Sarah Palin has come out of her bunker for the first time since the Giffords shooting in Tucson, preferring to verbally reload rather than show any contrition for her incendiary rhetoric. She dismissed her critics as being guilty of "blood libel." But I'm not commenting on that. Not today, anyway.
No, I'm here today to focus attention on another Republican known for his asinine rhetoric, a congressman who shares the distinction with Gabrielle Giffords of being in Arizona's U.S. House delegation - Ben Quayle, son of the former Vice President. Elected to the House of Representatives in November just prior to his thirty-fourth birthday despite his connection to a porn site, the son of The Mighty Quayle (my ironic nickname for Dan Quayle, based on the Bob Dylan song "The Mighty Quinn [Quinn the Eskimo]") is best known for his incoherent anti-Obama campaign ad. In that ad, you will recall, Quayle made a few abstruse comments about his background and his qualifications for office. "I love Arizona. I was raised right," the Indiana-bred Quayle says to the camera, without explaining what these two declarative statements have to do with why voters should send him to Congress, or, for that matter, each other.
But that 's not why I bring up Ben Quayle. Blaming runaway spending on President Obama and the Democratic Congress in this ad, he labelled Obama the worst President of the United States in history and accused him of saddling the post-Boomer generation with massive debt. And then, after trashing and disrespecting his President, Quayle offered his rationale for running for Congress: "Someone should go to Washington and knock the hell out of the place."
No one who claims to be "raised right" (he was raised right, far right) would be so vicious and hateful toward President Obama, and no one of any decency would want to "knock the hell" out of anything. By using such nasty language and showing such childish behavior, Ben Quayle is as guilty of inciting anger and discord as Palin is. Maybe even more so in this case, because he's from Arizona, which Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik rightfully called a mecca of bigotry and intolerance.
And just how is knocking the hell out of Washington going to balance the budget or create jobs? Everybody in Washington may be in despair, every girl and boy (some are demonstrating at monuments, others are jotting down notes), but I doubt anyone jumped ecstatically when Quayle the congressman got there.
And guarding fumes and making haste is Ben Quayle's cup of red meat.
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