet propaganda outlets for the Far Right. That's right, he's the genius who on his own say-so, and without even disclosing it to his board, spent $10K of CPB money to get the goods on that scourge of the hate-mongering right-wing loons Bill Moyers, the fairest and least corruptible soul in the journalism racket.

Of course for people like Tomlinson and Rove and Novak, concepts like truth, fairness, and incorruptibility appear literally beyond the capacity to comprehend. I begin to wonder, could it be an actual defect in the brain architecture?

Here are some of the comments added to the Tomlinson blowjob of Novak:

"Wow, this is sad news indeed. American journalism has lost one of its giants."

"RIP Bob: You are home with Jesus. What a wonderful and honest reporter. He lived the words. The truth will set you free."

"We lost a giant in political journalism today and a proud Fighting Illini! Rest in peace, Bob."

In fairness, a saner commenter notes: "He stopped being a journalist when he outted a undercover CIA agent for political reasons. Journalism lost nothing today." In truth, any journalistic impulse Novak ever possessed had long since been subordinated to his ideological zealotry and hooliganism.

With the following comment, however, I can at most quibble:

"One of the great conservative voices is gone. Requiescat in pace."

A "great conservative voice"? Yes, I'll buy that. (If I were a conservative I would be offended, on the ground that surely somewhere there must be a "voice" speaking from reason and a quest for truth. But by the standard of available conservative voices, yeah, our Bob was aces.) Just understand that this is rather a different thing from journalistic greatness or journalistic integrity. But this commenter makes no such claim.

The one thing I would have to quibble with in this comment is the R.I.P. crap.

*I say R.I.H.: Rot in hell.


OUR BOB'S, UM . . . NO, NOT FINEST . . .
ER, MOST NOVAKIAN MOMENT?



To this day, I can't begin to guess what was going on in our Bob's head at that moment. But then, that was -- as I just wrote to Howie, who dug this clip out -- a very strange head.

#