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The Wildest Moments From CPAC
Joe the Plumber on newfound influence, group linked to U.S. senator warns of “extraterrestrial activity,” white nationalists, and more video from the conservative conclave.
Joe the Plumber Briefing Video
During day two of the 2009 Conservative Political Action Conference, I encountered former McCain-Palin surrogate Joe the Plumber (real name: Samuel Wurzelbacher) promoting his new book, Joe The Plumber: Fighting for the American Dream. While I stood in line to meet Joe, a star-struck young man asked him if he had plans to run for Congress. “Not for at least six years,” the unlicensed plumber announced.
When my turn with Joe arrived, I asked him to confirm a report that he had recently addressed congressional Republican staffers. Joe described how he gave his “uninvited opinion” to a captive audience of nearly 100 staffers, deploring the lack of leadership and “politically correct” tendencies within the GOP. “They did applaud,” Joe said of staffers’ reaction. “A lot of them did seem to like it.” A new Republican leader was born.
Christian Zionist “Extraterrestrial” Video
Inside CPAC’s exhibition hall, I met James Hutchens, founder of the Christian Zionist lobbying group, The Jerusalem Connection International. Hutchens told me his group favored forcing the Palestinians from the West Bank to Jordan and from the Gaza Strip to Egypt. I asked him if he thought cattle cars would be an efficacious means of transporting the Palestinians to their new homes. “Certainly not cattle cars,” Hutchens said. “I mean, you can ride a bus across the Jordan River to Jordan.”
While claiming End Times theology has no influence on his group’s mission, Hutchens launched into a detailed description of the Rapture: “There is extra-terrestrial activity out there, like asteroids, that kind of thing… But [Scripture] also talks about a two-hundred million man army.” And would the army be comprised of Klingons? “China, India, some of these people could collaborate on that and form that size of an army,” Hutchens speculated. “And it’s at their hands that a third of mankind is destroyed.”
Seated on the advisory board of Hutchens’ group is Sen. Jim Bunning, the Kentucky Republican and Hall of Fame former major league pitcher who recently threatened to sue the GOP if they recruited a primary challenger for 2010. “I know him personally, we’re friends…” Hutchens said of Bunning. “He is very pro-Israel, he’s got real questions about this whole issue of land for peace, and he’s voiced that.”
Brimelow Video
Down the hall, I ran into Peter Brimelow, founder of the nativist website VDare.com, which the Southern Poverty Law Center identifies as a “hate group.” Brimelow had bivouacked by the booth of a new, little known organization called “Youth For Western Civilization” which, according to the SPLC, was founded by frequent VDare contributor Marcus Epstein.
During my interview with Brimelow (our first chat since we spoke for my Daily Beast “War on Christmas” report he heaped contempt on Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, an Indian-American heavily promoted as the party’s future. “There’s a lot of white guilt in the Republican Party, so he will appeal to that,” Brimelow remarked. As for efforts to diversity the GOP with appeals to minority groups, Brimelow insisted the GOP “is a white party. The numbers indicate they could easily win the national elections just by mobilizing their base but they don’t.”
Though Brimelow is a movement veteran who directly influenced the rise of anti-immigration politics in the GOP, many conservative leaders now shun him because of his openly racialist views. This is ironic considering the crude racism of CPAC’s keynote speaker, Rush Limbaugh, who once claimed “the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and Crips.” Inside the modern conservative movement, racial resentment pays, but intellectual honesty about it can ruin your career.
The Republican Rapper
I met the world's first self-proclaimed "Republican rapper" on the second day of the 2009 Conservative Political Action Conference. He is Hi-Caliber, a former construction worker from New Jersey who told me that after just 10 minutes of listening to right-wing radio shock jock Michael Savage ranting about "Islamofascism" and illegal immigration, his "whole views on the world changed." Now Hi-Caliber records inspired battle anthems against President Barack Obama, who he denounces as a "socialist in the White House;" he attacks Nancy Pelosi as "phony baloney;" assails the liberal media; calls for a border fence; and warns darkly of the Fairness Doctrine.
In this Daily Beast exclusive video, Hi-Caliber kicked some of the most novel rhymes I have ever heard. Hear him for yourself.
Max Blumenthal is a senior writer for The Daily Beast and writing fellow at The Nation Institute, whose book, Republican Gomorrah (Basic/Nation Books), is forthcoming in Spring 2009. Contact him at maxblumenthal3000@yahoo.com.
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
The Right Dumps Carrie
Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
Geithner's Stock Plummeting
Jeff Madrick is a contributor to the New York Review of Books and a former economics columnist for the New York Times. He is editor of Challenge Magazine, visiting professor of humanities at Cooper Union, and senior fellow at the New School's Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis. He is the author of Taking America, The End of Affluence (Random House) and The Case for Big Government.
Un-Pelosi: The Senator Who’ll Kill the Stupak Amendment
Max Blumenthal is a senior writer for The Daily Beast, writing fellow at The Nation Institute and author of Republican Gomorrah (Basic/Nation Books). Contact him at maxblumenthal3000@yahoo.com.
Palin's Noxious Ghostwriter
Max Blumenthal is a senior writer for The Daily Beast, writing fellow at The Nation Institute and author of Republican Gomorrah (Basic/Nation Books). Contact him at maxblumenthal3000@yahoo.com.
Did Women Beat the Right's Point Man?
Max Blumenthal is a senior writer for The Daily Beast, writing fellow at The Nation Institute and author of Republican Gomorrah (Basic/Nation Books). Contact him at maxblumenthal3000@yahoo.com.
Max Blumenthal is one of the most dishonest journalists on the far left, and that's saying a mouthful. He works the gay and ACLU agenda into everything he writes. Who cut the anti-Christian angle we've come to expect out of this one?
Isn't that Joe the Plumer (not) guy on minute 16? Enough already. The poor guy doesn't even realize that he's being made a fool of.
I'm glad I couldn't understand a word of what Brimelow said, because it probably would have pissed me off.
It seems to me that the extreme elements of the Republicans are only going to get worse... and they will divide the party even further and make it irrelevant except at the regional level... which is everything the Democrats could ask for. The moderate Republicans are trying to play the game of "we're diverse too! We're hip with the times too! We're techno-savvy too!" but it won't work. The GOP is doomed.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
Dang it, I guess the Dems will have to settle with Paul Krugman, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett. Sigh...
OK. I'll elaborate. Blumenthal is a goon. Like Limbaugh, he paints a monolithic picture of an entire segment of the population by suggesting fringe caricatures are representative of all conservatives. Klingons? Cattle Cars? If he had a modicum of talent he could take his "act" to The Daily Show. Discrediting a point with a counterpoint requires having a credible opinion to back it up. He comes across as an undergraduate fraternity prankster. Definitely not Beast-worthy.
These "interviews" by Max are unwatchable. I tried.
woodnut:
What is a plumer, anyway?
ROTFLMAO!!!!! Holding my sides!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzlG28B-R8Y
rowland: "he paints a monolithic picture of an entire segment of the population by suggesting fringe caricatures are representative of all conservatives."
until the complacent majority of conservatives/republicans clairify the vocal fringe's fringe-ness, democrats will associate them with the vocal fringe. similarly, average muslims had to clearly differentiate themselves from the vocal extremist islamists -- i wonder if conservatives yet see the difference between muslims and terrorists.
The Flat Earth Society never fails to entertain. Classic.
To the "Blumenthal is a Goon" crowd: um, he never said this was a representative sampling of American conservatism. Indeed, the headline promises the "WILDEST" moments from CPAC... Just because you have some wingnut, racist, batshit-insane folks in your party doesn't mean you should bash the guy who points them out. Take a page from what most of us liberals do when someone brings up our own nutjobs... "we're not all like that." You know, make it a teachable moment. Actually, maybe this really just points out the difference between libs and conservatives... liberals want to turn everything into a teach-in, and conservatives always just want to shoot the messenger.
ROTFLMAO!
That anyone pays any attention to this wing nuts is beyond me. Joe the Idiot is a practical demonstration that ignorance is curable by education but STUPIDITY IS TERMINAL! That he is featured at this circle jerk of neanderthals and is accorded any credibility by anyone within the republithug party is a graphic example of just how low the party of the Grand Old Phools has sunk. Rush, Ann Coulter, Boehner and the rest of the crew deserve the ignominy that they will accrue as a result of their 18th century view of the world. In reality they are no different in their political desires then the so-called islamists who wish to turn the clock back several hundred years.
Let them continue denying reality (along with evolution) and place their faith in an End of Days scenario - while they are preparing for end times, we need to focus on getting America back on its feet and assuming its place as the beacon of hope and prosperity for the rest of the world.
i read a very sensical report about what the GOP needs to do to get back on track. here is an excerpt and link to story:
From Femisex.com:
It is time for an overhaul of the GOP. And really, how about a return to the Party that allowed women the vote! Let's all remember it was a Republican Congress that allowed the 19th Amendment to sail thru passage!
And it was Republicans who put the Equal Rights Amendment in their platform in the 40s.
Where Art Thou Republicans unopposed to women's rights and freedoms? It is time for you to stand up and Shout from the Rooftops: I want my party back! "
I had to cheer when i read this. Today either i'm a socialist democrat or a women-hating republican. I want a better choice.
www.femisex.com
Only a guy from England could be against the Radical Immigration policies of today.......what?
While the irony hurts - doesn't seem to bother people who agree with such shallow thinking.
It's time for a new war. The war on stupid!
@dm10003
"until the complacent majority of conservatives/republicans clairify the vocal fringe's fringe-ness, democrats will associate them with the vocal fringe."
And the Democrats will still be wrong - willfully so. The topic of fringeness didn't seem fair game when Obama's twenty-year patronage of Rev. Wright's sermons surfaced.
"similarly, average muslims had to clearly differentiate themselves from the vocal extremist islamists - i wonder if conservatives yet see the difference between muslims and terrorists."
You JUST DEMONSTRATED that you cannot differentiate between reasonable and extreme conservatives with that statement. You just hung yourself with your own rope.
Too bad for Brimelow that Rhodesia is no more. May I suggest a Whites-only Martian colonization program.
Here's more on the author:
24ahead.com/s/max-blumenthal
If you want a laugh, see the Toby Keith one. If you want an example of him repeatedly lying, see the Tancredo one.
Joe-the-Plumber was just image code for "cute skinhead." That's why he had such media sticking power. And the rightwingers say the media doesn't give them airtime! I've seen enough of Mr. Cute Skinhead.
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What a bunch of moronic bed wetters LOL They finally found a home! The GOP!!! Group Of Pissants = GOP
Gee, I don't know... a racist, a faux plumber who throws his own under the bus? Rush and the rest of the mouth breathers... and some want to attack the reporter for misrepresenting the right wing? While liberals are democrats, they don't define the democrats, no matter what the right wing wants to say... but the conservatives have completely taken over the republican party and they believe that you must be a conservative to be a republican. Big tent party? Hahahahaha
hmmm... I noticed a lot of complaints about journalistic integrity. It seems to me that this isn't really meant to be real journalism as much as comedy. Max does like to ask misleading questions in an attempt to help these people make fools of themselves; but for the most part, he just lets them speak into the camera. Obviously, if you're a republican you won't enjoy this piece. Oh well, go listen Ann Coulter rant about widows if you need a self esteem boost.
Did anyone notice the afsi.org logo looks like a swastika?
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