Talking to Kara Gormley Meador yesterday, I momentarily drew a blank when she mentioned her run-in with John Graham Altman some years ago. She reminded me of the details, which made me go, “Oh, yeah.” Here’s a summary of the incident:
Excerpts from the exchange between WIS-TV reporter Kara Gormley and Rep. John Graham Altman, R-Charleston, over a S.C. House committee’s vote to make cockfighting a felony while tabling a bill that would toughen criminal domestic violence laws
Gormley: “Does that show that we are valuing a gamecock’s life over a woman’s life?”
Altman: “You’re really not very bright, and I realize you are not accustomed to this, but I’m accustomed to reporters having a better sense of depth of things, and your asking this question to me would indicate you can’t understand the answer. To ask the question is to demonstrate an enormous amount of ignorance. I’m not trying to be rude or hostile, I’m telling you.”
Gormley: “It’s rude when you tell someone they are not very bright.”
Altman: “You’re not very bright, and you’ll just have to live with that.”
So basically, when she talks about the lack of civility in politics, she’s speaking from personal experience.
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One reason I blanked on this at first was that when she said “John Graham…” I thought of a guy I knew back in Jackson, TN, named John D. Graham.
John D. was a businessman and longtime Republican activist in Madison County. He had been a Republican back in the days when NO white people were. He was one of those rare, old-time Southern Republicans who had embraced that identity in reaction to the rampant corruption in Democratic Party politics in that state. For him, it was a matter of integrity, back in the days before the Southern Strategy. I learned a lot from the stories he told me.
He was a very civil gentleman of great dignity. He was quite different from John Graham Altman.
Reminds me of our Governor call P&C report Renee Dudley “a little girl.”
When you can’t win on the content of the argument, attack your opponent! Belittling is especially good!
[See also, ponytails]
When the words “John Graham Altman” are mentioned consecutively, I immediately want to provide some soothing hand lotion to alleviate the callouses caused by knuckle-dragging from which he must suffer.
Love it, Tim!