Tonight, Marco Rubio, a far right, Tea Party Hispanic Republican, will act as first responder to any fire Barack Obama’s State of the Union address might ignite.
This morning on The Daily Rundown on MSNBC I heard a lovely Republican pollster, Kristen Soltis Anderson, exalt Rubio this way:
I’m looking forward to him getting this national exposure. I think he’s the right person at the right time to lead the Republican Party into this period of renewal.
Period of renewal? Rubio is the leader of a Republican renewal? The man who had to prostrate himself before Rush Limbaugh’s prostate in order to get the broadcaster’s blessing on immigration reform? That Rubio? Come on, lovely Republican pollster. Slurping perspiration from between Limbaugh’s butt cheeks isn’t Republican renewal, it’s old-school Republican politics. Rush was Tea Party before Tea Party was and wasn’t cool.
And speaking of the imaginary Republican renewal, tonight Senator Rand Paul will also give a response to Barack Obama, a president so politically hot he needs two Republican first responders to put out his fire.
Rand Paul, whose Tea Party extremism was first exposed on television by Rachel Maddow, recently fantasized about being president, which is one of the scariest thoughts in the world, next to being struck by a beam of gamma rays. No, wait. I’ll take the gamma rays.
Pretending to be president wasn’t the only time Paul fantasized about being in charge. In 2006, he imagined himself being the governor of Kentucky. And, to boot, he was the governor of Kentucky with an ethics scandal. His solution: he would pardon himself! Case closed, people!
Marco Rubio and Rand Paul will not, however, be the best representatives of the Republican renewal on display tonight. That honor belongs to Texas congressman Steve Stockman.
Stockman is the one who made news recently by offering to do the GOP’s dirty work of impeaching President Obama over his executive orders related to gun violence. That, of course, made him a Fox “News” hero. Tonight he will attend the SOTU address accompanied by another proud Republican renewalist and Vietnam War draft-evader, Ted Nugent.
Now, I’ve written about NRA board member Nugent before and offered numerous quotes from him that prove he has been infected with an extra-terrestrial form of Obama- Clinton-hate. Here is an example from 2007, addressed to dupes dumb enough to pay money to watch him perform:
I think that Barack Hussein Obama should be put in jail. It is clear that Barack Hussein Obama is a communist. Mao Tse Tung lives and his name is Barack Hussein Obama. This country should be ashamed. I wanna throw up. …Obama, he’s a piece of shit. I told him to suck on my machine gun. Hey Hillary, you might want to ride one of these into the sunset, you worthless bitch.
From a Detroit radio interview in 1992:
Foreigners are assholes; foreigners are scum; I don’t like ‘em; I don’t want ‘em in this country; I don’t want ‘em selling me doughnuts; I don’t want ‘em pumping my gas; I don’t want ‘em downwind of my life-OK? So anyhow-and I’m dead serious…
From an interview in 1994:
About Hillary Clinton: “You probably can’t use the term ‘toxic cunt’ in your magazine, but that’s what she is. Her very existence insults the spirit of individualism in this country. This bitch is nothing but a two-bit whore for Fidel Castro.”
About national health care: “The government must stay out of my life. If there are weenies who are in the liability column of our nation, tough shit.”
About Social Security: “To be forced to have a Social Security number in this country is illegal. It’s against the Constitution. I can’t tell you the specific language, but I reviewed it, and I know it’s illegal. The clusterfuck that is Social Security insults people who work hard for their living.
In our culture, such people as Ted Nugent are normally promoted by sleazy characters out to make a quick buck from a freak willing to be publicly outrageous for fifteen minutes.
But tonight, at the State of the Union address, a Republican congressman will apparently show up with Ted Nugent, a man who was recently investigated by the Secret Service, on his arm.
And you will not hear one word from Republican leadership in the House or Senate or anywhere else. That, my friends, is the real Republican renewal.
A renewal of the GOP’s vows to extremism.
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The Erstwhile Conservative: A Blog of Repentance 
thgeneralist
/ February 12, 2013Duane —
You think Nugent’ll be packin’? I hope we’re smart enough to get lots of photos of every GOP bastard who shakes his hand. We’ll need the record of this exercise in amazingly bad taste for the 2014 mid-terms.
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hlgaskins
/ February 12, 2013“You think Nugent’ll be packin’?” He could be packin just about anything but brains.;-)
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angelfire
/ February 12, 2013Good thought thgeneralist!!
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King Beauregard
/ February 12, 2013I want to sit in the crowd and periodically shine a red LED at Nugent. Wouldn’t be the first time he crapped himself.
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R. Duane Graham
/ February 13, 2013He implausibly and now conveniently claims he made that story up. But if he did make it up, one has to wonder about someone who would purposely make up such a story that he knew would be printed. That, I think, tells more about him than actually doing it. He doesn’t exactly have both feet in this reality.
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brucetheeconomist
/ February 12, 2013Isn’t Nugent just a has been taking advantage of the idea, that no publicity is bad publicity?
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R. Duane Graham
/ February 13, 2013That, too. But he really believes this stuff. I first encountered his political views many, many years ago courtesy of Rush Limbaugh. He used to call in and talk to Rush. What a thrill that was.
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Juan Don
/ February 12, 2013Perhaps The Nuge will wear his typical garb into the House chamber. Nothing yells freedom like a Confederate flag sweatshirt and camo-cowboy hat. Should the nut decide to really put on the dog, the pungent odor of deer urine might bring Tea Bagging comrades to their feet in teary-eyed fits of patriotic sneezing.
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R. Duane Graham
/ February 13, 2013Juan,
You have a feel for Old South fashion. There must be some Southern belles in your family bush.
Duane
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Juan Don
/ February 13, 2013RDG,
It’s true. The maternal side of the family has links to Tennessee. Sadly, most of the Blackburn men died fighting Yankee oppression during the Rebellion. I believe a distant cousin was recently featured on an episode of C.O.P.S. still struggling in shirtless defiance against the blue coats.
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thgeneralist
/ February 12, 2013Since the GOP seems to be fond of making tasteless statements these days, I’m half expecting Nugent to moon the President while performing fellatio on Stockman and simultaneously Teabagging Limbaugh — on national TV. Now, that’s the kind of respect the Republican Party is worthy of in 2013.
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R. Duane Graham
/ February 13, 2013In his post-speech talk, he actually alluded to dropping his drawers during the speech, so you were very close!
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hlgaskins
/ February 12, 2013Who cares what Ted Nugent thinks or believes. His music days are behind him but his narcissistic personality disorder days will always be with him. Mark Rubio is quite articulate as long as he doesn’t have to explain anything he says, but he is not going to win his party’s primary in 2016. The only hope the republicans have in 2016, is Jeb Bush, and they’re scaring him away. This stands to be one of the most interesting State of the Union Address’ given in recent history. The comedy potential from the right will give Saturday Night Live material for weeks to come.
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R. Duane Graham
/ February 13, 2013HLG,
You sure got the “comedy potential” thing right! How many times will we see that water gag?
Duane
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Juan Don
/ February 13, 2013RDG,
Oddly enough, it appears that the “Tea Party” did not begin with John Putnam and Friends dressed as Revolutionary War reinactors, voicing concern over the recently elected Obama’s non-existent tax hikes.
http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/02/11/study-confirms-tea-party-was-created-big-tobacco-and-billionaires
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R. Duane Graham
/ February 13, 2013Thanks, John. I had missed that. Wow. Putnam, I heard, is now putting his wig up for sale.
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Juan Don
/ February 13, 2013RDG,
It looks like our local “Floundering” Father is thumbing a ride. Could be that dressed in late 18th century attire makes hitchhiking easier, as passing motorists are more likely to pull over for strangers who display an obvious fondness for augmenting patriotic affectations with Little Theater panache. I have a hunch that he’ll hang onto the wig.
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