The Last Word On Harry
TNC:
Claiming that Harry Reid’s comments are the same, is like claiming that referring to Jews as “Hebrews” is the same as endorsing Nazism. Whereas a reputable portion of black people still use the term Negro without a hint of irony, no black person thinks the guy yelling “Segregation Forever!” would have cured us of “all these problems.”Leaving aside political cynicism, this entire affair proves that the GOP is not simply still infected with the vestiges of white supremacy and racism, but is neither aware of the infection, nor understands the disease. Listening to Liz Cheney explain why Harry Reid’s comments were racist, was like listening to me give lessons on the finer points of the comma splice. This a party, rightly or wrongly, regarded by significant portions of the country as a haven for racists. They aren’t simply having a hard time re-branding, they don’t actually understand how and why they got the tag.
To listen to the GOP and the right-wing bloggers, you would think this guy could have been elected President in 2008, the nation is so color-blind:
The whole thing is just silly, and I honestly wonder what Republicans think they are accomplishing. The African-American community is able to tell the difference between someone using a dated term and someone pining for the days of segregation, so they will not be convinced that the GOP is all of a sudden the place for them. The only thing this is doing is building another wing in the cocoon, further insulating the GOP from the rest of the country. The only people they are going to convince that the Democrats are the “real racists” are themselves.
January 11, 2010 11:59 am
Posted in: Clown Shoes, Politics
154 Comments
154 Responses
Original Lee - January 11, 2010 | 12:02 pm · Link
This wasn’t aimed at Democrats – it was aimed at mushy middle independents who don’t really pay attention to specific messages but remember a kind of aggregate of everything they’ve heard over the last however many months when it comes time to vote.
Incertus - January 11, 2010 | 12:02 pm · Link
The whole thing is just silly, and I honestly wonder what Republicans think they are accomplishing.
Assuming they’ve thought about it at all, they might be thinking they can grab some of those white people who are tired of the burden of having to watch what they say lest they be named a racist. But I’m betting they haven’t really thought about it. Most of them don’t have the necessary skills.
Original Lee - January 11, 2010 | 12:03 pm · Link
Clarification: By “this,” I meant the GOP attempt to call Reid a racist.
Of course, a side benefit was for their base to have another straw to add to the “Democrats are hypocrites” haybale.
JenJen - January 11, 2010 | 12:05 pm · Link
You don’t honestly wonder what the Republicans are hoping to accomplish here, right? I mean, here’s a small taste of what the GOP has offered Americans since Inauguration Day:
Death Panels!! Appeasement!! Apology Tour!! Exotic Hawaiian Vacations!! INDOCTRINATING SCHOOLCHILDREN!! Latina!! Affirmative Action Nobel Prize Winner!! That Muslim Wasn’t Even Born Here!! Olympics – Suck It, Chicago!! Dithering!! Townhalls Gone Wild!! Government Takeover of Health Care!! Mao Ornaments on the Christmas Tree!! Obama is a Cop-Hater!! YOU LIE!! BOW!!
The freakout over Reid’s comments is just another verse in the same old song.
maya - January 11, 2010 | 12:07 pm · Link
And we all know how well Lizzie’s pappy got along with Colin Powell…hanging out like bros at the Langley water cooler.
jrg - January 11, 2010 | 12:09 pm · Link
I heard Harry Reid is from Uganda. Show us the long form birth certificate, Harry!
Brian J - January 11, 2010 | 12:09 pm · Link
In a smaller sense, the issue should be over if Obama is over it. He’s the one Reid was talking about. And while I realize Obama isn’t going to publicly attack Reid regardless of how he feels, I haven’t seen even the slightest hint of any gossip that Obama is livid over what happened. If he can move on, why can’t we?
In a larger sense, there’s always the possibility that some people could take offense to the comments, rightly or wrongly. But that’s their damn decision, not that of anyone else. We won’t need clowns, whether they are white like Liz Cheney or black like Michael Steele or something else entirely, to summon outrage on behalf of anyone else.
Ann B. Nonymous - January 11, 2010 | 12:09 pm · Link
They believe, with all sincerity, that there is nothing wrong with them—that it’s all someone else’s fault.
Whether in any given case it’s denial, immaturity, substance abuse, ideological hairy palms, or just dropped on the head as children, it really doesn’t matter. Let them form the cocoon, and then—this is the hard part—expel the cocoon.
J.W. Hamner - January 11, 2010 | 12:10 pm · Link
I would have totally voted for Flavor Flav… but only if Chuck D was on the ticket to do the heavy lifting as per usual.
aimai - January 11, 2010 | 12:10 pm · Link
Original Lee at #1 is correct. This stuff is aimed at the same people its always aimed at: suburban white women who are not, in a cultural sense, racist and who might vote for a Republican candidate as long as he’s not wearing his white sheet. (When I say not culturally racist I think I might better have phrased it as “Hallmark card/afterschool special anti racist.”) Now that the Republicans have killed off the Northern, Rockefeller Republicans they are swimming upstream, in the north and west, against a tide of anti southern redneck cultural feeling—just putting up a good ole boy from the south risks overt racist associations that they have tried to live down publicly, while living up to privately. But they’ve got no one else to run. That’s one reason why Mitt Romney is perennially offered as a likely choice. Because he has a nice, anodyne, upper class, northern accent and doesn’t sound like boss hawg.
aimai
Mumphrey - January 11, 2010 | 12:13 pm · Link
I for one am really let down by the Republicans here. They’re so tame. When, oh, when, will they learnt to fight dirty, you know, the way the Democrats do?
They need to drop this stuff about how Harry Reid is a racist and really go in for the kill: Obama is a racist. Obama is a white supremecist. After all, doesn’t he live in the White House? How tone deaf is that? Isn’t his social secratary a black woman? I mean, how demeaning can you get, having a black woman doing menial work for you? What a racist asshole.
When are the Republicans going to really take this seriously? It’s time for them to stand up against The Man and Speak Truth to Power and help the underclass rise up and throw off the shackles that bind them and stop letting that racist Obama keep black Americans down! Power to the people!
Keith - January 11, 2010 | 12:13 pm · Link
The simple fact is that anything a Democratic public official does is going to result in demands by the GOP that the person resigns (not to mention, at least two GOP officials will find whatever was done to be “troubling”). It’s just noise at this point, as they used up their sincerity chits sometime in the mid-90s.
Brian J - January 11, 2010 | 12:16 pm · Link
@Keith:
And if for some reason this person did resign, it’d be an example of them quitting when the going got tough, giving up on America, giving in to the gays/communists/socialists/Islamofacist terrorists, and generally hating democracy. Or something.
wasntme - January 11, 2010 | 12:18 pm · Link
Does this story not contain the perfect amount of truthiness? It’s a triple fudge volcano cupcake with a cherry on top
We could be seeing the most valuable truthiness of the year, but it is early.
MattF - January 11, 2010 | 12:19 pm · Link
Republicans love to accuse Democrats of being racists, fascists, cowards, radicals, etc. It soothes their lurking anxieties about their own racist, fascist, cowardly, radical politics.
handy - January 11, 2010 | 12:19 pm · Link
@Mumphrey:
I think the Repubs already have the Obama is a racist meme covered as well.
R-Jud - January 11, 2010 | 12:20 pm · Link
@J.W. Hamner:
Hot tea came out my nose. Ow.
JenJen - January 11, 2010 | 12:20 pm · Link
You know, one important point completely missed by our Awesome Liberal Media as they thumb through the index of Mark Halperin’s shitty book is this: There are literally ZERO revelations about the President, or his campaign staff, in this book. Nada. Goose Eggs. Nothing. And that says a lot about our President, and his campaign staff, who apparently were far too aware to give Halperin even one toss-off quote.
And yet. they still love to wonder how Obama won the election. Knowing better than to dish with Mark Halperin is probably a good place to start.
jfxgillis - January 11, 2010 | 12:20 pm · Link
John:
Agree that TNC has the last word.
But this is the second-to-last word:
As A White Person, I’ll Accept Harry Reid’s Apology
patrick - January 11, 2010 | 12:21 pm · Link
You don’t have to go as far as flavor-flav. If Barak Obama had presented us with the exact same history, family life, moderate political positions and eloquent political speeches (yes, I said eloquent), but gave those speeches in the manner of the also eloquent Jesse Jackson, he would not have been elected.
This country was ready to take a big step, but part of politics is still identity politics, and a lot of people were able to identify with Obama.
Chad N Freude - January 11, 2010 | 12:23 pm · Link
@Mumphrey: You forgot to mention that half his DNA is white.
Violet - January 11, 2010 | 12:25 pm · Link
@Mumphrey:
You might be trying to be funny, but they really do say this sort of thing. They can’t out-parody their real selves.
I don’t think the Republicans really think Reid should resign. But it’s just part of how things work these days. Someone does something that might be construed as negative or bad in some way, and the other side clamors for his or her resignation. Sometimes it’s justified, sometimes it’s not. To me it seems like the Republicans clamor for ridiculous reasons more often than the Democrats, but there are probably those who think differently.
I think there’s a certain CYA going on too. If they didn’t clamor for Reid’s head they’d be seen as weak and soft by the teabaggers, etc. Gotta keep those guys happy too.
Keith G - January 11, 2010 | 12:25 pm · Link
And what will Ms Cheney be saying when Obama’s immigration reform is rolled out and Fox becomes the 24 hr “We Hate Mexicans Network.”
CK Dexter Haven - January 11, 2010 | 12:25 pm · Link
Krugman throws FDL under the bus.
gypsy howell - January 11, 2010 | 12:26 pm · Link
This is all part of the “they all do it” defense for the GOP.
If they can make Reid squirm, or better yet resign, over this tempest in a teapot, then the white suburban voter who is nominally turned off by the overt racism of the GOP will look at the two parties, say “eh, what’s the diff,” and vote for the guy who is telling him he’ll lower his taxes by “cutting entitlements ” (and we all know what kind of people think they are “entitled” to “entitlements”—the same kind of people who think they should get “reparations”)
GOP win.
kay - January 11, 2010 | 12:27 pm · Link
I don’t think it’s a big deal. Harry Reid says lots of stupid things, and I don’t think it was mean-spirited or even racist, and Obama seems to have moved on, after spending three minutes drafting and delivering a statement. He’s holding up well.
I suppose Reid has to face his Democratic voters, and if it’s actually an issue, he’ll hear about it.
On a related note, Is there anything Liz Cheney doesn’t weigh in on? Is there any subject area or issue where she won’t eagerly jump in and opine with that same phony certainty her father has? I don’t remember hearing a whole lot from her back when she was busy screwing up Iran. Now you can’t shut her up.
CK Dexter Haven - January 11, 2010 | 12:28 pm · Link
Here is the link.
JenJen - January 11, 2010 | 12:28 pm · Link
Greg Sargent has a great catch:
By Halperin/Heilemann’s own admission, Clinton may not have said “getting us coffee” quote
Keith - January 11, 2010 | 12:29 pm · Link
Anyone want to help work on a list of Dems that public GOP figures (including major pundits, such as Rush/Beck) have demanded resign?
Rahm
Napolitano
Desiree Rogers
Van Jones
Kevin Jennings
Harry Reid
Grayson(calls for resignation or just calls for apology?)
Geithner
Larry Summers (just a guess, but given how little I hear about him, I almost suspect he already resigned)
I’m sure I’m missing at least another half dozen
Shawn in ShowMe - January 11, 2010 | 12:29 pm · Link
Fix’d.
Brian J - January 11, 2010 | 12:29 pm · Link
@JenJen:
To you, what you describe is an endorsement of Obama and his staff.
To me, what you describe is another example of the liberal media covering for Obama. Not a single mention of Michelle Obama’s Whitey Tape? Not a single mention of William Ayers, Obama’s pal and most trusted adviser? Not a single mention of Rev. Wright, his other most trusted adviser? Not a single mention of how Obama filled his administration with ACORN workers?
I’m a big Obama supporter and even bigger Democrat, but these issues need to be discussed.
Keith G - January 11, 2010 | 12:29 pm · Link
BTW those folks predicting Reid’s doom neglect to figure that he will be leading the immigration reform push, and issue dear to the hearts of a very large number of Nevadans.
This issue is being timed just for the midterms.
handy - January 11, 2010 | 12:30 pm · Link
@JenJen:
Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!
JenJen - January 11, 2010 | 12:32 pm · Link
@Brian J: That is some good spoof-trollin’ Brian! :-)
@handy: Is it just me, or do Halperin & Heilemann sound like names of Nixon staffers? IT WOULD BE IRRESPONSIBLE NOT TO SPECULATE
CK Dexter Haven - January 11, 2010 | 12:33 pm · Link
Link
Keith G - January 11, 2010 | 12:33 pm · Link
@Brian J: Please tell me you are a parody troll.
BT - January 11, 2010 | 12:34 pm · Link
What really makes me grit my teeth is I remember vividly myriad media outlets asking if Obama was ‘black enough’ in ‘07 and ‘08. That was one of the big narratives. All the monolithic black people were loyal to Billary so he had no chance ‘cause he had no street cred’ or some other horse shit.
Here we are 3 years later and they want to hoist Reid on a petard for saying the same thing, albeit less artfully.
Fact of the matter is, you can’t be a legitimate national candidate in this country as a black man, unless you’re as milquetoast as possible. Folksy vernaculars for white candidates mean people like you and want to have a beer with you. For blacks it means you’re inarticulate, ghetto, and not intelligent.
Chad N Freude - January 11, 2010 | 12:34 pm · Link
@Brian J: Satire, right? These subjects have been discussed to exhaustion. Beyond exhaustion.
CK Dexter Haven - January 11, 2010 | 12:34 pm · Link
Krugman on Jonathan Gruber controversy.
kay - January 11, 2010 | 12:35 pm · Link
Too, Republicans have lowered the bar on resignation-worthy offenses in the past several years.
There’s even a recognized strategy that Vitter pioneered and Ensign adopted: “admission, apology, silence”
It’s Harry Reid, so the “silence” part may be difficult, but still.
kay - January 11, 2010 | 12:36 pm · Link
@Keith:
A “liberal” called for Biden to resign. Does that count?
Brian J - January 11, 2010 | 12:36 pm · Link
@Keith:
Are there enough pixels to list them all?
You know, I almost wish some safe congressman, or one who at least had a set of balls, like Kucinich, would start demanding the resignations of Republicans for any sort of issue they popped into their heads. Wouldn’t it be kind of fun to see someone demanding the resignation of the entire Republican leadership for their failure to vote for the stimulus and for more stimulus in order to help employment? It’d reduce the Republican calls for resignation to parody.
Except that, they’ve beaten us to the punch.
Chad N Freude - January 11, 2010 | 12:37 pm · Link
@Chad N Freude: I always think of posts like Brian J’s as satire rather than trollery. I guess I just have too much faith in my fellow man.
Brian J - January 11, 2010 | 12:39 pm · Link
@JenJen:
Thanks!
@Keith G:
I am.
@Chad N Freude:
Are you sure? I mean, we never saw that Whitey tape. My guess is, it’s locked somewhere in The New York Times building. What other explanation is there?
namekarB - January 11, 2010 | 12:42 pm · Link
It is notable that Blacks were not offended yet so many lily white conservatives were. I would also offer that this is another example of District of Criminal pundits fanning flames to make a controversy where none exists. I further venture that most Murricans don’t even know about this.
JenJen - January 11, 2010 | 12:42 pm · Link
@Brian J: Flowbee will pop up any minute to tell us that The Whitey Tape will be the main issue in the 2012 reelection campaign, you know.
eemom - January 11, 2010 | 12:43 pm · Link
clowns. That is what they are, clowns.
drkrick - January 11, 2010 | 12:44 pm · Link
I for one wouldn’t mind a call for resignation or censure for Lieberman and McCain after that performance in Jerusalem this weekend.
Morbo - January 11, 2010 | 12:44 pm · Link
TNC uses too many commas; is there a rule somewhere at the Atlantic about never editing one’s blog posts for correctness (cough, MY, cough)?
As for Flava Flaaaav’s electability Chris Rock knows better. Not this year.
cleek - January 11, 2010 | 12:45 pm · Link
what are they trying to accomplish?
they’re trying to dominate the news cycle, raise doubts about their political opponents, cause trouble for them, make them look weak and compromised.
if the result of calm patient analysis doesn’t support or justify the attack, so what? the attack gets the attention, not the defense. when the charge is racism, the evidence is “Negro”, and if the defense takes more than three sentences to explain, the defense loses.
have you learned nothing all these years ?
Brian J - January 11, 2010 | 12:46 pm · Link
@Chad N Freude:
Hopefully you don’t mean all of my posts. :]
kay - January 11, 2010 | 12:46 pm · Link
@namekarB:
Eric Holder just forgave him. If every notable black Democrat is going to be asked by media to make a statement on Harry Reid this could take a little while.
Comrade javafascist - January 11, 2010 | 12:46 pm · Link
In a perfect world, Jonah Goldberg has already begun work on his opus “Progressive Racists: The Racism temptation from Richard Pryor to Harry Reid”
Certainly his readers have already begun his research for him.
eemom - January 11, 2010 | 12:47 pm · Link
@CK Dexter Haven:
boo yah!
FDL post announcing that Krugman is a paid Pharma troll under the omnipotent thumb of RAAAAAAHM coming in 5…..4…..3…..
handy - January 11, 2010 | 12:48 pm · Link
@cleek:
In a way, I can’t really blame the Republicans here because they understand the horse race aspect to governing in a democracy—i.e. getting elected.
Of course, the difference between Repubs and Dems is that the pundits never call out these “politics as usual” tactics when they engage in them.
MikeJ - January 11, 2010 | 12:49 pm · Link
Josh Marshall’s bitch slap theory of politics. Can’t believe it’s not in the Balloon Juice lexicon.
Brachiator - January 11, 2010 | 12:51 pm · Link
@Brian J:
No, no, no. Resigning is the New Gumption.
Ask Sarah Palin.
And so, if Republicans in Congress really love America, they’ll all resign effective immediately.
ruemara - January 11, 2010 | 12:51 pm · Link
Dude. You don’t think “Fear of a Black Planet” was presidential material? It’s like I don’t know you anymore, Cole.
Brian J - January 11, 2010 | 12:51 pm · Link
@kay:
How exactly did she screw up Iran?
I am not questioning your truthiness or anything. I’m just curious, because I don’t know anything about it.
It does seem like a rich source of material. Perhaps someone could look into it instead of teaming up with Norquist.
Max - January 11, 2010 | 12:52 pm · Link
OT, but I can’t take much more of this..
So, Americablog has been railing on Obama since the Inauguration, saying don’t give, fuck him, he’s useless, Bush-lite, etc.
Now, they are saying that only Obama can get the turn-out for Coakley in MA, so he should get thee to Mass asap.
Which is it? Either he’s the only thing we’ve got, or he’s Bush. Seems to me he can’t be both.
Sirota-time
ksmiami - January 11, 2010 | 12:52 pm · Link
News alert—aging Senator uses antiquated language; GOP raises false alarm AGAIN! Most Americans don’t care…
I really am bored of these people and thankful that I don’t work for the Onion. It must be really hard to out-parody these freaks.
Plus – I never cared what Liz Cheney thought and she is just another angry GOP hag.
JGabriel - January 11, 2010 | 12:53 pm · Link
Keith:
Next up, Republicans — most likely Inhofe or Demint — criticize Obama for shitting on the White House!
.
onceler - January 11, 2010 | 1:01 pm · Link
Um, I really don’t think any white people should go around telling black people how they ought to feel about these comments.
Scuffletuffle - January 11, 2010 | 1:02 pm · Link
@kay: Could someone channel Richard Pryor and see what he thinks? I’d put more faith in his take than anyone else’s, ever.
Svensker - January 11, 2010 | 1:03 pm · Link
@Brian J:
She screwed up Washington, D.C. so much that the screwage slopped over onto the international arena. Epic proportions.
At least, I think that’s what happened.
CalD - January 11, 2010 | 1:04 pm · Link
I ran across a great quote in a diary post at the GOS last night that seems appropriate to share, given the photo selection for this post.
Great minds…?
kay - January 11, 2010 | 1:04 pm · Link
@Brian J:
I actually followed her with some interest. Partly because I thought the nepotism was disgusting (both she and her husband worked in the Bush Administration) but partly because I saw her as an up and coming neoconservative. I still do. I think she’s a zealot, a true believer, and as dangerous as her father.
” As the Bush administration confronts the Tehran government over its suspected nuclear weapons program and accusations that it supports terrorism, a newly created office of Iranian affairs in the State Department is poring over applications for a rapidly expanding program to change the political process inside Iran.
The project, which will spend $7 million in the current fiscal year, would become many times larger next year if Congress approves a broad request for $85 million that the Bush administration has requested for scholarships, exchange programs, radio and television broadcasts and other activities aimed at shaking up Iran’s political system.
The effort, overseen by Elizabeth Cheney, a deputy assistant secretary of state who is a daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney, has been denounced by Iran’s leaders as meddling in their internal affairs.”
I felt she was aggressively pursuing regime change in Iran, and I did not believe that it was a purely diplomatic or human rights effort. I felt she was laying the groundwork for something much more aggressive. That was in the Spring of 2006.
However, when the Democrats retook Congress, they cut off a lot of her funding, so that was good.
Whew. Close one.
handy - January 11, 2010 | 1:05 pm · Link
Svensker - January 11, 2010 | 1:06 pm · Link
@Scuffletuffle:
DEAD honkey!
JGabriel - January 11, 2010 | 1:08 pm · Link
CK Dexter Haven:
It is a bit of an unfair hit.
Yes, Jane Hamsher is occasionally over the top, but Marcy Wheeler is a really good researcher / reporter / analyst. Let’s not forget it was Marcy who, among other things, broke the story about how many times we had tortured KSM, et. al.
.
ruemara - January 11, 2010 | 1:08 pm · Link
@Scuffletuffle:
This is what he thinks.
Honky
terrible quality, btw.
Tom Hilton - January 11, 2010 | 1:09 pm · Link
@CK Dexter Haven: Ceci n’est pas une pipe.
daveNYC - January 11, 2010 | 1:10 pm · Link
‘DEAD honkey’ was the punchline. Negro showed up earlier, the response to that was ‘Whitey’. Which means that Reid is attempting to speak in code to tell us where the whitey tape is hidden.
kay - January 11, 2010 | 1:10 pm · Link
@Scuffletuffle:
I don’t know, but I do know this: I cannot watch or read Chris Matthews commentary for at least three days.
This is his very favorite subject.
gwangung - January 11, 2010 | 1:13 pm · Link
“Dude. Really?”
Two words.
Tom Hilton - January 11, 2010 | 1:14 pm · Link
@JGabriel: Well, but Krugman is asking “do you really want to become” like that. And whatever valuable work they have done in the past, that’s certainly where they’re headed now.
rikyrah - January 11, 2010 | 1:14 pm · Link
Reid is ‘suspect’ because of his maneuvering during the Illinois Senate debacle. And, because he did his own impersonation of George Wallace with Roland Burris. I already had my suspicions of Reid. This book excerpt just made me nod my head and go ’ uh huh’.
ps- the Flavor Flav picture is hilarious.
Bubblegum Tate - January 11, 2010 | 1:14 pm · Link
@MattF:
Republicans are rooting out the REAL racists/fascists/radicals the same way OJ Simpson is hunting down the REAL killer.
But anyway, Harry Reid may as well be weraing KKK robes, whereas all Trent Lott did was say a nice thing about an old man (NOTE: That Trent Lott defense is a verbatim wingnut talking point).
Leelee for Obama - January 11, 2010 | 1:14 pm · Link
@handy: As a member of the sheer people, so pale you can see through us, I concur with this statement. The person who was the subject of Reid’s tone-deaf statement has extended, as per usual, a classy acceptance of Reid’s contrition. Other African Americans have also said the uproar is misplaced. The only Black person who has caused any kerfuffle is Michael Steele, and his motives cannot be considered pure. TNC and Mr. Nice Blog have the last word, and that is that.
As to the ‘getting coffee’ remark: there is no proof Clinton said it, they have admitted as much, and the person who said it likely referred to Obama’s relative youth, rather than race, rings far more true, anyway. To say nothing of the fact that no one, no one, is demanding Bill Clinton make himself scarce, now are they?
Scuffletuffle - January 11, 2010 | 1:14 pm · Link
@ruemara: I’m crying cause I’m laughing so hard…at work! Can we get a NSFW? And take a few weeks off, you look tired!
kay - January 11, 2010 | 1:19 pm · Link
@Tom Hilton:
Krugman is just worried he’s next on the hit list.
“Mr. Bernanke, though a libertarian Republican, displays few partisan leanings. In 2000, as chairman of Princeton’s economics department, he hired star economist Paul Krugman, now a vociferous Bush critic, from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.”
Bernanke once hired Krugman.
For God’s sake, connect the dots.
scav - January 11, 2010 | 1:21 pm · Link
I personally demand to see John’s candidate’s long form birth certificate. The man is clearly a Norwegian and has never shined shoes in his life.
MikeJ - January 11, 2010 | 1:21 pm · Link
@Scuffletuffle:
It was on broadcast TV 30 years ago. Would Ozzie and Harriet upset them too?
Pasquinade - January 11, 2010 | 1:23 pm · Link
John Cole, please let us have a Sarah Palin thread. There’s so much dirt on her in the news, and you would be remiss not to let BJers have a go at her.
The latest: Sarah Palin to Contribute to Fox News
ajr22 - January 11, 2010 | 1:24 pm · Link
@Pasquinade: How long before Hannity makes a sexual advance?
JGabriel - January 11, 2010 | 1:26 pm · Link
@Tom Hilton:
It’s still taking a general criticism of the site — which Hamsher, as publisher, may well deserve — and applying it to a specific author, Wheeler, who, IMO, doesn’t deserve it. I’d say the same if Krugman had made a similiar criticism of Spencer Ackerman or Ian Walsh (assuming either of them still publishes at FDL).
In other words, I’d rather not see FDL’s better writers get caught in the crossfire over Jane’s quixotically aggressive activism.
.
Scuffletuffle - January 11, 2010 | 1:26 pm · Link
@Pasquinade: To contribute what, exactly?@
MikeJ: Oh yes, very staid here…
CalD - January 11, 2010 | 1:26 pm · Link
Revenge baby, for mean old Democrats using their evil psychic mind control powers to force Republicans to dump their favorite southern son Trent Lott against their own will? Or maybe that was the Bush administration. Anyway Democrats also suck, too. That’s why. Damn hippies.
GregB - January 11, 2010 | 1:28 pm · Link
So the same assholes that were claiming the politically correct left was playing the race card over Limbaugh’s repeated mocking of Barack the Magic Negro are now upset at Harry Reid?
Don’t these loon-bags have an ounce of irony detection or decency?
-G
Svensker - January 11, 2010 | 1:29 pm · Link
@Scuffletuffle:
Richard Pryor is sorely missed. But the most brilliant comedians seem to be the craziest. Maybe when you see the universe without blinders your third eye gets burnt to a crisp.
jurassicpork - January 11, 2010 | 1:31 pm · Link
Fox News at its Finest Part 8: Why Fox ought to be replaced by the anchors of the Onion or vice versa.
Faux Reality - January 11, 2010 | 1:32 pm · Link
Any individuals delusional enough to consider Sarah Palin competent to be VP and paying serious coin for her to spout her alternate view of reality on their “fairly unbalanced” nooz network clearly are partaking in a different version of reality than you and I. No doubt King Rupert has some seriously powerful hallucinogenics on hand for all his minions, how else to explain the bloviations spewing from Faux Nooz 24/7?
http://tpmlivewire.talkingpoin.....ibutor.php
JGabriel - January 11, 2010 | 1:34 pm · Link
GregB:
No. SATSQ, Vol. 268, Edition 2.10.
(For further historical research on the question of GOP decency, please see the McCarthy-Welch Exchange of 1954.)
.
licensed to kill time - January 11, 2010 | 1:34 pm · Link
I just got here, have you guys already discussed this?
Blagojevich says he’s “blacker than Barack Obama”
(you probably have, I’m always late with these things)
Scuffletuffle - January 11, 2010 | 1:36 pm · Link
@GregB: No. SATSQ
SiubhanDuinne - January 11, 2010 | 1:36 pm · Link
Forgive me if someone has already posted this O/T announcement:
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nyti.....x-news/?hp
So far there are only 8 comments on the NYTimes blog; I’m sure there will be more by the time you link. But the first 8 out of 8 are very heartening. NYT haz librul readerz!
Tom Hilton - January 11, 2010 | 1:36 pm · Link
@JGabriel: except that in this case, Marcy Wheeler is the one who posted the “Jonathan Gruber is a sellout corporatist whore” story, so she shouldn’t be exempt from Krugman’s criticism.
And while she hasn’t gone as far off the deep end as Hamsher, she has posted a fair number of misleading and alarmist pieces about the healthcare bill.
GregB - January 11, 2010 | 1:36 pm · Link
The Democrats should say:
If David Vitter doesn’t have to resign for paying for a hooker, I don’t think Harry Reid has to resign for offending someone.
-G
Alex S. - January 11, 2010 | 1:38 pm · Link
So does Halperin’s book consist entirely of racial innuendo? He looks like such a vapid, bankrupt hack.
jacy - January 11, 2010 | 1:39 pm · Link
My mom uses the word “colored” sometimes when referring to black people. She also uses the word “icebox” when referring to the refrigerator. This does not make my mom racist, this makes my mom old.
Skepticat - January 11, 2010 | 1:40 pm · Link
@jfxgillis: I too saw and agreed strongly with this post.
I hate to hear that Sen. Reid’s language is considered antiquated, as I’m only a little younger than he, but back then in the mists of time, “negro” was a perfectly acceptable, unfreighted term. It may have started with “n” but bore no resemblence to “The n word.” I’m actually sorry that he apologized (publicly anyway, I can see a conversation with Pres. Obama), for I think he was making a perfectly good assessment of the sad state of this country re: race.
SiubhanDuinne - January 11, 2010 | 1:41 pm · Link
@jacy:
Exactly so. Now excuse me while I put a new platter on the Victrola.
Brachiator - January 11, 2010 | 1:44 pm · Link
@Leelee for Obama:
A bit tortured rationalization. Do junior senators, for example, get coffee for other senators? But it’s not worth parsing alleged statements.
You can’t resign if you’re not already a member of something. I wouldn’t be surprised if some GOP goon asks for Hillary’s resignation, just because. Also, too.
b-psycho - January 11, 2010 | 1:45 pm · Link
Maybe what Harry Reid said was un-PC, but I don’t see what was truly bad or even inaccurate about it.
Brian J - January 11, 2010 | 1:48 pm · Link
@JGabriel:
But as Krugman explains, there’s really no hint that Gruber’s expertise is impaired because of the funding.
Nobody should fault her for digging, but it’s important to remain focused on what matters once someone, like Krugman himself, makes clear that there isn’t an issue. To try to gin this up into a controversy, no matter who is doing it, is only giving fodder to people who have no intention of operating in good faith. If there was an issue, of course, they’d be right to run with it, but since there’s not, they should move on.
kay - January 11, 2010 | 1:50 pm · Link
@Brachiator:
I just thought it was odd, under any interpretation. What’s it like in those conference rooms Bill Clinton inhabits? Younger politicians are fetching coffee for older politicians? Why would they do that? How many assistants does Bill Clinton have? A lot, right?
Brian J - January 11, 2010 | 1:51 pm · Link
@Brachiator:
Oh, nonsense. They could resign from their banks, from their professional associations, from the Democratic party. Hillary could resign from the State Department. They could resign from any number of things.
Whether this has anything to do with solving a problem that doesn’t exist is besides the point. They could resign from something, but they aren’t.
Leelee for Obama - January 11, 2010 | 1:53 pm · Link
@Brachiator: I am aware they can’t demand he resign, but they often demand Al Gore and others get out of the public eye, since they are out of office. There is also the “shut up and sing” attitude towards “celebrities” like former Presidents.
I don’t think the logic is tortured-there is a statement from Heileman and/or Halperin admitting that Clinton might not have said it. And, since the conversation was between Teddy and Bill, if it happened, I think Bill would have realized that a race-baiting comment was a sure-fire way to piss Teddy off to no end.
As to junior Senators-I can’t say. But, the newest Associate Justice of the Supreme Court is always the go-fer until there is a new Associate Justice-according to Stephen Breyer. So, mayhap the Junior Senators DO play go-fer for a while.
daryljfontaine - January 11, 2010 | 1:53 pm · Link
@SiubhanDuinne: Don’t forget to check your investment portfolio to see how your shares in Trans-Atlantic Zeppelin and Amalgamated Spats are doing.
D
GReynoldsCT00 - January 11, 2010 | 1:54 pm · Link
OT, but this is new Palin getting hired for Fox News…
JGabriel - January 11, 2010 | 1:58 pm · Link
Pasquinade:
Bwahahaha! Bwahahahahahah … bwahahahahah … heh … a-heh-heh-heh … bwahahahahah … (pause for breath) ... bwahaha … bwa … heh-heh …
Wait, really?
.
licensed to kill time - January 11, 2010 | 2:05 pm · Link
@JGabriel:
Palin will slip into that role like fingers into a glove, like a foot into a mouth, like a banana into a condom…Starbursts!
Elie - January 11, 2010 | 2:25 pm · Link
There is enormous instability—entropy in our whole system right now and the word salad type crazy talk and accusations just increase the wobble..
I have no idea what the Republicans or the MSM that parrot them are up to and whether any of this goobleygook speech really has some definable goal beyond making noise and sowing confusion.
Not sure how many Americans are really paying attention to all this noise either. I tend to think fewer than the Republicans think…maybe its intent is to scare people away from paying attention cause they are so turned off by what they see and hear….
Its just an insane time and getting crazier every minute.
eemom - January 11, 2010 | 2:31 pm · Link
@Tom Hilton:
I’ve always thought Marcy Wheeler was ridiculously overrated. For one thing, I take exception to people pretending to be lawyers when they’re not.
And whatever merit her work had in the past, she’s become just another Janebot of late. I’ll give old Jane one thing—she’s the most effective cult leader since Jim Jones.
Frank Chow - January 11, 2010 | 2:35 pm · Link
Wait, Harry Reid slept with Tiger Woods too? Damn that’s effed up.
jl - January 11, 2010 | 2:36 pm · Link
Do not have time to see how often other commenters have made this point, but…
I agree with everything you said, but Harry Reid is still a goofball, and I think almost all non-goofballs would express themselves in a much better way to make the same point without risking putting the country through this nonsense.
BruceFromOhio - January 11, 2010 | 2:36 pm · Link
@onceler:
Wisdom. Thank you.
jl - January 11, 2010 | 2:37 pm · Link
@Frank Chow: Really? I hope he is not added to the pictoral spreads of Woods’ lovahs. That would be yukkie.
Phoebe - January 11, 2010 | 2:41 pm · Link
I disagree with the all the people trying to think of who this was aimed at or what it was trying to accomplish. It is not even cynically rational that way. It’s ridiculous on its face and convinces nobody. This is just habit now for them; they have the fake-outrage on autopilot, set at permanent 11.
Brachiator - January 11, 2010 | 2:44 pm · Link
@Leelee for Obama:
Yeah, it’s all a part of the political kabuki that the GOP loves to play. And the “shut up and sing” generally only applies to former Democratic Presidents and twice over to Jimmy Carter.
I don’t think the logic is tortured-there is a statement from Heileman and/or Halperin admitting that Clinton might not have said it. And, since the conversation was between Teddy and Bill, if it happened, I think Bill would have realized that a race-baiting comment was a sure-fire way to piss Teddy off to no end.
I just meant if the authors back away from “Yeah, Bill said it,” then it’s a non-issue. But, for what it’s worth, it really doesn’t play as a “youth vs experience” remark. Imagine that someone was trying to get an endorsement for Hillary and someone replied “a few years ago, she would have been bringing us coffee.” The sexism would be clear, and offensive. And even as relates to Obama, the sentiment is more “he’s not one of us,” as opposed to “he’s a freshman who should be kissing up to the seniors.”
By any measure, the idea that you gotta pay your dues before you can sing the presidential blues doesn’t make much sense. You just have to be age 35 and be born in Kenya.
Brian J – Oh, nonsense. They could resign from their banks, from their professional associations, from the Democratic party. Hillary could resign from the State Department. They could resign from any number of things.
I resign myself to having to endure more years of GOP gooberdom. Does that count?
Bruce (formerly Steve S.) - January 11, 2010 | 3:17 pm · Link
Harry Reid should step down, but because he is out of touch and ineffectual, not narrowly for the “negro” remark. That remark was just a tiny symptom of the bigger problem. I mean, in a world where accountability matters he wouldn’t be able to submit the signature legislation of his entire career, have it torn down in front of the entire world by members of his own caucus, have all the attempts at compromise be engineered by other members of the caucus and not him, and then keep his leadership position.
General Winfield Stuck - January 11, 2010 | 3:21 pm · Link
@Elie:
It is a self feeding slop machine. Why does anyone think Halperin and the other moran wrote something like this in the first place? It was planned and yearned for by the Village Idiots, so as to take up time for the non stop 24 cycle cable news nickelodeon that is hooked into the DC gossip engine, then mainlined by circuit cable teevee into the homes of millions of bored murrikins.
The Reid stuff is first course, cause he’s a sitting US Senator and Majority leader. Racial treats are all well and good, but the ravenous crowds tire of them fairly fast. Specially this weak tea one.
It’s the panty sniffing for the marqui event, that is the main act and people will cheer the public shredding of an already pitiful and tragic family Edwards sage. This stuff is the reason I avoided politics for most of my life. I could be getting dumber with time.
It’s America, and the only saving grace is that England is even worse about this kind of putrid shit. Apparently, there is no news worth reporting today. If it wasn’t winter I’d go watch the grass grow, what little there is in the High Desert.
Brian J - January 11, 2010 | 3:33 pm · Link
@Brachiator:
As long as you resign from something, with a letter, that counts. I think. Better write one just to be safe. Also, too, have a standard letter of resignation ready, just in case you screw up and need to resign from something, at any point.
asiangrrlMN - January 11, 2010 | 4:04 pm · Link
Oh good god. Still with this talking point? The bottom line is, Reid was right in his assessment, regardless of his poor choice of words. What-the-fuck-ever. Next topic, please. And, no, not Palin as an ‘online personality’ for FUX.
FlipYrWhig - January 11, 2010 | 4:09 pm · Link
@Brachiator:
I think “He’s not one of us” is probably the right tone, but the metric for evaluation is experience rather than skin color. I think the sentiment is, Obama is more like an eager volunteer or low-level staffer than a peer of ours. Because in a work environment coffee-making is a typical low-level responsibility. And that squares with many other Bill and Hillary Clinton remarks from the campaign, including the “3 A.M.” ad, which was basically a rehash of some Mondale vs. Hart strategies. I would be very surprised to learn that Bill Clinton was ever accustomed to being waited on by black people, which IMHO would be the necessary context to make coffee-making a racial remark rather than an inexperience crack.
bob h - January 11, 2010 | 4:13 pm · Link
The whole thing is just silly, and I honestly wonder what Republicans think they are accomplishing.
Are they aiming to raise their approval among blacks from 2 up to 3%?
gwangung - January 11, 2010 | 4:21 pm · Link
@asiangrrlMN: Yeah. It’s still white people trying to tell non-white people what they should or should not be offended about. Same ol’, same ol’.
someguy - January 11, 2010 | 4:29 pm · Link
The Republicans are just upset because, what with Bush destroying the dollar, the cost of fine imported Silk Lynching Rope has gone through the ceiling, and they’re going to have to make do with Hemp, which they have an irrational fear of. I think you are all being too harsh on them. Since all Republicans are racist, and all Republicans are hypocrites, they didn’t really have a lot of choice but to make this particular attack on Reid. Plus pie.
Shawn in ShowMe - January 11, 2010 | 4:29 pm · Link
If Clinton made the same statement about another relative youngster, like Michael Bennet, it would have played as a youth vs. experience remark. The only way this alleged remark can be considered racist is if you believe Clinton would channel Strom Thurmond to sway Ted Kennedy in a conversation. Clinton is vain, not stupid.
Elie - January 11, 2010 | 4:30 pm · Link
@General Winfield Stuck:
You probably have a fair number of hummers year round.
They always make me smile and purge my brain of toxic thoughts
drillfork - January 11, 2010 | 4:36 pm · Link
The Republicans are just trying to take down a Democrat Senator so they can have 41 and be in the majority again…
Brian J - January 11, 2010 | 4:37 pm · Link
@bob h:
Isn’t the much easier solution to the lack of minorities problem to take pretty much anyone who is a halfway decent candidate and human being and then try to get them in office, whether that office is county legislator or the U.S. House? Is it that goddamn hard for the Republicans to find anyone who isn’t an old white guy to run?
catclub - January 11, 2010 | 4:40 pm · Link
It seems to me that Huckabee gets less news coverage
now that he has his own show.
Will it work the same with Palin? When all the media has
to pick at is a tweet-a-day, they read every single one.
Now that she will be on – but note she is NOT getting her own show, as did Huck, will she get less coverage, especially by the other networks?
Morbo - January 11, 2010 | 4:47 pm · Link
@Morbo:
TNC:
Holy crap, I totally missed this when I first read it and now it made me LOL as it was excepted by Sully. Good for Ta-Nehisi, at least he shows self-awareness on this topic.
glocksman - January 11, 2010 | 4:56 pm · Link
Probably surprising no one at all, I caught a few minutes of Hannity’s radio show and he was going on about the ‘Liberal Democrat double standard’ and said that Reid’s comments were much worse than Trent Lott’s because Reid used ‘slurs’.
Either Hannity is an idiot or he thinks his audience is made up of idiots.
Or both.
FlipYrWhig - January 11, 2010 | 5:02 pm · Link
@glocksman: If double standards are the issue, perhaps the Republicans could do some explaining about why they have no problem with Vitter and Ensign remaining in office.
Brachiator - January 11, 2010 | 6:38 pm · Link
@FlipYrWhig:
Still reeks of skin color as well. And as I noted, if the remark had been made about a woman, few would deny the condescension or sexism. And since Bill was a young governor and young president, the irony of making a big deal of someone’s relative experience still stinks.
You’re not serious, are you? Clinton grew up in Arkansas. And racist presumption and a sense of privilege is not necessarily dependent upon being served by black people.
Shawn in ShowMe - If Clinton made the same statement about another relative youngster, like Michael Bennet, it would have played as a youth vs. experience remark. The only way this alleged remark can be considered racist is if you believe Clinton would channel Strom Thurmond to sway Ted Kennedy in a conversation. Clinton is vain, not stupid.
As I recall, Clinton stomped over enough lines to get his “first black president card” revoked in the eyes of many of his previous supporters. To some, he showed all the symptoms of a liberal racist who can accept nonwhites in the ranks, but maybe not as equals and never as superiors. Some PUMAs were notoriously infected with this bug as well.
By the way, there are also liberal sexists who almost like magic go nuts when a woman is put in charge. Hillary had to deal with a fair amount of this crap and there would have been equivalent flare-ups had she won the nomination.
And yes, Bill was super vain and dedicated to the proposition that his wife was chosen by destiny to be the first woman president, yadda, yadda, yadda. A complex guy with complex motives.
General Winfield Stuck - January 11, 2010 | 7:00 pm · Link
@Elie:
Not year around. This year, we had a fair number hold on through November here, but they are all gone until mid March and in big numbers not till June.
Though over in Arizona, they have them year round. We are at a much higher elevation here in SW NM than southern and central AZ.
ELT - January 11, 2010 | 7:03 pm · Link
The real problem is that seemingly ALL reaction to this has fallen along party lines. It is inconceivable that the only people offended by this are in the GOP, and every person not troubled by it are Democrats. We as a people have become so reflexively partisan that it has become impossible to get an objective sense of right and wrong anymore. Troubling, to say the very least…
asiangrrlMN - January 11, 2010 | 8:12 pm · Link
@gwangung: What I thought. Yawn. Nap time for me.
Brian J - January 11, 2010 | 8:41 pm · Link
@ELT:
That probably be true, if there was any sort of grand issue of right and wrong at play. Instead, Reid made a mistake when he spoke. He apologized, and the man whom he was referring to, President Obama, accepted. It’s best we all move on.
Rainy - January 11, 2010 | 9:56 pm · Link
Let’s not forget Reid was born in 1939. My grandma was born in 1929, is black and still says ‘negro’ and ‘colored’. It all depends on the context.
Mnemosyne - January 11, 2010 | 10:38 pm · Link
@Brachiator:
I think it’s a both/and. If it was said at all (which is now in dispute), I think it was one of those things you say that you don’t realize has an additional sexist/racist meaning when applied to a woman/minority until you stick your foot in your mouth. We’ve all done it.
gwangung - January 11, 2010 | 10:43 pm · Link
@ELT: Really? And the racial content has nothing to do with it?
Um. Ummmmm.
Brachiator - January 11, 2010 | 11:41 pm · Link
@Mnemosyne:
Good point on the general issue, and since as you and others have noted, whether Clinton actually said this is in dispute, it kinda makes speculating on possible motives even less meaningful than usual.
asiangrrlMN - January 12, 2010 | 12:04 am · Link
@gwangung: Yup. Agreed. It only became a partisan issue after the Republicans insisted we should all be shocked and awed by it. Plus, in general, liberals have the ability to see context whereas Republicans, again, in general, do not, which is much needed when dealing with remarks like these.
Admiral_Komack - January 12, 2010 | 12:31 am · Link
@Keith:
“And if for some reason this person did resign, it’d be an example of them quitting when the going got tough, giving up on America, giving in to the gays/communists/socialists/Islamofacist terrorists, and generally hating democracy. Or something.”
-Or being just like Sarah Palin. Also.
petorado - January 12, 2010 | 12:36 am · Link
To respond to the Republican kerfuffle over Harry Reid’s comment, I must dip into the liberal hagiography and quote the movie Animal House: “You can’t haze our pledges only we can haze our pledges.”
How dare Harry use any of the N-words to describe blacks—that’s Republican turf, buddy! And Democrats also can’t use words like patriotism, nazi, fascist, anti-American, national security, and any other “serious” words that Republicans have trademarked, either. Sarah will need them for demagoguing while on her new job. Thank you.
FlipYrWhig - January 12, 2010 | 12:54 am · Link
@Brachiator:
He grew up poor in Arkansas. Bill Clinton may be from the South but, because of class, he’s not from a world where black people waited on white people hand and foot. I don’t think until this moment anyone has ever thought that coffee-making was a stereotypical task for a black underling. Shoe-shining is a stereotypical task for a black underling. He didn’t say something like that. He used a stereotypical task for… an underling of unspecified race, sex, or creed.
It makes A LOT more sense for the defender of the candidate who claims the mantle of experience to talk to a super-long-serving Senator about how he shouldn’t support the new guy. “What do you even know about him, Teddy? Where was he a couple years ago? A few years back, he’d be bringing guys like us coffee!”
It was the desire of blogospheric Obama supporters to parse Clinton comments for overt and covert racism that impeded the growth of my own Obama support. It’s kind of a sore spot with me. So I dig my heels in hard and fast.
FlipYrWhig - January 12, 2010 | 1:08 am · Link
@Mnemosyne:
I guess that’s true, but I’ve never heard of coffee-making or coffee-bringing being black-identified tasks. In the quotation, is Obama supposed to be a black butler or something? A glove-wearing attendant at the men’s club? What are we supposed to picture? Whereas they’re constant watchwords for entry-level tasks.
IMHO this is kind of like taking the remark that Bobby Jindal is a lot like Kenneth the Page and saying that it must be racial because it presumes the dark-complected person must be waiting on other more important people.
Mnemosyne - January 12, 2010 | 1:33 am · Link
@FlipYrWhig:
A waiter. Are you claiming that the stereotype of black men (and women) as waiters doesn’t exist anymore, so therefore this couldn’t possibly be interpreted as a reference to it?
As I said, if this was even said at all, I suspect the reference Clinton was making was not to Obama being a waiter, but to him an intern or legislative aide. It was a crack about Obama being an inexperienced kid.
However, like it or not, making a reference like that specifically about a black man will make people think “waiter” and not “intern.” That’s what makes it a foot-in-mouth moment: Clinton (may have) said something he meant one way that was easily construed another way because of a racist stereotype that still exists.
I guess we should be glad he didn’t make the same remark about a woman, because then we’d be having to rehash the whole Lewinsky thing all over again.
Right Wing Extreme - January 12, 2010 | 1:38 am · Link
Hells Bells,
I loath Reid, and will be glad when he goes away, but this is not racism. At best it was a poor word choice, and at worst it was stupid to use a word that might call him into question on a hot button issue, especially when the man has a good record for equal-rights.
FlipYrWhig - January 12, 2010 | 2:00 am · Link
@Mnemosyne:
Pretty much. I guess I’m not up on my stereotypes. All I could think of was “butler in a plantation house” or “male version of Mammy,” neither of which seemed like a Bill Clinton frame of reference. Oh, it just occurred to me… Uncle Ben, I guess that’s a stereotypical black waiter character.
Mnemosyne - January 12, 2010 | 10:49 am · Link
@FlipYrWhig:
Jon Stewart had a clip soon after Obama was inaugurated of him at a diplomatic event in Europe where one of the other attendees wandered up to him and asked where the buffet table was. She didn’t recognize him and assumed that if a black guy was there in a tuxedo, he must be one of the servers and not, you know, the President of the United States.
Trust me, the stereotype is not dead. That’s why the media picked up on it so quickly.