I guess this would be called a micro-rant, but that insane asshole was on the tube earlier spouting his usual psychotic bigoted crap. How does this fucking jerk get airtime? I haven’t seen him in a while, and forgot how much he irritates the shit out of me. Thats all.
Is he the one who sort of looks like the animated version of Pinocchio? The little puppet man? I forgot about him - are they still letting him on television?
Aw, he’s not all bad… at least he anesthetizes infants before he sacrifices 'em to his deity, Oogadargnachia.
Who the fuck is Gary Bauer, and should I care?
Is he the Christian Coalition leader who looks exactly like Dave Thomas from “Kids in the Hall,” or is that another one?
Yeah, that’s the guy.
He fell off a stage which trying to catch flapjacks on a spatula. A few days later he quit the Presidential race when he realized that no one could possibly take him seriously after a thing like that.
What I wanna know is, why don’t LEFT-WING nut-cases run for the Presidency? No, don’t make and Gore/Nader jokes, I mean the really far out folks, the ones who’d compare to Bauer?
“I’m Claude Balls, and I’m running on the platform that ALL pregnant women should have abortions, whether they want them or not.”
“I’m Seymour Butz, and I want to be your LSD President.”
“I’m Willie Maykit, and I’d like to dig up Joe Stalin’s corpse and use it as my running mate.”
Then they’d drop out of the race, but the TV producers would have to take them seriously and give them chairs on the Sunday morning talking-head programs, and the NY Times would have to run their scatterbrained think pieces on the Op-Ed page, because, by god, they had been PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES.
You mean David Foley, Eve. It’s an understandable mistake. He’s an actor who’s only appeared in “talkies”.
I’ve always been a Kevin McDonald man, myself. That is, if I’m thinking of the right one. I’m thinking of the one with the bug eyes and the hair that looks like he stuck his finger in a live socket.
Uke, you’ve obviously forgotten William Jennings Bryan and good old Grover Cleveland.
William Jennings Bryan is not exactly what we would call left wing anymore. This just shows that Christian fundamentalists were running for office back in the day, too.
WBJ has more in common these days with Gary Bauer than Al Gore.
Careful, Maeg, UncleBeer has an enormous knowledge of nineteenth-century American political history at his fingertips.
Why, he was the one who enlightened me about the famous division of the Whig Party in 1849.
It seems that one faction insisted that the official party slogan be “Keep Your Nose To The Grindstone!” and the other was equally adamant that it be “Keep Your Ear To The Ground!”
The second group finally decided to break away from the party and set up separate shop down in Louisville.
{Wait for it.}
They became known as the “EarWhigs.”
Boo! Hiss!
Also, you’re thinking about Ralph Reed, not Gary Bauer.
But other than that, your comparison was right on.
Ralph Reed! THAT’S him. Dead ringer for Dave Foley.
Oh, right, Dave Thomas is the Wendy’s guy.
Wait…isn’t Dave Thomas Doug Mackenzie?
You know, as in “Hi, I’m Bob Mackenzie and this is my brother Doug, eh” ?
Eve, like I said, it’s the little puppet man.Here. Look Alphagene, like Pat Buchanan and Bill Clinton, he’s an alum of our alma mater (law school)! Are you as proud as I am?
I used to send faxes for the man., I even talked to his personal assistant (searching…memory…banks)…susan? nice woman. Scarily nice. Would lways ask me how things wre going out in SF, talk about the weather and so on. I think she was always praying for me to reach out and beg her to save my soul.
You want to hear far-out? Try this. Yes, this is the same Dr. John Hagelin who ran for the Reform Party candidacyship, but was beaten out by Pat Buchanan.
Kum-ba-yah, kum-ba-yah.
Oh, Lord, kum-ba-yah.
Williams Jennings Bryan - (1860-1925)
WJB was defeated in three attempts at the presidency of the U.S. However, he was a very influential leader or the Democratic Party for many years and molded public opinion as few people have done. It was probably his influence that won the presidential nomination for Woody Wilson in 1912. Byran went to school and practice law in Illinois until 1887, when he moved to Nebraska, built a reputation as an orator and was elected to Congress in 1890, I believe.
Six years later, in 1896 at the age of 36, Bryan achieved national fame with his first nomination for the presidency. He won the nomination at the Democratic National Convention with his passionate plea for free and unlimited minting of silver[sup]1[/sup]. He famously said to those who wanted gold as the exclusive money standard, " You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon this cross of gold."
Though Bryan lost the 1896 election then and again in 1900 and 1908, he was still regarded as the leader of the Democratic party. Through his paper, called The Commoner, and by lectures delivered from Chautauqua platforms (I’ll leave it to you to research this term) he advanced the causes of the “Progressive Movement.”[sup]2[/sup]
Bryan was named secretary of state by President Wilson in 1912. As SecState, he negotiated treaties with 30 countries, representing three fourths of the world’s population, for investigation of disputes before resorting to war. Because of his opposition to war, he resigned from office in June 1915 in protest against the president’s firmness concerning the sinking of the Lusitania.
After WWI he moved to Florida and worked to advance moral and religious causes. He died in July 1925, in Dayton, Tenn., where he had been helping prosecute a case involving an “anti-evolution” law.
[sup]1[/sup]** Free Silver Movement:**
An unsuccessful campaign in late 19th-century U.S. for unlimited coinage of silver which was supported by owners of silver mines, farmers, and debtors. A law passed in 1873 (called the Crime of 1873) dropped silver coinage in favor of gold standard. With the nomination of William Jennings Bryan in 1896, the movement to reinstate free and unlimited coinage of silver captured the Democratic Party in the 1890s and became a symbol of economic justice. The campaign persisted, without success, until after the Great Depression.
[sup]2[/sup] Progressive Movement:
An era that lasted from about 1890 to 1924 in the U.S. which embraced a wide array of social and economic programs, including women’s suffrage, Prohibition, trust-busting, shorter work hours, elimination of child labor, adoption of social welfare programs, adoption of graduated income tax; conservation of natural resources, and adoption of popular voting measures of initiative, referendum, and recall. These were programs spelled out in the Progressive Party (Bull Moose) platform of 1912. Central figures of the movement, other than William Jennings Bryan, were Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Hiram W. Johnson, and Robert M. La Follette.
WJB, may have had some issues in common with the current ultra-conservatives, like religious and so-called moral values, but as a key figure in the Progressive Movement, I think a case be made that he had more in common with today’s lefties.
Do you want me to do Grover Cleveland, too?
[Edited by UncleBeer on 10-12-2000 at 08:12 AM]
You want a good historical “left-wing” flaky candidate? Look up Henry Wallace, former Secretary of Agriculture under Hoover and FDR, later Vice-President under FDR, and who ran on the Progressive Party Ticket in '48.
To quote Bland Ambition, “he was deeply into Eastern mysticism at a time when Roman Catholicism was considered a fringe religion.” He was also a great admirer of Stalin.
When Wallace was up for re-nomination for VP in '44, one of the convention leaders- I think it was Speaker Sam Rayburn, but I’m not sure; it was definitely a Southern Democrat- was asked what he thought of Wallace.
“Wallace is my second choice.” he replied.
“And who is your first choice?”
“Any other son-of-a-bitch, white, black, red or yellow, who can get the nomination.”