Mullins grabs some attention, but fails on civility

17 Replies

You may recall that I haven’t been too impressed with Mullins McLeod. I’ve generally dismissed his campaign as being… what’s the word… trite, I suppose. His campaign releases have sort of struck a generic populist pose, trying to project him as a regular guy who’s tired, just as you good people out there are, of all them blamed politicians and their shenanigans.

That pose is tiresome enough when done well, but as I said, his populist pronouncements have been so vanilla, as that genre goes, so as to be easily forgettable five minutes later. As I said back here, Mullins just hasn’t been able to get a hit in his few at-bats.

Well, he made a concerted effort to get on base yesterday, when he told Gresham Barrett to “shove it” on the Gitmo prisoners issue. Well, Gresham certainly deserved to have someone call him on his really ugly NIMBY ploy for attention, but while it might be cool for, say, a Dick Harpootlian to say something like that (except that Dick would be more imaginative, and he’d say it in Dwight’s behalf, not Mullins’), that’s not the kind of language we need from one who would be governor.

So basically, Mullins has managed briefly to get our attention by passing first and running the basepaths, but he’s immediately alienated us by coming into seconds with sharpened spikes high, a la Ty Cobb. In other words, the first time he gets our attention, he fails the civility test.

Hey, if we wanted a guy who talks like this as governor, we could turn to Joe Wilson.

17 thoughts on “Mullins grabs some attention, but fails on civility”

  2. Doug Ross

    The best way to deal with idiots is to expose them as idiots. Civility be damned.

    We need real people in public office – not poseurs, pimps, and pansies.

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  5. Kathryn Fenner

    “We need real people in public office – not poseurs, pimps, and pansies.”

    Doug–
    If, by your use of the terms “poseurs, pimps and pansies,” you are referring to homosexuals, I find that deeply offensive. Gays are real people and quite suited for public office.

    If you are merely suggesting that Lindsey Graham is imaginary somehow, not “real”–then perhaps you need to find medication. There is no credible evidence that he manages prostitutes or is a flower, and he is not attractive enough to qualify as a poseur. To see real poseurs, I can recommend The Sartorialist
    http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/2009/11/style-profileamir-toos-nyc.html
    if you are confused about that.

    FITS is amusing and sometimes accurate. I don’t know as how he qualifies as a definitive source. Perhaps a second one, not so far to the right?

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  6. Doug Ross

    Kathryn,

    Those were two different posts. I didn’t mention Senator Graham in the first one. Whatever conclusion you came to is your own.

    I guess I’m too old. When I was growing up, pansies = weak and scared. We have a lot of those in Congress – afraid to buck the party line, scared to speak the truth.

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  7. Doug Ross

    SHOE candidates:

    Ron Paul, Steve Forbes, Mitt Romney (maybe the Open part is a little lacking), Wes Clark, Colin Powell (again lacking on the Open part), maybe Bloomberg from NY.

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  8. Kathryn Fenner

    I don’t know when you grew up, but when my parents (b. 1930-1) grew up AND when I grew up (b. 1960), “pansy” was a derogatory term for homosexual.

    I think you are being disingenuous.

    Regardless, I think Lindsey Graham has shown a great deal of courage and strength in facing down his critics, in person, and doing what he thought was right, despite party opposition,….and I voted for Alex Sanders.

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  9. Kathryn Fenner

    Doug–

    Thinking about your posts has had the following musical ear worm run through my head all evening:

    “Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again.”

    Indeed.

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  10. Doug Ross

    Kathryn,

    Read the FITSNEWS article and then try and tell me that Lindsey Graham is displaying strength and courage. He’s no different than any other typical politician. Money and the limelight drive him.

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  15. Kathryn Fenner

    I think given the sites he’s citing, you may have been right the first time.

    Doug–
    The easy route would be to pander to his base, as Wilson and DeMint do. He would not have to deal with angry crowds. He seems to be doing what he believes is the right thing to do, after thinking it through, rather than being a party apparatchik.

    How come there aren’t ethics investigations of Graham being revealed by the Washington Post intern leak?

    and Will Folks is hardly impartial.

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  16. Doug Ross

    Kathryn,

    The sites I’m citing are pulling data directly from the reports filed by Senator Graham. Are you disputing the Senators own financial statements?

    And are you disputing that the Senator’s people made a desperate attempt to hide the fact that a liberal organization funded an ad campaign supporting him? Why would he do that if he’s “doing the right thing”?

    How did he double his net worth in five years? Again, that doesn’t include the value of his home.

    Being a public servant can be very lucrative if you play your cards right.

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  17. Kathryn Fenner

    Are you suggesting that he doubled his net worth through unethical means or what?

    Merely doubling one’s net worth is hardly grounds for anything, especially among Republicans, I daresay. If you believe he has done soemthing unethical what is it, or why hasn’t the WashPo ethics breach revealed it?

    [Note to self: why am I defending the guy who led the charge to impeach Bill Clinton?]

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