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Former Senator Alan Simpson, back in the day. (photo: Wikipedia)
While I don’t know former Republican Senator Alan Simpson personally and can’t say definitively whether or not he is a sexist, his behavior says a lot about him. He’s repeatedly behaved and spoken in a manner completely consistent with sexists who have strong disdain for intelligent women. His schoolyard attempts at bullying women, the strange terms he uses, and his incredibly childish attempts at demeaning women who dare criticize with name calling are all trademarks of a sexist.
I’ve been shocked by Simpson’s outrageous behavior while following the debate over the future of Social Security. His letter to the Ashley B. Carson, Executive Director of Order Women’s League, was filled with sexist undertones. Telling the executive director of a women’s organization to “Call when you get honest work!” shows he has only disdain for an organization dedicated to helping women.
Most recently Simpson has attacked MSNBC’s openly lesbian anchor Rachel Maddow after she dared to question his greatness. In a manner more appropriate to an elementary school yard than a serious policy debate, Simpson referred to Maddow as “Rachel Minnow [sic] or whatever that is.” The reference appears to be a slight about her sexuality and more masculine appearance than is common for women on cable news networks.
Now it’s possible that Simpson is not a sexist or a homophobe. He might just be an angry old bully who lashes out at everyone who dares question him, regardless of gender. But the sexist tone of a number of his attacks really stand out.
I could care less about Simpson’s behavior if it weren’t for the fact that President Obama appointed him co-chair of the bipartisan President’s Deficit Commission. It’s disconcerting that Obama tolerates this sexist behavior. Why would he appoint Simpson and stay silent as Simpson used the perch Obama gave him to lash out in such a childish manner and pointedly against women?
120 Comments
Obama must understand that America doesn’t see Alan Simpson as the curmudgeonly uncle we all have to tolerate at the Thanksgiving table. He’s the manipulative, hateful, evil misanthrope none of us want in the neighborhood.
Obama is responsible for this man being in the polity. He needs to disown him and send him packing, publicly and loudly, or accept responsibility for Simpson’s absurd and destructive outbursts.
Which is it, Barack? Is he your man or not?
I suppose we need to drop “Simpson-Bowles” from the Catfood Commission’s first name, and call it what it really is: The Barack Obama Catfood Commission.
He created it, he appointed them, he made it happen. None of it would have happened without Obama. He owns it.
Simpson as a bully and sexist are not mutually exclusive by any stretch.
And not that it matters, but I think he’s both.
Obama did not have to appoint this commission, but he did, and he should be forced to fully own it.
Bully and sexist are actually some of Simpson’s kinder, gentler qualities. There’s not much good that can be said of one of the class war’s current operational leaders…
dakine01 (12:30) –
No, it matters greatly, and it matters that men say it.
Men can understand what a bully is very readily, but they may not readily recognize a sexist since so much of our culture is misogynistic (it’s difficult to see something as pervasive as the air we breathe). If Simpson is labeled as both the bully and sexist that he is, perhaps men will begin to see the special kind of bullying which targets women for their gender alone.
Since the Catfood Commission was appointed and began its work, when has Simpson made snide references to men by either dismissing their employment or abusing their names or sexual identity? He’s not a particularly nice guy, quite willing to bully retirees who’ve paid into Social Security, but he does single out one gender for his ugliness.
I get the distinct feeling that this whole Commission was something somebody bought before the election. The Obama admin. seems to have held an auction of some kind and various positions, promises, products , bills and Commissions were for sale.
Simpson is a revolting jerk. His remarks to and about women should not be tolerated. The fact that he remains a spokesperson and serves on any commission on which he has input on how half of the sky is held up is inexcusable. Bastard.
Bully, sexist, bigot, classist, even fascist, these all apply in a very literal way without hyperbole.
Indeed. Even the Obamabots can’t come up with an excuse for this one. Well not without distorting reality anyway….
For the same reason that he calls himself our “fierce advocate” and then demonstrates that he is, in fact the opposite? Just another politician who thinks the rest of us are stupid and that what’s good for him must be good for the country. He might as well change his name to Barack Hussein Cartman.
Beat me to it.
All you liberal islamofascists just want your welfare! Look, kitten, why can’t you understand aobut all of us needing to sacrifice…except me and my rich, white, male friends. Just you. Lay back and take it like you’re supposed to. After all, if you didn’t want us to do it then you wouldn’t have tempted us with all the money in the social security trust fund.
Bunch of unpatriotic sluts.
Why does FDL hate America!!!?????
Obama appointing Simpson is an insult to everyone who voted for him. Both are disgusting POSs.
Simpson was vetted for the position, so the C-M-i-C’ knew exactly what he was getting. He picked Simpson because Axle told him he needs to corner the bully-sexist demographic.
Barack Obama: Change we can only imagine
It could be called a donor auction: the bigger the donor, the higher the bid. Think of it as employer to employee. Tom Ferguson forecasts electoral consequences by donor lists. He has an interview up in nakedcapitalism that touches on this topic.
Agree. But I think if the opportunity presented itself he’d go after the male of the D species too. Like, if KO were gay, he wouldn’t hesitate using the F word. He’s as nasty an asshole as has walked the earth.
Obama is a DINO, a Democrat in name only. This explains much of his Republican-favoring behavior in the last twenty-two months…
o/t: if you look at a map of the disputed sea islands of Korea, you can see that any thoughtful distribution would give islands close to North Korea to North Korea. But flash back to 1953 when the US imposed a cease-fire in the Korean war; the US grabbed several islands and gave them to its puppet regime in South Korea. US stealing land at gunpoint, a tradition since 1898. Funny, in the US corporate media all we ever get is US propaganda; we rarely hear the other side… We have been rewarding our own military aggression in Korea for the last fifty seven years; maybe it is time to let go of these little islands that are much closer to North Korea than to South Korea…
When the representative from N.O.W. presented Simpson with the iconic baby bottle tops (!) he sardonically replied that he would have a ‘Christmas present’ for us. I guess we finally understand what ‘turns him on’: the pleasure of causing pain to other people, especially women.
His clownish stupidity stole attention away from what his Commission intended to do: gutting our social safety nets. And which gender in our society has fought the hardest to create and preserve our social safety nets? Women. But this whole group of people on this commission have hostility toward all of the programs which benefit working families. I would like to see them all be sent home.
Now we know what B.O. really stands for! I thought I smelled something funny with this guy.
Oh yeah. Something tells me that Simpson doesn’t own any Elton John records.
Yeah, but sexist bullies are about as likely to vote for him as his savvy businessmen.
Speaking of catfood, the implications of this article from this morning’s SF Chronicle (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/26/BU591GHMLU.DTL)are pretty creepy. More pet food, fewer vegetables being sold. Thanks, Catfood Commission.
I can’t get your link to work. Help/replace it with a good one? I am interested in what you are saying.
Why did Obama appoint a Catfood Commission?
Because that’s what his bosses demanded. Massive Scale Socialism for the rich – especially bankers and the Military Industrial Complex – and severe Austerity Measures For The Rest Of Us.
Obama is a corporate tool. He loves Simpson and Bowles. He loves Lindsey Graham, Joe Lieberman, Faith Based Initiatives, Private Schools and The Private Prison Industry. O loves Union Busting, Ronald Reagan and Trickledown economics. O says that the government cannot create jobs. O takes pleasure in maligning FDR who actually fixed the Depression by making work and taxing the Wealthy and Powerful.
O will retain the Bush Tax Cuts.
O couldn’t even frame that debate in his party’s favor. The Imprintable Unprincipled Corporate Prostitute. Sent his party down the river.
O’s legacy: The revitalization of a dying Rethug Party.
We need to drop this asshole now. In two years, we will really regret that we didn’t do it when we had the chance.
“Alan Simpson as the curmudgeonly uncle“…
The propaganda is not just in the US corporate media, it’s also in the history books used in all our schools.
Spot on with the 1898 reference. Funny that, the first foray into imperialism was launched with a false-flag op in Havana harbor.
O: Surely The Worst Democrat Ever™.
You have a point. Another near-miss for our Stud-in-Chief.
Today’s Democrats are not what they were during the FDR Presidency. That has never been part of the party messaging. They should change their name. Look at who made FDR move left. Now we still have soup kitchens. We need a photo essay of the long lines for food stamps, food banks and homeless kitchens folks. We need to get that message out for the next gen can be part of the disenfranchised.
While I deeply resent Simpson’s misogyny, I even more deeply resent the fact that we are being preached to by the perpetrators who actually diverted our pension funds to unintended uses while they purportedly left “gov’t bonds” in their stead. Now they are telling us that we cannot afford to pay ourselves back our own funds because they’ve been spent. The money is gone. Never once do either Alan Simpson or Erskine Bowles mention that they know this because they were the ones that spent those funds when they were in Congress. Is that ironic? How else does one explain what’s wrong with this picture?
If you open a new window with the link and then go up to the address bar and remove the )are from the end, the link will work. Viola!
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/26/BU591GHMLU.DTL
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/26/BU591GHMLU.DTL
It looks like I pasted it okay, but I don’t see a toolbar to make a proper link. If you go to http://www.sfgate.com and click the Business tab, it is the following article:
S.F.’s Del Monte to be sold for $4B
A group led by KKR & Co. agreed to acquire San Francisco’s Del Monte Foods Co. in a $4 billion transaction that gives the New York buyout firm pet-food brands such as Meow Mix and Kibbles ‘n Bits.
The 2008 election was the greatest election con-job in U.S. history. American voters did an atrocious job vetting the jackass.
The last three standing in the Democratic primary were the jackass, HRC, and Dennis Kucinich. There was no difference between the first two except for the window dressing. With the third, there surely would have been no Cat Food Commission.
He has the chance every day, whenever anybody criticizes him or the work of the Catfood Commission.
But you don’t see him covering the spread and being an equal opportunity asshole. No, he targets people his little pea brain still thinks won’t fight back; he’s stuck in the 1940s and 1950s in terms of maturity.
Ann, do you have links detailing the legal justification used for diverting the funds from the Trust? Why did no one on the left raise the roof when that happened?
You can’t use put any text after a url without a space. It will become part of the url and it won’t work. You pasted it okay but you used a parenthesis after it and then wrote “and” without a space.
I assume that your question was rhetorical.
I’ve come to see Obamaco as results oriented and getting the results they wanted. Not what they professed they wanted, or what Obama campaigned on and won the election because of. Judged by what he promised vs back-room deals and outcome, I’d simply say he’s a liar.
Got it! Thanks!
I am not defending Simp…just to clarify. Is Minnow a known sexual slur or gay implication? I would not have known that; sounds more like a school boy play on words of pretend humor. Just weird.
First, read the Co-Chairman’s Proposal:
http://documents.nytimes.com/draft-proposal-from-the-national-commission-on-fiscal-responsibility-and-reform?ref=politics#document/p10
I did that and wrote up the Pareto effects. That is, the expected distributions of benefit changes and taxation by income level.
http://my.firedoglake.com/tuffsnotenuff/2010/11/13/deficit-commission-a-massive-progressive-redistribution-of-wealth/
Benefits/expenditures are reduced, but not for the very poor. The lowest level of Social Security is raised to 125% of the poverty line, for example.
The wealthy pay for it.
Option 2. Wyden Gregg Reform — that’s what you want to look at.
As opposed to the more usual practice of minor embassies being sold to the largest donors?
The use of words like “undertones” and “consistent with” make it clear that there is not a great case for sexism here. Simpson was unbelievably obnoxious with the male fdl interviewer who originally got him on video. I have never seen how his attacks against women are qualitatively different from that obnoxious incident.
The warmongering was after the fact. What happened to the Maine was apparently accident, and not, in fact, tahe result of anyone’s plan, false flag or not.
You might want to read up on stuff, before you throw out more of your conspiracy theories.
Yeah, increase the lower twenty percent but decrease those at the forty and sixty per cent levels as if those are going to break the bank.
But nice try in assuming that folks here have not read the report.
the slur was in:
whatever THAT is
Rachel is female, she is not an IT or a THAT.
Look it up in the Urban Dictionary.
Slang term for the clitoris.
Can two play the slur game? If Simpson can refer to Maddow as Minnow, can we refer to him as <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/26/BU591GHMLU.DTL"Kibbles 'n Bits?
Well let’s see, I’ve read the report but more importantly, that’s not what this post is all about. It’s about Obama appointing a corporate fueled, bigoted asshole to the catfood commission.
Here’s a hint: If the links don’t come up orange, you’re not in kosland.
Left out the >. Trying again. Sucks having to type HTML code.
Can two play the slur game? If Simpson can refer to Maddow as Minnow, can we refer to him as Kibbles ‘n Bits?
Oh it’s schoolboy alright. And as for using “it”, that’s a well known conservative tactic for dehumanizing somebody because you don’t have a real response to them. I get called “it” and “that” all the time.
you might want to catch up on your reading
CatfoodCommission.com
Obama is still courting approval from Republicans. We know he’s paraised Reagan, and he’s never been clear at any time as to exactly what his real agenda and policies are. He promised hopeychangey….of what?
I see him as a man who thinks he’s accomplished it all. The First Black President. He’s made history.
As soon as he arrived in D.C. he has ignored and detracted his base and has been clueless about messaging and clarifying his programs, etc.
The Catfood Commission is more pandering to the GOP and a thumb at his so called base. As for women he never defended us when both Stupak and Nelson threw abortion rights under the bus. I believe he is an opportunistic politician with a conservative take on many issues those who voted for him oppose.
His politics are both inept and far more reactionary than anyone admits. His egomania and the wind at his back from Goldman Sachs
have propelled him toward continual compromise of the humanist principles he expounded on the stump.
There will be many more cave-ins.
That’s link has already been posted.
I know McC. used THAT to refer to Obama…had not known it to be a practice. Yuk…Does seem O would be more sensitive to that sort of thing. I always hate it when I am such a dim bulb…so thanks for the info.
(edit is back! :)
Unless he called him “Little Peter” or the equivalent, then yes, the way he treats women is qualitatively different than the way he treats men.
Mea culpa. It would be nice if Kibbles ‘n Bits could get traction. At least it’s not as offensive as his slur of Maddow.
You’re not a “dim bulb”, you just lack the same life experiences I’ve had. My own family has used those pronouns to refer to me in the past.
Rahm Emanuel blows.
Why would he appoint Simpson and stay silent as Simpson used the perch Obama gave him to lash out in such a childish manner and pointedly against women? –
Why? Because Obama appointed him to arrive at the very conclusions and recommendations that Simpson has put forth. Also, he doesn’t care about Simpson’s prejudices and phobias as long as he carries out the mission he was appointed to carry out.
Drop his ass now.
my mom used to say “that one” to refer to people. sometimes. that’s not a big deal.
Dead goats.
speaking of this fuckwad and the Catfood Commission…. who are the women..or some of them…. on the Commission? wonder if he treats them like shit, too.
Yep, when you’ve appointed somebody to arrive at a specific conclusion, you’ll wind up defending that person’s actions, especially when it’s an irascible old bigot.
He may try to hide his contempt for women but he can’t. He’s a completely disgusting idiot.
Right on!
He kinda sorta digs right-wing chicks.
Yeah, if someone’s gonna come in here and spread lies, they ought to at least change their screen name so we don’t recognize them by their prior postings.
Me too. I was going to suggest that the “or” be replaced with “and.”
These onies were literally stolen from the Social Security funds. Liberals,progressives,independents,centrists, have all failed to a show of political strength to stop this continual stealing and diverting funds.
The democratic party is controlled by wealthy centrists and elites who will never fight hard to protect the working class, and now the middle class. Democrats don’t even know how to control the message and the media. No think tanks like the GOP exist in demcratland. Were they a politically aware and responsible party they would be in fight mode all the time. Think tanks are sorely needed to counter the word frames the GOP is very good at creating. Like Death Panels.
Democrats have not educated their base, nor defended their base with quick response Think Tanks and media savvy response teams.
And since the GOP is well known for Rovian marketing skills that control the message and disinform by repetiton and create clever memes that target democratic policies they wish destroyed.
No response from Obama on many issues leads me to conclude he doesn’t want confrontation and certainly not too much clarity. Why should he explain? No one is screaming from the wilderness to force him to take account. I also agree that Obama was a fantasy from the left who never vetted him and bought his story because they wanted to believe it.
And the sickening hero worship and refusal to make him accountable has been a disaster for democrats. Unless a group of powerful populist progressives makes real noise on real issues, nothing good will come of this flaccid, inept administration.
Only when his viagra ‘scrip is filled.
Simpson is a lightning rod.
He’s playing the part well enough. Think of him as Obama’s Cheney.
Meanwhile, read the @#$%*&^%$ Proposal and focus on the never-reported Option 2. Wyden-Gregg Reform system. That’s what is going to Congress with maybe a 2% rewrite to drop the last one year rise to SS retirement and keep the Child Tax Credit write-off.
http://s3.amazonaws.com/nytdocs/docs/513/513.pdf
Alice Rivlin is the only woman I know who’s on the Catfood Commission.
there are a few women (and not more than a few) on the Catfood Commsission
Deficit Commission Members:
Co-Chairmen:
Sen. Alan Simpson. Former Republican Senator from Wyoming.
Erskine Bowles, Chief of Staff to President Clinton
Executive Director:
Bruce Reed, Chief Domestic Policy Adviser to President Clinton
Commissioners:
Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT)
Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA 31)
Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI 4)
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK)
Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND)
David Cote, Chairman and CEO, Honeywell International
Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID)
Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL)
Ann Fudge, Former CEO, Young & Rubicam Brands
Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH)
Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX 5)
Alice Rivlin, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institute and former Director, Office of Management & Budget
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI 1)
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL 9)
Rep. John Spratt (D-SC 5)
Andrew Stern, President, Service Employees International Union
Of course one of the things about Simpson’s telling people to get a real job is that he spent his whole life getting political appointments and positions since he came from a Wyoming political family.
I’ve already dropped him. I can’t imagine anything he could do in the next two years to make up for his epic squandering of super majorities in both houses of Congress.
after a couple of beers, I too start to slur (my words, that is…)
Judd Fucking Gregg? Are you serious? Wyden better pull his head out of his ass.
GALLing!
lol
I have only scanned the comments but this article and the comments are in my view spot on. I am jumping in only to suggest that Obama has many traits of misogyny as well as not regarding the elderly with much respect. He certainly is an authoritarian conservative. One has only to look at the list of those he appointed to the commission. As far as I can tell Rep. Jan Schakowsky is the only liberal and most are extreme right.
We have to OPPOSE all bipartisanship. We need to warn this clown that we will not stand for ANY bipartisanship on ANY issue.
I’m not sure about opposed to. My guess is in addition to, but I don’t follow ambassadorial appointments closely enough to know. Perhaps someone here is better informed than I on the embassy front. Considering how much each piece of patronage is worth to the dispensers, patronage never willingly give up dominion.
Obama has a CLASS problem.
thanks for printing the members of the catfood commish – it’s much worse than I thought…no way will they come up with anything worthwhile.
Simpson is all three: a homophobe, a sexist, and a bully. And his “greediness generation” shows him to a bit of a generational bigot as well. The best thing to do is to add Congressional retirement and Congressional healthcare subsidies to the list of cuts. My guess is that Simpson will be the first to howl that you can’t get good people in Congress if you don’t compensate them enough.
Here, here.
The money was invested in US Treasury Bonds, which isn’t a bad thing because they are backed by the Full Faith and Credit Clause in the US Constitution, which also prohibits the government from defaulting on any Treasury Bonds. Bush 43 used the money to make up for the reduction in tax revenues caused by his tax cuts.
As the bonds become due, the Treasury can either transfer money into the social security account or issue new bonds to replace the old ones. Since the U.S. issues its own fiat currency, there is absolutely no problem with the current state of the social security account.
None, zippo, nada, zilch.
This story about the social security account being empty, except for some gnarly and worthless IOUs, is an absolute lie. Without any adjustments, social security can continue to pay 100% of the benefits that are due for 37 years. To make sure that it can continue to pay 100% of the benefits due after that, Congress need only pop the lid on the $106,600 income ceiling subject to the FICA tax, a result that the rich kleptocrats wouldn’t even notice unless their accountants brought it to their attention, given the disgusting amount of money they make.
But they are greedy. They want to keep all of the money they’ve been given via the Bush 43 taxcuts. They want the taxcuts made permanent even though they will cause a $700 billion loss in tax revenues during the next 10 years. And they don’t want the ceiling popped increasing their FICA taxes.
Finally, social security doesn’t contribute a penny to the deficit and the people who are receiving compensation have already paid for it. Social security is not a welfare program.
Why does “conservative” always mean “hurt the people”? I always thought it meant to conserve wisely…apparently, no longer.
Here’s a pretty good article on how very malignant these “people” are.
Willing to tackle runaway deficit?
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/26/1943602/willing-to-tackle-runaway-deficit.html
I keep maintain that we can’t “cut our way out of a deficit….if there really IS one; we have to GROW our way out…otherwise, we’ll have nothing left to recover with. But I’m beginning to think that may well be the idea.
I certainly don’t think, after what happened with the PO that what the people of this country want matters anymore.
Seniors Are “Greediest Generation,” Says Deficit Commission Chair, Alan Simpson
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/11/25/seniors-are-greediest-generation-says-deficit-commission-chair-alan-simpson/
Bet he’s not going to have to worry about food in his retirement which should have began a loooong time ago.
What WAS Obama thinking pulling monsters like this and David Cote out of the woodwork?
Or did he want it to fail?
“Or did he want it to fail?”
Not by a long shot.
Not sure if this is in fact an O-bot, but he seemed like a sexist pig in another post, so maybe he is just defending his own.
“hurt the people” ??
Haven’t you heard of Compassionate Conservatism, it doesn’t have to be that way. /s
Sign this petition to protect social security.
http://www.change.org/petitions/view/president_obama_shut_down_the_catfood_commission_now
No decent, kind, respectful, and empathetic human being ever would have associated with, considered, and selected Alan Simpson to be on any group, team, or commission, much less appoint him to serve as a co-chairman. He is an arrogant, nasty, and brutish lout with no apparent redeeming qualities. What you see is what you get with him. There are no mysteries. Obama knew exactly what he was getting when he chose him and his selection confirms my extremely low opinion of Barack Obama.
Simpson is a sexist, homophobic, mysoginistic bullying, greedy creep out for himself and his white male entitled buddies. I agree with a prior comment, though, that we should call this this the Obama Commission. Whether Obama was “told” to create it and appoint those on it – or whether it was all his own idea – Obama “owns” it now. I also feel that Obama embodies all those same traits that Simpson does: homophobic, mysoginistic, sexist, classist, greedy nasty entitlement. It’s all about: they got theirs, the rest of the “small people” can get stuffed.
Anyone who still supports Obama is either not paying on whit of attention or is … stupid? dumb? certainly not firing on all pistons and not to be trusted.
Plus Coburn, Baucus, and Conrad. It’s enough to make you gag.
To simply anwer Jon Walker’s question in the title: Yes.
Mason, your descrip of SS funds, where they went, why, and such was about as simple and spot as any I’ve read on the subject.
Nicely done for us laypeople . . . *bows* bookmarked to use when needed . . . ;-)
Simpson is another well-chosen thug doing Obama’s dirty work. The more obnoxious he is the more some people are distracted from the true source of offense, Barry O.
Yes.
SAD – I detailed the deferences between Option 2 and Wyden Gregg – and noted the the option reform deficit reduction of $4 Trillion is not available in option two.
As to income distribution you may want to rework those numbers as your conclusion is incorrect – the rich get richer and the middleclass is screwed – again – as “loophole” closings are pretend as to the very rich, and territorial corporate taxation is the end of corporate taxation in the US as we know that IRA Code Section 482 has had great difficulty in producing taxable US income under our world tax with credit for tax paid in other countries system – and territorial replacing “world” means international companies pay no tax. Throw in the lower corporate rate effects on US only companies, and the lower rate for the billionaires, and that change to a Social Security welfare benefit seems very minimal. I an certain your calculations will show the same as mine as to Pareto effects.
Here are the facts…
1. This is Obama’s comission. He “owns” it, as he likes to put it. He didn’t have to create it. Congress said no to it, but he decided to go ahead and create it anyway (probably on Rahm’s advice that it would look all “bipartisany”). He loaded it with people who are hostile (to say the least) to Social Security, and they are letting their contempt for the programme be known. Now it’s an eyesore, and Obama has no one to blame but himself.
2. Obama has managed not only to ressurect the GOP, but Alan Simpson as well from the political dead.
He’s got Alzheimer’s
He’s probably been a misogynist bully all along. Aside from the occasional saint, most people wouldn’t find it worth their while to pay the dues you have to pay to make it all the way to the Senate, if they did not have a pathologic need to dominate other people. So the bully part is a given. The misogynist part flows naturally from that, plus the Y chromosome.
Of course, whatever and however ugly what you feel might be, you don’t get to be Senator unless you’re pretty good at controlling what comes out in public. Hell, the moral people among this band of bullies channel their inner vice into public good works. Simpson, of course, was not one of these moral powerful people during his career in elected office. But he did control the image, he did control what he allowed himself to express in public. Now, maybe the guy doesn’t have to worry about winning elections any more, but it still hurts his desire to dominate others from his present capacity as head of this catfood commission, to let all of his ugly thoughts just hang out for all to see. It’s not just the sexist crap cited here. Perhaps the most telling loss of self-control is evident in his “bloodbath” remarks ref the debt ceiling crunch in April 2011.
Usually, long before you see clear evidence of the memory problems associated with Alzheimer’s, you see personality changes as the sufferer’s frontal lobe control over his impulses deteriorates. People are good, at first, in the early stages, at compensating for the memory problems, and hiding the difficulty from others, who generally want to help them maintain the illusion of continued competence anyway, so are not prone to see the picture of advancing illness unfolding before their eyes. But the loss of impulse control inherently defeats attempts at self-control and compensation, as it is essentially the self-critical, self-governing, capacity that is being lost as the frontal lobes give out.
The personality change that is often noted as the first symptom of Alzheimer’s by the people who know the patient, is usually an accentuation of the pre-morbid personality.
People who took a basically passive approach to life tend to fall back on that to an even higher degree. This was part of why Reagan’s advancing illness actually worked to his political advantage. Already an actor by professional habit, he became even more amenable to taking direction from his handlers. The contrast with Dubya, who suffers from delusions of competence, is telling.
Simpson seems to be one of the people who always were controlling and domineering, whose advancing illness only makes them more domineering, less capable of using any other approach than domination for dealing with the outside world.
The best strategy for getting him off the public stage, would be for any media people in a position to draw him out, to give him ample opportunity to let his id run loose. Challenge him, be assertive, push him to assert himself. Just be sure the video and audio recorders are running. Self-control has failed in this guy, so outside super-egos need to made aware of the problem that he can no longer control himself, so that control can be imposed from outside. He needs to be forced into a well-deserved retirement from the public stage.
I don’t have any confidence that Alan Simpson isn’t Barack’s man. Barack seems to have a compulsion to be nice to mean people. It seems to be a huge character flaw. And he doesn’t seem to mind if he takes others down with his behavior. Sad.
Here, fixed it for you:
Simpson is a sociopathic and senile crank. Attention Dr. Frankenstein: Please claim your mutant creation as soon as possible as he is wreaking havoc in civilized society.
He’s playing the part well enough? Think of him as Obama’s creature from the black lagoon.
Meanwhile, keep your goddamn hands off my Social Security, pissant.
People on the left have addressed this situation. This is but one example from Krugman explaining it all to you.
Well, GTom, that’s a good assessment of Obama, but what about Simpson?
;-)
Unfortunately, onitgoes, this:
“Anyone who still supports Obama is either not paying on whit of attention or is … stupid? dumb? certainly not firing on all pistons and not to be trusted.”
speaks for an awful lot of people. Willful ignorance is more like it, imho.
yes, Obama is so post-partisan that he tolerates much disgusting behavior rather than call people on it. Or, even better, not appoint them to positions or inauguration events.
Do we ever hear Obama’s values? Nope. He’s cameleon-like.
This:
“And the sickening hero worship and refusal to make him accountable has been a disaster for democrats. Unless a group of powerful populist progressives makes real noise on real issues, nothing good will come of this flaccid, inept administration.”
says it all, Mason. Bravo!
Wake up. They are arguing about swimwear in a snowstorm.
We need to be talking about spending increases not spending cuts.
I wonder if it is intentional strategy. Who wants to even come near that man, let alone debate anything with him?
Mostly we just want him put back into the cave where Obama found him.
“…Social Security welfare benefit…”
Where did you get that lie?
“It’s disconcerting that Obama tolerates this sexist behavior. Why would he appoint Simpson and stay silent as Simpson used the perch Obama gave him to lash out in such a childish manner and pointedly against women?’
Obama’s Catfood Commission is attempting the repeal of the New Deal and the Great Society, and we’re disconcerted that one of his field commanders in this audacious attack on the middle class is sexist?
As soon as Social Security becomes welfare for the poor rather than “the benefits you paid for” for everyone, it’s on its way to oblivion.