# Congressman attacks student for daring to ask him a question **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 15, 2010, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congressman-attacks-student-for-daring-to-ask-him-a-question/543227 "2010-06-15T00:25:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 19
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congressman-attacks-student-for-daring-to-ask-him-a-question/543227/361 "2010-06-16T21:35:05Z")
That “Obama agenda” question was fucking trolling and retarded, and the fact that thy refusedo identify themselves and lied about some vague College “project” is alll provocative in itself, plus we don’t know what was cut out of the tape. They might have tried to grab his dick or something. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congressman-attacks-student-for-daring-to-ask-him-a-question/543227/362 "2010-06-16T21:36:09Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > 😃 > > Do you guys want to wise him up or shall I? > > ETA: Oh, hell, I’ll do it. I got chit to do. > > [Link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teabaggers) The teabaggers called themselves teabaggers before anybody else did. Then they figured out people were snickering at them and got all huffy about the use of their own word. Teabaggers, teabaggers, teabaggers. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congressman-attacks-student-for-daring-to-ask-him-a-question/543227/363 "2010-06-16T21:37:05Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > That “Obama agenda” question was fucking trolling and retarded, and the fact that thy refusedo identify themselves and lied about some vague College “project” is alll provocative in itself, plus we don’t know what was cut out of the tape. They might have tried to grab his dick or something. Oh, okay. So when Charlie Gibson looked over his reading glasses and down his nose to ask Sarah Palin about the “Bush Doctrine”, he was trolling and being retarded? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congressman-attacks-student-for-daring-to-ask-him-a-question/543227/364 "2010-06-16T21:41:21Z")
No, he was asking a specific, policy related question, and it was an extremely significant point of policy at that. I don’t know what “looking over his glasses” is supposed to signify in your imagination. I knew what the Bush Doctrine was. Didn’t you? If somebody walked up to poor Sarah on the street and asked her a political question, you teabaggers would probably want them shot. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congressman-attacks-student-for-daring-to-ask-him-a-question/543227/365 "2010-06-16T21:43:08Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > The teabaggers called themselves teabaggers before anybody else did. Then they figured out people were snickering at them and got all huffy about the use of their own word. > > Teabaggers, teabaggers, teabaggers. I don’t know if you’re right or not, but by the time Obama and his henchmen (primarily Rahm Emanuel, I think) got into office, the term was understood as a laughable insult by almost everyone. Still, whether Obama meant to sneakily and snarkily refer to them by that name (which I rather suspect, given his propensity to go after his critics publicly as he did with Limbaugh and Fox News) or whether he did it out of ignorance, he should have known better. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congressman-attacks-student-for-daring-to-ask-him-a-question/543227/366 "2010-06-16T21:45:22Z")
Those people he called “teabaggers” are the same ones calling him “nigger” and threatening to murder him and his family. They are not people who deserve any respect. They deserve to be disparaged. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congressman-attacks-student-for-daring-to-ask-him-a-question/543227/367 "2010-06-16T21:46:53Z")
Obama is kind of a square, by the way. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he had no idea that the word had a sexual connotation. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congressman-attacks-student-for-daring-to-ask-him-a-question/543227/368 "2010-06-16T21:47:33Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Oh, okay. So when Charlie Gibson looked over his reading glasses and down his nose to ask Sarah Palin about the “Bush Doctrine”, he was trolling and being retarded? “Bush Doctrine” does have a specific meaning, and in fact the term has a _long_ Wikipedia entry. “The Obama agenda” isn’t as well-defined and my experience is that the phrase is mostly used by people who think he’s an illegal Muslim usurper Commie Nazi and that his agenda includes stealing whitey’s money and abolishing the Constitution. But Etheridge didn’t have to take the question that way; that was one of his mistakes in this encounter. He could’ve just said “I support the president’s proposal that we do [this that and the other]. Do you have a more specific question?” ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congressman-attacks-student-for-daring-to-ask-him-a-question/543227/369 "2010-06-16T21:53:04Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > No, he was asking a specific, policy related question… And asking a sitting congressman if he supports the president’s agenda isn’t a specific, policy related question? > [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > …and it was an extremely significant point of policy at that. Obama’s agenda isn’t significant? > [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I don’t know what “looking over his glasses” is supposed to signify in your imagination. Sure you do: condescention. > [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I knew what the Bush Doctrine was. Didn’t you? I knew there were several things he could have been referring to, and I also knew that he knew it too and was counting on that fact to ambush her should she actually know and mention one. > [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > If somebody walked up to poor Sarah on the street and asked her a political question, you teabaggers would probably want them shot. Well, speaking for myself and not as either a teabagger or Tea Partier, I would welcome the chance for Sarah to yet again score points and rally support to turn back the tide of liberal politics. And now, like I said I got chit to do. I’ll try to answer your post when I return tonight, **Marley**. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congressman-attacks-student-for-daring-to-ask-him-a-question/543227/370 "2010-06-16T21:56:34Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Obama is kind of a square, by the way. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he had no idea that the word had a sexual connotation. So you really think that with all the smart, snarky Chicago and elsewhere buttpipes he has surrounded himself with, that he had no idea whatsoever what the term ‘teabagger’ meant? Especially given that Tea Partiers are presently pretty much his largest and most noisome political foes? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congressman-attacks-student-for-daring-to-ask-him-a-question/543227/371 "2010-06-16T22:06:20Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Obama’s agenda isn’t significant? What do you see as “Obama’s agenda”? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congressman-attacks-student-for-daring-to-ask-him-a-question/543227/372 "2010-06-16T22:07:19Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > And asking a sitting congressman if he supports the president’s agenda isn’t a specific, policy related question? Nope. It doesn’t mean anything. it doesn’t reference anything. It’s just a troll. > [@](#): > > Obama’s agenda isn’t significant? What is “Obama’s agenda” What does that mean specifically? Break it down for me. Where does Obama have this “agenda” posted online? > [@](#): > > Sure you do: condescention. The word is spelled, “condescension,” and I think you’re imagining things. I know you righties always feel threatened by smart people who use words you don’t understand, but that doesn’t always mean they’re condescending to you. > [@](#): > > I knew there were several things he could have been referring to, and I also knew that he knew it too and was counting on that fact to ambush her should she actually know and mention one. She didn’t have the slightest idea, and if she DID have even a ghost of a clue, there would have been no embarrassmnent. It really referred to one main thing in common political vernacular. It was a perfectly fair question, and it’s not an “ambush” just because a journalist asks your pet retard a complex policy question. Obama was asked a lot tougher questions than that during the campaign (he even went on Bill O’Reilly. Let’s see Palin face somebody that hostile) and no one ever thought he was being ambushed > [@](#): > > Well, speaking for myself and not as either a teabagger or Tea Partier, I would welcome the chance for Sarah to yet again score points and rally support to turn back the tide of liberal politics. Score points? How do you think she would score points. She would run behind her bodyguards and then victimize herself on Facebook like she always does. If she actually had the ability to field a challenging question, she wouldn’t have to be sequestered in her protective, Fox News bubble all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congressman-attacks-student-for-daring-to-ask-him-a-question/543227/373 "2010-06-16T22:08:01Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > I don’t know if you’re right or not, but by the time Obama and his henchmen (primarily Rahm Emanuel, I think) got into office, the term was understood as a laughable insult by almost everyone. The teabaggers didn’t even exist until february or march of 2009, which is shortly after Obama took office. You are completely wrong about the timeline of things here. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congressman-attacks-student-for-daring-to-ask-him-a-question/543227/374 "2010-06-16T22:16:02Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > What do you see as “Obama’s agenda”? Well, that’s obvious. Turning the USA into a communist, socialist, fascist, nazi, and possibly Kenyan country!!! ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congressman-attacks-student-for-daring-to-ask-him-a-question/543227/375 "2010-06-16T22:29:12Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > The teabaggers didn’t even exist until february or march of 2009, which is shortly after Obama took office. You are completely wrong about the timeline of things here. He’s right, though – it meant people who dangled their testicles in other people’s mouths, as a sophomoric prank. Odd that it _declined_ from there to the present meaning. But what I re-opened this thread to say is that I just got push-polled about the video by the “Civitan Institute”, which made it a point to repeat “Democrat Bob Etheridge” and “Republican Renee Ellmers” several times in connection with it. It _could_ have been a coincidence, or quick action to take advantage of a major faux pas on Etheridge’s part. But frankly, that’s not the way I’d bet. If there is not some, presumably well hidden connection between the two students and the “Civitan Institute” push poll, I will gladly eat the annual volume of the Proceedings of the Cato Institute. With freedom fries. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congressman-attacks-student-for-daring-to-ask-him-a-question/543227/376 "2010-06-16T22:43:01Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > I’ll try to answer your post when I return tonight, **Marley**. Much appreciated. Maybe it will save time if I agree that every president has an agenda, and that obviously includes Obama. But asking someone if they approve of any president’s agenda without giving any other context is very vague and it’s an indication these guys were mostly out to make Etheridge look bad - which still doesn’t invalidate their question (such as it is) or justify his response. While the image of Charlie Gibson sneering down his glasses at poor Sarah Palin is a memorable one, I should point out that he did not moderate that debate, so he could not have asked that question or sneered that way. [The 2008 VP debate was moderated by Gwen Ifill, who doesn’t wear glasses.](http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/president/debates/transcripts/vice-presidential-debate.html) She also did not ask any questions about the “Bush doctrine” and never used those words. Joe Biden did, however. He said (at the end of a long list of other things) that Obama “would reject the Bush Doctrine of preemption and regime change and replace it with a doctrine of prevention and cooperation and, ladies and gentlemen, this is the biggest ticket item that we have in this election.” Ifill’s question was a general one about how a Biden administration would differ from an Obama administration, and a Palin administration from McCain’s. [In the second debate between McCain and Obama](http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/07/presidential.debate.transcript/), the only person who used the phrase “Bush doctrine” was Obama. Tom Brokaw did say “let’s see if we can establish tonight the Obama doctrine and the McCain doctrine for the use of United States combat forces in situations where there’s a humanitarian crisis, but it does not affect our national security,” so he asked for an Obama doctrine and a McCain doctrine. The phase “Bush doctrine” was not used at the first debate, which was moderated by Jim Lehrer, or the third, which was moderated by Bob Schieffer. Lehrer and Schieffer normally don’t wear glasses on the air either. So I’m afraid the image of the debate moderator sneering over his/her glasses at Palin has to go the way of Spiro Agnew’s line about vultures sitting in trees. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congressman-attacks-student-for-daring-to-ask-him-a-question/543227/377 "2010-06-16T22:57:47Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > What do you see as “Obama’s agenda”? It’s like the gay agenda, only more limpwristed. ---
**Author:** ![Library\_Boy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cab0a1/32.png) [@Library\_Boy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Library_Boy)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congressman-attacks-student-for-daring-to-ask-him-a-question/543227/378 "2010-06-16T23:09:35Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > How do you know they _don’t_? We don’t know everything they did to provoke the guy. > > I also don’t think the actions shown on the are are significant or important enough to be called “wrong.” He neither hurt anybody, nor _tried_ to hurt anybody, so it’s hard to see how his actions can rise to the level of moral “wrongness.” It was just too inconsequential to morally matter. First off all there is a difference between motives and actions. If there were actions to provoke him, that would be mitigating. Their alleged motives, however underhanded you may think them to be, do not give him the right to act as he did. Second of all why wouldn’t the congressman say something if there really were actions by the two to provoke him? If two people are talking, and one gets mad at the other and throws a glass of water in their face, it would not hurt them, and I don’t think you can say the offending aparty tried to hurt them, but I would still consider it wrong. Would you? ---
**Author:** ![Library\_Boy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cab0a1/32.png) [@Library\_Boy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Library_Boy)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congressman-attacks-student-for-daring-to-ask-him-a-question/543227/379 "2010-06-16T23:14:36Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > What do you see as “Obama’s agenda”? \Where the white women at?\ Put down the stone, it’s a joke. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congressman-attacks-student-for-daring-to-ask-him-a-question/543227/380 "2010-06-16T23:38:03Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > There are a lot worse things going on the world than a cranky old man grabbing some punk’s arm. Why do we have to be so PC all the time? I think the point is that this was a Congressman, approached by a citizen. Call me old-fashioned, but I think public officials have a responsibility to the public (at least when they’re _in_ public), even if the official is cranky. And if they fail to meet it adequately, they more than deserve to have the evidence publicized. That is to say, it isn’t that what actually happened is a very big deal; it’s that it reveals an appalling attitude on the part of the Congressman about what his position is relative to citizens. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congressman-attacks-student-for-daring-to-ask-him-a-question/543227.md?page=18) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congressman-attacks-student-for-daring-to-ask-him-a-question/543227.md?page=20)