Former Tacoma News Tribune political reporter (and avid Philadelphia Eagles fan) Ken Vogel reports for Politico on the sudden plethora of political events scheduled for this 9/11 compared to recent years.
Some, like dueling New York City rallies over the proposed Burlington Coat Factory Mosque, are specifically timed to commemorate the day, while others, like Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s Razorbacks tailgate party just treat the date like any other Saturday. But one event in particular stands out for its willingness to cheapen the memory of the attack by expropriating it for political gain:
Washington GOP Senate nominee Dino Rossi’s speech at a Tacoma-area Republican women’s club fundraiser dubbed “Let’s Roll on to Victory” (a take on the exhortation of a passenger on a doomed flight who fought back the hijackers during the 2001 attacks)…
Diana Landahl, president of the Gig Harbor (Wash.) Republican club that is holding the “Let’s Roll on to Victory” fundraiser, said “it was kind of coincidental that we ended up on 9/11, but once we realized it, we decided to make note of this.”
Landahl told Politico that “people seem to be forgetting what happened to us on 9/11,” and of course, what better way to keep this memory fresh than to hold a closed-door, high-donor, political fundraiser at a private residence behind the closed gates of the exclusive Canterwood Golf & Country Club?
When Todd Beamer yelled “Let’s roll!” as he and his fellow passengers heroically stormed the cockpit of United Flight 93 in a suicide mission that ultimately ended in ashes in a field in Pennsylvania, I’m sure this is exactly what he had in mind. Hell, perhaps next year, Rossi should celebrate the day by making the phrase a theme of one of his real estate seminars, as in: “Let’s Roll on to Profits in the Lucrative Foreclosure Market!”
Admittedly, I’m not that sentimental a guy, and I don’t really expect candidates to forever take the day off, especially this close to such a contentious election. But let’s be honest: had it been Patty Murray who shamelessly scheduled a “Let’s roll”-themed fundraiser on 9/11, Rossi’s people would have been all over her for cheapening both a national tragedy and the personal suffering of the victims and their families. And no doubt our local media would have obliged by covering the “controversy.”
But Rossi, well, we all hold him to a lower standard, so don’t expect to see his thoughtless fit of poor taste mentioned on the 11 o’clock news.
I take it that Dino will being doing a special reading from “My Pet Goat” to demonstrate the kind of leadership we can expect from a Republican.
Dino Rossi is just pure slime. The GOP has long had this formula of using phony piousness, slicked back greasy-ass hair and $4000 suits combined with the cheap used car salesman attitude and that easy, mouth only smile.
The people of Texas are beginning to understand what that image presents to the world. What sort of individual presenting that phony public image seems to always end up really turning out to be. They call their Governor, “Governor Goodhair”, and they know for absolute fact that the man is slime.
Somehow though, this continues to win elections. I will never understand this. They present themselves as being so family-oriented, so religious, so faithful to their belief systems. That for some totally incomprehensible reason, calling oneself a christian somehow means that they are more honest or correct in their thinking or decision making processes. And every single candidate I see doing this, Democrat or Republican, is always the same.
Slick, kinda stupid, with that underlying stench of greasy flim flam artist. You just know they’re working an angle on it. Some other purpose other than to sit in a cushy chair and pretend to give a fuck about the people that voted for them. They only need to please their campaign donors and the dudes that slicked that manila envelope under the table with their foot. Just keep that money rolling in. Everything else, doing their duty as elected Representatives
or serving the interests of the citizenry becomes secondary. These people wouldn’t piss in your face if your nose was on fire. They couldn’t give a fuck that the laws they pass are used by the banks and megacorporations to fuck the voters over, they’re proud of that fact. They consider that the job.
Dino Rossi exudes that stench to an extraordinary degree. How could anyone take this cheesedick seriously?
Guys like this used to run shoe stores. How the hell did they suddenly find their way into politics?
If Rossi gets some fire in his belly and campaigns like this guy, Murray is surely toast.
@3
Yeah, baby!
Surely he took the phrase from Woody Guthrie’s “Roll on Comumbia”.
Rossi seems to be on the campaign trail. Here he is with one of his favorite groups, the Master Builders. Rossi warms up Olympia builders’ dinner http://www.bellinghamherald.co.....lders.html
The gates may be closed, but you can always park your car on Borgen Blvd and walk (or ride your bike) up the road with the water tower*, or take any of the other dozen or so trails that lead into Canterwood. I zip through Canterwood on my bike every now and again and the rent-a-cops have never hassled me.
* http://tinyurl.com/2un434c
He apparently thinks that people will somehow associate his brand of integrity (rolls eyes) with that of Mr. Beamer who, along with the others probably knew the outcome and still did it anyway.
I’m not at all sure what Rossi offers to Washingtonians. We already know he isn’t Patty Murray. And he seems to be campaigning on generic National republican issues. So Washington voters should elect him to….occupy space and vote with the Nat’l party with no particular interest in representing the interests of the state of Washington. He is very clear he doesn’t want to be elected to serve the voters of the state, but rather that the voters of the state should send him to D.C. to be an automaton for the GOP.
Apparently since his primary thing is “I’m not Patty” he would also be against say, actively promoting Vets, business in WA state, and simply pretending that earmarks aren’t part of the process and thus let them go to other states.
What other then pathetic one line pandering statements did anyone expect of this schmuck?
Let’s roll? Let’s roll this loser in to the dust bin of history with a 3 time loser tag.
LOL…..from a guy who eats choclate to raise funds to murder unborn babies.
Chocolate dipped zygote….yuuuuuuummmmmmmmm
Sane conservatives (Dino Lossi used be one) and brain-owning Republicans can’t even recognize their own party anymore. http://thinkprogress.org/2010/.....recognize/ Why are right wingers so obsessed with Sharia law? Because their version of Sharia law is just an offshoot…they gotta tone it down because of that whole Constitution thing…
And Rossi is ahead on realpolitics.com by 2.3% among all the polls. I hope you libs are ready for a whoopin, as not since 1930 has one house been taken that both were not. And do the math on the senate race one more and it is a 50 50. So bye bye libs this Nov will be a kick ass moment…
@11
Chocolate dipped zygote….yuuuuuuummmmmmmmm
well, the zygote would probably taste better if the mother was a jew. all the chicken livers. lox and bagel, and cream cheese she ate would be like fattening a duck.
actually, i think i kinda like abortion (i mean, a woman’s right to choose), now. cause, you pretty much can be as racist as you want and people cant really say “hey, dont say racist things while were sucking the brains outta this baby”. or can they.
How dare Rossi cheapen the Muslim terrorist attacks on America by attending a fund-raising event called “Let’s roll on to victory!”
ld @13,
You’re right. We shouldn’t be offended that Rossi is cheapening the memory of 9/11 as long as SurveyUSA and Rasmussen show him ahead in the polls. My bad.
This is disgusting, if ever there was a solemn occasion. Not only trumping up the mosque controversy, but leveraging 9/11 in the process, it’s slimy^2.
Of course, although obvious political rallies on 9/11 have been rare, Republicans have been exploiting 9/11 every year since Bush launched his Iraq War campaign in 2002 with a “be scared, be really scared” propaganda event/speech.
17 You’re right. And we shouldn’t be offended that Murray is racking up 13.5 trillion in debt with 1.4 Trillion year after year deficits, plus Obamacare which 56% of the public want thrown out. My Bad
@ 19
Y’know, people know you’re lying. That phony reactionary whining isn’t working anymore. People know you’re just full of shit when you folks say crap like that. It is that kind of rhetoric that reminds me of the reason I will never, ever vote Republican. Just too many damn lies and delusions. It’s really pathetic.
Its a broken record, and its long since worn out its welcome.
Goldy, actually this makes sense. I’ve overheard more than a few conversations of Republican Women of Gig Harbor types and they seem to think liberals & the working class are terrorists too.
Who knew the aftermath of 9/11 would be a giant oil slick?
The Gig Harbor Republican Woman’s Club are just all-around tacky.
Every year they march in the local parade wearing gaudy flag-skirts – totally ignoring their own conservative standards on how to honor the flag. Their candidates also ride in the back of a a gas-guzzling convertible or a Hummer with “Born in the USA” blaring from the stereo – clueless to the actual words of the song.
They constantly berate everyone to “never forget” 9-11, and now they conveniently “forget” that an event they’re hosting for the most hotly-watched political contest in the state just happens to be on 9-11?
Like I said – tacky!
@23
Yep!
Only a knee-jerk lefty asshole would slam Rossi for an event that someone else is hosting. How anyone with an IQ above that of a carrot could vote to retain Patty Murray is beyond me.
This is just straight up disgusting.
I am absolutely amazed how the GOP across the country seems to own the brand: coincidence. That seems to be their favorite ploy these days, coincidentally scheduling events on days that they claim to have forgotten everything about yet then shroud them in themes that evoke those days. Anyone who believes that it is coincidental that the fundraiser was “accidentally” scheduled for 9/11, with its “Let’s Roll” theme, will certainly pay money to see a free concert; we should have one.
What makes this truly apropos is that Rossi and the the other GOP candidates, if elected, will doubtless work together toward the right’s ultimate “solution” to our stagnant economy: Find an excuse to start another war or two and put the likes of Halliburton and Xe back on the military gravy train.
Uhhhh moronic stupido@28,
Halliburton is still on the military gravy train. Odumba’s crew gave them a big contract last year.
Oh year… you have to continue the useless libtardo talking points else you have nothing to “bring” to HA!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Dino Rossi shouldn’t hold a fundraiser on 9/11, especially one with a (kitschy) 9/11 theme. That said, it should be pointed out– I’m talking to you, Goldy!– that Patty Murray has held a fundraiser on 9/11. It was either the first or second anniversary (can’t remember exactly, but I will look it up), a posh breakfast event in D.C. I heard no complaints from the left-of-center.
Also, Goldy, if you have a problem with Scott Rasmussen’s methodology, please be specific. Do you object to his sampling sizes? Or his screening for likely voters? I didn’t hear you (or anyone else on the left) grumbling in 2006 when he was the only major pollster showing Jon Tester competitive against Conrad Burns in Montana, or in 2008 when he was the first to show Liddy Dole in trouble. He nailed both races.
Oh and one more really important thing Goldy: here’s a shout-out for your analysis of Friedman’s Free to Choose. Your comments, especially on the nature of bureaucracy, were more thoughtful and incisive than anything I’ve heard lately from the self-styled libertarian right. Genuine conservatism (even the libertarian variety) rejects ideology. It is not rigid, it does not operate in a vacuum. It is reality based. It is about governing competently. I find it sad that you seem to understand this more than the bloviators over at Sound Politics. They are all ideology all the time. Eyeman and his cohort only care about payola and winning elections.
I’d looking forward to hearing more of your thoughts on Milty, Capitalism and Freedom, etc. Maybe Hayek and Charles Murray, too.
On second thought…
Maybe politicians (of whatever stripe) should be able to hold fundraisers on 9/11 without anyone whining about it. (Unless, like Rossi, they do a 9/11 theme. That really is trashy and contemptible.) All this talk about 9/11 being a “sacred” date in history and Ground Zero being “sacred” or “hollowed” ground is disturbing. These are, let’s not forget, religious terms. The terrorists are seeking a religious clash of civilizations. If we develop the habit of describing 9/11 in these terms then we are handing a huge moral and strategic victory to these fanatics. So let’s keep our 9/11-thinking couched in secular terms, and Murray and Rossi can do whatever they please on 9/11, hold fundraisers, play pickleball, shoot heroin, whatever.