I noticed this late last week; Buzzfeed noting that the GOP is working on a national level to turn the Democrats’ “War on Women” rhetoric back in their faces:
After enduring an election year in which the Obama campaign advanced a largely successful narrative that the GOP’s platform was anti-woman, the Republican National Committee has spent much of the past month gleefully highlighting the indiscretions and sexual harassment charges of male Democratic politicians.
With a flurry of public memos, tweets, and op-eds, the RNC is working to make the Democratic Party take ownership of Eliot Spitzer, who resigned the New York governorship after a prostitution scandal and is now running for city comptroller; San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, now facing allegations of sexual harassment; and Weiner, whose online sexual dalliances have driven the political news cycle all week, and given RNC communications director Sean Spicer some irresistible ammunition.
I’m inclined to call Reince Preibus and tell him to send his counter-message SWAT team here to Minnesota.
We’ve got a doozy for him.
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I had a conversation with a modestly prominent MNGOP source last week. Yet again, the source noted, the DFL-leaning media was trying, in their words, to “shame” a female conservative.
I’m not going to identify the former political figure involved; they’ve asked for people to keep their noses out of their private lives, and I’m going to do exactly that, and urge you to do the same.
But the source referred me to the Twitter feed of Shawn Towle, of “Checks and Balances”, a regional political publication.
Last week Towle tweeted with the breathless glee of a seventh-grader who’s just disovered his older brother’s stash of Playboys:
@ChecksnBalances: @ChecksnBalances: Breaking: alla #weiner style @UMNnews confirmed via source this pic [whose link I’m going to redact] is [the female conservative]
Towle tries, in successive tweets and with his oddly stunted written delivery (I think “alla” means “a la”), to equate the “incident” – a photo of a female conservative in her underwear – to the Anthony Weiner controversy.
I’m going to redact the photo; it’s on a “Tumblr” blog with one post – a photo – and no comments.
And if you have read Shawn Towle, it doesn’t seem a big stretch to think that he does think there’s an equivalence between…:
- …a sitting congressman sending raunchy photos to women who hadn’t actually solicited them, and…
- …someone who is not an elected official and whose mildly racy photos – from an episode amid some extreme marital difficulty – were distributed and published very much against her will.
Or, for that matter, that Aaron Rupar of the City Pages – who writes about this “issue” like he’s covering the fall of the Twin Towers, only with that little tinge of smug, self-righteous prurience he seems to bring to “reporting” on conservative women with marital difficulties or boyfriend trouble – thinks this is a story.
How bad was Towle and Rupar’s “reporting?” Even Nick Coleman – who rarely has a kind or constructive word to say to anyone to the right of his little brother Chris, the Mayor of Saint Paul – twote:
@NickColeman: City Pages published a pic of [the subject of the story] in underwear? Why on earth? Have they been to the beach? Maybe CP should get out more.
Or stock up on toilet paper.
And Dave Mindeman at mnpAct tweeted:
@newtbuster: [the subject] Story – Embarrassment for Her..Unnecessary For Public http://t.co/DPE18sgV0V
Yep. This “story” serves no purpose, other than to try to stick it to someone that Rupar and Towle disagree with, in the most personal, ugly way possible. (And no, none of the links you see in my story lead to the actual “story”)
But the real story here isn’t the fact that a couple of wanna-be liberal journos have gotten themselves a week’s worth of whacking material.
No, there are three real stories here:
Stalking– I’ll take the subject of this story at her word that the photo in question was obtained and distributed illegally. The woman who is the subject of this story has been cyber-stalked – with the complete, onanistic approval of at least two Twin Cities “media” outlets (and the tacit approval, I maintain, of most of the rest of the media).
While a civil suit seems a long shot, I do sincerely hope the FBI does in fact find someone to charge in this gross invasion of privacy – and that there are consequences for Towle, Rupar, Checks and Balances and the City Pages. In a just world, there’d be some way to sue them back to the stone age.
The Scarlet “C” – It’s that this is the kind of thing that every female conservative in Minnesota faces if they give the Big Left’s smear machine even the slightest whiff of imperfection. As I said on Friday, there’s a yawning double standard; Bill Clinton’s serial philandering was “Just Sex”; Elliot Spitzer and Anthony Weiner and Jesse Jackson’s sexual (and pseudo-sexual) peccadillos are accepted as the sort of thing that goes along with being great and powerful. But if a conservative woman for any reason colors outside the social lines that the left abandoned for themselves in the 1970s – gets divorced, has a social life that doesn’t pass their all-critical muster? They get turned into Hester Prynne with a healthy dollop of puritan-via-Beavis-And-Butthead “shaming” thrown in on top.
Women, to Democrats, are supposed to be barefoot, Democrat, and marching to the voting booth to thank the nice Democrat for their abortion and contraceptives. Thinking for themselves is the real crime.
Er, “Blind” Hate – Beyond sheer illogic and “shaming”, though, there’s a whole ‘nother layer of depravity at work here. What Towle and Rupar have done is isn’t just an Alinsky-ite smear job using the tactics of the internet stalker – which would be bad enough.
To dig into the personal details of a wretchedly difficult part of a couple’s personal life – a couple that is not currently involved in politics, no less – and pruriently splash it all over the public square? That’s beyond politics, beyond spite. That’s the kind of ritual misogyny you see in mobs of inbred cretins stoning a woman for infidelity in some Godforsaken third world backwater.
If you’re a female conservative, really, that’s what the Democrats – and their junior-league PR interns at the City Pages – are these days; rural Iran with better coffee.
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Questioned about this, liberals say “serves them right, belonging to a moralistic party” – which would be illogical even if their own party was itself morally consistent (which it’s not; the self-appointed party of the poor and the working class has left us with a terrible economy for workers. The self-professed party of minorities has made the economy worse for minorities, and has increased racial strife in this country, all the while mining minority communities for votes. The putative party of women has made “womanhood” all about the disposition of a uterus). It’s the ad hominem tu quoque, arguing that personal inconsistency invalidates an argument. This line of illogic would have you believe that stumping for a moral case is invalidated by not living up to it in every facet of one’s life; it’s actually quite the opposite.
No. The only reason this sort of non-story “story” gets covered by lefty “journalists” – and “covered” to the point they risk going blind – is that, true to Alinsky, it makes an example of any woman that leaves the liberal plantation. It’s done to warn other women – and blacks, latinos, Asians and gays – not to make waves. To sit down on the left side of the bus, and shut up, or the personal cost to you and your family will be just too high.
The only reason it hasn’t worked so far is that so many of Minnesota’s conservative women have enough guts to make Red Adair look like Woody Allen.
How bad was Towle and Rupar’s “reporting?” Even Nick Coleman – who rarely has a kind or constructive word to say to anyone to the right of his little brother Chris, the Mayor of Saint Paul – twote:
@NickColeman: City Pages published a pic of [the subject of the story] in underwear? Why on earth? Have they been to the beach? Maybe CP should get out more.
Or stock up on toilet paper.
And Dave Mindeman at mnpAct tweeted:
@newtbuster: [the subject] Story – Embarrassment for Her..Unnecessary For Public http://t.co/DPE18sgV0V
Yep. This “story” serves no purpose, other than to try to stick it to someone that Rupar and Towle disagree with, in the most personal, ugly way possible.
And by “denouncing” the story, both Non-Monkey and Mindeman increase the reach and visibility of the story they so piously denounce. Neat trick, that.
Good post Mitch. It’s one reason why my main involvement with politics – like most people in this country is on the sidelines limited to commenting here and at the voting booth.
More than a decade ago in another city, I wrote a letter to the editor of the metropolitan paper, maybe my fifth in six years. It was critical of a column from a columnist who wrote “Lori Sturdevant like” cheerleading for the local (big city) school district and their upcoming levy. My letter was factual, didn’t name the columnist (the Letters Editor did put her name in for clarity) and was my attempt to refute the points made (really just teachers union/school district talking points) in the column.
The day it was published, my spouse received three different telephone calls from various mouth breathers who told her they knew where she worked, where we lived and if she knew what was good for her, she’d shut her husband (me) up. I brushed off the ‘threats’ as just people able to look up my somewhat uncommon last name in the phone book and call our then published home phone number with no more idea on where we lived, worked, etc than anyone else on the planet. My wife took it very differently. If you have ever been driving in a car with a woman when the fuel guage needle tips toward “E” and pass by the next gas station, you likely have some idea what I’m talking about.
Women, blacks and gays who have escaped the Democrats Plantation deserve special recognition. It may be why the Republican Party has many more women, blacks and gays in elective office per capita than the Democrats if for no other reason than the requirement that they be tougher than us straight white guys on their way up the ladder as they will continually have back benching trolls in the Democrat party trying to tear them down.
I recall years ago writing an op-ed in the Star Tribune about the potential harmful business effects of the (then) newly minted DFL legislature. The thrust of the op-ed was about the types of ad campaigns that neighboring states were using to try and lure businesses away – and frankly, I was pretty darn mild about the effort.
Not only did I get a LTR from Rep. Ryan Winkler himself attacking me by name (I had not mentioned him or any other politician), but a day later received a poorly scribbled letter to my home address threatening me in a similar fashion to what Selfores addresses above.
I laughed off both incidents then, but it’s highly damaging to a functional democracy if one side believes even reasonable and mild voices of opposition need to be silenced. Is it any wonder why some continue to write under a nom de guerre?
Here is what conservatives are up against:
http://hawaiitribune-herald.com/sections/commentary/their-views/obama-offers-eloquent-vision-middle-class.html
This is an op-ed by a supposedly responsible newspaper — not a letter to the editor, it is written by the editors of a big-city newspaper:
That’s because even as the president was preparing eloquent pleas in Galesburg and Warrensburg for a better, less selfish America, back in Washington his opponents were taking pre-emptive steps to gut many of the programs the president was calling vital.
. . . .
Meanwhile, in the Midwest, Obama was talking as if most congressional Republicans were reasonable people who secretly believed in his plans to strengthen the middle class and not toadies for plutocrats.
. . .
They shouldn’t be called on, they must be called out, by name, every day. Obama must lend his voice and his presence to ceaseless close-air support, district by district, state by state, on how GOP policies would hurt the 90 percent of Americans who have yet to enjoy the blessings of economic recovery. He must connect the dots and name names.
. . .
More of this, Mr. President. The part of the middle class that isn’t angry already needs to be. Don’t be afraid to pitch inside. Fire up the Warthogs.
The Democrat left…..there is no debate. No back and forth of ideas and views. They want the destruction of our side. The demonization. Examples? Go to the comment section of the Mpls Star Tribune. There are some flaming righties, but our side is mostly reasonable facts and opinions. The other side is name calling and goofy conspiracy theories. Same in Wisconsin.
Among other reasons (extremists have always been over the edge) is that most lefties have no diversity in their lives. So are intolerant of those who think differently than them. They can’t live with idea that we even exist.
Do you think Uncle Tom Winkler has one conservative friend? Over the course of their day, do you think the wacko Madison or Macalester college professor is exposed to any significant volume of thought that is different from his?
Why would a UW-Madison medical instructors see nothing wrong with standing outside the Wisc capitol building, holding a sign that says “I will right out fake medical notes” for gov’t emloyees who skipped work to protest governor Walker? Its because they never come across conservatives. They assume everyone thinks just like them. Therefore they are intolerant of our views and see us as someone to be destroyed.
Word on the street is M. Brodkorb is somehow involved with the release of the photo.
Now I think Brodkorb is a stinking puddle of liquid shit, and have told him so, but Mitch is still pals with him and I’m tempted to suggest he ask if it’s true, but then I remember I wouldn’t believe anything that comes out of Brodkorb’s stinking pie hole anyway.
Chuck wrote: “The Democrat left…..there is no debate. No back and forth of ideas and views. They want the destruction of our side.”
You can’t run a republic like this. The Left is convinced that conservatives are evil, racist bastards who are intent on destroying on the world to satisfy their greed.
In fact conservatives in the US marginally prefer policies that promote growth over policies that promote redistributionism. And it’s a very marginal difference. Democrats want a 39% top marginal tax rate. They are the champions of the poor and oppressed! Republicans want a 32% top marginal tax rate. That makes them the most evil, nasty scum to ever dare to enter politics. In the history of the world! Ever!
Did anybody bother to read the mnpACT post? Anybody?
I did. But I felt that your tweet summed it up fairly well, so what’s what I ran with And – I’ll reiterate – I agreed with you.
Why? Did I miss something?
The only part of your post that the tweet didn’t cover was the Brodkorb reference. I’ve heard people speculate that Brodkorb might be behind this – but not only have I heard nothing in the way of evidence or named sources, but I’m at a loss for why it’d benefit him to do it in the first place.
Brodkorb is going to become the leprechaun of Minnesota politics; every unexplained shenanigan will get ascribed to him.
A women I have known since high school recently shared, via facebook, a “Ready for Hilary” post that had something to say about womens rights.
I got a little chuckle thinking about this woman who, essentially, set womens right back a century by standing by her misogynist, philandering husband merely for appearances sake.
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