UPDATE: It has now been confirmed that President Clinton didn’t actually say anything about “teabaggers”, so crazy people who have been sending hate mail to us today need to vacate their Maureen Dowd moment where their indignance over something that was never even actually said confirms how unhinged they are. Honestly, some of you out there just hate the Clintons so much you must sit on the edge of your seats waiting for either of them to say anything that you can twist and distort. How many years have you been doing this now? You realize none of them is the POTUS currently, and the person in that role says and does ACTUAL bad things each and every day. Apparently, what everyone is worked up about is someone paraphrasing Clinton incorrectly, and totally get wrong what he actually said. So cool it on all the hate mail to us telling us we should stop supporting a man we’ve campaigned for four times now and have admired since 1990.
We are never going to move away from the Clintons…and it’s a weird obession to use Maureen Dowd-level hallucinations to try to make us.
*******
This seems to need it’s own post because our mailbox is filling up with more hate mail than usual today, from many of you upset former President Bill Clinton used the word “teabaggers” the other day, and told a Democrat crowd the “teabaggers” were just a bunch of loons, or whatever it is he said.
Today, Clinton’s in Chicago and if at any point we’re close enough to ask him what he really meant, we swear we will do it. Absent that, all we can say is what’s on our mind, and it’s something one of our fathers used to do when one of us was on the hockey team in high school and he didn’t think his son was playing hard enough.
That father knew “sissy” was a hot button word with his son — and like it or not, calling him a little sissy always motivated the kid to toughen up, move his ass, and redouble his efforts in practice or in a game.
In no way, shape, or form do we condone calling your young, gay son “a little sissy”, so before the hate mail launches with the vengeance of a thousand arrows on that one, we just want to note that in situations where someone of Clinton’s rough age group wants to motivate someone to get off their butt and do something, to work harder at something, some well-placed nebulously directed name-calling could very well prove most effective.
“Oh, those crazy teabaggers” sure sounds a lot like “Why don’t you just give up, you little sissy?”.
Sebastian’s dad didn’t really want him to give up. He also probably never gave as much deeper meaning to the word “sissy” as Sebastian would overanalyze it for the rest of his life. It was just a word that provoked a response in a sometimes lackadaisical forward who cream puffed it through practice more often than he should have.
Oh, being mad at his dad sure helped on game days though. ”I’ll show him. I’ll show him who’s a little sissy. I’m not going to just quit,” is the response Sebastian would give…all because he’d get his ire up, and those skates would take to ice like nobody’s business.
Now, what Clinton is up to is anyone’s guess. We’ve only spoken to him a combined few minutes over a great many years. We do not know him…but we’ve read everything he’s written and have followed his career with great interest for our entire adult lives.
When Big Dawg wants to motivate people, he does it with the skill of an 11th dimensional chess master.
The audience he intends his remarks for is not always the audience he’s delivering them to.
His words are well-chosen, purposeful, and deliberately vague most of the time.
When he speaks, there are usually coded messages in most of what he says.
If he’s never once, in all these years, in every office he’s held and in his role as a former President ever told people not to protest, not to speak out for what they believe in, not to stand up to bad government and runaway deficit…then why on Earth would he start now…and do so on behalf of a man who called him a RAAACIST and every day seeks to impugn and degrade his much-beloved legacy?
That’s just our take on this.
November 11, 2009 at 3:26 pm
I appreciate and take comfort in your insight into this matter. Regarding the other half of that great couple, the discomfort I’d been feeling was allayed when I realized I need only look at the writing on the tee shirt I chose yesterday. This particular tee shirt was sent to all who donated $50 toward reducing her debt, and the words are incredibly familiar: For everyone who’s ever been counted out
But refused to be knocked out and for everyone who works hard and never gives up, This one is for you!
Always remember, and never forget, these are her words.
November 11, 2009 at 3:47 pm
RE: “…former President Bill Clinton used the word “teabaggers” the other day, and told a Democrat crowd the “teabaggers” were just a bunch of loons, or whatever it is he said….”
I’d say it’s a simple separation device.
He is saying
“We are Democrats and the others are teabagging loons. That say, now let me say this….. on the matter….. and this about this person….etc.”
A simple set up to then let the speaker blast away with criticism at the same person the others are criticizing and/or with even the same critiques the others are making.
November 11, 2009 at 4:05 pm
I’m sorry that you are getting hate mail, hillbuzz.
I really dislike the way people take a phrase or two from a politician and declare it to be a complete description of someone’s character. Then they harass a blogger as if justice will not be served until you denounce said politician in writing. Yeah, as if that will magically restore sanity to the world and make everything all better.
It’s a hazard of the internet I suppose.
November 11, 2009 at 4:18 pm
I would never send you hate mail Hillbuzz. You have meant too much to my sanity over the past year plus. But if indeed Bill did say that, then it gives me pause. And Hillary’s statement to Tom Brokaw that she was “thrilled” over the passage of the health care bill in the House also makes me very uncomfortable. Neither, as far as I can tell, have had any comment on the Stupak Amendment, which would deny women access to safe and legal abortions. I don’t intend to drink the kool aid for anyone!
November 11, 2009 at 6:04 pm
Katherine,
We’re thrilled Pelosi passed that monstrous bill in the House too.
It is the Liberals’ Gettysburg charge…the absolute farthest they will ever get with this madness, using up all of their resources and being the last big battle they have before their doom.
When Hillary Clinton talks, she is sometimes having two conversations at once…the one the person in front of her thinks she is having and the one she’s carrying on with her supporters where they read between the lines.
Of course she is thrilled. Everyone who backstabbed her is going to be defeated in 2010 in a bigger bloodbath than what happened when she ran healthcare in the 90s.
We would be thrilled too, if the one glaring mistake we made in life was finally being overshadowed by people so stupid they were now making us look like geniuses in comparison.
Thrilled, thrilled, thrilled.
November 11, 2009 at 6:25 pm
If that is what happens in 2010 I will be thrilled too!
November 11, 2009 at 4:49 pm
As far as I can gather, there is no recording of President Clinton saying that – rather it was an attendee at the lunch (Senator Whitehouse) who said he said “The reason the teabaggers are so inflamed is because we are winning” – like others, I doubt that those were President Clinton’s actual words – he may have said “tea partiers”, but “tea baggers” does not sound in character to me. I suspect that Senator Whitehouse was paraphrasing, not quoting. Here is what President Clinton said he said at that lunch.
http://congress.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/11/10/bill-clintons-visit/
November 11, 2009 at 5:11 pm
I believe you are correct, it was not Clinton who used the term “tea bagger”, though he is being blamed for it on some blogs and in some circles.
November 11, 2009 at 9:52 pm
Everything is the Clinton’s fault – unless it’s Bush’s fault.
Obambino is never at fault for anything although he’s lived on this earth for about 58 years now.
November 11, 2009 at 6:27 pm
Hmmm – no hate mail here because I love you guys. But just like I don’t always agree with my husband – the love of my life, I don’t think I’m buying it your position on why Bill is doing what he’s doing on health care. I think the Clintons want this monstrosity of a bill passed because:
A. Republicans don’t want it because Republican’s killed Hillarycare and this would basically be their middle-fingered salute to those people.
B. Their party loyalty is still strong (hugely misplaced IMHO given what they did to Hillary) and the party leaders are wanting this to pass. They have not gotten anywhere near the Joe Liebermann level of party disappointment. And I don’t think they are ready to accept that the DNC is now the ONC. Once they are able to see that the DNC is now the Obama National Committee they will see the writing on the wall. But this hasn’t happened yet.
C. Fighting Republicans is just too engrained in Big Dawg – who is an old war horse at politics. It’s hard to teach an old war horse new tricks.
November 12, 2009 at 7:51 pm
Well-said, KJA. I thought exactly the same thing.
P.S. Love you, too, Hillbuzz guys.
November 11, 2009 at 7:11 pm
I’m not writing hate mail, and I didn’t post about this when I heard of it, but I for one am disgusted by news hacks like Tea-Bagging Expert Anderson Cooper (and yes, that is his official title as far as I am concerned) sniggering on air in order to demean people who threaten their boy. I am sickened that they have so lost their way that they have come to this.
Even worse – Obama himself participating in this. He is all about scorched earth politics, and not about governing. He seeks to demean, discredit and destroy ordinary people who dare ask questions, who demanded to know what was in the Bill that was to have been shoved through without being read, without being discussed, and without caring what people had to say.
He is the most disgusting person ever to hold that office. Disgusting in so many ways I cannot count them.
I am a Republican who did vote for Clinton, and one who did not support the idea that a man should lose his job over an affair. (Though I grant that lies are another story entirely.)
At this point, when we hear that Clinton chimed in with the “Progressive”/Democratic Party’s new talking points, yes, we believe it. Because that is the level of discourse that this current President and his team, and this Party have brought us to.
And at this point, like it or not, and whether Bill Clinton said it or not, he is supporting it.
He should not. He was once the most powerful man in the world. He no longer needs the Party. He needs to STOP supporting this bullshit – speak out and put a stop to it. Imagine what he could do if he would only speak up. If He and Hillary would only speak up. For God’s sake, condemn the “TeaBagger” rhetoric. Come out and make a statement. Show us that you still have some humanity left. Show that you have some understanding of the fact that this is a nation of ALL the people, that a President represents ALL the people. That he has no right to attack them, to use his stormtroopers to stake out their houses, his PR firms and websites to defame them, his own powerful bully-pulpit to spit out the invectives and try to silence dissent.
Neither he nor Hillary has anything to lose by letting loose on this despicable arm of their Party. They are set for life. They will live comfortable lives that the rest of us can only dream about. WTF are they afraid of? Show some leadership and LEAD the Party away from this horrific new dictatorship.
In no uncertain terms – this has to stop.
Don’t defend the man. He supports this BS. And if I am wrong, he needs to say so and make it clear. So does his wife. Or stay home and say nothing. That alone might imply disagreement.
Not criticizing you guys, by now you know I love and appreciate what you do here. As do the readers who took the time to write you on this issue.
You, and we, are the hope that partisan war will end, and that we will once again work together, Republicans and Democrats for what is right, for this Country, for this Constitution, and for the best form of government the planet has ever seen.
November 11, 2009 at 8:19 pm
well said. I, too voted for Bill Clinton – but I agree with you assessment
November 11, 2009 at 9:42 pm
Your also correct in your assessment that Cooper is a tea-bagging expert. nuff said.
November 11, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Well I have to commend you on your steadfast unconditional love for the Clintons. It is nice to see that kind of devotion. I just have a hard time understanding how both Clintons can forgive Obama for destroying the Democratic primary process to start with,not to mention the middle finger and brushing off his shoulder got 99 problems but a bi**h ain’t one of them stuff.
November 11, 2009 at 8:40 pm
If Bill Clinton says he didnt say “tea baggers” then I will believe him. I just have not heard him say that.
It would not suprise me that the media got it wrong. Many democrats have used the sexual slur TEABAG though.
November 11, 2009 at 9:44 pm
Don’t worry about the hate mail guys. wear it as a badge of honor. The more you get and the more vitriolic it becomes simply demonstrates that you are getting closer to the truth about the big Zero. They know it, and they can’t stand it. They elected a pouff.
November 11, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Sorry, guys, but I haven’t seen any confirmed denial that Clinton didn’t say “teabaggers.”
If it’s confirmed, you need to post links and/or video and audio.
Otherwise, it looks like you’re just kneejerk Clintonistas (which you pretty much are…)
November 11, 2009 at 10:57 pm
I’ve been to one of the Tea Party Express events. While I agreed with some of their rhetoric, some of the things I heard in those speeches made me cringe. These folks are right-wing conservatives, not centrists, not PUMAs, and certainly not supporters of Bill or Hillary. I think in the beginning, the Tea Party movement attracted people who were closer to the center of the political spectrum, but the movement has been pretty much co-opted by the right wing. That’s fine as far as “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” goes. However, it doesn’t go any farther than that. If Dr. Utopia were impeached tomorrow, the next order of business on the official Tea Party agenda would be to go after Hillary.
Keep in mind, I am referring to the leaders of this movement, not necessarily the rank and file (although everyone I encountered at my particular Tea Party happened to be Republicans/conservatives).
November 12, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Jen, the rhetoric might seem extreme, may even start out as extreme, but you’ll find, if you get to talkin’ to the Tea Partiers, that they are the backbone of our nation, that they are very much like you, the rhetoric comes from frustration at not being heard.
The concerns are the takeover of this nation by the activist orgs, the extreme left wing of the fringiest fringe – and if the rhetoric of Obama’s gangster government Czars doesn’t scare you more than the people who are simply saying “read the bill” “uphold our Constitution” “Free speech matters” – then something is wrong.
It’s Chicago-style, coupled with activist orgs, funded and driven by Soros and others like him who are not as well known. They have set up a system that operates outside of all of our checks and balances, and you can see it in your local community with all the phony, Orwellian-named “grassroots” orgs – the head shysters of which are now being given unprecedented power by the Activist in Chief.
It’s about power, and it will affect you in the end.
I say again, call upon the Clintons to use their stature to speak out. Bill knows how to do it, and how to take the heat when the target screams at him. He will find redemption if he saves this nation. His and Hillary’s craven capitulation to the Obama machine is complicity.
November 12, 2009 at 2:18 pm
I guess my followup comment either got lost or went into moderation.
November 12, 2009 at 4:29 pm
[...] does President Clinton have another motive, hmmmm? Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Democrat Bill Owens in Lead for Upstate New York [...]
November 12, 2009 at 6:52 pm
I guess I’m in the minority (again) because I love being called a tea-bagger. For every tea-bagger, there are “tea-baggees”. I encourage them to savor the experience.
November 12, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Funny