Tim Pawlenty urges CPAC-goers to be like Elin Woods: 'Take a nine-iron and smash the window'
There's been no shortage of ugly Obama-bashing at CPAC, of course, but Gov. Tim Pawlenty yesterday hit a real low in comparing President Obama and the "big government" Democrats to Tiger Woods:
Pawlenty: Now at this very hour, or very shortly this morning, a big event is happening in the United States of America: Tigers Woods is holding his press conference. At 11 o'clock Eastern.
Now, I think we can learn a lot from that situation. Not from Tiger, but from his wife. So, she said, 'I've had enough.' She said, 'No more.' I think we should take a page out of her playbook and take a nine iron and smash the window out of big government in this country.
Now, we understand, of course, that this was just a metaphor. Nevermind that it was a ridiculously inapt one: Unlike Tiger Woods, Obama has not broken his vows; he is in fact working largely to enact the very "big government" policies on which he campaigned and for which he was duly elected. Progressives may have an argument with how well he is fulfilling those promises, but conservatives certainly do not.
But did anyone else notice that this was a particularly violent metaphor, one suggestive of people breaking out windows? It inspires images straight out of Kristallnacht.
Of course, like Glenn Beck, Pawlenty will no doubt claim that it was "just a metaphor." But as we observed in regard to Beck:
We understand metaphors and rhetoric at least as well as Beck does. The point ... [is] that this kind of rhetoric, employing violent metaphors, in fact has the effect of inspiring violent responses among its audiences.
It's grotesquely irresponsible -- which is what we have come to expect from movement conservatives anyway.
UPDATE: Yup, Rachel Maddow noticed.
The Neoliberals versus the Neoconservatives.
What an option.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Funny how Ron Paul was the odd man out on the fringe in the last election and now he is the favored man to win. If Paul gets the GOP nomination Obama is going to have a rough time running against him. All Paul is going to do is punch holes in Obama's economic agenda and there are few who in DC who can cogently debate Paul on economics. Think about it, he is constantly demolishing Bernanke on the floor.
Ron Paul wins presidential straw poll at CPAC
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/20/conser...
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
Then we need a Libertarian Socialist to offset Ron Paul's Moonbat tendencies.
I am sorry, but Ron Paul is Libertarian. They cut no mustard with me.
He doesn't like the MICC, I don't like the MICC.
He says a few coherent things about civil liberties and then he is into Moonbat territory.
If he runs against Obama, it won't matter to me, I won't vote for either of them.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
person who has the political will to reduce spending to where it needs to be. That is THE issue of all issues now. All wars (all of them) are of and by the printing press, we either cut it back now hard or we deficit spend our way until we are forced to capitulate when the credit runs dry. As we let the national debt grow, the choices become increasingly less attractive, the person who picks which of our limited options to go with, won't liked very much.
People will soon pray for the economy we have today. There is no middle of the road anymore, no painless solutions, all we have done is kicked the growing problem down the road. The choice now is between painful, agonizing, or a ef'ing brutal.
It's that simple, take your pick. It doesn't matter if any here believe me, it's going to happen anyways. Want proof? We have not even paid off the Vietnam War 35 years after it has ended. Ponder that. What makes anyone here think we are going to pull a rabbit out of our hat now on the tail end of this exponential debtplosion?
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
"It's grotesquely irresponsible -- which is what we have come to expect from movement conservatives anyway."
Nothing conservative about being radical. These kooks are beyond radical. Imagine if the shoe was on the other foot and liberals were calling for violence?
The M$M would be apoplectic they would be demanding apologies and heads would roll.
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
Radical is for the Left Wing, Reactionary is for the Right Wing.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Obama hasn't broken his vows but he hasn't quite kept them either.
However, there seems to be quite a bit he's doing in the background that's not given enough attention. But in some ways it seems like bureaucratic tinkering.
But that was heavily damaged by booshco too.
boosh has borrowed the country from his father and drove it into the family pool.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
"It inspires images straight out of Kristallnacht."
That's a little over the top, don't you think? Here you are saying that his metaphor went too far, and then you trump it with one of your own. Besides, even as a total liberal as I am, I thought his metaphor, while being pretty silly, wasn't much to get excited over. We can call out every little thing, or just point to the serious problems. If we get all screechy, then we become as bad as they are.
in the state where YOU were Governor long enough for people of YOUR state NOT TO DIE!
In YOUR state!
Maybe you shouldn't swing it around metaphorically.
In YOUR state, or at the CPAC cabal.
What an ASSHOLE!
The posted of the video doesn't mention Obama anywhere... The clip only mentioned smashing the windows out of Big Government.
Last time I checked our government included the senate and congress too. I'm pretty sure we'd all have universal healthcare by now if it was just Obama making all the calls. Being critical of our government isn't being critical of just Obama.
In English, Kristallnacht literally means "crystal night" and has come to refer to the broken windows of the Jewish-owned businesses which the Nazis systematically attacked and destroyed in November of 1938 -- which is why Kristallnacht is sometimes also referred to as The Night of Broken Glass. Pawlenty may not have consciously realized that his remarks about "smash[ing] the window out of big government in this country" might create parallels to Kristallnacht -- but whether he realized it or intended it or not, the parallels are definitely there and pointing that out is not at all exaggerated or inappropriate.
Never trust anyone who insists that patriotism requires you to blindfold yourself with the flag.
so listen up. Pawlenty was making a joke and writing an entire blog suggesting that a) the right-wingers are all radical is " getting screechy and becoming as bad as they are" to use Mr. Seatech1's apt phrasing.
...but I for one don't find suggestions of politically-motivated violence, even if only restricted to destruction of property, at all humorous.
Never trust anyone who insists that patriotism requires you to blindfold yourself with the flag.
Pawlenty's remarks don't surprise me in the least.
ps, Tiger's wife's name is Elin, not Erin.
Wrong name and, according to Tiger (OK, obviously not trustworthy but then neither is Pawlenty), it is not true that Elin smashed the window with a golf club.
I bet she got a hole in one.
Or just one big hole.
of the CPAC speakers wouldn't know appropriateness or graceful speech if it bit them in the butt. And this wasn't the worst to come from them at the conference of course.
I gotta say though, that even though Tiger didn't specifically call Brit Hume out, I'm glad he defended his Buddhism.
I've never seen change without a fire
"It inspires images straight out of Kristallnacht."
"That's a little over the top, don't you think?"
Over the top?
I guess it's a little over the top in regards to Pawlenty just being an assclown and not having his own little SS run around to do his dirty work...
but he is hoping for and inciting a very similar thing, and it was the first thought that popped to my mind as well, long before I hit that paragraph.
They try so hard to look normal and then the crazy slips out. It's a psychotic break of some sort brought on by the feeling that they can let the crazy hang out.
Ever notice how irons have a setting for permanent press? I don't get it.
Steven Wright
That clip gave me a Gomer Pyle flashback.
I thought that playbook page also went something like: If I ask Jebus for forgiveness and I'm a Republican I can get away with any type of deviant spousal infidelity! Fuck Tim Pawlenty right in the ear with Vitter's diaper on! What a huge piece of neo-con republican shit.
Black Tiger Woods plays great golf, has affairs, gets caught....condemned all over the place even though his affair realtes to golf in no way at all.
White Phil Mickelson plays great golf, but starts to use wedges that due to a loophole are not banned because of when they were made, so while not technically cheating, is rather unethical.....result, little to no backlash on something that is directly related to golf.
I hate to say this...but if Tiger was your typical white PGA golfer...we'd be hearing little to nothing of this.
I just don't care about who people boink, as long as it's legal, consensual and does not effect the public welfare.
wouldn't be hearing about this if Tiger were white, but at the same time, there's the squeaky clean image he once had too. I don't care who people boink either, but Tiger's dalliances had to have shocked some people because they thought of Tiger the Goody-Two Shoes.
I've never seen change without a fire
but when did he promote or recieve a squeaking clean goody two shoes image? He did lots of endorsements, but any perception that he was a saint seems to come from the perceivers. I don't defend his actions, but I see no reason to use him as a punching bag (other than his wife). Maybe because i don't follow golf of sports in general, that I'm not getting any kind of let-down from this. If it was similar to OJ, then yes, backlash is deserved. Here, if just seems a private matter, as I don't remember Tiger promoting marriage and fidelity and puppies and kittens.
But that's me I guess. If I'm incorrect, please inform me.
either, and you're right, he wasn't in-your-face about his morals like most Republicans. I'd say you're right about it mostly being the percievers. It's just that lots of people considered him a role model for their children, and whether it's fair or not, they were shocked and disappointed.
I've never seen change without a fire
is that LOTS of sports figures have had affairs. Wilt Chamberlain probably slept with every woman available, Magic Johnson wound up with AIDS, etc. etc. Yet, the backlash for Tiger is comparable to the Clinton BJ fiasco. And honestly, Clinton deserved some of his public backlash, but Tiger, well yeah you're scummy, but maybe you'll learn a lesson here. Celebrity affair when they're caught are interesting, but then you turn the page, unless they've been spouting off their own high morals, and even then, it seems most hypocrites get away with it. Why is Tiger such a huge object of scorn. I forgot about his crapola pretty much the day after it came up. I guess it's sports people, like religious/politcal people, that get too obsessed with image.
...are compelled to present to the ignorant, gullible public a phony "family man" image to circumvent any "raging sexual beast" stereotypes some white people believe about high profile professional black athletes in order to get the big time endorsements.
Like the others, Tiger went for the cash and gave them the bullshit image they wanted.
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I've never seen change without a fire
The Regressive Republicans think that they need to constantly inject race into this political fight to secure their bigot base.
Tim "the smasher" could be our next President.
The Republican is impulsive, immature, irresponsible, quick to anger, and uses poor judgement.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
Hey Tim, why don't you quit advocating domestic violence, get back to Minnesota and pass the GAMC bill that both houses overwhelmingly supported and passed. Your veto from Washington is a kick in the face to the poor people who's backs you are trying to balance our state budget on
Pawlenty only has four clubs in his bag:
1) one-liners
2) tax cuts
3) vetoes
4) bad haircuts
As governor, he has not actually DONE anything, besides participate in the various fishing and hunting season openers. He talks a lot on his radio program, and vetos anything that comes across his desk, but a trained chicken could do those things. But now that I think about it, a trained chicken would be the ideal GOP candidate, wouldn't he?
The interpretation that Pawlenty is referencing Kristallnacht is far-fetched, but I do see a lot of racism here. What exactly is the parallel Pawlenty is trying to make? The US like Elin has been screwed over by a philandering black man? Huh? I'd really like Pawlenty to explain what parallel he sees. It's quite revealing about how Pawlenty's mind works.
I didn't pick up on that in my first read, but you could definitely argue that this is a rather subtle racist implication (regardless of whether even Pawlenty himself is aware of it or not -- not all racism is conscious).
Never trust anyone who insists that patriotism requires you to blindfold yourself with the flag.
That's what I immediately thought when he said it. I'm sure he got the message through.
Joy.
And then they wonder why some people think conservatives and Republicans have fascist tendencies???????????
Last time I checked, liberals usually aren't the ones strutting around implying (either directly or indirectly) that their opponents should have their skulls bashed in with a blunt instrument. Pawlenty is by no means the first conservative/Republican to talk like this, either -- if memory serves, Ann Coulter once said something to the effect that (at least in her opinion) the best way to talk to a liberal is to use a baseball bat.
Never trust anyone who insists that patriotism requires you to blindfold yourself with the flag.
So - Pawlenty has decided he's not extremist enough - he had to add violent rhetoric to his speeches to make the tea party crowd like him.
He's going to regret that.
*
yep, him and a lot of others who've turned batshit insane to appease the tea partiers (if the rest of the people in the US actually have any sense)
I don't understand why he used the golf club analogy when he had the bridge crashing into the river analogy at his fingertips.
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There was no reliable report of just what she said, or did in the Tiger affair. For Gov. Tim BigMouth to infer otherwise is slander. I hope she sues the idiot.
That'd be nice.
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Dear Mr. Pawlenty - you're still just another POS GOP hack - and you'll never be president.
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That Pawlenty made a crystal clear call to violence. Or that he brought up that damn Tiger Woods story again. I don't want to hear about either man, unless one of them finds the cures for HIV/AIDS and cancer.
NOBODY 2012
The right wingers must be ecstatic about the windows broken in the IRS building where the IRS employee was killed.
Pawlenty is a major league phony , while Gov of Mn. he was not at all radical and didn't cater to the loonies , once he decided to go for the GOP Presidential nomination it was like someone flipped a light switch , even the Minneapolis Star tribune had a write up on the sudden change and how disingenuous he was . Damn , what a pathetic bunch of people .
same thing happened to McCain
that under his leadership the state of Minnesota reduced the size of it government and isn't operating with a budget deficit?? hahahaha Riiiiiight! Like there's ever been a Republican that didn't increase the size of government and the spending budget under their leadership.
that Tiger Wood's wasn't sorry enough. That he owed the sport of golf a lot of explanations and mea culpas for his behavior.Golf is the sport of men that are rich, upstanding and have a lot of integrity and Tiger brought it down to the ghetto. Don't tell me assholes like this guy pawlenty and people rooting for the downfall of Tiger and Obama aren't racists. People analogized Tiger to Obama, a black man that got too uppity. They want their country and the back 9 returned to them and their lilly white country club which includes 1600 PA Avenue.
...him to make that public appearance if he weren't sincere and truthful. Those counselors don't give a shit who you are...Tiger must have made some progress or else they wouldn't have let him put on a farce. Shitty analogy by asshat Pawlenty using a troubled soul who is clearly seeking needed help
1 - What makes men who are rich necessarily upstanding with integrity? They are rich bastards out for themselves.
2 - What makes the ghetto necessarily lacking in upstanding and integrity? The answer apparently: race and poverty, the two are linked in your mind at least.
Explain to me how that statement itself is not racist.
I live in something of a ghetto. People are clearly distressed by lack of opportunity and the attendant poverty but they are not brutes simply because of it. I don't see anyone the likes Tiger Woods or even Barack Obama himself for that matter, doing much of anything for the likes of folks here.
I know the Republicans would never do anything but help grind us into the mud. I suspect the Democrats will never do anything though they do talk a better talk while we slip into the mud. I am damn certain that Golfers are playing a game of interest to rich phuckers out for themselves.
The folks in my district are generally upstanding in their own right. But there are some who do commit crimes, not without the law chasing after them in deadly earnest.
An eighteen year old can go into a convenience store with a water pistol and be doing ten to twelve years starting the same night.
The Banksters on the other hand have plundered hundreds of billions, trillions even, with impunity.
Where do I begin to document the crimes of the rich and powerful.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Which is exactly what tiger313 said, when he referred to the person making the comment as an asshole.
We can all fly are planes into an IRS building
Pathetically, Gov. TP is trying way to hard to pander to the cult of Ron Paul neo nazi John Birchers, other righters and the corporate and lobbyist inspired and driven tea idiots along with the so called Christians who make up the current GOP.
Not sure though who's he's trying to outshine, Sarah Palin or Michelle Bachmann in terms of craziness. The GOP (er, tea idiots) will never run Gov. TP as a candidate in 2012 as he's too establishment Republican.
As a Minnesotan of European descent, I felt Gov. TP's comment was racist, perhaps subtle, yet growing up here in this non-demonstrative place, one learns to read between the lines to know what was actually conveyed, yeah, I'd say, he was doing a connect the dots to what he's leaving out in his statement. Tiger = Obama, Tiger's white wife and 9 iron is what Gov. TP is saying more white people should be doing to government when white people loose control.
Even if his statement isn't racist, it is in poor taste and very unclassy and unbecoming of a Minnesotan who's in political office.
Yet with the other insanity coming from other Republicans including Bachmann, not surprised that Gov. TP is trying to catch up by also making reckless statements that will come back to haunt him, that is, if our local media has the balls to do hard reporting on Gov. TP. rather than being so Minnesota nice so hard news just gets glossed over as they'll be too nice to report it or all of it.
Take the 9 iron and smash the GOP with it. A much better use for it.
These petulant children need some time in the wood shed.
republicanism/conservatism is a mental illness!
You act as if somebody were going to slam a vehicle into a federal building or something. That HAS NOT HAPPENED and is NOT going to happen. Only Muslim terrorists do that kind of shit.
Oh wait....
About a nine iron with his name on it?
This wuss couldn't lift a 9 iron much less swing it!
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