A Case of Terminal Civility…
As Thud has pointed out nicely, the debate over Howard Dean’s “lack of civility” is ridiculous in the extreme when balanced against the geysers of invective that have spewed forth from the gaping hellmouth of the Republican power structure over the past couple of decades.
Just in case it had been forgotten, I thought I might present some of the Right’s sense of civility. These are choice quotes from Ann Coulter’s rejected USAToday column covering the Democratic convention.
Here at the Spawn of Satan convention in Boston, conservatives are deploying a series of covert signals to identify one another, much like gay men do. My allies are the ones wearing crosses or American flags. The people sporting shirts emblazoned with the “F-word” are my opponents. Also, as always, the pretty girls and cops are on my side, most of them barely able to conceal their eye-rolling.
Democrats are constantly suing and slandering police as violent, fascist racists—with the exception of Boston’s police, who’ll be lauded as national heroes right up until the Democrats pack up and leave town on Friday, whereupon they’ll revert to their natural state of being fascist, racist pigs.
...
My pretty-girl allies stick out like a sore thumb amongst the corn-fed, no make-up, natural fiber, no-bra needing, sandal-wearing, hirsute, somewhat fragrant hippie chick pie wagons they call “women” at the Democratic National Convention.
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Apparently, the nuts at the Democratic National Convention are going to be put in cages outside the convention hall. Sadly, they won’t be fighting to the death as is done in WWE caged matches.
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The fact that Carter is now their most respectable speaker tells you where that party is today. Maybe they just want to remind Americans who got us into this Middle East mess in the first place. We’ve got millions of fanatical Muslims trying to slaughter Americans while shouting “Allah Akbar!� Yeah, let’s turn the nation over to these guys.
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Walking back from the convention site I chatted with a normal Bostonian for several blocks—who must have identified me through our covert system of signals. He was mostly bemused by the Democrats’ primetime speakers and told me he used to be an independent, but for the last 20 years found himself voting mostly Republican. Then he corrected himself and said he votes for the “American.â€?
Of course, Ann Coulter is not the party leadership of the Republican party. She’s just a highly-paid, high-profile pundit who is invited to dinners with the party leadership where she is wined and dined and praised to the rafters. She’s just someone who has made her entire career off of slander and libel – a screeching harpy in disguise who wouldn’t know a real woman if she was knifed by one.
But she’s not the party leadership.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the leadership of the party that wants Howard Dean to be civil.
Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), chairman of the panel, abruptly gaveled the meeting to an end and walked out, followed by other Republicans. Sensenbrenner said that much of the testimony, which veered into debate over the detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was irrelevant.
A Representative isn’t enough for you?
In the latest episode, Vice President Dick Cheney told Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. to “fuck off” on the Senate floor where members had gathered for a group photo. “I was kind of shocked to hear that kind of language on the floor,” Leahy said of the incident this week.
Maybe he shouldn’t have been. Just days before, Senate Judiciary Committee Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, had referred to a proposal by Leahy to subpoena Justice Department memos on prisoner interrogation as a “dumb-ass” idea.
Cheney, interviewed by Fox News Friday, said he had no regrets about his remarks to Leahy and “I felt better after I said it.” He added, “A lot of my colleagues felt what I said badly needed to be said.”
You know what?

June 12th, 2005 at 12:35 pm
Yes it does need to be said.
Funny how they say liberals are spineless, then as soon DNC chairman grows some balls, we’re not being civil.
I say we need to get tougher and stop being pansies. Say what we mean with heart and fire. That’s Howard Dean and that’s why I like him.