Dave Weigel at Slate reports on the Media Village Idiots’ SotU crush:
… When President Obama entered the chamber, Nugent stood up, and reporters finally saw him. He spent the entire speech, 13 typed pages, in various stages of physical agony. At the emotional apex of the night, when the president counted off victims who “deserve a vote,” Nugent sat with his arms crossed.
“My favorite part was when I couldn’t hear clearly,” said Nugent to reporters after the speech. “Then I didn’t get angry.”
A cynic might have looked at Nugent then, attracting swarms of reporters below statues of Bob LaFollette and Huey Long, and asked why the media went so astray. It’s a good question. But Obama’s speech—especially the rousing section on guns—was an appeal for skeptical members of Congress to abandon their positions and come around to his. If Nugent joined the Republican caucus, he wouldn’t even be its most conservative member. Someone more conservative could—nay, will—throw up hurdles against a gun bill, or an immigration bill, or a voting reform bill….
As Nugent talked to reporters, his sponsor, Rep. Steve Stockman, was standing more or less alone.[…] Nugent just kept moving from camera to camera, from the set-up satellite feeds in Statuary Hall to the hand-helds of independent reporters. Like the median House Republican, he had his constituency, and he knew it was bigger than the liberals’. “If you walk the halls with me,” he told a National Review writer, “every military guy, every cop, has an Uncle Ted story. See the smile on my face? These are my buddies here. I’m surrounded by working hard, playing hard Americans.”
Nugent was shepherded over to a standing MSNBC camera. Two police officers looked on, confused by the mobile media herd.
“Who’s that?” asked one cop.
“It’s Ted Nugent,” said the other cop. “He’s a rock star, he talks about guns.”
“Really? Never heard of him.”
ETA: Commentor Southern Beale shares the news that the stylish blond gent seated next to the Nuge was Thomas Lauderdale of Pink Martini.
*************
What’s on the agenda for the eve of Valentines — or, as us long-term couples call it, Amateur Day?
MikeJ
Ran to Fran’s for salted caramels. Got a haircut while I was out.
paradox
Some months ago I posed the question of possible concrete cooling techniques for the Hoover Dam, and have since found out the cooling pipes were filled with grout when finished.
They must have run through the top half or third of the pour frames, but they are never seen in the documentary footage. I dunno why. They absolutely had to be there, cooling the dam was a fucking huge issue.
[shrugs] So goes my brain. I don’t do Valentine’s day, I could give a rats ass. Not overly hostile, just not interested.
Litlebritdifrnt
Conversation with DH this weekend. (I am in total control of the purse strings here, he doesn’t spend a dime without me knowing about it)
DH “can I have $60.00 for valentines?”
Me “if it means your idiot florist friend is going to prepare a basket full of bath products that I will never use and chocolates that I will never eat all foo fooed up with ribbons and crap then no”
DH “hmmmmmm how about my valentines gift to you is saying go and spend $60.00 at Lowes on anything gardening related you want and I won’t buy you anything?”
Me “that’ll work”
Methinks the husband is learning, only took him 20 years.
General Stuck
Nugent is a fucking pig, and I approve of him being the right’s poster boy.
gogol's wife
@MikeJ:
Those look good. The Times did a spread on salted caramels, and I was tempted to order some, but they said they were as expensive as a fine wine, so I decided to stick to M&Ms.
I am so sick of having to type in my name every time I comment.
Mr Stagger Lee
Now that has to hurt, if one is a Fox News/RW talk radio nut.
Hell the GOPers just discovered Tupac, because Rubio knows who he is.
jl
Adding new bunker, checking night vision goggles, inventorying ammo, and cleaning my assault rifles for the earthquake/hurricane/tsunami/debt crisis/Mad Max Thunderdome event the NRA says is comin’ on any day now. You know. the total breakdown of civilization. Is all.
So, a quiet evening. Nothing special.
MikeJ
@gogol’s wife: Fran’s are the ones Obama gets when he comes to town.
RSA
Checking demographic statistics, I discover that the median age in the U.S. is about 36–about half of the entire U.S. population was born in or after 1977, the year of Ted Nugent’s last hit, Cat Scratch Fever. So yeah, no reason someone should have heard of him.
Schlemizel
“Really? Never heard of him.”
Oh how I wish I could say that!
The Dangerman
Valentine’s Eve? Oh, shit!
(sounds of running footsteps, door slamming)
Ruckus
@gogol’s wife:
Try putting the cursor in the box and taping twice. When I do that I get the info in a drop down and just tap it to fill in the box. Not as good as having it autofilled but better than typing.
Schlemizel
Extended weekend coming up. Some doof scheduled the women’s hockey teams senior celebration dinner for 2/14!?! Fortunately, after 38 years of marriage we have bonded well enough that we celebrate our partnership every day.
The up side is we start partying tomorrow night, then again as the longest winning streak in NCAA hockey history gets extended by two more games, Friday and Saturday. Sunday we are having a family bowling challenge as our son fails to beat his mom yet again (she is very good). And the place I work has listed Presidents day as a holiday so we’ll be checking up on my sister, who broke her ankle a month ago & is not getting around 100% yet, and relaxing a little.
Pretty mundane but you know how it gets to be on a daily basis.
Ruckus
@The Dangerman:
Not having an SO does so make valentines eve and anniversaries a lot less stress filled. Of course you end up with no thank yous for the gift you didn’t need to barely remember to get but still.
Schlemizel
@Ruckus:
True but still a PItA. I assume the breakage has to do with cookies & had to happen so people clicking on BJ didn’t end up at a post from last week.
We’re all cheer on the rebuild!
Southern Beale
I love this picture of Nugent trying to get as far away as possible from the Pink Martini’s Thomas Lauderdale, the gay, pro-gun control, pro-Occupy Wall Street guest of Rep. Earl Blumenauer.
Southern Beale
@Ruckus:
So I’m not the only one who doesn’t have autofill on that stuff? I thought it was just me.
Spaghetti Lee
“My favorite part was when I couldn’t hear clearly,” said Nugent to reporters after the speech. “Then I didn’t get angry.”
Oh, that Nuge! What a card! How can you libruls stand up against rapier wit like that?
BTW, Nuge, if you knew you were gonna hate it you should have stayed home, you ingrate.
handsmile
Lest we forget, in a week of such Roman Catholic tsuris, today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. (Joey Ratz decided to give up the Papacy as his Lenten sacrifice.)
This is always one of my favorite days of the year here in fashionable New York City, people walking around with soot rubbed into the middle of their foreheads.
And because this blog has become so damned literary of late, herewith T.S. Eliot on the day:
http://www.msgr.ca/msgr-7/ash_wednesday_t_s_eliot.htm
PsiFighter37
I’m so drank. Tell Ted Nugent to suck it.
PF37 +5
James Gary
@RSA: “Wango Tango” was a hit of sorts in 1980, so that needs to be figured into your calculation.
Give Nugent credit where it’s due: the guy made some great, self-consciously-stupid rock records (which I, as an early-teen in the early 80’s, enjoyed a lot more than most of the other crap then available on classic-rock radio). It kind of sucks he turned out to be a wingnut, but there you go.
MikeJ
It seems like fully half of Palladia’s programming is the Foos, which is ok with me, cause I love ’em. Except every time I see them on TV I have to listen to (GI). I’m at Lexicon Devil right now.
Ruckus
@Southern Beale:
I know that as a liberal I should have more appreciation for people’s continuing to breath but the only picture of little teddy I’d like to see is his last one horizontal, in a box, with a lid that dirt can be shoveled on.
Ruckus
@Southern Beale:
I believe it’s all of us.
Baron Elmo
Couldn’t be more in favor of the GOP following up on this Nuge idiocy and recruiting even more of their motley crew of nutballs in the entertainment field as party spokespeople. Please, Repubs, enlist Victoria Jackson to preach the gooper gospel while you’re at it. Also, Jon Voight, Kelsey Grammer, Dave Mustaine, Dennis Miller and Michael Moriarty. Turn ’em all loose; let the asses bray. Americans under 40 will totally respect you then, I swear!
Jay S
@Spaghetti Lee:
He suffers for our sins.
Ruckus
@handsmile:
Forgot all about the soot. Saw a person with a forehead of soot(first time I recall, ever) and just figured he forgot to wash after work.
Anne Laurie
@The Dangerman:
This be a full service blog, my friend.
PanurgeATL
@James Gary:
You know how we think of people going full wingnut in the wake of 9/11? For some reason, we forget about all the people who went at least conservative in the wake of the Iran hostage crisis. I think Ted was one of those (he wrote a song called “Bound and Gagged” in response to it), and it just grew from there. Charlie Daniels (who supported his fellow Southerner Jimmy Carter in 1976) seems to have undergone the same conversion experience.
Eric U.
I really don’t think I would have ever heard a Nugent song except radio played “cat scratch fever” for many years after it was released. It only barely made it into the top 30, which unfortunately made it required to be played by the top 40 stations in heavy rotation for years.
PsiFighter37
@The Dangerman: Fuck that shit. I’m not taking my fiancee out for VE Day, mainly because both of us will be working.
That said, I’ve got a couple of nice dinners lined up in Killadelphia for the weekend. Word up.
PF37 still +5
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@James Gary: 80s? I think of him as mid-seventies, but I have a lousy memory. My only memory of him as a musician is Cat Scratch Fever. ETA: Ah, now I see RSA’s post, and I was kinda right.
I was in the car listening to MSNBC, and Luke Russert (I think) interviewed him and Nugent actually brought up shitting himself. It didn’t sound like Li’l Luke had ever heard how Nugent got out of Vietnam, but it sounded like Ted knows that there are those of us who remember. He strikes me as the type who keeps track of what people are saying about him.
raven
@Eric U.: Journey to the Center of the Mind.
raven
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Who gives a fuck what he remembers?
negative 1
Ooh! I know who he is. He’s the guy who had his underage girlfriend’s parents sign him legal custodial duties so he could still commit statutory rape. Then he lied about being a college student to dodge the draft.
It’s a shame the media doesn’t know who he is apparently.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
anybody else notice Rachel Maddow has upped her concern meds lately
Spaghetti Lee
@Jay S:
Good, cause I’ve got lots of sins.
Anya
@Southern Beale: He just looks like a gross old man.
Yutsano
@MikeJ:
I hate you. Those things are total crack. The raspberry truffles are to die for too. I have a friend moving up here and she loves Fran’s, so I’m going to get her a gift box as a welcome present.
JCT
Uncle Ted? Yecch.
Hey, Uncle Ted, can you tell us that awesome story about how you shat your pants for a week to get out of going to Vietnam and some more of those awesome hunting stories about how you unlawfully killed a bear with your bow? Is that what patriotism is really all about?
What a waste of protoplasm.
befuggled
@James Gary: Ted Nugent was also in Damn Yankees, who had a couple of hits in the early nineties.
Jay S
@Spaghetti Lee: Then he should do lots of suffering.
Captain C
We’@JCT: We’ll know the media’s trending back toward competence and actual reporting when, the next time Nugent talks about how shows love for the troops by playing for them, they ask him about his pants the week before he went to the draft board. Or even just asks about his own military service, preferably in a wide-eyed, innocent way, for example.
Reporter: So, tell us about your own military service, Mr. Nugent.
TN: (some arglebargle B@!!$#!& answer, assuming he doesn’t just threaten or run)
Reporter: Really? Aren’t you the right age to have gone to Vietnam?
g
“If you walk the halls with me,” he told a National Review writer, “every military guy, every cop, has an Uncle Ted story.
Yeah, they do. But it’s probably not what Uncle Ted thinks it is.
TerryC
Nugent looked like an in-law at a family dinner, extremely uncomfortable because he had to get clean, shave, and dress up. And there is no TV and no one wants to talk sports. Geez.