Friday, September 3, 2010

Four Limp Dickheads - Updated: My Conversation This Afternoon with Todd

No men are better at being repressed, closeted homosexuals than prominent Republicans and their, ahem, supporters. In the wake of Sarah Palin's pronouncement earlier in the week, on Sean Hannity's radio program, that Vanity Fair author Michael Joseph Gross, is "impotent, limp and gutless," a number of Republican males may have subliminally reacted to her challenge, showing their manliness in declarations of love for other guys. Here's CNN conservative commentator, Erick Erickson, professing his undying love for Teabagger, Joe Miller:

I so totally have a man-crush on this dude. He calls the Democrats ’socialists’, says Barack Obama is ‘bad for America’, and wants to privatize social security.




OK, Erick.

White supremacist and Teabagger lover Robert Stacy McCain has a man crush on Todd. His web site is sporting a picture of the guy on one of Todd's rods, the one embellished with "Mystik" stickers, not the one Todd prefers, the hotter rod, with "Woodys" stickers.

And who is this guy, hanging out with and bragging about his "relationship" with the First Dud? Here's Max Blumenthal on McCain, back in 2009:

So who is [Robert Stacy] McCain?

A former staffer for the conservative Washington Times, McCain has managed to become a player on the far right fringe, stirring controversy almost everywhere he goes. McCain was recruited to the Times in 1997 from a small paper in rural Georgia by former Times managing editor Fran Coombs. Under the watch of Coombs and editor-in-chief Wesley Pruden, both Southern conservatives with connections to white nationalist groups, McCain turned the Times’ “Culture Briefs” section into a bulletin board for the racist right, promoting articles from racist publications like the Occidental Quarterly and the Virginia-based neo-Nazi leader Bill White, who has described McCain as a friend. McCain was himself a member of the neo-Confederate group, the League of the South, which favors a “second secession” from the United States and has been labeled a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

In his spare time, McCain busied himself by ranting about interracial marriage on an online message board. "[T]he media now force interracial images into the public mind and a number of perfectly rational people react to these images with an altogether natural revulsion,” McCain wrote. “The white person who does not mind transacting business with a black bank clerk may yet be averse to accepting the clerk as his sister-in-law, and THIS IS NOT RACISM [caps in original], no matter what Madison Avenue, Hollywood and Washington tell us."

According to former Washington Times reporter George Archibald, during a discussion in the newsroom about civil rights in August 2002, McCain rose from his desk to defend slavery as “good for the blacks and good for property owners.” “He is just a complete animalistic racist,” Archibald told me. Marlene Johnson, the Times’ former arts section editor and an African-American, told me McCain was “an avowed segregationist.”

When I began reporting on McCain’s racial exploits for an article for The Nation, which was published on September 20, 2006, I began receiving unsolicited late night phone calls from McCain. In one such call, McCain refused to respond to the allegations leveled by his colleagues. Instead, he insisted I come to the Raven Grill, a dive bar in Washington DC’s Mount Pleasant section, to meet him and someone named “Carlos.” I simply repeated my request for a response to the charges. McCain again refused. Finally, the bizarre phone calls stopped.


That's the guy hanging out with Todd and Sarah in Wasilla this week.

Don't you love the CNN headline playing while Erickson is hoping he can French kiss Joe the Teabagger ASAP?

TEA PARTY BEATS THE ESTABLISHMENT

A note: I'm not beating on these guys over whether or not they're gay. It is a pity, though, that so many of the prominent GOP figures who have either come out on their own, or were busted, have done everything possible to make the lives of anyone in the LBGTQ community as miserable as possible.

Update - 5:00 p.m. Friday: Todd Palin and I were in lines this afternoon at a business in Wasilla. I had to go sit in the waiting area while my problem was being dealt with. When Todd was done, I asked him questions about Robert Stacy McCain. It went like this (paraphrased):

Phil: Hey, Todd. Phil Munger

Todd: Oh, hi.

Phil: Were you aware that Robert Stacy McCain, the guy you were hanging out with earlier in the week has a reputation as a white supremacist and has been considered a racist by an organization funded by the B,nai Brith?

Todd: Well...

Phil: There've been lots of articles about it. He's a member of a group that wants the South to secede again, and doesn't think inter-racial marriage is a good idea.

Todd: Lots of articles, huh. That doesn't mean anything.

Phil: The Southern Poverty Law Center's articles about McCain's friends and organizations he's belonged to or belong to are very well researched, even footnoted sometimes.

Todd: Well, I just found out about the guy.

Phil: A lot was written about McCain when there was a possibility he'd be helping Sarah on her book, Todd.

Todd: I'll look into it.

Phil: You should. Nice talking.

21 comments:

majii said...

I know firsthand how toxic Erick Erickson is to any serious attempt to discuss issues because he's on the city council here in Macon, GA where I live. He doesn't consider what he says before he opens his mouth, and he doesn't respect the opinions of others. Why CNN provided him with a larger platform from which to spread his sickness eludes me. Maybe he has a decent agent. I do know that I was extremely happy when he stated last year that he wouldn't run for re-election to his seat on the city council in November. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

wakeUpAmerica said...

It shows just how low the public character of America has become when disgusting wharf rats like these are given such a large platform from which they can spread their venom.

Philip Munger said...

majii,

CNN gave Glenn Beck his National TV start

Melinda Shore said...

Philip, I really, really hate your occasional forays into homophobia. I really don't care whether or not suggesting these guys are gay would make them uncomfortable. At some point we have to take responsibility for our own expression and I would hope that someone who identifies as "progressive" would be able to resist the urge to tweak political opponents by suggesting that they're gay. It's not like there's nothing else there to give them crap about. I'm asking you, as a gay Alaskan, to knock it the hell off.

KaJo said...

That's "Robert Stacy McCain", Phil, not John Stacy McCain.

John McCain is the old guy... ;-)

Anonymous said...

Awesome Phil! Todd went home and got on the ole google. They are panicking now I hope. Or they just don't care to be hooked up with a racist. Excellent.

Philip Munger said...

anon @ 8:42,

I doubt it. The way he said "I'll look into it" didn't inspire much confidence in his interest.

Anonymous said...

Well then not surprising, he's a fool. RSM is a bad connection as you know.

Anonymous said...

I have to agree with Melinda Shore. STFU Phil about gays and using them as a way to attack those on the right.
And the white supremacists love the progressives way more than they love anyone on the right. See, you consider minorities and such to be beneath you and always in need of a handout so the likes of Bill White figure you will eventually join their side.

sallyngarland,tx said...

I read yesterday that David Duke,former KKK grand wizard
and White Supremist, is speaking at a white supremist church in Palin's birthplace in Sandpoint, ID. on Sat 9/4. He is speaking about a possible Presidential run in 2012 as a Republican. I wonder how the Repub will handle that Duke identifies as a Republican.

Ms. Palin has created a mess since 2008 going across this country. Now all the racists seem to be coming out and seem so happy about it.

I've read stuff about another writer having to have security because McCain didn't like him. He fits right in with the Palin bullying.

I just don't understand why people like the Palins ,and the ones you cited, don't just leave the US. They seem not to like anything,or anyone, in it but their cult.

Philip Munger said...

melinda & anon @ 9:59,

I ran this article by a gay friend of mine this morning before I put it up. She said it was OK. What's your problem?

Anonymous said...

Phil, maybe it would have been more honest of you if that conversation had begun, "Hi Todd. I'm Phil Munger. I'm the guy who called your wife a slut and a whore. My wife and I think Sarah tried to kill her unborn fifth child."

How come that didn't happen, Phil?

Philip Munger said...

anon @ 1:53 am,

It crossed my mind, but decided to take a minimalist approach.

ilovepoodles said...

The Palins had plenty of time to look into Robert Stacy McCain's slimy past when the rest of us learned that Lynn Vincent was ghostwriting Sarah's first book.

Several articles were published about Vincent's ties to R.S. McCain (such as the book they wrote together, titled "Donkey Cons: Sex, Crime and Corruption in the Democratic Party").

It's absurd for Todd to pretend that he doesn't know McCain's unforgivable past. I am impressed by your bravery in asking Todd directly, however.

Brief sampling of Palin-Vincent-McCains articles:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-11-16/palins-literary-partners/
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/34788_Sarah_Palins_Book_Ghostwritten_by_Associate_of_White_Supremacist_McCain
http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/09/ghostwriter-meet-the-other-rogue-behind-sarah-palins-memoir.php
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/54301,people,news,sarah-palins-ghostwriter-raises-questions
http://gawker.com/5371146/sarah-palins-ghostwriter-pals-around-with-racists-and-wackos

Anonymous said...

Even "Little Green Footballs", a Republican site, has weighed in on RSM and his racism. And just because someone has a bit of Native blood doesn't make him any less racist, either esp when he has bought into the entire white culture with his vulture family.

Pal-ing around with racists is soooo Palinesque.

Bell P said...

The Palins don't care. It's all about the Benjamins. They're just frauds trying to guzzle down all the loot they can get. Which religion is that, by the way? Which one tells you to forget decency, morals, and humanity for the pursuit of coin?

Philip Munger said...

"It's absurd for Todd to pretend that he doesn't know McCain's unforgivable past. I am impressed by your bravery in asking Todd directly, however."

First time we've talked in something like eight to ten years. We played each other in pool a couple of times back in the 90s, and have chatted while waiting around before local summer parades at which both Sarah and I performed. He vaguely recognized me, but it was obvious that, unlike Sarah's dad, he's not tracked what I'm doing at this blog. Neither of us felt uncomfortable in the chat yesterday, as far as I can tell.

Anonymous said...

So this "gay" friend of yours is selling out their lifestyle to attack someone? Nice!

Melinda said...

First, to be clear, "Anonymous" is a moron. And a coward, but that's a different issue - mostly he's a moron.

Look, asking a solitary lesbian whether or not what you wrote was offensive is a good-faith effort not to be offensive, and that's a good thing. But I think that gay-baiting is not okay and you shouldn't do it. As a matter of decency you don't use "gay" as an insult, which is what you're doing here.

It's a free country, certainly, and you can continue to gay-bait if you want, but you'll do it at the risk of alienating glbt readers and allies. Do you really think that the gains from gay-baiting (whatever the hell those might be) justify that?

Anonymous said...

Sounds like Todd was sociable. He gave an interview to a blogger who happened to be in town to watch the absentee vote count. Big deal.

You are the homophobic one by your insults accusing them of being gay...as if it is bad. Too funny, you don't even get it.

Anonymous said...

What's wrong Melinda? Your hairy legs catching in your panting hose?