Dirty Words
January 27th, 2008Hillary Clinton says we should put bloggers into government agencies to promote transparency. It’s an interesting idea, but it has the potential to be used as a vehicle for propaganda and nothing more, although I don’t know all that many bloggers who are simply willing to roll over for someone. Guess that’s why they’d be government bloggers, though, and not independent bloggers. I like the idea, even with the potential for harm it has, but in the event of a Clinton Restoration I volunteer to be the first blogger on the independent investigator’s counsel because you know investigations are going to happen and so I’m calling my shot now!
Moving on, here’s an interesting footnote to this Presidential campaign:
Notorious Republican dirty trickster Roger Stone has launched a 527 political organization called Citizens United Not Timid (aka CUNT) to educate the public about “what Hillary Clinton really is.” The organization’s sole purpose? To sell $25 T-shirts emblazoned with the organization’s charming name and its red, white and blue logo. The logo is supposed to evoke a woman’s crotch, but it looks more like an elephant’s anus (a perfect image for Stone’s role in the Republican Party).
Talking Points Memo has since published the IRS filing for the 527, and a number of blogs, including the the Carpetbagger Report and the Talking Points’ Muckracker, have covered the story. The Washington Times also reported that another, similarly named anti-Hillary organization, Citizens United, has sent a cease-and-desist letter for name infringement.
If an anti-Obama group created an organization whose sole purpose was to call him the N-word, the response would be pure, unmitigated outrage, and, in this sense, it might be a less complicated story. But the analysis around Clinton has become so convoluted that now, any animosity toward her inspires deconstruction. Judging from scores of reader comments on blogs, plenty of people assume the vile T-shirt shilling operation is something more deceptive than simply another rabid expression of Hillary hating and the misogyny that fuels it.
Some are ironically celebrating Stone’s stupidity — expecting that the blowback from his use of the C-word will be so great as to ensure Clinton’s nomination and turn every last Republican soccer mother into a card-carrying feminist. (From the Carpetbagger discussion forum: “If Stone didn’t exist, we’d want to invent him: if there is a single soccer mom left in the Republican party by the time he is through, I’ll be surprised.” From the Muckracker discussion boards: “Way to go, Stone! Nice GOTV effort for the women. LOVE it!”)
In the end, it won’t matter all that much and there’ll be hundreds of factors above and beyond it in deciding the nomination as well as the Presidency, but maybe someday “conventional wisdom” will tell us that this silly and disgusting political stunt was a turning point. Who knows? I am disappointed to see this type of rhetoric put forward but I am not surprised.