Craig’s Lisp
“I am not Gay,” protested part-time convict, full time U.S. Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho.)
Uh-huh. And Dick Nixon wasn’t a crook. (And we might add the war in Iraq is neither a new Vietnam nor a civil war).
Senator Craig’s remarks brought back to me a conversation I had about 25 years ago in a San Salvador cafe with the crackle of gunfire in the background.
The guy sitting in front of me was a (now deceased) American freelance photographer who had been living in Salvador. I had hired him a week before to shoot some pix for some reporting I was doing and — much to my amazement– had already on two different occasions gone into a public men’s room while we were woking (once at the beach and once in a hotel), followed a young man in, and spent an inordinate amount of time before re-emerging.
It didn’t take long during that cafe chat for him to freely admit to seducing as many young (and older) men he could. He then launched into rich strategic detail explaining how handy he was in using his cameras as tool of seduction. Within minutes it became clear that this freak was scoring at least 5-10 times per week or more. And he had the pictures to document it.
In my utter amazement and naivete, I mumbled to him something like: “I’d never think there were that many queer men in El Salvador.”
With absolutely no irony, not even a smile, he flatly answered: “There aren’t. I don’t care if they’re gay or not if I can do them.”
I did say naivete, right? As I continued working in that socially conservative country I stumbled upon 4-5 more cases where all sorts of gay behavior was dismissed as non-gay. One night after a round of some heavy drinking, for example, my hired driver boasted how macho he was in high school precisely because he had anally raped the class queer. Why, of course.
Now, all these flashbacks have got me trying to remember if Senator Craig was ever on any of those congressional fact-finding missions that would cruise through Salvador. Can’t remember, but it sounds like he would have been a perfect fit, so to speak.
His whole ridiculous story is, well, ridiculous. Imagine being a conservative, pretty outspoken anti-gay Republican Senator and getting innocently swept up in a police sting run from inside a toilet stall. You damn well too might over-react like Crag claims he did. Maybe like punching the cop in the face or threatening his bosses with a congressional hearing. But by pleading guilty? I don’t think so, darlin’.
Looks like his home state paper already had the skinny on the good Senator but had been sitting on the story — until today, that it.
A rush to judgement on my part? Shouldn’t Senator Craig be given his day in court before we brand him guilty (I’m not sure of what?). By all means. Except he didn’t wan’t one.
By the way, Dana Milbank has some fun toying with the absurd inconsistencies in Craig’s assumed stance.
I also congratulate the Senator for his exquisite timing. That his self-immolation and “Fredo” Gonzales’ ignominious departure from the AG’s post both come on the second anniversary of Katrina has great ironic and symbolic content. At the time of the Katrina aftermath, I’m eager to boast, I wrote back then that the catastrophe would mark the political death of the Bush administration and the highwater mark of the entire Conservative Era.
Of course, I was right. What we have seen in the succeeding two years has been nothing but a prolonged death rattle. This administration and the ruling party that surrounds it are not only grossly incompetent (Katrina), inusfferably and self-destructively arrogant (Gonzales), but also laughably boobish (Craig). Just ask any sane Republican and he’ll tell you the same.
Therein resides my underlying optimism (within my generally pessimistic overview). From the beginning, I have tirelessly argued that whatever danger this administration posed, it would always be limited by its own foolishness and buffoonery. Take over the world? Right. Just as soon they get the traffic to run right in Baghdad.
Thanks, Senator Craig for bolstering my arguments.
August 29th, 2007 at 5:46 am
What a surprise. The NY Times and the major liberal networks smear the entire Republican party and somehow bring every accusation against Republicans into an article about a queer on the prowl.
Also, check CBS Uses ‘Craig Scandal’ to Exhibit How ‘GOP Is Already Under a Cloud’ of FBI Probes
This comes no where to approaching scandals of Democrats. You guys defended Bill Clinton for worse. So did the press. They didn’t tie his desecration of the Oval Office and perjury to the history of Democratic scandals everywhere.
Now, Hillary Clinton is following in her husband’s footsteps by accepting illegal contributions from the Chinese through a (ahem) “laudering” scheme, and the U.S. will be more at risk with what she would give away, as did her husband.
Let Craig deal with his problem, but don’t try to link it to every accusation against the party, and don’t pretend that it’s as much of a threat as the Chinese having our missile guidance secrets to aim against us.
Why do you hate gays?
August 29th, 2007 at 5:53 am
It took me a second look to get the title of the post. Clever.
August 29th, 2007 at 6:30 am
In my utter amazement and naivete, I mumbled to him something like: “I’d never think there were that many queer men in El Salvador.”
************************************
Did you think the “gay†gene was only found in the United States? Although this does remind me of the time I was working in Valencia, Venezuela during Carnaval season and my American co-workers and I went to a downtown parade. We all thought we took a wrong left turn and were at the Hollywood Gay/Drag Queen parade.
Does anybody Bob Allen of Florida he was also “innocent†of spending too much time a public bathroom.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmeGpAzPIho
Does anybody remember Ted Haggard, leader of the National Association of Evangelicals. He went to “gay deprogramming therapy†to learn to embrace his heterosexuality.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_dQ5KJ8rgA
And I leave you a few lines from this video.
“Jeff and Paul like hot pectorals and good old fashion Christian Morals, hey-hey-hey we’re red and we’re gayâ€
“We like each others buttssssss …… and big spending cutsâ€
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igqlGGoeCAU
August 29th, 2007 at 6:40 am
Woody,
Woody,
Part of what Marc is trying to point out is the hypocrisy of many politicians.
When Marc writes …..
“Imagine being a conservative, pretty outspoken anti-gay Republican Senator and getting innocently swept up in a police sting run from inside a toilet stall.â€
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlyJmhwa1c0
August 29th, 2007 at 6:44 am
Yawn!
August 29th, 2007 at 7:41 am
I wouldn’t yawn too loudly, GM. The Mark Foley affair had a lot to do with why we now have a Democratic majority in Congress. Oh, that and a little war someone carelessly started.
August 29th, 2007 at 8:19 am
Hey Woody, poor Larry Criag is just one sixty Million dollar, five year phoney investigation (plus one opposistion funded bullshit nuisance suit from a future celebrity mud wrestler and penthouse model) from me taking the exact posisition I took with Clinton. Soorry…. nothing there. He did, however, peek through the keyhole at the Clinton’s marrige along with a lot of other born again flag waviers who practiced very open marriges.
Bob and Carol, Newt and Livingston.
Of course Criag is not “gay” in the Charles Nelson Reilly sense; nor is everyone who practices the occasional homosexual act thinking of moving to West Hollywood. This is what makes pop star/publicity hound Melissa Ethrige’s “gotcha” of Richardson so silly. Yes Woody, liberals can be silly too.
Human beings are entitled to a modicum of privacy in their sex iives; a concept a thinking conservative once would have taken for granted. But you busted the bottle real GOOD, Woodster, all for a quick fix. That fat, cigar smoking genie will be farting into your couch for a long time.
August 29th, 2007 at 8:29 am
Correction, Michael. The Democratic majority was created by spin and lies from them and the media. Mark Foley and the war just gave them other openings. The Republicans weren’t doing anything that the Democrats had not already condoned.
SS, oh, there’s hypocrisy alright.
Of course, you all knew that. It just didn’t matter to you then.
August 29th, 2007 at 8:35 am
It’s funny and revealing that this particular guy turned out to be a flaming so and so. It’s also a good laugh that, having gotten in trouble for the same thing before and then pled guilty this time around, he claims he’s innocent.
Still, it’s not a good thing for anyone who favors privacy to make a big deal out of this. I am really not sure that airport bathrooms being used for cruising is really any worse than airport bathrooms being full of cops looking for people cruising. If a cop happened to bust this guy in the act, he should have been cited, embarassed, and fined. But we shouldn’t reward the police with publicity for sting operations designed to bust people for public-nuisance infractions like this. Your pot-smoking kid is probably next.
August 29th, 2007 at 8:40 am
Hmm. I don’t recall Bill Clinton ever saying that he didn’t like blowjobs or that anyone else should not have one. But I do recall a lot of Republican blather about family values.
August 29th, 2007 at 8:57 am
Gosh, Jerry Falwell has become so much more progressive now that he has met his Maker.
August 29th, 2007 at 9:17 am
Is it just me or does Woody seem to be getting desperate as, one by one, the “Family Values” crowd turns out to be a bunch of closeted gays looking for love in all the wrong places, serial adulterers like Newt throwing stones while carrying on affairs or swingers like Roger Stone who spends his spare time sending threatening phone calls to 80 year old men. Oh, and then there are the outriight con-men like the “DukStir” out to make a sleazy buck.
And then there’s the guy in the Oval Office who a few short years ago was hailed by the wingers as God’s choice for President but is now foresaken as his ratings sink into the toilet and public polls show the citizenry would look out the window to check if he told them it was raining!
Whether it was Katrina or the war or so much else its really fun for those of us with IQs higher than room temp to watch this historic meltdown. I though that this was a phase – the GOP would shake off the crazies and go on. Now I’m not so sure. When Nixon settled on his Southern Strategy he figured that he and the other sane people in the party could control these loons and use their votes. Alas, for them, the lunatics took over and they may yetcapsize the whole vessel.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if the “New Party” everyone blathers about rises on the right side of the aisle as sensible conservatives decide that they’ve had enough of the freak show.
August 29th, 2007 at 10:37 am
Michael Balter Says:
Hmm. I don’t recall Bill Clinton ever saying that he didn’t like blowjobs or that anyone else should not have one. But I do recall a lot of Republican blather about family values.
***********************
I will have to search youtube for any statements Clinton made about whether he likes blow jobs.
But of course everybody does remember the infamous “I did not sleep with that woman†which I believe was true, because he only enjoyed his blow jobs.
I wonder if Woody would still defend Bush even if Bush were arrested in a public bathroom having sex with a young man. Or would Woody say “but Clinton had a blowjobâ€.
If I am ever caught cheating on my wife I am going to say “but Charlie Sheen screwed a bunch of hookers dressed in cheerleading outfits.†I wonder how that defense is going to work, what do you guys think?
August 29th, 2007 at 10:40 am
rlc: “the “Family Values†crowd turns out to be a bunch of closeted gays”
Do you define a bunch as two or three? I and other family values types don’t condone homosexual activity. I’m just surprised that any liberal noticed, given their positions–often on their knees.
If we were up to me, I would have Jon Voight monitoring public bathrooms.
That’s all the time that I’m going to waste on this.
August 29th, 2007 at 10:49 am
You’ve got to give Woody credit for going down with the ship rather than jumping off like most former Bushie rats.
August 29th, 2007 at 10:51 am
I and other family values types don’t condone homosexual activity.
I wonder if that means Woody doesn’t condone same-sex sex, or if he means he’s against same-sex marriage? Is it the sex, or the sex outside of marriage that’s the problem?
And, of Larry Craig’s “crimes” is it that he may have solicited sex from another man, or is it he sought sexual solace outside of his marriage?
August 29th, 2007 at 10:57 am
Frankly Woody it sure looks that way. Unless, of course, like Newt and Rudy, they’re serial adulterers or, like Roger Stone, wife-swappers. Really, at some point even you must be apalled to see the number of promenent Republicans extolling family virtue while practicing the values one associates with “I Claudius.”
August 29th, 2007 at 11:17 am
Nice ironic loop of a story, Marc. The Daily Show, BTW, was HYSTERICAL on the Craig issue a week or three ago when the story—and his so-lame-they-were-kinda-breathtaking excuses first came to light.
(Forgive me for not taking time to link. All this stuff is easily watchable at comedycentral.com.)
Woody, about conservatives and family values, wa-a-a-ay back when, after Reagan was first elected, a national magazine sent me on a rather frivolous investagative assignment to D.C. to do a story on whether the escort services and other vice-related businesses did a brisker trade under the Republicans or the Democrats. I’ll leave you to guess the answer, but one thing you should know: it wasn’t even close.
August 29th, 2007 at 11:18 am
I see you still believe in using Marc’s site to engage in bandwidth theft.
August 29th, 2007 at 11:18 am
forgive the above typos. I’m web-challenged at the moment.
August 29th, 2007 at 11:27 am
The thing is this: To me personally this sort of thing is just vaguely comical, with a little bit of schadenfreude mixed in. In principle I don’t think what gentlemen do in the privacy of a public toilet is police business. It’s the family values conservatives who don’t condone homosexual activity that have their hearts torn out by this.
August 29th, 2007 at 11:44 am
I’m glad it’s not my job to keep score, or I’d be too depressed to get out of bed in the morning. From Talking Points Memo; 13 Republican scandals so far this year. Ugh.
August 29th, 2007 at 11:49 am
As Scott Lemiuex pointed out here (http://tinyurl.com/34gojc) there is a compelling argument to be made that the outrage from the right about Craig and demands for his resignation as opposed to the lack of same for David “Diaper Boy” Vitter probably has as much to do with the fact that Idaho has a Republican governor and Louisiana has a Democratic governor.
Here’s the depths of Vitter’s hypocrisy (http://tinyurl.com/2rcegv):
August 29th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Celeste: whether the escort services and other vice-related businesses did a brisker trade under the Republicans or the Democrats. I’ll leave you to guess the answer
Celeste, that’s like asking a drug dealer to name his best customers. Is he going to name his real customers and make them mad or will he name the people trying to put him out of business to get them into trouble?
Take a couple of extra days on your vacation.
August 29th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Randy, both links took me to the same page: WaPo’s Shankar Vedantam’s article Hot and Cold Emotions Make Us Poor Judges.
?????????????
August 29th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
LOTS. Here’s the correct one for Scott Lemiuex’s post: http://tinyurl.com/34gojc
August 29th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Shorter Woody:
Celeste, your journalistic findings are worthless unless they validate my preconceptions.
August 29th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Thanks, RP.
August 29th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
Shorter Randy: I hate logic.
August 29th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
No wonder the GOP is so death on Larry Craig. From OpenLeft:
Congress Has Low Approval Ratings, Democrats Do Not http://tinyurl.com/399mob
August 29th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
I’m surprised at the number of people in here think that corruption, lewd and or inappropriate relations, driving off of a bridge with a woman in the back seat, sending lascivious emails to an intern, bedding a male intern by a male congressman, or any other peccadillo has anything to do with party.
August 29th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
I wish someone would publish these codes in a book. I didn’t know that my dance practice was code for a sexual act.
I am really upset that I cannot practice tap dancing in public toilet stalls anymore. I have no place else to practice.
August 29th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Oh, Josh. I’ll be those taps are tough on the tile, but the acoustics must be phenomenal.
August 29th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
What surprises me most is not that he was at a public bathroom, but one at an AIRPORT of all places. Airport bathrooms smell horribly. I do not want to be too graphic here, but everyone is holding in their movement until landing. Then BAM, everyone practically runs to the shitter. The coffee they had before the flight along with airport and airline food really gets the bowels active. Thus airport bathrooms smell horribly. It is a stew of poo from a global population. Not much of a turn on.
August 29th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
GM, It’s been a long dry seven-plus years for progressives. Their tendency and mine to make fun of the GOP’s predicament isn’t too hard to figure out. What is a little more difficult to figure out is this:
Explain to me, please, why the GOP doesn’t give-over on the issues of homosexual sex. I just don’t get it. Yes, Teh Base, yada yada…. but, it’s not in the GOP’s best interests. The principle doesn’t make sense in the face of science, current beliefs, or social mores. It has a flimsy theological premise, and not much more. It. Makes. No. Sense. Political sense. Social sense. Biological sense. It hurts the GOP a whole lot more than it hurts the Democrats, so why doesn’t the GOP give it up?
August 29th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
And, why are you not addressing it on your own website? (BTW, I really appreciate the way you’ve ‘simplified’ your site.) Your post on drug laws could almost be considered ‘flexible.’ And, the comments are downright sane. Not bad for a Neanderthalicknuckledraggingconservative. So, why not on this issue, too?
August 29th, 2007 at 6:42 pm
LOTS, I lost a beloved brother-in-law to aids some 12 + years ago, and I believe that homosexuality is a matter of brain function. Having said that, there are plenty of people with a firm moral sense based on religious principles (whether flimsy or not – and before you deride that, think of some of the flimsy principles that progressive thought stand on). I am not going to lambaste someone’s religious beliefs if it doesn’t harm me (islamofascism being the exception here). Many mock those who hold close religious beliefs, and that is OK, but needless if you are truly progressive and believe in individual rights (and responsibilities). Some would argue that at least the “republican base” has a moral stance (and in some ways, they would be right) just as some of the progressives have a moral stance in terms of justice. But it cuts both ways.
August 29th, 2007 at 7:13 pm
Oh, GM. My sincere sympathies on the loss of your brother-in-law. The ubiquitousness of AIDS breaks my heart. As a nation, we could have, should have, responded … well … never mind. You can guess what I’d say.
I don’t argue with religious precepts that exclude; that’s for the members who worship in that house to figure out. I have no argument with private entities that exclude; again, that’s for the membership to decide. I am baffled by a political/public stance that excludes. Especially, when such exclusion is based on something that is biologically embedded. To me, it seems almost like telling a carrier of Tay-Sachs, or the BRCA2 gene, or someone with bipolar disorder that they aren’t welcome to a public or political life. Almost by definition, if not by history, the Democratic party should not be the most inclusive option for folks who are gay. And, the damage (direct and collateral) this position is doing to the Party of Lincoln is genuinely sad.
And, thanks for the response.
August 29th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Anna Quindlin has an interesting take on this in her NEWSWEEK essay that notes Guiliani’s strengh in the GOP polls despite his views on social issues. She thinks that maybe the Republicans are going back, slowly to be sure, to being a party rather than a religious denomination.
Course there’s going to be a lot of pain and suffering on the way. . .
August 29th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Marc,
Max Sawicky gave this post the best blog headline of the week.
August 29th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
Ah, yes. Thanks, RLoC.
August 29th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
Woody & GM:
I’m very upset and completed taken back that you two jack asses can not protect me from these sorry ass liberal bashers.
We republicans need to stand together, snort cocaine together, and do our kinky homosexual acts togther. All under the umbrella of secrecy, executive privilege, and national security.
Look, get my story straight and let it be spread among my Christian brothers and sisters. I was sitting in the stall with my new 80gb ipod, listening to the Village People singing, tapping, and shaking to the nice tone of “YMCA.” As all of you alternative lifestyle people here know, its really had to complete that “A” while sitting down with your ding dong hanging out of your pants.
Due to my $110.00 Florsheim shoes with slippery soles and all that creamy stuff on the restroom floor, I accidently tapped the guy next to me. As any good government worker, the business card was strictly to file a compliant.
August 29th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
SLC… you are an asshole! And not a very funny one at that!
August 29th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
Has anyone noticed that Woody lambastes Hillary for taking money from “the Chinese”. The guy in question, who proabaly is attempting to stuff Hillary’s coffers via third parties and might well have violated campaign finance lawas – is a New York businessman in the rag trade. But, of course, he’s one of “the Chinese”.
The racism is stinking up this thread…
August 29th, 2007 at 9:09 pm
This is about nothing. The guy got caught with his pants down or his foot out, or whatever. Democrats on the downlow with 2.4 kids, owing to their constituency and fanbase, might have greater opportunities in less public settings. Who cares?
Nothing about this proves any point about public policy.
The fact that some family values politico likes to, uh, press the flesh in public bathrooms is no more interesting than the fact that some other guy likes roquefort dressing and dwarves. Bankers kite checks, priests blashpheme, environmentalists drive SUVs and socialists call the family office to get the news on the latest tax loophole.
It is terrific fun to discover someone who has advanced policies that don’t excuse their own pecadillos, (like Bill Clinton hoist on the petard of sexual harrasment) but in the end, we make policy on the merits of policy.
I know for a fact that Bill Clinton perjured himself in that deposition about Monica, and I strongly suspect that he coerced Paula to put
on the kneepads, but does it logically follow that I believe sitting Presidents should have to answer civil suits during their term of office?
August 29th, 2007 at 10:06 pm
September 2, 2007
Democratic Vistas
By NICK GILLESPIE
NYT Magazine
THE ARGUMENT
Billionaires, Bloggers, and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics.
By Matt Bai.
316 pp. The Penguin Press. $25.95.
With the possible exception of the Republicans, is there a major political party more stupefyingly brain-dead than the Democrats? That’s the ultimate takeaway from “The Argument,†Matt Bai’s sharply written, exhaustively reported and thoroughly depressing account of “billionaires, bloggers, and the battle to remake Democratic politics†along unabashedly “progressive†(read: New Deal and Great Society) lines. Well-financed and influential groups ranging from the Democracy Alliance to the New Democrat Network to MoveOn.org may be taking over the Democratic Party, he says, but they are not doing the heavy thinking that will fundamentally transform politics — unlike the free-market, small-government groups formed in the wake of Barry Goldwater’s historic loss in the 1964 presidential race.
Bai has the grim job of covering national politics for The New York Times Magazine, which means his livelihood depends on following closely whether the Tennessee actor-turned-politician-turned-actor-again Fred Thompson will actually run for president (a decision reportedly put off until after Labor Day, allowing an anxious nation to savor the last days of summer) and taking seriously the White House fantasies of Senator Joseph Biden (at least in Biden’s presence). While sympathetic to the new progressives, Bai describes a movement long on anger and short on thought.
In detailing the machinations of superrich Democratic activists like George Soros, who blew through close to $30 million of his wealth in an unsuccessful attempt to unelect George W. Bush in 2004, and barricade-bashing cyberpunks like Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, founder of the popular Daily Kos Web site, whose participant-readers attack all things Republican with the same fervor they showed when championing the already forgotten Ned Lamont in his unsuccessful attempt to unseat Senator Joseph Lieberman in 2006, Bai reluctantly and repeatedly owns up to a hard truth: “There’s not much reason to think that the Democratic Party has suddenly overcome its confusion about the passing of the industrial economy and the cold war, events that left the party, over the last few decades, groping for some new philosophical framework.â€
To be sure, these are giddy times for the Dems. Since last year’s elections, they’re back in control of the Congress they’ve dominated most of the time since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first term. According to a July 27-30 poll conducted for NBC News and The Wall Street Journal, the general public thinks Democrats will do a much better job than Republicans not just on global warming, health care and education but also on traditional Republican bailiwicks like controlling federal spending, dealing with taxes and protecting America’s interest in trade. The front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Rodham Clinton, continues to lead her Republican counterpart, Rudy Giuliani, in most polls, and a generic Democrat beats a generic Republican in 2008 too.
But as John Kerry might tell you, never write off the Democrats’ ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The recent farm bill passed by the House — and pushed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi — maintains subsidies to already prospering farmers, angering not just conservative budget cutters but liberal environmentalists. House and Senate Democrats allowed a revision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that broadens the scope of warrantless wiretaps just after holding hearings denouncing the man who would issue them, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, for routinely abusing his power. Although the misconceived and misprosecuted war in Iraq was the issue most responsible for their return to power, Congressional Democrats have yet to put forth a coherent or convincing program to end American military involvement there.
Little wonder, then, that the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that only 24 percent of American adults approve of the job the Democratic Congress is doing. That’s a decline of seven points from March. There are longer-lived trends that should worry the Democrats. In 1970, according to the Harris Poll, 49 percent of Americans considered themselves Democrats (31 percent considered themselves Republicans). In 2006, the last year for which full data are available, affiliation with the Democrats stood at 36 percent (the silver lining is that the Republicans pulled just 27 percent). If the Democrats are in fact the party of Great Society liberals, the problems run even deeper. The percentage of Americans who define their political philosophy as “liberal†has been consistently stuck around 18 percent since the 1970s, and the Democratic presidential candidate has failed to crack 50 percent of the popular vote in each of the past seven elections.
“The Argument†provides plenty of reasons to think that the Democrats, owing to an off-putting mix of elitism toward the little people and glibness toward actual policy ideas, are unlikely to go over the top anytime soon. Or, almost the same thing, to make the most of any majority they hold. The book describes Soros, after Bush’s victory in 2004, coming to the realization that (in Bai’s words) “it was the American people, and not their figurehead, who were misguided. … Decadence … had led to a society that seemed incapable of conjuring up any outrage at deceptive policies that made the rich richer and the world less safe.†Rob Reiner, the Hollywood heavyweight who has contributed significantly to progressive causes and who pushed a hugely expensive universal preschool ballot initiative in California that lost by a resounding 3-to-2 ratio, interrupts a discussion by announcing: “I’ve got to take a leak. Talk amongst yourselves.†Bai never stints on such telling and unattractive details, whether describing a poorly attended and heavily scripted MoveOn.org house party or a celebrity-soaked soiree in which the host, the billionaire Lynda Resnick, declared from the top of her Sunset Boulevard mansion’s spiral staircase, “We are so tired of being disenfranchised!â€
Moulitsas, the Prince Hal of the left-liberal blogosphere, comes off as an intellectual lightweight, boasting to Bai that his next book will be called “The Libertarian Democrat†but admitting that he has never read Friedrich Hayek, the Nobel Prize-winning economist and social theorist, who is arguably most responsible for the contemporary libertarian movement. Moulitsas’ co-author (of “Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politicsâ€), Jerome Armstrong, talks a grand game about revolutionary change, but signed on as a paid consultant to former Gov. Mark Warner of Virginia, an archetypal centrist Democrat whose vapid presidential campaign ended almost as quickly as it began. When MoveOn — the Web-based “colossus†whose e-mail appeals, Bai says, have always centered on the same message: “Republicans were evil, arrogant and corrupt†— devised its member-generated agenda, it came up with a low-calorie three-point plan: “health care for allâ€; “energy independence through clean, renewable sourcesâ€; and “democracy restored.â€
Recalling a meeting of leading progressives — including Armstrong, Representative Adam Smith of Washington and Simon Rosenberg of the New Democrat Network — just after the 2006 midterm elections, Bai writes: “Seventy years ago … visionary Democrats had distinguished their party with the force of their intellect. Now the inheritors of that party stood on the threshold of a new economic moment, when the nation seemed likely to rise or fall on the strength of its intellectual capital, and the only thing that seemed to interest them was the machinery of politics.†The argument at the heart of “The Argument†is less about vision and more about strategy.
That’s bad news, even or especially for those of us who don’t see large differences between Republicans and Democrats. Our political system works best — or is at least more interesting — when big ideas are being bandied about, both within parties and between them. The lack of depth among the Democrats may not hurt them in the 2008 elections — the Republicans, whose would-be presidential candidates have mostly publicly rejected evolution, are not exactly bursting with new ideas either. But it remains profoundly disappointing.
Nick Gillespie is the editor in chief of Reason magazine.
August 30th, 2007 at 12:20 am
Sounds like a commercialy sound rehash of Tom Wolfe’s old “liberal chic” shtick. Dems must be lightweight, rich snobs. If only they would bone up on their great thinkers, like Hitchens.
Who knows? Might be some truth here, but if you start with the premise that Dems “blew” their chance of knocking off the easily defeatable W in 2004; your analysis is faulty to say the least. Maybe Bai was living in some other country, but W received what amounted to two solid years of free political advertising after 9-11 that passed itself off as “news coverage.”
Iraq was only just catching up with him in 2004.
I wonder about Gillespie’s off the shelf “Prince Hal” illusion. Was Moulitas a feckless young man who found charactor when a kingdom was thrust on his shoulders? Who was his Falstaff? This metophore seems a little lightweight to me.
Gillespie is the kind of “get goverment out of the bedroom AND the boardroom” libertarian beloved by tit for tat types from this blog to stand up comedy rooms across the country. So I guess Enron is O.K. with these people; but their writing tends to have more than a tender wiff of elitism itself.
Elitism in the service of a correct premise is no big deal, but Bai may be right: Rob Reiner has got to find a sounder technique when it comes to hitting the bathroom.
August 30th, 2007 at 5:54 am
I’m sick of people who don’t do shit criticizing those who are doing their best to move politics in a more positive direction.
Anecdotes are a dime a fucking dozen and nobody’s perfect.
Gillespie (and Bai) serve up one of the most recycled scripts in the history of journalism. And I’d submit that Matt Bai doesn’t have a clue as to what animated Democrat’s 70 years ago. Crap about the intellectual seriousness of our political culture “back in the day” and compared to our present paucity of moral gravitas coming from the guy who wrote politics for Rolling Stone and, literally, follows campaigns for the New York Times gives irony a bad name. When I read Bai’s essay in the Times mag on the impact of John Rawls on contemporary liberal thought, I’ll change my opinion.
This weekend “netroots” raised $100,000 for congressional candidate Darcy Burner – a very strong opponent of the trashing of the Consistution and a strong Dem critical of the weak-kneed in her party as well as BushCo – in response to Bush traveling to the district and doing an elite fundraiser for the GOP incumbent. Burner ran a strong race last time round and has a decent shot at winning the seat if she’s got the resources for a tough electoral battle. This fundraising round for Burner not only helps her clearly progressive campaign but spotlights that Bush’s fundraising among the GOP elite can be countered. The average donation to Burner was around $40.
But Markos Moulitsous hasn’t read, of all fucking people, Frederick Hayek….
First of all, fuck those sophomoric, Hayek-worshiping geeks at “Reason” like Gillespie. Their brand of libertarian dogma has all of the contemporary relevance of those streetcorner Marxist tracts. And if we’re going to improve the intellectual and moral seriousness of people involved in Democratic politics, I would suggest a good place to start would be not wasting one’s time obsessing on the snark and trivia served up by young fellows with their laptop full of notes and a deadline like Matt Bai.
I’ve gotta go take a leak…
August 30th, 2007 at 6:04 am
“the nation seemed likely to rise or fall on the strength of its intellectual capital, and the only thing that seemed to interest them was the machinery of politics”
Bai on…himself and his fellow contemporary political journalists? They are as deep into the shit as anyone. And deeper than most.
August 30th, 2007 at 6:46 am
reg, you’re such an idiot. The reference to Chinese was not about a race of people but of a communist nation that threatens both the U.S. and deprives freedom to hundreds of millions of people and pays the Democrats to betray us.
The man in question is from Hong Kong, despite your weak effort to deflect that by saying that he simply is a New York businessman. He also is a fugitive from justice and guilty of grand theft.
China has been engaged in extensive espionage in our country and that nation paid Bill Clinton laundered campaign money to obtain our missile guidance systems ,which it uses to aim 13 of its 18 ICBM’s at the U.S. and which can now carry ten warheads apiece rather than just one. Remember Johnny Chung?
The Clinton’s have sold out American interests for illegal foreign contributions and continue to do so. In addition, Al Gore, John Kerry, and multiple Democrats have benefited from these illegal contributions.
THAT should be your worry rather than phony charges of racism, Idiot.
August 30th, 2007 at 6:48 am
Josh says: “I wish someone would publish these codes in a book. I didn’t know that my dance practice was code for a sexual act.”
Breaking news: It turns out the media has totally missed the story here. Tapping your feet and touching someone’s hand is the secret sign that the last remaining handful of Republicans use to identify each other.
August 30th, 2007 at 6:56 am
All I know is if Woody and GM Roper go into the men’s room, I’m not going in until they come out, no matter how badly I gotta pee…
August 30th, 2007 at 7:36 am
Woody said ………..
The Clinton’s have sold out American interests for illegal foreign contributions and continue to do so. In addition, Al Gore, John Kerry, and multiple Democrats have benefited from these illegal contributions.
*************************************
I am glad Bush and his Administration has not done anything stupid such as “sell out†any of our interests, i.e. jobs and manufacturing to China. I know they would never allow the trade deficit to increase with those damn sneaky spying Chinese.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIRHN_ErYGg
August 30th, 2007 at 8:53 am
The man emigrated from Hong Kong in the ’80s, you miserable little shit. What the fuck does he have to do with Chinese communists ? Please – FACTS, asshole. Otherwise keep your racism under wraps.
August 30th, 2007 at 8:56 am
And changing the subject from Hsu, who you claimed to be “the Chinese” – as in representative somehow of the Chinese “communist’ government – doesn’t cut it.
Again you prove to be one of the least credible people to ever grace these threads.
The astounding thing about you is that you’re incapable of being embarrassed by your own bullshit. Must be a very CONVENIENT way to slog through life….
August 30th, 2007 at 9:48 am
Does anyone other than I wonder what psychological need reg and Woody are fulfilling when they go at each other in thread after thread? It is almost like a marriage that has gone bad but the partners can’t leave each other, the fighting gives them an emotional high they wouldn’t get if they split up. But usually this kind of thing goes on indoors and only the kids are forced to listen.
August 30th, 2007 at 10:00 am
“Does anyone other than I wonder what psychological need reg and Woody are fulfilling when they go at each other in thread after thread?”
Well, after reading their back and forth, it’s my considered opinion thatzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
August 30th, 2007 at 10:01 am
John McCain is about the only guy in the GOP who could do something like this and not sound like a complete hypocrite. He has voted against various pieces of anti-gay legislation authored by his Republican colleagues, talked to the log cabin Republican…indeed, too, McCain has always been referred to as “hard headed” by the media….
August 30th, 2007 at 10:16 am
I should have guessed. reg defends a big Democratic donor from China who is a criminal fugitive from justice and is “innocently” laundering contributions through other Chinese to Clinton and the Democratic Party. How could anyone suspect him of wrong-doing or of paying the Clinton’s for more access to our classified technology?
It seems to me that the evidence and historical record is enough to draw reasonable conclusions, but Hsu could step forward to clear up such charges…but, he hasn’t and won’t.
Maybe he’s being blackmailed–nothing below the Clinton’s. But, the Clinton’s have been caught taking money from the Chinese government before, and it would be no surprise that they would try something like that again. Hsu is responsible for over one-million dollars in donations to the Democrats. What does he get in return?
reg wants to dismiss these serious charges, but he backed extensive investigations into the Valerie Plame accusations for which there was no national security risk or crime committed. The Democrats fabricated “Reagan’s October Surprise” and investigated because Democrat Tom Foley, the Speaker of the House, solemnly asserted “Precisely because there’s no evidence but because the seriousness of the charge, we are duty-bound to hold a hearing.” Wouldn’t that apply here?
I’m not surprised that reg would put the party above his country, but what’s pathetic is that the liberal major media will try to sweep this under the rug faster than Barney Frank can unzip his pants.
To quote reg, “The astounding thing about you is that you’re incapable of being embarrassed by your own bullshit. Must be a very CONVENIENT way to slog through life….” Tell me. You should know.
August 30th, 2007 at 10:17 am
Maybe the threads have connected themselves… if only Criag had, like Rob Reiner, fully explained his intentions to a witness when going into the bathroom…..
August 30th, 2007 at 10:18 am
Taylor,
I have tried to implore reg not to engage in patter with the sizable mental patient wing of the right wing…but he won’t listen. Secretly, I think that Reg and that kook from Georgia are friends who go out for beers offline and take their wives out on the town together periodically.
August 30th, 2007 at 10:19 am
I have no psychological need in relation to Woody other than to make it clear that people do not have the privilege of making up their own facts or making an assertion with either zero evidence or counter to the evidence. If you think Woody and I are engaging in the same behavior in relation to each other – i.e. that I make shit up, lie and wildly distort and Woody catches me over and over – your name must be Samuel Stott.
August 30th, 2007 at 10:20 am
Woody – you could step forward and clear the charge that you’re a child molester. You haven’t so I’ll assume you are.
August 30th, 2007 at 10:22 am
Still waiting for any evidence that Hsu – who I have stated is probably violating some ethics if not laws in his campaign donations – is an agent of “the Chinese”. Other than his slant eyes.
August 30th, 2007 at 10:23 am
Does anyone other than I wonder what psychological need reg and Woody are fulfilling when they go at each other in thread after thread?
I’m not sure I’d call it pathological. I suspect it has to do with a definition of ‘self,’ and I think the answer lies in Douglas Hofstader’s book I Am A Strange Loop (which the author suspects would be better titled I Is A Strange Loop). Only problem is you seem to first need a fundamental grasp of Euclid’s proof of the infinitude of prime numbers. This may not bode well for my ability to grasp the Reg and Woody duet. For sentences that begin, Let’s suppose that P, the Great Last Prime in the Sky, does exist…., they also end in Zzzzzzzzz, for me.
August 30th, 2007 at 10:28 am
Michael Balter, I’m sorry for the boredom in the exchanges between reg and myself.
reg has publicly stated that he would not repond to my comments ever again, but he has and does so repeatedly. When he does and when he is wrong, which is always, I’m committed to standing up for the truth and for the interests of our nation.
I suspect that he has severe psychological problems which cause him to blame America first and to use situational ethics to further corrupt causes. When challenged, he has no defense except to try to stifle debate by trying to shout down the other side, engage in mud slinging, and accusing others of being racists or worse whether or not that applies.
He may get away with that with some, but I chose to not let him.
However, as a courtesy to you and to Marc and to the other readers, I’ll let this be the last for a while. If I do need to make a comment, I will do so with courtesy and respect and not like has been done to me.
August 30th, 2007 at 10:30 am
Anybody who has been awake the past several years knows that Woody is ignorant and full of shit, so the question remains why reg thinks he needs to tell us that when we already know it. I can assure you that the comments section of this blog is not used in presidential campaigns nor in the secondary school classroom.
August 30th, 2007 at 10:37 am
Woody, before you exit, I’d really like to see some quote from something – anything – Boortz even – that suggests Hsu is an agent of “the Chinese” and your charge wasn’t racist drivel.
I’m “pathological” enough to at least ask that you do yourself the favor of clearing this up if I’m being unfair.
And I want to apologize for not letting a maniac run rampant – even when he’s bashing Hillary. (I know that some here who consider themselves “above the fray” of lowly politics are prone to believing anything about her – even the stuff Woody’sWorld has passed off on us for years. I’d have to say that the Anybody But Hillary Syndrome – in tandem with the stuff Woody trades in – ranks pretty high on the psychodramas eveident on this thread.)
August 30th, 2007 at 10:38 am
Michael Balter, it’s clear that you’re still stinging from my winning a debate with you, when I was able to demonstrate that carbon dating is effective over a longer period of time than the “absolute maximum” that you stated and for which you even admitted I was right when you wrote a later article changing your position and even though you were the “expert” at the time. It’s okay to be wrong. I deal with people who have that problem every day. Let it go.
August 30th, 2007 at 10:52 am
Final for reg: Re-post….
Where there’s smoke, look for fire. Where there’s cover-up look for the truth. There will be more coming on this, just like it took years for the truth to come out about Johnny Chung.
Do you think that Hsu was in any of those visits? Stay tuned rather than stay stupid.
August 30th, 2007 at 10:55 am
Now, see how we’re not discussing Craig anymore?
August 30th, 2007 at 11:10 am
MB I would have thought more of you than to go to an approving review in the “New” VILLAGE VOICE now run by those wild and crazy guys from Phoenix. And to use a guy from REASON really. What? He ran out of tobacco money?
I haven’t read Matt Bai’s book but if he really thinks that Moulitas is a “lightweight” then he obviously fits right in with the other fossils like Dowd and Broder who rage against the night because they no longer understand the politics of the country they care to cover.
There are plenty of things you can say about the Dems. Their timidity in the face of a president at 25% in the polls is appalling and the principal reason for their low ratings. Too many of the party leaders are still in thrall to the “Wise Men” of Washington (see Bai above) who have been feeding them bad advice for years. Remember this is the crowd that praised Bush for wanting to “Reform” Social Security – that was their notion of a “BIG IDEA” – so how’s that working out for them?
Bai criticizes the insurgents for being concerned with “Process.” Well, gee, how do you suppose the religious right and the “Club for Growth” types took over the GOP? Think their “Ideas” so dazzled everyone that they said – “Gee why didn’t we think of that?” – then go out and enact the program. No Matt, sorry that you missed this in school but its done by something called organizing. See Grover Norquist, see Richard Vigurie. And, for that matter, see Karl Rove – the genius you “serious” political reporter types couldn’t praise enough (still want to tell us that 2006 was going to be a GOP year ’cause Karl had “The Math?”)
But only a cosseted NYT employee – with his guaranteed pension, health care and top salary, could call ideas like “Instacheck”, Health insurance for all, and a massive infrastructure program “Brain Dead” ideas. If anyone is brain dead these days is the folks still worshipping at the altar of some defunct Austrians whose ideas have now been tried and found wanting.
No. You want criticism of the Dems? Take a look at “Crashing the Gate.” Say, who wrote that?
August 30th, 2007 at 11:38 am
Actually, Woody, “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” is a falousy much abused; and a key concept in the gutter politics the modern right has staked it’s prominance on. If Clinton does get the nomination, sleazbos like you and GM will have your high noon. It will be great, and appauling, politics. Will the America that backed Clinton during Impeachment week emerge again, giving The Cllntions a resounding thumbs up? Or will we see the America of a couple of years later, knuckling under to a year and a half of fertilizer slung from the halls of Hitchensland to the shores of Coulter Sea. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.
August 30th, 2007 at 11:51 am
K Nardy, my quote was “Where there’s smoke, look for fire.” There’s a difference.
August 30th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
I didn’t ask you to re-post the stuff that had nothing to do with Hsu. I said you should provide evidence to support your statement that Hsu represented “the Chinese” – aside from the ethnic features and fact he was born in Hong Kong.
Case closed. You’re charge is racism, pure and simple.
You’re a sick, shameless little man.
August 30th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
It’s particularly ironic that Woody attempted to fault me for saying that from “Day One” it was apparent that the WMD “mushroom cloud” threat was being hyped, even though anyone who read beneath the surface of administration hype duly copied down by the media, could easily know things like the fact that the “aluminum tubes” argument was disputed by the majority of experts in the field.
But Woody, because he saw a Chinese guy named Chung hiding in the bushes some years back, “knows” that Hsu is, in fact, an agent for “the Chinese” – when he could credibly simply note that Hsu appears to be one more sleazebag trying to throw money around to pump up his self-importance and “access”. And Woody, humble fellow that he is, “knows” this from “Day One”. I eagerly await the evidence that this wasn’t one more bit of right-wing drivel pulled from the butt of usual suspects. I’ll apologize if I’m wrong. Woody, of course, will not. He demonstrates almost daily that he’s too chickenshit.
August 30th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Michael Balter, reg just cannot help himself–no self discipline at all. He even lies to himself. It’s sad, but see if you can’t drive some sense into him to stop his serial and boring comments. I’m trying to do my part.
August 30th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
rlo, I am on another blog too where every time I post something everyone assumes that I agree with it 100 percent. I posted that article because I found it interesting and because I agree with SOME of it. I read all sorts of things, some of which I agree with and some of which I don’t. Reading only things we agree with makes us dull boys and girls (speaking of which, too bad there are not more women on this blog. Maybe they got tired of the mudfest between Woody and reg.)
August 30th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Woody says …..
reg just cannot help himself–no self discipline at all. He even lies to himself. It’s sad, but see if you can’t drive some sense into him to stop his serial and boring comments. I’m trying to do my part.
**********************
Total posts – 78
Woody – 14 posts/comments
Reg – 11 post/comments
Hmmmmmmmmm……………………
August 30th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
Getting back to Craig, MSNBC has the audio of his arrest.
August 30th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
“look for fire”, you mean, hire Ken Starr to look for fire for years after an honest investigation proved their wasn’t even smoke? Yeah, Woody.. I get it.
August 30th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
Dear Count, you’re as selective in your recap as is Bill Clinton in defining the word “is.” It’s not the number but the analysis that matters. Eight of my remarks were dealing with attacks from idiots and, now, you make nine.
reg, didn’t pop in until 15 hours after I made my entrance. Since that time, he has exceeded my number, and he isn’t responding to attacks from multiple sources, as I have to do, but making the attacks.
By serial posts, I mean where one comment follows another on the same matter because the person just can’t get it out of his system. My consecutive posts typically occur when I miss a comment during the time that I am composing and then see it after I post, or if I simply had to clarify something.
All-in-all, your analysis is typical of the ignorance that I see from your side.
Now, will you go back over the last month and compare my comments to those from reg–if you can count that high.
So, leave me alone. You guys pretty well ruin these discussions without me.
- – - –
K Nardy, at least there was a crime for Starr to investigate, unlike Pat Fitzgerald, who determined from the start where the leak occurred, that no crime had been committed, and that Plame was not a covert agent–yet, he continued until he could manufacture a crime.
- – - –
Oh, yes. That reminds me. When will reg apologize for his false accusations? He said for months that Karl Rove was guilty of the leak and numerous other crimes, but Rove has never been found guilty. How could that be if reg knows from day one what happened and yet be so wrong. He must be a racist against pudgy white guys.
I’m outta here.
August 30th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
As much as enjoy your posts, Woody–because they confirm my view that the most vocal rightwingnuts tend to be the dumbest–I do think you should take any free time you’ve got to work on your bathroom hand signals.
August 30th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
From Meet The Press, 8/19/07
Gregory: Matt Cooper, let’s pick up on an aspect of the interview with, with Karl Rove having to do with the leak case, the CIA leak case, that you were part of as well. And something’s that’s very interesting, he, he went out of his way to say, “I would not have been a confirming source on this kind of information†and taking issue with, with Novak’s testimony in his column that he knew who Valerie Plame was. He said he would never confirm that information. That’s different from your experience with him.
Cooper: Yeah, I, I think he was dissembling, to put it charitably. Look, Karl Rove told me about Valerie Plame’s identity on July 11th, 2003. I called him because Ambassador Wilson was in the news that week. I didn’t know Ambassador Wilson even had a wife until I talked to Karl Rove and he said that she worked at the agency and she worked on WMD. I mean, to imply that he didn’t know about it or that this was all the leak…
Gregory: Or that he had heard it from somebody else…
Cooper: …by someone else, or he heard it as some rumor out in the hallway is, is nonsense.
Gregory: But he makes no apologies to Valerie Plame.
Cooper: Karl Rove never apologizes. That’s not what he does..
August 30th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
(I hope I’m not overextending Sergio’s…I mean “The Count’s” mathematical skills.)
August 30th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
Ooops..I misread that post…apologies to Sergio.
August 30th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
Latest Update
Total posts – 78
Woody – 11 posts/comments
Reg – 14 post/comments
Hmmmmmmmmm……………………
August 30th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
Marc,
You gotta dig this post by Max.
August 30th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
Woody, your account of the Libby trial is pure nonsense, from start to finish. It is wholly based on right wing talking points, which were utter falsehoods, repeated on the chat shows and seldom corrected by the “left wing media.”
Bush advocates like Woody have long been the O.J. Defense team of the political scene, their is simply nothing they will are below trying to pass off with a stright face. Has it finally caught up with them? We will know in about a year…
August 30th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
As I continued working in that socially conservative country I stumbled upon 4-5 more cases where all sorts of gay behavior was dismissed as non-gay. One night after a round of some heavy drinking, for example, my hired driver boasted how macho he was in high school precisely because he had anally raped the class queer. Why, of course.
You’ll also find it fairly frequent in Colombia, another socially conservative country. Of course it all depends on whetehr one is pitching ot catching . . .
August 30th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
woody, you are a frickin moron. a delusional, dishonest moron.
August 30th, 2007 at 7:39 pm
I agree with you MB that we ought to read from all sides. But there is a lot of material out there and, frankly, to waste time – and get eyestrain – to keep up with the bleatings of the Matt Bais and other former keepers of the keys now bemoaning the sad fact that, what Duncan Black calls the “Dirty Hippies”, no longer give due deference to the Great and the Good tells me nothing except Bai, like Broder and Dowd, haven’t got a clue.
August 30th, 2007 at 8:51 pm
reg is a paranoid, creepy, online pustule oozing idiocy.
I am not “The Count of Marc Cooper”. I was busy working -for social justice, btw, where I get well paid- and now I’m gonna go hang out with social progressives and then get laid.
–all things impotent shut-in reg hasn’t done in over a decade.
What an unpleasant terminal nutcase reg is. An irrelevant masturbator sucio taking up space, soiling his bitter crawl space with his tortured victimology-laden rants while he spews mierda on society and Marc’s site.
The right and reactionaries need bilious aberrations like reg. Think -quickly- about that as you consign such a fool to oblivion, fellow humans.
August 30th, 2007 at 9:00 pm
Okay, when Woody loses his sense of humor then a thread has officially been derailed. Strike that: when Sergio and his thesaurus drop in, then we’ve hit the nadir.
When Marc returns with the cool rains of a fresh post, then all will be cleansed. Amen and que Dios les bendiga.
And…. curtain.
August 30th, 2007 at 9:13 pm
Sergio – you actually have managed to prove yourself a more toxic piece of shit than Woody in these threads. And that takes some work.
Apologies to “The Count” for not realizing that you were merely quoting Woody. The only guy who sounds that wack and brimming with bile, other than the Woodster himself, is of course The Surge.
(I’d also suggest that anybody who feels compelled to announce on a blog he’s going out to “get laid” more than likely isn’t – unless of course it’s the foot-tappiing, hand-signals-under-the-stall thing that’s apparently the last resort in certain desperate circles. Sergio’s right – it’s been many years since I’ve “gotten laid.” My wife and I spend our intimate hours “making love.” Hardly the same thing. )
August 30th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
But reg, Sergio’s going to get laid AFTER having done some well-paid “social justice” work.
What is he, a drug counselor who deals on the side?
A rap star who gives fashion advice to the homeless during recording sessions and “relaxation” to elderly matrons who can’t get out?
A union boss with a coupon for a free “Oriental Massage”?
I’m just dyin’ to know…
August 31st, 2007 at 12:09 am
Mr. GM Roper,
This is your boy, Senator Larry Craig, from big bad ass potato picking Idaho.
Why are you making this so personal by calling me an asshole. Everytime I blow in your face what do you smell?
GM Roper, I know your a big bad ass southern style boot wearing tight ass Wangler Jean belt buckle mustache hee haw Stetson 1000xxx Hat loving-undercover muscle building Texan spur tapping drag queen. What would be of America without you and me? America needs us!
Every Sunday afternoon and evening, Club Tempo in Hollywood has a reserve VIP section and your cordially invited to swing your peter freely in our necks of the woods.
Gay America will always love you, no matter in what POSITION!
August 31st, 2007 at 10:06 am
Craig you’re a nasty, nasty, boy!
August 31st, 2007 at 1:46 pm
Sen. Craig,
Um, you’re the only one I know who picks toilet paper up off of the floor of a busy crapper with your bare hands…you’re more nas-tay than Britney Spears walking into gas station johns as she does in her barefeet.
August 31st, 2007 at 9:24 pm
Here’s the ones I noticed:
Craig’s Lisp
inconsistencies in Craig’s assumed stance (wide, I hear)
Katrina … highwater mark of the entire Conservative Era
prolonged death rattle
***
About people who cross back and forth between gay and straight behaviors, as well as those who may like doing a straight guy as much or more than a gay one, Gore Vidal’s essays (I read most of them in the compilation United States) are excellent. One detail out of many is his remarks on the thriving gay scene among ostensibly straight officers and men in clubs in NY in the latter years of WWII. His first remark when asked about sexuality in general is that there are gay versus straight behaviors, but not necessarily people.
September 1st, 2007 at 2:10 pm
p. s.
I attended the taping of Bill Maher’s program last night, where his Larry Craig jokes were HILARIOUS. I met (and shook hands with and hung out with) Sen .Mike Gravel after the taping of Bill’s program.
Gravel really had a lot of cool stuff to say to our small group of about 25 people after the show. He was erudite, animated, real, and progressive ( I include taxation). He also really has a great sense of humor, busting up hard at Bill Maher’s antics.
September 1st, 2007 at 3:34 pm
Sergio,
No doubt Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are kicking themselves for being on vacation.
September 1st, 2007 at 8:24 pm
Sergio – yeah, Gravel’s a terrific guy. I had the chance to meet him him personally back in ’72 when we were working with Daniel Ellsberg to publicize the Pentagon papers, and Mike had just put the Papers into the Congressional record. (I have a funny feeliing you never heard of Mike Gravel until his Don Quixote campaign this year. But it’s nice that you and your “progressive” friends got to hang out on the Bill Maher set. That’s like so…revolutionary!)
Unfortunately, Gravel’s current national sales tax plan is a fantasy for economic illiterates. In his “tax issues” statements he uses the same totally bogus 23%-or-so tax rate projections that Tom DeLay and the idiot GOP reactionaries who started the crusade to replace the income tax with a sales tax have concocted out of thin air and that don’t even add up mathematically. But hell – nobody’s perfect.
Stay hot !!!!
September 3rd, 2007 at 3:55 pm
HOMOSEXUAL CHILD PROSTITUTION RING INVOLVING GEORGE BUSH
http://www.voxfux.com/features/bush_child_sex_coverup/article_archive.htm
September 5th, 2007 at 4:02 am
Poor Woody. How sad it is to see a 19th century mind trapped in a 21st century body.
March 12th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
Excellent! If I could write like this I would be well chuffed. The more I see articles of such quality as this (which is rare), the more I think there could be a future for the Web. Keep it up, as it were.