With The Economy Tanking And The Election All But Decided…
…I’m having a hard time coming up with good topics to blog about (I never would have dreamed that, when I started this blog – I mean, it’s a month from the election, and it’s boring!). So here’s something new: if I am not mistaken, when Barack Obama is inaugurated come January, he will be the first president to have an (admitted) past with illegal drugs (I’m not counting Clinton’s weaselly and oh-so-typical-of-him evasion that he – snort! – didn’t inhale…c’mon, man, and we let him GET AWAY WITH THAT? Jeez…).
Not just any drugs, either – Obama admitted to trying ‘a little blow’ as a young man, in addition to pot and booze. That’s just one step down from crack and heroin on the ‘dangerous drug’ scale (with crack being, of course, merely a more concentrated delivery system for coke).
Now, I don’t think this is necessarily here nor there, nor do I bring it up as any sort of disqualifying feature or in an attempt to smear. It’s more of an observation: so strong was the taboo against illegal drug use prior to this election that Clinton felt compelled to come up with his ridiculous lie, and many on the left were positively scandalized, I tell you, by rumors of a DWI in George W. Bush’s background. Now, we have a candidate who has flat out admitted some pretty major lawbreaking, and the reaction is a collective shrug and yawn.
A sign of the times, as more and more Americans recognize themselves in a candidate who dabbled in bad things? Perhaps…but perhaps also a lesson, for any future Bill Clintons: just admit you inhaled and be done with it already…
The difference between using coke and DWI is that a drunk driver is a potentially deadly risk to others and the coke user is not.
Not necessarily…coke users often drink and drive, drive under the influence, commit violent crimes, etc. It’s far from a benign hobby…and it’s a very social drug. Most coke users, unlike potheads, don’t stay at home – they’re out at clubs and parties and such…
Well, that may be, but nobody has shown that Obama drove under the influence of cocaine or committed violent crimes. Driving while drunk always involves the endangerment of others; taking cocaine may or may not do so.
And you’re forgetting another point: it was an allegation, unproven, that Bush had been arrested for DWI – it was an admission from Obama himself that he used cocaine. But we’re far afield from the main point, which is that things have changed so much since 1992 that we’ve gone from “I didn’t inhale” to “Yeah, I did a little blow”…
Bush was arrested for DUI — nothing unproven about it:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/bushdui1.html
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/11/02/bush.dui/
I agree that attitudes towards drug use over the past two decades — regrettably, much too late to help Douglas Ginsburg. If the report on his drug use had not come out, he would be on the Court instead of Kennedy and some of the Court’s more egregious rulings would have been defeated. But I go seriously off-topic here.
I stand corrected – I recalled it as a rumor only, so it was an honest mistake…
Nah, the DUI is verifiable. The part about Bush having horns and impregnating Mia Farrow in Rosemary’s Baby is the rumor part.
Why would you take the topic of this post as an invitation to bring up Bush’s dwi? So defensive of your guy are you. Give it a rest man, Bush’ll be gone in 3 months! Of course, he’ll probably join his Dad and Bubba in trying to raise money for victims of bad weather, but at least he’ll be deploying his “doer” skills in an area that doesn’t materially affect you.
I think you are correct Mark, who cares about personal drug use, especially when it was in the past and a youthful indiscretion that a great majority of voters have also committed?
Uh, I didn’t. Read the third paragraph of the header.
Oh my, mea culpa, I read only the first couple of paragraphs and jumped to the comments.
A Rosanne Rosanna Danna moment for sure. Nevermind!
Who says Obama has stopped? Only Obama.
He has a skinny body after two years of campaigning which involves irregular eating etc. It is has been reported that he gets little sleep but has high energy.
Lots of drug users are high functioning. So his good performance does not disprove anything
Maybe he could release his medical records.
STOP!
Could we require drug testing of the President? Most jobs do require drug testing!
There’s a few members of Congress I’d rather test first…
Mark-
The election isn’t boring.
You’re getting burned out on following every tiny twist of the longest Presidential election cycle we’ve ever had (with the Primaries set so early).
It’s understandable. But the election is still up in the air, and the people who are going to decide the race are just starting to pay attention.
I’m not panicked – resigned to the inevitable would be more accurate..
Mark is holding up much better than Rick Davis, who seems to be buckling under the pressure.
McCain, Terrorist On Capitol Hill
McCain terrorizes the U.S. Congress and his own party members. He verbally abuses his wife. And he physically abuses everyday American citizens. It is scary to think that he might represent us in this way to other leaders.
McCain has a long history of fights in the honorable Hall of Congress and has even assaulted young women in the halls of this public government building. The short list is here:
2007, during a meeting on immigration legislation, McCain and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) got into a shouting match when Cornyn started voicing concerns about McCains Amnesty Bill for illegal immigrants. McCain used a curse word associated with chickens and accused Cornyn of raising the issue just to torpedo a deal. Then Cornyn accused McCain of being too busy campaigning for president to take part in the negotiations, which have gone on for months behind closed doors, “Wait a second here,” Cornyn said to McCain, “I’ve been sitting in here for all of these negotiations and you just parachute in here on the last day. You’re out of line.” McCain, a former Navy pilot, then used language more accustomed to sailors, “F–k you! I know more about this than anyone else in the room,” shouted McCain at Cornyn. McCain helped craft a bill in 2006 that passed the Senate but couldn’t be compromised with a House bill that was much tougher on illegal immigrants.
2007, Sen. McCain “Publicly Abused” Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL).
“[McCain] noted his propensity for passion but insisted that he doesn’t
‘insult anybody or fly off the handle or anything like that.’ This is,
quite simply, hogwash. McCain often insults people and flies off the
handle…. There have been the many times McCain has called reporters
‘liars’ and ‘idiots’ when they have had the audacity to ask him
unpleasant, but pertinent, questions. McCain once… publicly abused Sen.
Richard Shelby of Alabama.”
2006, at the Arizona Republican congressional delegation strategy meeting. McCain repeatedly addressed two new members, congressmen Trent Franks and Rick Renzi, as ‘boy.’ Finally, Renzi, rose from his chair and said to McCain, “You call me that one more time and I’ll kick your old ass.” McCain lunged at Renzi, punches were thrown, and the two had to be physically separated. After they went to their separate offices, McCain called Renzi and demanded an apology. Renzi refused.
1999, McCain erupted out of the blue at the respected Budget Committee chairman, Pete Domenici, saying, ‘Only an a–hole would put together a budget like this.’ Offended, Domenici stood up and gave a dignified, restrained speech about how in all his years in the Senate, through many heated debates, no one had ever called him that. Another senator might have
taken the moment to check his temper. But McCain went on: ‘I wouldn’t
call you an a–hole unless you really were an a–hole.’ Regarding McCain’s run for President, Domenici stated, “I decided I didn’t want this guy anywhere near a trigger.”
1995, McCain was midway through an opening statement at a
Senate Armed Services Committee hearing when chairman Strom Thurmond
asked, “Is the senator about through?” McCain glared at Thurmond,
thanked him for his “courtesy” and continued on. McCain later confronted Thurmond on the Senate floor. A scuffle ensued, and the two didn’t part friends.”
1994, McCain tried to stop a primary challenge to the state’s Republican governor, J. Fife Symington III, by telephoning his opponent, Barbara Barrett, the well-heeled spouse of a telecommunications executive, and warning of unspecified “consequences” should she reject his advice to drop out of the race. Barrett stayed in. At that year’s state Republican convention, McCain confronted Sandra Dowling, the Maricopa County school superintendent and, according to witnesses, angrily accused her, “You better get [Barrett] out or I’ll destroy you,” a witness heard McCain shout at her. Dowling responded that if McCain couldn’t respect her right to support whomever she chose, that he “should get the hell out of the Senate.” McCain shouted an obscenity at her, and Dowling howled one back.
1992, at a gathering of a select committee investigating lingering issues about Vietnam War prisoners and those missing in action, McCain mocked fellow senator, Charles Grassley to his face and used a profanity to describe him.
When Grassley asked McCain, “Are you calling me stupid?” McCain replied,
“No, I’m calling you a f–king jerk!” he yelled at Grassley. Grassley stood and told McCain, “I don’t have to take this. I think you should apologize.”
McCain refused and stood to face Grassley. Then there was some shouting and shoving between them. Nebraska Democrat Bob Kerrey helped break up the altercation.
1992, during a private meeting of Arizona officials over a federal land issue that affected the state, a furious McCain openly questioned Pheniox mayor Paul Johnson’s honesty: “Start a tape recorder — it’s best when you get a liar on tape,” McCain said to others in the meeting, according to an account of their “nose-to-nose, testosterone-filled” argument that Johnson later provided to reporters.
But McCain has shown his violent side since his the first day he was elected to Congress. During the celebration of his Senate victory, McCain screamed at and harassed a young republican volunteer. McCain was yelling at the top of his lungs and poking the chest of the volunteer who had set up a lectern that was too tall for the 5-foot-9 politician to be seen to advantage, according to a witness to the outburst. ‘Here this poor guy is thinking he has done a
good job, and he gets a new butt ripped because McCain didn’t look good
on television.’ Hinz, the executive director of the Arizona Republican Party said McCain’s treatment of the young campaign worker troubled him
for years. ‘There were an awful lot of people in the room,’ Hinz
recalled. ‘You’d have to stick cotton in your ears not to hear it. He
(McCain) was screaming at him, and he was red in the face. It wasn’t
right, and I was very upset at him.’”
McCain has blown up and verbally or physically assaulted many other members of Congress, including Rick Santorum, Thad Cochran, and James Inhofe. Though most of McCain’s colleagues decline to comment, some have called him psychologically unstable.
And that’s not all, McCain has also attacked American citizens during meetings regarding legislation. According to an eyewitness account of an encounter families of POWs had with McCain, regarding the Missing Persons Act of 1996, after McCain refused to meet with them and schedule a meeting, the families gathered in the hallway contemplating their next move. When McCain and a female aid came in their direction, a spokesperson stepped towards McCain. McCain denied any knowledge of the Act and brushed past the spokesperson. But, as McCain and the aid continued walking, they approached Jeanette Jenkins, cousin of a man missing since 1970 in South Vietnam. Jeanette stepped forward to speak to McCain, and McCain backhanded her, causing Jeanette to hit the wall, creating a loud sound, resonating in the hallway. Then, right afterwards, as McCain continued walking, a woman in her mid 80s… who was wheelchair bound, and on portable oxygen, reached out to McCain, asking him to please talk with them. And according to the eyewitness… McCain stopped, glared down at her, and raised his left arm, ready to strike her. He composed himself and pushed the wheelchair away from him. And this is just one of the many encounters that citizens have had with him.
Another indication of his poor temper is the way he speaks to his wife, Cindy. When Cindy was playing with his hair and made a comment about his thinning hair, McCain said to her, “At least I don’t plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cun-.” He dishonored her in front of others. What could that poor woman have been feeling.
McCain claims to reach across the aisle, but is he reaching across because he has already beat everybody up on his side? McCain may think that his temper is an attribute, but “my friend” character matters, your job in the Senate is to represent the people, you are a diplomat not a professional wrestler.
I think someone needs a valium!
If McCain does win the White House, I could make a joke about sending him a swear jar, because, at 1.00 per profanity, we’d be out of debt in a year, but frankly the whole thing is too frightening to joke about.