[Welcome, Sideshow readers.]
C’mon, Andy. Don’t you think Barney Frank deserves a little more from you than a snarky putdown?
Here’s the context. Sullivan is responding to Frank’s article in HuffPo. I quote the text [DCOW
] of Sullivan’s riposte in its entirety:
My friend Congressman Frank doesn’t want to say “goodbye to all that.” Presumably, that’s why he’s backing Clinton.
[Rimshot. Laughter. Try the veal!]
Andy, I’d say this post isn’t up to your usual fine standard.
One, it’s not on point. Your post misrepresents the serious point Frank is making. Here’s what Frank, well-known hater of ponies, wrote in HuffPo:
[FRANK] I agree that it would have been better not to have had to fight over some of the issues that occupied us in the nineties. But there would have been only one way to avoid them — and that would have been to give up. More importantly, the only way I can think of to avoid “refighting the same fights we had in the 1990’s”, to quote Senator Obama, is to let our opponents win these fights without a struggle.
How can we say “goodbye” to the 90s when they won’t go away? That’s the point at issue, Andy, and “presumably” obfuscates it. No, not “presumably.” Nothing “presumably” about it.
Two, it’s insulting to Frank. Andy, it’s not like Frank’s fighting our (and your) battles out of whimsy, or because he’s been eating radishes, or out of personal pique. It’s because the battles still need to be fought.
Andy, I’m sure if you’d taken a moment to think before pressing Submit, you would have remembered this speech from Frank on the House floor. Here’s the video:
Let’s go to the transcript:
FRANK: But here is the deal. I used to be someone subject to this prejudice, and, through luck, circumstance, I got to be a big shot. I am now above that prejudice. But I feel an obligation to 15-year-olds dreading to go to school because of the torments, to people afraid that they will lose their job in a gas station if someone finds out who they love. I feel an obligation to use the status I have been lucky enough to get to help them.
I want to ask my colleagues here, Mr. Speaker, on a personal basis, please, don’t fall for this sham. Don’t send me out of here having failed to help those people.
We have already today twice voted overwhelmingly to repudiate any suggestion that this had anything to do with marriage. What you have is a ploy by people who want to keep discrimination on the books, who want to deny protection to so many vulnerable victims of discrimination, but they at least understand that is not something you can say explicitly. So they give us this sham.
Andy, that is the deal, not vacuous notions of “unity” and ponies. Notice a few things about Frank’s speech: It’s “divisive.” [Yeah, we ought to be divisive when Christianists and bigots oppose protecting gays from discrimination.] It’s “confrontational.” [Yeah, we ought to be confronting bigotry where we find it.] It’s “partisan.” [It’s the Republicans, as a party, who are opposing the bill, and deking Frank’s bill with parliamentary maneuvers.] And, oh yeah, Frank won; the bill passed the House. Damn fine “oratory” too, I might add, for those who care deeply about such things. That video literally brought tears to my eyes, the first time I saw it, it still does, and I’m old, white, and straight.
Andy, have you lost your fucking mind? Barney Frank is there for you. Maybe you could give the man the respect he’s earned? What’s in that “post-partisan” Kool-Aid you’re been drinking and pushing, anyhow? How could you write that post and retain the smallest shred of dignity or self-respect?
Front page
Sully Pooh
Leave us not forget that Patient Less Than Zero backs racist, antisemitic homophobe Ron Paul.
I have rarely been so outraged by a post
For Sullivan to write that snarky little putdown is just an outrage on everything I think is important.
[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
Shamelessness is Sullivan's middle name.
Shorter Andy Sullivan: I’m a mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, and you should bless my (R) heart.
Why does anybody read this guy’s drivel? Or Hitchens’? Or Brooksie?
Jeeze o Pete, people. Wake up and smell the cat litter.
We can admit that we’re killers … but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes! Knowing that we’re not going to kill today! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0
Corrupt language...
… is the mark of a corrupt enterprise.
Sullivan’s little post is Villageous in its corruption. Surprise!
[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
I don't usually hit vid clips
but I love Barney and couldn’t resist. And this was a truly crappy vid I must add, audio and picture were wildly out of sync. But dammit that was one of the great speeches ever made on the floor of that house.
The combination of parliamentary fencing tactics and gut wrenching honesty, of a monumentally dignified man of such tremendous accomplishments reduced to pleading, not for himself but for people, people with whom he had something in common (in addition to basic humanity mind you) being picked on for no good reason….geez you were right Lambert. I too—old and white and str8 and not in too many discriminated-against categories other than female and ugly and poor—felt just like you did watching this.
I wish Sully would come to w. TN so I could spit on him or at least yell quotes from “Moby Dick” in his general direction. Several Vulcan/Klingon proverbs come to mind too. :)
The Dems should have been doing that every day for the last year
If they had, the country would be begging to move election day forward so we could throw the bums out.
Instead, we get this unity pony shit. We even treat it seriously. Seats at the table, forsooth. We should be sawing the legs of the table and braining these people with them.
And yes, it’s a great speech. And the beautiful part is how concrete it is. It’s real music.
[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
The Unity Pony is Well-Fed
The Unity
pony is fed by every main$tream corporate sponsor, who want you to take out a New and Improved Low-Interest rate mortgage on your soul.
Rates have never been this low!
The Unity pony has a very very long line of people eagerly waiting to ride who in their down time watch Oprah and Dr. Phil or nod sagely to the wisdom of editorial page of the Wall Street Pravda.
The Unity pony is bigger than the Empire State Building, and the swish of its tail has extinguished the light of the Statue of Liberty, whose head has gone sailing off ballistic into the hills of the Homeland.
The Unity pony’s shiny fur is covered underneath by human-shaped blood sucking arachnids who lurk in subways and intertubes. They fund suicide bombings of abortion clinics and rape professional women trying to feed fatherless children in Iraq. They gas Marine checkpoints to keep from getting stuck in traffic. They’re sure of Democratic voter fraud- why else would Democrats vote for Democrats?
The Unity pony knows the Homeland’s at stake, and the battlefield is the twilight zone of your mind.
No Hell below us
Above us, only sky
xan, do you mean this one?
“today is a good day to bareback!”
or perhaps, “live long, and prosper on the wingnut welfare gravy train.’
Great video clip
Mine, too, when I saw it. Barney put himself out there, no pretensions, and made his case wonderfully.
If there were such an award, I would nominate that speech and Ted Kennedy’s speech challenging Senate Republicans as they once again try to block the first minimum wage increase in 10 years as the two best speeches of 2007. That’s the kind of partisanship and leadership I expect from the Democratic party.
As Captain E.J. Smith said to the crew of the Titanic
“All we need are hope and change. And then the sea ponies will come and rescue us!”
When a crew member asked what sort of changes the captain planned, he was promptly cast to sea in a lifeboat, while the others loudly jeered at him, saying he was stuck in 1890s thinking.
My Obama Acid Test
I read a lot about Obama getting the IL legislature to “reach across the aisle” to get support for a law requiring videotaped interrogations. And a lot about his need to show up for the telcom immunity filibuster.
If Obama can prove his post-partisan approach and get just ONE Republican senator to join him in supporting Dodd’s filibuster for just ONE day, I’ll quit my job and volunteer for his campaign full-time until November.
I like it Joe. I like it alot.
Maybe he can get McCain to join the filibuster… Or Lieberman.
“A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead
WSJ says Harry Reid isn't going to move FISA reform
At least that’s what they’re saying now.
Making me wonder how they’re going to sneak telco immunity in otherwise.
[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
I don't get it...
I do read AS, and came here from his link. I don’t agree with him always, but I seriously don’t get the objection to the post he made.
I admire Franks. I really appreciate that floor speech.
But if Franks, and y’all believe in Frank’s words, why would it not be appropriate for anyone to question Franks supporting Clinton?
Has Clinton (either one) done anything of merit to forward gay rights? Or have they paid lip service and then triangulated their way through the subject?
I also don’t get the unity pony tag…is it intended as a slam on Obama? Why? What did he do to gay rights? Or is it something else he’s done?
Where does Edwards come in on the subject? I can guess what y’all think of the Rep candidates, but maybe I’m missing something there as well.
Sorry…I don’t get it. Care to fill me in? Serious
request.
Sully Thinks Caring About Other Gay Folks Is Victim Mongering
Thanks Lambert and Xan.
I’d like to add that this is also a speech about process, but it’s identifying the way the opposition uses process as well as coded language to do something that most Americans, if they saw it through the prism of reality instead of through the code, would be appalled to find themselves in the camp of those who wish to say that it’s okay to keep a gay person from being employed if pretty much anyone feels uncomfortable with their idea of what it means to be gay.
I thought it was interesting to hear Huckabee, in the ABC debate, asked how he would run against Obama, roll out all the old internal unity ponies, which the SCLM
continues to assume is a majority position, always fielded by the conservative movement, not anti-abortion, of course, but respect for life, not discrimination against gays, but upholding traditional marriage, and on and on, and even with Huckabee’s sunny disposition and his genuine skills as an orator, hearing them didn’t even make me angry, mainly because they sounded so pathetic, especially compared with the issues that most Americans seem to think are now important.
I’d also like to add a comment about what we mean by the word “divisive.” It wasn’t Barney being divisive, it was the Republicans who were using both process and coded language to undercut a bill that a majority of the House supported, at least I think that was it. True, Barney stepped out from the niceties of business as usual in order to call attention to what was being done, and in the process, as Lambert shows, set up the issue in non-coded language.
The reason that both Clintons have been considered “divisive” for so long, from the first month or so of his Presidency, is that they have been under constant assault by Republicans. Worse still, any attempt to defend oneself, or one’s side, only calls attention to the original attack, and further brands you as divisive. Come to think of it, the assault began before the inauguration, when Bob Dole, remember, not generally considered part of the rightwing of the party, announced that Clinton hadn’t actually earned the presidency because of the Perot factor, and that the Republicans party actually had as much support from voters as the Clinton administration, and that the Republican caucus would act accordingly, which they did.
I’ve been taking a second look at Obama, and though I have concerns I have a different perspective now about what he may be about; and what perils he faces he damn well be ready for; I’m planning to post it Monday.
Kelly B, great little essay…why don’t you put it up as a post?
Excellent, leah
It’s all about the Overton Window. I don’t want that frackin unity meme to freeze the window where is is. That would be bad.
G Davis, life is short and alas I do not have time right now address your concerns. Check around the site. Enjoy!
[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.