And it seems the unofficial and unconfirmed winner of the Ni-CLANG Sweepstakes is Rick Santorum, folks!
Speaking to a group of voters in Janesville, Wisconsin on Wednesday, the candidate seemed to catch himself before using a word that sounds like “n*gger” to describe the president. (The original video of the speech is available here. The remarks in question take place at about 34:50.)
“We know the candidate Barack Obama, what he was like – the anti-war government nig… America was a source for division around the world, that what we were doing was wrong,” Santorum said.
“Oh, come on!” Santorum spokesman Hogan Gidley told Raw Story when asked for comment. “Give me a break. That’s unbelievable. What does it say about those that are running with this story that that’s where their mind goes. You know, I’m not going to dignify that with [a response].”
“That is absolutely ridiculous.”
Right. He meant to say “the anti-war government blah person.”
It’s probably ridiculous. Santorum, speaking for 30 plus minutes, might have gotten tongue tied. The video’s inconclusive at best as far as I can tell. But you know what? It’s end of March, coming up on April. We’ve got seven months to go still and we’re reasonably close to having one of the major GOP candidates go there. Slick Rick here may have reasonable doubt in this instance. Sometime before November, it’s going to happen. Santorum wasn’t exactly singing the President’s praises in the speech.
But hey, Santorum’s campaign and at times Santorum himself accused POTUS of promoting infanticide, promoting eugenics, of having radical Islamic policies and of being a bigot towards Santorum’s anti-gay bigot buddies. These are things Santorum and his people have gone on record of having said, so frankly dropping the n-word really can’t make him much more of an odious, self-righteous jagoff.
Santorum crossed that line long ago.
Veritas
Breaking news this morning: Paul Ryan Endorses Romney!.
Another nail in the coffin of Santorum and Gingrich.
After the Wisconsin Primary this Tuesday, it’s OVER and on to the general election!
That’s where the REAL fun begins…
SenyorDave
Wasn’t there a scene in Blazing Saddles where they refer to the new sheriff (Cleavon Little) as a ni?
some guy
zombie-eyed granny-starver Paul Ryan is a Mittens Man? awesome. Ryan’s plan for Destroying Medicare will surely deliver the senior vote to the GOP this year.
VICTORY, comrades!
Face
OT:
SCOTUSblog seems to think that the Medicaid provision in the ACA might get bounced. This was one aspect of the bill that not a single appealate court had an issue with. But I’m told the USSC is not political, will rule on the facts, and not make any radical desicions. Yup.
Karen in GA
Was Gidley the same one who came up with the “blah people” excuse?
Watching the video, I’m trying to figure out what else he could have been meaning to say. And if whatever he meant to say was so harmless, why didn’t he just muddle through and say it?
Steve
I vote for just tongue-tied. Although after “blah people” it’s hard to give this guy any benefit of the doubt! But Santorum really doesn’t strike me as the sort of person who goes around dropping the n-word.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
I think “anti-war ni-CLANG” is a bit of a stretch. Pope Sweatervest I is just a shitty speaker.
Lauren
The whole thing sounded like word salad to me. That’s the only story here.
giltay
@SenyorDave: And the guy who’s saying it is interrupted by a loud bell, hence ni-CLANG.
No doubt Mr. Santorum was just saying “government night-watchman” in reference to the President keeping all hours and carrying a flashlight everywhere.
JasonF
Prediction: the official story will be that he said “Governmentnik.”
Veritas
@Face:
Ahahhaa, deal with it.
Comrade Mary
I don’t hear it. I think he was trying to say “negotiate” or negotiator. I listened to the audio this morning after being tipped off, and this trip was typical of his entire repetitive, rambling speech, because it should be illegal to use teleprompters, you know.
But just because I’m giving him slack here doesn’t mean I think he really said “blah” people. The fucker said “black”, he meant black, and his odious attitude was obvious.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Since it’s so ambiguous, I think we should sit on it. If we make too big of a story from it, we’ll end up scaring them off. If we keep quiet, someone will probably say the full word.
JGabriel
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Zandar @ Top:
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Does anyone think Karl Rove, or anyone from the GOP, would give a Democrat the benefit of reasonable doubt?
Didn’t think so.
So why should we give it to Rick?
.
SenyorDave
@Steve: I’m always shocked at some of the people I’ve heard use slurs. Usually they don’t go for the N-word. But my brother is a doctor in North Jersey, and he almost got into a fight with another doctor who was using the word.
Veritas
So how are you all going to feel when SCOTUS strikes down Obambi’s biggest “accomplishment”? It’s pretty sad that a former constitutional law scholar didn’t know his own bill was unconstitutional on its face!
Scalia, Alito, Thomas, Roberts, and Kennedy do what they want, when they want, and there’s nothing you or congressional liberals can do about it!
From now on whenever Obambi expands government with one of his new programs, the attorney generals in the States will challenge it, get it to SCOTUS, and have them strike it down. That is IF you can even make it past the filibuster first…
JGabriel
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Veritas:
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If you squee any louder about Ryan endorsing Romney, you’ll break your li’l unicorn’s eardrums.
.
Satanicpanic
What is depressing to me is that this guy is going to be their nominee in 2016. Next in line.
MattF
Has anyone mentioned lately that Santorum is a colossal dick?
Yutsano
@Satanicpanic: Theoretically yes. But it’s gonna be Jeb. The Bushes don’t like to be out of power too long and none of the grandkids are showing political aspirations at this point.
MikeJ
Before the end of the day rightbloggers will be defending the use of nigger. I also predict we’ll hear the old, “there are black people and there are niggers” line.
Villago Delenda Est
@MattF:
No, but it bears repeated mentions.
Anya
We shouldn’t emulate faux news and the rest of wingers. He did not utter the N word and we should not speculate what he’s stumble means. I loath Santorum with the intensity of a blazing fire but this kind of breathless speculation does not help, it only reduces us to their level.
Linda Featheringill
A leeetle OT but you’ll enjoy it [I think]:
A campaign ad from the Democratic reelection people:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TDfDzWWvOA&feature=player_embedded
AND, for no extra charge, you’ll get an ear worm!
Villago Delenda Est
@MikeJ:
“Niggers” are the particularly uppity ones who were editors of the Harvard Law Review, who don’t have any scandals in their pasts but those invented by their detractors out of whole cloth, and repeatedly pwn cretinous racist Rethuglican (but I’m being redundant there) asswipes (yet another redundancy).
RossInDetroit
It would be an awesome story but I can’t believe Santorum would N-bomb. Probably not in private conversation, either.
To drop that accidentally you have to have it in your head. Say what you will about Frothy, but he’s probably not a hater with the habit of insulting language. One advantage of an old-fashioned religious upbringing and active participation in church is the overt vocabulary of hate gets suppressed.
Chyron HR
@Veritas:
How is winning in Wisconsin going to help Romney when the SCOTUS declares that laws like Romneycare are UNCONSTITUTIONAL?
Satanicpanic
@MikeJ: That line on its own is bad enough (nice work Chris Rock) but the fact that they can only find about 5 examples of black people makes it that much worse.
rlrr
Brings to mind a scene from Blazing Saddles…
Beauzeaux
I don’t care. Santorum is a horrible human being and he’s already said a thousand things that make me ill. If he added that word to his repetoire, it’s just one more brick in the wall.
MikeJ
@RossInDetroit:
Hahahahahaha! That’s hilarious!
Seriously, that’s not my experience with churches *at all*.
gaz
He said nihhah, dontcha know!
rlrr
@Face:
Hasn’t anyone learned anything from Bush v Gore and Citizens United?
JGabriel
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Veritas:
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Most of us would prefer single-payer and are pretty ambivalent about the mandate to purchase insurance — an idea first pushed by the conservative Heritage Foundation, and first implemented at the state level by the man of your onanistic dreams, Romney — so I don’t think you’re going to see the heartbreak and lamentations you are so clearly fantasizing about.
That said, there will probably be a lot of anger at the politicization of the court and the reckless disregard for precedent and stare decisis that would be required to declare the mandate unconstitutional.
So, to sum up, the likely response is: anger at the far-right activist overreach of the court in ruling against the mandate, and a renewed determination to pass Medicare for all in its stead.
See, that’s the thing you don’t get, Veritas — your team is sabotaging the only free-market option to solving the health care crisis. Take that away, and you only leave government solutions like single-payer or nationalization to improve health care access.
.
MeDrewNotYou
@Yutsano: I disagree. Santorum in 2016 will get slaughtered by our nominee, and then Jeb comes in. Admittedly, Santorum may be so unpalatable (rimshot) to the party “leadership” that he’s skipped over. I guess it depends on how much blame the extremists get for the 2012 loss (FSM willing).
@MikeJ: OMG, I think you’re right. Before the weekend is out, at the latest. On the bright side, no one outside of the rabid base will buy into it.* Unfortunately, what are the odds of most people hearing about how BigGovernment or RedState are saying that nigger isn’t all that offensive?
*- Of course, I mean using the word the good ole’ racist way, not as used by comedians.
Marcellus Shale, Public Dick
@RossInDetroit:
you are giving him way too much credit for being sincerely religious.
RossInDetroit
@MikeJ:
Well then our experiences differ. I was raised Catholic and went to Catholic schools. Even in the ’60s there was zero tolerance and a mouth-soaping for using that word.
I was referring to overt language. religious people may have other ways of insulting and condescending to minorities, but blunt insults are rarely part of it. Using kind words reinforces the impression of the speaker’s moral authority.
chopper
@Veritas:
awesome! paul ‘end social security and BTW our generals are all a bunch of lying sacks of shit’ ryan is sure to bring VICTORY to mittens’ run for the WH.
MeDrewNotYou
@Yutsano: I disagree. Santorum in 2016 will get slaughtered by our nominee, and then Jeb comes in. Admittedly, Santorum may be so unpalatable (rimshot) to the party “leadership” that he’s skipped over. I guess it depends on how much blame the extremists get for the 2012 loss (FSM willing).
@MikeJ: OMG, I think you’re right. Before the weekend is out, at the latest. On the bright side, no one outside of the rabid base will buy into it.* Unfortunately, what are the odds of most people hearing about how BigGovernment or RedState are saying that nigger isn’t all that offensive?
*- Of course, I mean using the word the good ole’ racist way, not as used by comedians.
shortstop
@Comrade Mary: This. He didn’t utter half a word clearly and stop; he got completely tongue-tied here and bounced all over the place, whereas “blah people” was clearly supposed to be “black people.” He’s a racist and a generally loathsome human being completely outside of this uncompelling evidence.
@Satanicpanic: I predict we won’t hear much from Rih after this year. He’ll snuggle into a comfy life of lobbying, but I don’t think this particular guy will rise again in the public eye. Except to viewers of his Fox appearances, of course.
ItAintEazy
@MattF: Ya can’t spell “prick” without Rick.
jaime
@Veritas:
I’ll feel terribly for the children that would lose their health insurance and die. Glad to see that thought gives you a stiffy.
Proudhon
I think he needs a teleprompter…
Steve in DC
I don’t think it was an n-bomb. Santorum, he of hating naughty words, just doesn’t seem like the type. I’ve watched him get tongue tied as well a few times, which is what it seems like. Santorum doesn’t like bad words and giggled like a kid over saying “bullshit” which isn’t even vulgar to most people.
Plus when he does get his bigot on, as with gay people, he seems to have no problem just blatantly going there.
ABL
I dont think that’s what he said. I think he was just tongue-tied. But I agree with jgabriel at 14.
The Other Bob
If we assume that Santorum was indeed tongue tied, that does not mean he won’t politically profit from what racists think he was going to say.
gaz
I love watching Satire V cheer the Romney fail parade.
Romney will win the nom, and be utterly destroyed in the general election.
It’s gonna make 1964 look like a nail biter by comparison.
chopper
@rlrr:
apparently not. as i said before, the con wing on the court is also looking for payback after obama’s SOTU line attacking citizens united. doesn’t matter that 50 million people will lose the ability to get health insurance, they was slighted!
it’ll be fun to watch scalia, a guy who argued that the commerce clause was so broad that the gubbermint can restrict home-use growing of weed even admitting that the behaviour is neither interstate nor commerce, twist himself around here.
oh, and ‘originalism’. yeah, he’s such an originalist, cause we all know the founding fathers, like jefferson who grew his own weed and bragged about the shit, would totes be down with federal laws against mary jane.
at least thomas is consistent in hatin on everything. tho any real ‘originalist’ wouldn’t even want to be on the court, since the founding fathers didn’t actually agree that the court should have the power of judicial review.
but i digress. in sum, the court is a joke.
beergoggles
The Knights who say Ni should tell Santorum to stop using their lines..
cmorenc
After decades out of contact, I became re-acquainted a couple of years ago with one of my very best childhood friends I grew up with in North Carolina. We exchanged emails, and he put me on an email list of his buddies who exchange humorous stories and jokes, most of which are just that, often around the theme of what a funny bitch it is getting older.
HOW-EVER it also turns out that my friend and most of his friends (and a couple of his kin on the list) are rabid tea-partiers. And so I frequently get the raw, uncensored version of the way they talk among themselves with their guard down…and at least in the south, it is BLATANTLY racist in a particularly ugly fashion, shocking how much of it is directed not just at Barak, but at Michelle Obama.
chopper
@ABL:
i’m in the same boat. fuck these fucking fuckers.
ABL
@beergoggles: awesome.
gaz
@beergoggles: heheh
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Hard to picture anything but the N-bom there the statement makes nonsense; it whitey land blacks a bunch of animistic brutes out to rape the white women. Were does pacifism come into that?
gaz
@cmorenc: You need new friends. I suggest looking outside of NC…
Just sayin’
Steve in DC
@JGabriel
What on earth….
That’s not the problem at ALL. EVERYONE has healthcare ACCESS, this isn’t an issue. The issue is that healthcare COSTS are going through the roof and bankrupting people, companies, and the nation.
Given the aging of our population and that treatment advances lead to better, if more expensive treatments, the only way to bring down the costs are squeezing providers (doctors are going to have to get used to being a doctor because they want to, not to make $$$Texas and be upper class, and pharma companies are going to have to make a bit less profits) by large scale bargaining and getting enough health people in the pool to offset the cost of the elderly.
Obamacare works on some of this, but still has issues. We need a national system or doctors can just go on dodging the insurance companies that don’t payout more $$$. Top flight specialists usually take cash only, maybe private insurance, and try to avoid all the medicare and medicaid patients they have (doesn’t pay enough for that second yatch and takes too long).
bemused
@Face:
No Medicaid federal funding would be financially crippling for the whole country, not just the states where nutjob governors are refusing it. A cynical person might suspect this is the goal not a glitch.
giltay
I agree with the many people here who say he just got tongue-tied and wasn’t going to use a racial slur. That said, I’m flummoxed as to what he was going to say (although maybe it would have made sense in context if I’d watched more than that part of the video).
Mark S.
@Face:
Is Justice Kennedy fucking nuts?
Is he seriously suggesting that a law might be unconstitutional if a citizen could be confused as to whether a program is state or federal?
gaz
Yes.
geg6
@RossInDetroit:
First, this could only be said by someone who only knows Santorum from afar. Second, you also have obviously not spent a minute of time among the Catholic laity, at least the laity here in Western PA. Because the worst and most virulent bigots I knew and know are all good, mass attending Catholics. And to top it off, Frothy is of the Opus Dei branch of Catholicism, one of whom is Mel Gibson, a well-known and infamous bigot.
Hill Dweller
@Face:
If that happens, the wingers will go after Medicare and Social Security next. Single-payer will be impossible until the current makeup of the Court changes.
MikeJ
@RossInDetroit: There’s the difference. I grew up in the south and was forced to go to Southern Baptist churches until I refused at about twelve. I don’t think there’s any vile thing I didn’t hear in “god’s house.”
slag
@JGabriel:
To be fair, that’s not the only thing that Veritas doesn’t get.
Dracula
Calling all lawyers — any chance the results of this “secret vote” held by the SC justices today gets leaked? Is that possible? You’d think there’d be a huge incentive by insurance companies and states trying to comply with the law to know as early as possible if they’ll need to keep complying after June. Has a leak like this ever happened before?
chopper
@beergoggles:
in his next speech, Rih will say “…so, to president obama, i say end your war on religion! this icky-icky-icky-icky ftang! zoop-boing…”
burnspbesq
@Veritas:
Actually, you’ll be the one who has to deal with it, when the cost of your health insurance skyrockets (if, indeed, you can get health insurance at any price) if the mandate is killed and insurance companies try (likely in vain) to deal with the problems of adverse selection and moral hazard created by guaranteed issue.
The delicious irony in this whole stupid situation is that it makes single-payer more, not less likely in the future. The justices sent unmistakable signals that Medicare for All would unquestionably be constitutional.
Be careful what you wish for, dumbfuck.
RossInDetroit
@geg6:
And you know Santurum from up close?
I was raised Catholic as I stated above. I know plenty of them today. And recently I spent 6 months working for a Catholic church, among black co-workers.
There are plenty of things wrong with the RCC, but potty-mouth is not one of them.
Furthermore, guilt by associaton with the odious Mel Gibson = Fail.
geg6
@Steve in DC:
I’ll pass this along to all the people I know who have no health insurance and, thus, no access without bankrupting themselves for a case of strep throat, let alone a cancer or heart disease diagnosis. They’ll be very happy to hear about this.
chopper
@gaz:
truth be told, while this case is a bit more nuts than usual, i think a lot of this is cause people are paying more attention to oral arguments. the court is always pretty wacky these days and kennedy drops some real stinkers sometimes.
burnspbesq
@Dracula:
So unlikely as to be not worth thinking about. The Supreme Court is the only leakproof institution in Washington. It’s never happened before.
And even if it did leak, it’s not reliable. The vote in conference is by definition tentative. The only thing that really depends on it is the assignment of writing the majority opinion. There are a number of documented cases of Justices changing their votes based on reading drafts of “dissenting” opinions that ultimately turn into majority opinions after the votes are recounted.
geg6
@Dracula:
No, not to my knowledge. The SCOTUS (and their entire staffs) is famously leak-proof and tight-lipped.
RossInDetroit
@MikeJ:
Yes, the difference is that Santorum is catholic, which is a world of difference. The standards of Baptist churches don’t remotely apply.
I still think he’s an asshole, I just think his catholic upbringing and religion make it very unlikely that he’s N-bomb.
And examples from other religions don’t change that.
Mark S.
@gaz:
As long as we clear that up.
Steve in DC
@Dracula
I am not a lawyer but companies will need to know early. Our healthcare through work got screwed as a result of Obamacare. We spent ages working with our providers to try and configure things properly for when Obamacare started to go into practice. This included going back and requesting new rates, changing some providers, the plans changing (co-pays, and the like going up, we got screwed) and all sorts of other idiocy.
Insurance companies and companies that provide insurance to their employee’s have been busting their ass to company with the current healthcare law, it’s been crazy. Tossing it out will cause more problems.
beergoggles
@chopper: Heh why not. He’s been claiming “tis but a scratch” and “It’s just a flesh wound” while steadily losing..
Joey Maloney
@SenyorDave: No, you’re thinking of Monty Python. “We are the knights who say ‘ni-gger’!”
…oops, totally beaten to it. Oh well.
Joey + 2, GMT+ 2
Ben Franklin
Is Justice Kennedy fucking nuts?
Is half of the Court comprised of Kangaroos?
bemused
@cmorenc:
If they are more vile toward Michele, I think that is pretty telling. They are secretly attracted to her but can’t admit it except maybe in vile sexist terms.
Dracula
@burnspbesq: I was thinking of a path by which Thomas tells his wife, who as a teabagger organizer, could clandestinely (or not so clandestinely) signal victory to her peers, especially if its 5-4 to strike down and she’s unable to contain her glee. Oh well, till June we wait.
rlrr
@chopper:
Also, if the same healthcare reform was passed by a Republican President:
1. It would likely not have been challenged (at least not by the same people).
2. If it was, the conservatives on the the court would likely support it
The cons are a bunch of partisan hacks and history will not be kind to them…
Ben Franklin
“That is absolutely ridiculous.”
Re-neg, on the nig……
Satanicpanic
@Steve in DC: ?
Where, at the ER? Certainly there is a probably of access in this country.
There is probably no nation in the world, and certainly no developed nation, where doctors aren’t upper class, and rightly so. Some of them are going to have to take a pay cut, but there’s no way they’re going to work for what we pay school teachers (for instance) and we shouldn’t expect them to.
beltane
@geg6: There are also many doctors who will flat-out refuse to even see uninsured patients under any circumstances. That is the reality of our health care system.
rlrr
@Satanicpanic:
In some parts of the world, teachers do have as much prestige as medical doctors…
burnspbesq
@geg6:
No shit. I recently spent about 36 hours in a hospital. I have pretty gold-plated health insurance, COBRA coverage from my last big law firm job, so it’s only going to cost me about $300. But the total bill was over $20K.
beergoggles
@bemused: Of course they are. It’s the whole basis for their “black men are after your wives and daughters” projection.
geg6
@RossInDetroit:
Actually, yes. He was my senator and was involved in local politics (U.S. House member, an aide to former State Senator Corman and to the state Senate, a campaign aide to Senator John Heinz) for years and years before winning that office. Since I have been involved in politics for about the same time, often volunteering for Dem campaigns either against him or his employers, I know him as well as anyone who hasn’t actually met him can. I’ve known of him and have followed his career since the 1970s.
Have you?
shortstop
@Dracula: This is poorly written, but you may find it interesting, as I did.
burnspbesq
@Ben Franklin:
No. Wallabies, wombats, and diseased Tasmanian Devils, but no kangaroos.
geg6
@RossInDetroit:
You seem to think being Catholic means that it’s impossible to be a bigot. Perhaps in Detroit that is true. I can say with complete confidence that it is most definitely not true in Pittsburgh and its environs, which is where little Ricky is from, as am I.
Satanicpanic
@rlrr: Sure. And they pay them accordingly. Unlike us.
Dana Lush
Naw, he just meant the President was those short pant that tuck into his shoes.
shortstop
@geg6: I don’t think Ross suggested that Catholics can’t be bigots. He’s arguing for the lower probability of Catholics dropping N bombs to express that bigotry. Apparently people in this thread have varying experiences of how racist Catholics verbalize their prejudices.
geg6
@shortstop:
As a child, the only place I ever heard the n-word was in other households (we were strictly forbidden to use such language and my parents never uttered a racist word in my presence). Since my entire neighborhood and all my parents friends were Catholics, that would seem to indicate that Catholics are just as bigoted as any other group of white people and have no problems with verbalizing their bigotry. Yes, there were exceptions (my parents being one). But that’s true anywhere, even among Southern Baptists. This whole self-righteous bull about Catholics being special and not using racist terminology is a load of garbage.
burnspbesq
@shortstop:
Also worth remembering that correlation is not causation. Were the working-class Irish Catholics in Boston who threw rocks at school buses in the 1970s to protest school integration racist because of Catholicism, or Irishness, or working-class-ness? I think the only intellectually honest answer is “who the hell knows?”
HRA
I remember not having health insurance, having a child get sick for 6 years and having to pay for MD visits, hospital stays and medicine with enormous difficulty. I also remember having jobs where health insurance was provided by the employer and I did not have to pay for anything. I remember when the beginning of having to pay partially for health insurance began and followed by co-pays for MD visits and medicine. Somewhere among this having to pay there came the HMOs. The personal payments of the above started creeping up from that day forward. Am I right?
Donut
@JGabriel:
I’m with you. I understand the concern with alienating people by making a “big deal” out of stuff like this, but we are talking about a very small number of people who would be offended, and they are not voting Democratic no how, no way, not ever. But there might be value in highlighting the man’s disrespect so that others who lean Democratic are aware of what an odious turd this fuck is – and same with Romney, once he locks down the nomination. We are in a war with Wingnuts, and the media is not friendly to our side, they just like confrontation, conflict, shit-stirring – because it helps get eyeballs and earscrews tuned in. Does it matter what he did or didn’t mean to say? Sorta, yeah. But listen to the (supposed) substance of what this fuckhead is saying. And listen to what Romney says all the time…It’s clear that they think nothing of dog-whistling and subtly jabbing President vis a vis race, and neither man has any respect for Barack Obama. They stand there lying and spewing half-truth word salad all the time. We need to push back and engage in our own propaganda and make hay out of this shit. The right is very good at seizing on these things and throwing tantrums over them. They do it all the time…and do we all know why? Because it fucking works.
shortstop
@geg6: Your experiences have been different than Ross’s. This is a purely anecdotal discussion.
My experiences have been different than both of yours, but lacking something a little more scientific than my own observation, I don’t have an opinion on this.
rlrr
@geg6:
Father
Coughlin
Pat Buchanan
bemused
@beergoggles:
The Costanza Principle is easily detected in wingnuts.
Svensker
@Anya:
Ditto.
Egg Berry
When this appeared on a thread earlier this morning, I said it didn’t sound like he was going to say the N word, because it didn’t make sense in the context of “anti-war candidate” and the next phrase in his speech. Also, it sounded like he pronounced “Neh,” not “Nih.” I chalk it up to him being an idiot who needs a teleprompter.
But if it makes folks happy to go in a rage over this nothingburger, then knock yourselves out.
RossInDetroit
I live 3 miles from Father Coughlin’s old church. I know Catholics can be bigots. And I can’t know that Santorum isn’t one. Nobody can know that but him.
My argument from my upbringing and recent experiences in the Catholic Church is that they don’t use overtly racist language. Which makes it unlikely that a Catholic politician would drop an n-bomb in front of an open mic.
It was a probably a verbal flub that sounded worse than it was. Clumsy speech, but not the worst racist insult you could make, coming out in front of a live camera.
priscianusjr
This is definitely going to damage black support for Santorum. Oh wait a minute ….
shortstop
@Egg Berry:
I find it hilarious that he keeps ragging on teleprompters* when all his remarks — from three minutes off the cuff in diners to long formal speeches — are festivals of incoherent rambling. Stream of consciousness is not a useful MO for public speaking, particularly when the speaker has no nonvaginal core message to begin with.
*And yes, I know why he’s doing it and recognize the insult to Obama, but it’s especially funny that someone so bad at extemporaneous speaking would come up with this.
gnomedad
@MattF:
Fixed.
gnomedad
@ABL:
This. And this.
askew
@Dracula:
That’s what I am interested in too. I really hope we get some kind of leak on how the justices are leaning. Making us wait until June is going to make me nuts.
Keith G
@Anya: But Anya, outrage is so much more fun than logic.
Citizen Alan
Oh for fuck’s sake. Do you mean to tell me that the new site update trashed the pie filter and now I have to read the idiot ravings of that goat-raping child molester Veritas? Somebody better get on this, stat!
CardinalRed
I heard “nig uh, blah blah blah people”.
Catsy
Having listened to it several times now, I really don’t know what to think.
He began to say “ni-“. It is clearly enunciated. Then he chokes it off, and it’s not clear to me if it’s “nig-“, “nik-“, or “ni-” with an awkward glottal stop.
I really have no idea whether or not he started to say that word. It doesn’t make sense in context, not as something that would naturally flow from the rest of the sentence even if one was inclined to interject it somewhere.
But I don’t know what else beginning with “ni-” would plausibly fit there either.
Mouse Tolliver
I didn’t hear him say nigger. I heard him say “coon asses”, which is a term of endearment in Louisiana.
Gin & Tonic
Probably too late in the thread to have much impact, but even the estimable Language Log blog is covering this. Professor Liberman’s conclusion “But unlike in the “blah people” case, I’m at a loss for plausible theories of what the inputs to this error might have been. And there’s little doubt that the syllable he stops and corrects is [nɪg]”
SmallAxe
I don’t hear it and it doesn’t make sense in context to me either. For the record I definitely heard GZ say F’ing C**ns on that recording. This one just seems like a slip up, word salad.
Peter
Sent a video excerpt to my wife for her entertainment. Her reply: “I can’t play this because every time I do, the dog barks at the sound of Santorum’s voice.”
Now there’s a dog with sense!
gaz
@MeDrewNotYou:
Okay, now that you’ve used santorum, unpalatable, and rimshot in the same sentence, I need to go wash my eyes out with bleach.
And I just ate. You sir, are cruel.
trex
@Citizen Alan
Veritas claims the goat was asking for it by wearing that sexy hoodie.
catclub
@Citizen Alan: Somewhere a searchlight with a pie cutout is being warmed up.
gaz
@Citizen Alan:
For the record, Kola Noscopy/Clime Acts is the goat-raping child molester.
Veritas is just a dime a dozen winger troll.
=)
catclub
@JasonF: Government nihilist alinskyite radical.
Or some such gibberish.
AlladinsLamp
He was going to say: “ni – eofascistanticolonialistmuslinmarxist…”
Town
He did say “Ni-.” Whether “gger” was to follow, who knows?
HOWEVER, Santorum has said stuff about “not wanting to give taxpayer money away to black/blah people.”
He signed that pledge that stated black children were better off under slavery than under President Obama.
He’s talked about how Obama, being black, should be the last person to say who can be determined a person or not.
The fact that we all think this guy said this, might have said this or wanted to say this tells me he’s got a perception problem. I think any other guy besides Gingrich could have said this and most people would give them the benefit of the doubt. Not this guy Santorum. Nope.
TooManyJens
@Veritas:
An endorsement from the guy who wants to replace Medicare with vouchers and gouge seniors for their healthcare. That’ll really help Mr. 1%.
As far as Santorum goes, I think that in context “ni-CLANG” doesn’t actually make a ton of sense, and in theory he could have been trying to say something about how “negative” Obama was (because he was talking about how Obama hated American and all that bullshit). But then why did he stop himself and suddenly veer off into saying something totally different? Weird.
TooManyJens
@Town:
Oh Jesus CHRIST, I forgot about that steaming turd of a pledge.
Tonal Crow
Is it so hard to refrain from feeding trolls?
rikyrah
well, you nailed it.
Tonal Crow
After “blah people”, no, I am not willing to give him any benefit of the doubt. The “nig” is very clear, and the discombobulation and abrupt change of direction that follow support the argument that he bit back hard at continuing some word that begins “nig”. What words begin with that phoneme and are at all appropriate in context?
Southern Beale
I thought he called them BLAH people.
Ruckus
Santorum crossed that line long ago.
I’m not sure he was ever on this side.
Ruckus
@Citizen Alan:
Cleek has updated the pie filter. Go to the same place you went before and install. Assholes all gone.
TG Chicago
The context is all wrong for the n-word. My guess is that he was about to say that Obama claims “government didn’t do anything right” then he realized that’s HIS line, and he meant to say that “America didn’t do anything right”, going into the “apology tour” stuff.
A Humble Lurker
Can’t it be both? That it was not what he was planning to say (thereby an issue of being tongue tied) but it was exactly what it sounds like?
David Koch
But gangster rappers use the N word so why is it wrong if Santorum uses the N word?
/fixed news
David Koch
can’t believe you guys are giving a long time noted hate monger like Sen Man on Dog
wrb
Funny, the Catholics I grew up around used terms racist terms like ni- and “heeb” all the time.
They did, however, use “wop,” “greaser,” “paddy” “mick” and “pollack” even more frequently.
El Cid
Clearly he meant “nickel-pincher”, which is just 5 times as bad as a penny-pincher.
Darkrose
@RossInDetroit: I was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago. Later, I moved to Boston.
The level of overt racism I’ve experienced and witnessed from Irish- and Italian-Americans, most of whom were nominally Catholic, makes the stereotypical Southern racist look almost benign.
Darkrose
Here’s the thing:
I have an incredibly foul mouth. I regularly use “fuck” as a noun, verb, adjective and adverb, sometimes in the same sentence. And that look Frothy got was exactly the one I get when I start to drop the f-bomb and realize I’m talking to my boss, or my mother-in-law, or someone else that I really shouldn’t swear in front of. As the word is forming, I’m desperately trying to convert it to “fudge” or “frell” or “figwit” or anything else, even though I know it’s obvious what I was about to say.
That wasn’t “Oops, I got tongue-tied there for a minute.” That was, “Wait! I didn’t mean that I’m on camera oh fucking SHIT!”