Or, the little tiny tent is shrinking, fast …
John Cornyn of Texas is reliably one of the most right-wing whackjobs in the Senate. He gets 100 percent approval ratings from National Right to Life, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Christian Coalition, plus he gets an “A” from the National Rifle Association. He gets zeros from NARAL, the Human Rights Campaign, the League of Conservation Voters, and the American Public Health Association.
Yet Sen. Cornyn was booed roundly at a “tea party” held over the weekend in Texas. He wasn’t right-wing enough for the partiers.
Cornyn was booed at the start and close of his remarks, which assailed actions in Washington; there were no boos while he awarded a Purple Heart to a Copperas Cove resident injured in Iraq in 2006.
“You’re the problem,†a crowd member hollered.
Another crowd member yelled that Cornyn voted for the initial federal bailout of Wall Street approved by Congress last year, the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
I take it from the comments to the article linked above that Sen. Cornyn also is involved in a patent reform bill that Phyllis Schlafly has denounced. He has also supported a bill that would allow deported illegal aliens to return to the U.S. as guest workers, or something.
Governor Perry was there, also.
Perry drew scattered boos, notably from crowd members aware of his advocacy of toll roads to relieve traffic congestion.
I don’t know about you, but I had to sit and let that sink in for a while.
The tea parties are something like right-wing jacobins, except they lack a Robespierre to give them philosophical cohesiveness. They want to send everyone who isn’t pure enough for them to la guillotine, just because.
What I’ve read about the tea parties is that the GOP masters who coordinated the original round of them have quietly backed out. And so what’s left are mostly a few local “celebrations” over the July 4 holiday. Haven’t seen any figures to support this, but they weren’t a news item at all this holiday, that I could see.
Oy, Texas.
It sounds like the powers to be have lost control of their robots. Teabaggers are a bunch of very low information rednecks who think they should be able to walk around armed to the teeth and take anything they wish, no laws, no taxes, no civilization. They are the right wings version of the infamous Manson family, only with slightly better hygiene!
I haven’t seen any crowd estimates from the July 4 “parties” but I suspect we’re boiling that crowd down to the hard core right wing anarchists or maybe the level just above that. What are we talking about, maybe ten times the size of the Waco and Ruby Ridge groups combined?
We always knew these whack jobs were out there, same as the left-wing whack job anarchists. The tea parties might be the only time anyone has ever provided them an organized forum to get together and strut their stuff outside their armed compounds. Not a smart move.
The surprising bit to me is that Cornyn and Perry and the more “main stream” whack jobs are still catering to this crowd. They can’t have anywhere near the numbers to be considered a “base” for anything other than amunition sales…
It’s like they’re stranded on a desert island together, and getting hungry.
They booed Goodhair Perry because he supports toll roads?
So… wait. They don’t like taxes or the free market?!
[H]is advocacy of toll roads to relieve traffic congestion
What?!! Gov. Perry wants to put toll roads… in Texas?
OMG, what next, toll roads in Kansas?! 8)
THe tea party I saw in Colorado was unnerving. A lot of middle class people. What they seemed to want was no TAXES and the illusion that they work for everything they get and therefore of course get free roads, a banking system, fire and police protection, a strong army, medicare or yes and did I say, pay no taxes. Taxes, you know, pay deadbeats not to work!!!!! I gave them a thumbs down and they told me to get a job. Guess they all took a vacation day to be out there on a weekday at 10 a.m. and want sick leave and weekends off but hate unions also, betcha!!!! Talk about something for nothing, BUT just for US not them!!! Might I also say, there were more of them than me and I was glad I was in a car. They really seemed genuinely angry when they yelled at me. Very glad I wasn’t here in Texas to see one. Who knows what might have happened.
A lonely liberal Texas who is counting the days until the next election!!!! (again)
This from Eric margolis:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis154.html
Now I’m confused – what do they have against toll roads? Isn’t that the free market, small government solution to transportation? Or is the problem that the gubmint is building the road, instead of Roads Corp.? Or were they from the “roads spring from the forehead of Zeus” crowd, who believe roads should exist without having to pay for them in taxes OR tolls?
It reminds me of when my toddler nephew would get overtired and cranky. He would sometimes just get so tangled up that he would whine and reject any possible offer, whether or not it was what he had started out claiming to want.
I think the tea-baggers need to have a nap.
NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition!
I saw an interview of tea party participants and thy seemed to be the most ingnorant and uninformed of all those on the fringe…if they were representative of the larger group. It would be unwise for any GOP lawmaker to feed them or else they might retract a stump for their effort. Attempting to do so only shows how far they have fallen.
Biggerbox: You nailed it. I have my 3 and 5 year old grandchildren here. Meal time: ” I don’t like it” ‘ Have you tried it” “No, I won’t like it” “Please” “NO, and “I don’t like you either!” Perfect, tea baggers = tired, spoiled toddlers. Now, I love my grandchildren anyway, but it is hard with the tea baggers. Oh, yes, the difference, my grandchildren will out grow their behavior, I have lost hope for the others.
Awrite Maha…I’ll go for th’ Robies-pee-air gig if you’ll come along with your knittin’…
Cain’t roll no tumbrils ‘thout a Madame Lefarge (or Dufarge, whatever) You’d give the nod for when the trial was over and they’d be drug out to the Gee-O-Teen….
When McCain saw the loonies becoming a force in his rallies, he toned things down and did not let those people take over his campaign. If the GOP does not reject the hatemongers, the GOP is itself at risk. There won’t be the healthy debate of competing political philosophies. These folks can’t debate, and the demagoguery isn’t working. We have never faced the situation in America where 1 of the 2 dominant parties is radicalized by a faction who places individual rights above the common good without compromise.
Suppose the ‘nuts’ get control of the GOP before 2010 and the elections go badly; they loose even more seats in Congress. Suppose health care & cap & trade pass. (If they do, we will bemoan the compromises, but they will see utter defeat and ‘socialism’.) They have ‘control’ of the GOP, but they have no hope of ‘control’ through the electoral process. Five words.
Be afraid; be very afraid.
Unfortunately, John Cornyn represents John Cornyn. I can’t see how he can keep getting elected since he obviously doesn’t serve the contituency in Texas. I would have booed him and Governor Perry, too. Neither one of them represents all of Texas. They have their die hard republithugs who cry foul whenever someone tries something new but they don’t have any new ideas to offer. Only same old same old. We get what we deserve when we don’t take a stand against them.
Sotomayor is the sixth catholic on the supreme court.
Newt Gingrich is a slimy little weasel but he just turned catholic.
Now when Roe vs Wade is negated by the Pope’s orders there will be singing and dancing and cheering by all of the clueless.
But when Obama converts and the clueless finally catch on,
it isn’t going to be just the snake handlers and holy rollers who go ballistic.
You going to see Mormons and Baptists and Seventh Day Adventist make a recap of the reformation look like a joke.
If I were catholic, I would move to Paraguay and change my name to Bush or Cheney.
“They have ‘control’ of the GOP, but they have no hope of ‘control’ through the electoral process. Five words.
Be afraid; be very afraid.”
Isn’t that the ideal outcome (no hope of control)? What would be better?
I was wondering about toll roads myself. Maybe they like traffic congestion. Maybe they don’t exactly like it but consider it a lesser evil than the big, bad government actually building roads because roads, you know, require (gasp!) spending!