Hey, it turns out US Sen. Jim Bunning is not, in fact, the nuttiest politician in Kentucky. Saturday night, at KY-04’s annual Lincoln Day Dinner, the appropriately named US Rep. Geoff Davis (R-1960) displayed that famous Southern charm, saying of Sen. Barack Obama:
“I’m going to tell you something: That boy’s finger does not need to be on the button,”
And that cracker’s lily white ass doesn’t need to be in the US House.
All republican candidates are hurtling toward their Macacca moment.
Wow, I just noticed…I can find my Columbian beauty. Whew hew!
Stamm and Stupes,
What was that about racists?
One has to have “Dueling Banjos” playing in the background while reading the quote.
He looks like it too.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/.....tucky.html
Oh good lard. He looks like Buck Owens after an all-weekend meth bender. OMGWTFBBQ!???!
It’s also telling to see from the referenced article that the only way these two knuckle draggers can deal with Hillary is to make jokes about her husband’s penis.
I’ve been far more concerned about who’s “had his finger on the button” since the turn of the millenium.
It’s pretty evident to any sane person who’s dealt with alcoholics that there’s no way Dumbya’s on the wagon. With that in mind, picture yourself as one of the young military officers given the honor of “carrying the football” in an Oval Office confrontation with a raging drunk who’s hollering “I’m th’ goddammed c’mander-in-CHIEF, soldier! Now open that case an’ gimme th’ fuckin’ launch codes!”
“We’re all one race, the human race…”
I love that: “Macacca moment.” That’s hilarious!
[BTW, am I hallucinating that ad for Newt Gingrich on this page? Uchk! Now I have to “delete my cookies.”]
Newsday reported over the weekend that Obama took about $125,000 from Greenberg Traurig employees at their Miami offices last October. The firm made headlines when its biggest lobbyist, Jack Abramoff, admitted to several counts of corruption and was sentenced to prison.
Any leftist feeling “bitter” about this moment yet?
Okay, I can’t listen to the feed while I am at work, and I HATE being in any position to defend a Republican, but here goes.
Most of the problem with the statement will apparantly be a reference to the word “boy” in reference to a black person. Certainly, the word has historically been used in a perjorative context.
But having grown up in the South, I know that the word “boy” is frequently used to refer to any male who is younger than the speaker. And anyone younger than the speaker is supposed to refer to any older male as “Sir”.
The reason it can be used as a racial slur is that racists in the South would demean blacks by referring to all male blacks as “boys”, regardless of age. Of course, the tone of voice also has a lot to do with it.
So I wouldn’t immediately jump to the conclusion that a Southerner using the term has racist motives. For a politician, it’s certainly a foolish use of terms, in that a politician should be aware that it can be construed as a racial comment, and they should avoid it like the plague. But a lot of politicians still haven’t gotten hold of the idea that there is no “safe audience” anymore, and that every utterance they make outside of their own household will be recorded (and perhaps even a few comments within it).
Actually, what bothers me more is his reference to a “highly classified, national security simulation” in a declassified setting. Certainly, he’s trying to impress his crowd about how important he is. But just as certainly, he is either he’s lying about the nature of the event he is supposedly describing, or he’s got a really loose mouth talking about things he has no business talking about in a non-classified setting. He doesn’t have the right to decide, off the cuff, how much of the meeting was really classified, and how much of what he could tell was harmless to national security.
Maybe he thinks that he can draw Obama into a retort, and then Fox News will fry Obama for discussing in pulbic a “highly classified” meeting?
The Republicans did that with Carter in the 1976 election. They fried Carter publically for weeks on how he was sacrificing national security by not proceeding with the B1 Bomber program. But once Reagan was the nominee, they briefed him and his advisors on the upcoming Stealth program and the B2 Stealth Bomber, which would render the B1 obsolete. But the Republicans kept hammering home on the B1 issue. Finally the Clinton camp replied that there was a new program which made the B1 bomber obsolete, without providing much in the way of details. The Republicans then fried him on his callous disregard of national security by revealing defense secrets. Of course, if they were honerable they would have simply dropped the B1 issue once they knew the facts, but we know how honerable Republicans have become.
Of course, it’s all pretty silly – this guy is no judge of character, and most of us are more worried about McCain’s hair-trigger temper and his potential proximity to the nuclear button than they are of Obama. Personally, I prefer a guy who thinks long and hard before pushing that button.
John @ 9: Obviously, Abramohoff was not a member of the firm last October, and has not been for some time. I don’t even recognize the name of the firm as being the one he was previosly involved with, but I could be wrong. And I wouldn’t trust your “facts”, as it is already obvious that it is a a pretty tenuous connection you are trying to make between Abromahoff and Obama.
Instead, why don’t we talk about Dino Rossi’s close association and business partnership with a convicted felon?
@10 We all know what Rep. Davis meant when he referred to Sen. Obama as “boy”. People like Rep. Davis, and presumably those he was addressing, all understand that a black man of any age is referred to as boy. Those who still cling to the segregated openly racist southern tradition don’t often get the spotlight shone on them, but when they do, they are exposed for what they are, nasty bigots for whom we should have no tolerance in our society.
9 J
Employees at any company are free to be Democrats and contribute what they please to whom they please, wouldn’t you agree?
If you have some specific infromation about lifetime Republican, corrupt slush fund handler, and convicted felon Jack Abramoff associating with Barack Obama (and you don’t, and we all know it) come out with it. Let’s hear it, “boy.”
@10. This guy doesn’t look any older than Obama, so I don’t think the defense of him using the word ‘boy’ holds up. Face it, he thought the comment would go no further, but it did, and he’s been caught. Time to pay the piper!
10 Keep in mind that these guys belong to the party for which blowing the cover on CIA agents for purposes of political convenience is no problem. “National security”, to them, refers to covering the butts and lining the pockets of themselves and their good ol’ buddies.
13 I work for a company that’s owned by the Carlyle Group. Believe me, my political contributions and recommendations are in no way heedful of the intentions of their management.
Ah, I see Mr. 425 has indeed found the joys of the ctl-v combination.
Let’s see. Do I feel “bitter” that the firm that “let” Mr. Abramoff “resign”, then helped the investigation that put him in jail is now running a fundraiser for Senator Obama.
Nope. Not even a bit.
Do I think Mr. 425’s post has anything to do with the racist comments of a Kentucky legislator?
Actually, yes. It’s just another of the right-wing smears that are evidence that Senator Obama has the right wing running scared.
I suppose that it’s just barely possible that the Congressman is so completely clueless and insensitive that he really doesn’t understand the background of that remark or just how offensive it is.
But I wouldn’t bet on it, even with long odds.
Unfortunately both parties have idiots like this in them.
rhp6033 sez:
What’s the statute of limitations on “older” and “younger”? Geoff Davis was born on October 26, 1958 (making him exactly 11 years younger than Hillary Clinton), Obama on August 4, 1961. So this “boy” is less than three years younger than Davis.
No, I think Davis’s meaning was more in keeping with that other connotation used by southern whites.
No excuse for that remark. I think we got a little peek into this Repub’s true feelings.
The right wing has always been synonymous with bigotry in all it’s hateful forms. This Congressman fits that mold nicely.
N @ 19: Well, in practice in the South I grew up in, there merely needs to be a year’s worth of difference in age for the boy/sir “rule” to apply. But there can be a variation in some circumstances – for example, seniority on the job may allow some workers a wee bit younger to kiddingly call an older worker “boy” – provided it was done infrequently and with sufficient good humor to make it clear it was not meant as an insult.
But I do suspect that you, and the other posters, are correct as to this specific speaker’s intent. Actually, it carries a double meaning: one to emphasize his youth and presumed inexperience, the other a more racist meaning. But my discussion wasn’t directed toward the intent of this particular speaker, as I have no way of judging intent. I just wanted to caution the general reader against a knee-jerk reaction with respect to those terms.
I’m in my 50’s now, but if I were to see my former Scoutmaster, I would still call him Sir, and he might even call me “boy” – perhaps even introducing me to others as “one of his boys”.
Should he go?
His district will decide….
Personally, I have no patience for this type of speech. If I were Obama, I would respectfully tell him to “piss off”.
Of course, Republicans being such paragons of virtue as they are always are telling us, this Republican Congressman will resign in disgrace over his batshit insane, racist comment. Right?
[crickets chirping]
Just a reminder:
It appears that the Republicans may have already written off the 2008 Congressional elections, hoping that incumbents can raise enough money themselves to keep at least 40 seats in the Senate and keep the filibuster. Instead, they will pour all their resources into the Presidential campaign.
What good does it do to keep the Presidency, if the Democrats have control of Congress? Well, for one thing, they can make the appointment to fill any Supreme Court vacancies.
Remember that now only one justice on the Supreme Court was selected by a Democrat: Ruth Bader Ginsberg (appointed by Clinton). She is 75 years old, and will be almost 80 by the time the next President’s term is over. John-Paul Stevens (appointed by Ford) will be 82 years old this week, and will be 86 before the next President’s term expires. Both are likely to create vacancies over the next four years.
In addition, five other justices will be in their mid-seventies before the end of the next President’s term. If three of them were to retire (or die) before the end of that term, then the next President could well appoint a majority (five) of the Supreme Court justices.
So the winner of the next election may not just be in charge for the next few years. He or She may well direct the course of American jurisprudence over the next half century (including the residual value of established precedent on future rulings).
Now, which candidate do you want to have their finger on the button of THAT decision?
Is the KKK having their National this Summer in Minnesota ?
20. Upton spewed BULLSHIT, BIG TIME BULLSHIT: The right wing has always been synonymous with bigotry in all it’s hateful forms. This Congressman fits that mold nicely.
Idiot: That’s why Republicans in the 1964 & 1965 Senate voted and passed the VRA and the CRA over the Richard Russells, Robert Byrds and Al Gore Srs. Oh BTW they were democraps. Two died Donkey and one is a living Donkey fossil.
#25: Only if you are going to be there. Otherwise there are no summertime entries in the KKK calendar provided by clueless idiot and byebyegop.
Just wait…we’ll hear Republican Excuse @ 967:
“He only meant that NOBODY’S finger should be on the button. Nobody likes nuke-ewe-ler strikes. That’s all.”
What about the republican excuse… well…me.
Only democrats elect racists to the senate.
@26Puddybuddy
What happened 40 some years ago is hardly relevant to today’s Republican party. Things have changed, it all began with Nixon’s southern strategy. Now the Repub’s are primarily the party of white men. Deny it if you wish, but it’s fact.
There’s just a little irony in that he said it at the Lincoln Day festivities.
#25. 2nd Amendment Democrat spews:
Is the KKK having their National this Summer in Minnesota ?
No idea. Since no one has answered you can try emailing KlanBake’08
#2 YLB spews:
Stamm and Stupes,
What was that about racists?
Totally inappropriate. His actions have consequences.
Right wing swill can do all they want to try to get the African American population to vote GOP – but it won’t work. Johnboy McCain voted against the Martin Luther King holiday. The GOP ran the head of the KKK for a Senate seat. No black person (except for Uncle Toms like Puddydick) will vote GOP.
@9: Sorry – Obama takes no money from PACs – unlike McCain. Also, Abramoff has been gone from Greenburg – for over 5 years – maroon.
THAT BOY, are you talking about that boy who said the following, calling small town white people racists?
Obama Allies Avoid Trying to Explain Most Controversial Part of His Remarks
April 13, 2008 5:51 PM
As Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and his allies have locked into damage control mode and attempted to explain his controversial remarks about small-town Pennsylvanians, they’ve attempted to focus their pushback away from the most controversial part of his remarks to an elite crowd at a San Francisco fundraiser.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/polit.....es-av.html
Well if Obama looses because of this crack , I hope he does not end up playing with guns , blaming dark colored immigrints or hanging out in A CHURCH WASTING HIS TIME AND PRAYING .
He would have to move to Pennsylavainia to do
that anyway .
Clinton Supporters Speak Out Against Sen. Obama’s Small Town America Comments
Clinton Campaign Releases New 30-second Ad in Pennsylvania Featuring Voter Reactions to Sen. Obama’s Comments
PHILADELPHIA, PA – The Clinton campaign is releasing a new television ad today featuring the reactions that some of its supporters in Pennsylvania are having to the remarks Sen. Obama made about those Americans who live in Pennsylvania’s small towns.
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/.....w/?id=7093
Don’t worry, just wait a few more months and you’ll see the Forrest Gump scenario where the white boy ends up buffing the black guy’s shoes.
What was it Forrest always said? “Republicans are like a box of horse shit. You always know what yer gonna git.”
Right wing swill can do all they want to try to get the African American population to vote GOP – but it won’t work.
No, what actually hasn’t worked for Blacks is voting democrat for the last 40 years. When Hillary steals the nomination from Obama they will finally realize they have stuck on a plantation and flee the democrat party. In the end the dems would blow one of their few chances to actually win a presidency over a weak republican candidate (conservatives are more enthusiastic about Dole and he is not running) with over 50%(with the help of fraudulent votes and even then not by much) of popular vote. Democrats will never be able to beat a strong conservative president.
Oddly enough, even RUFUS’s post still lack coherence, despite the improvements at HA.
Perhaps he should try another blog where they understand wingnut psychotic mumbles?
I’ve referred to Hillary as “that girl”. guess that makes me a racist.
@ 43, unless you were making comparisons to Marlo Thomas, it makes you an idiot.
Even if it was in comparison to Marlo Thomas it makes you an idiot.
Upton@30: You wrote has always above. Why not read your own words again? Per Professor Darryl and SeattleJew, words mean something.
Also, just because some in the party are that way, we see per the Pew study upwards to 20% of your party still think that way today…
@ 45
Yes words do have meaning.
November.