The point should be clear—-you can’t separate the “economic” conservatism of the tea baggers from their overall investment in hierarchy, social control, and punishing people that break the arbitrary rules that they claim the right to write.

I’m sorry - are you saying they have any economic conservatism which isn’t just an expression of their overall investment in hierarchy, social control, and punishing people?

But that’s not the real reason.  The real reason this is a noteworthy event is that it lays waste to the ridiculous media narrative that the teabaggers are some brand new movement, and not the same old right wing demagogues with a long list of people they hate, and that list includes women that try to exert some control over their lives and especially their fertility.

I fear you’re way overthinking this, at least in terms of media narrative. I fear Our Media Stars will not even think about anything remotely related to that; they won’t get past “the teabaggers didn’t like him and now he’s out so we should devote even more time to fawning over their mighty political power.”

I think they recognize their economic conservatism revolves around their personal world view of hierarchy.  It isn’t so much about keeping others down as rewarding themselves.  Their social hierarchy is about keeping other groups down.  There is a distinct difference between rewarding themselves and denying others but when they talk it blurs do to the fact they aren’t really “real americans” unless they use both at once to justify their lives.

Admittedly, harassment and death threats aren’t fun, and I speak as one who receives ‘em as part and parcel of my work day every now and then from self-appointed Christian avengers.

However, I never set out on my job, as Stupak did, to disenfranchise women from basic health care, so I can enjoy the schadenfreude at Stupak’s amazement that the rabid mob would turn on him when he dared show mercy to other Americans disenfranchised by the health insurance industry.

Boy, that must have made Stupak’s head do a 360 degree spin! “Hey, I shat on fertile women for you people, and what thanks to I get?”

I fail to see how I’m overthinking this, Rick.  The media narrative is, “Teabaggers are a new populist movement that is refreshingly libertarian and not the tired old wingnuts.”  They believe this for a very simple reason, which is novelty is more interesting.  Sadly, it’s all bullshit.  Teabaggers?  Same old wingnuts.

Yeah I’ve never seen any real evidence that teabaggers aren’t simply the far right, and it’s sort of boggling how many other people want to see their own, different, often more reasonable ideologies mirrored in their ranks.

That’s the reality, Amanda; I just don’t think CNN, for example, is gonna read “Stupak retires” and think “Maybe we were wrong about this bunch.” They’re gonna think “Teabaggers win! Let’s ask them some MORE questions about how awesome they are!”

They can only absorb one “lesson” from any happening, and “the libruls were right” cannot ever be it.

I think it’s more the media’s need for Newer! Faster! Louder! news - it’s hard to convince someone that teabaggers are not the same-old-same-old when their paychecks depend on them remaining unconvinced.

But Amanda is quite right.  Regardless of how the media wants to try to squeeze some ratings about a “new” political party, these are the same old 29%‘ers that formed Bush’s base.  They obviously don’t believe in the mutually-contradictory “principles” they spout on about, they just know it’s OK for Us but not OK for Them

His own son, Bart Jr., even committed suicide to escape the old man’s influence, which in my mind makes Bart Stupak one of the baddest there ever was.

I think Stupak Sr is a giant douche, but this is kind of beyond the pale unless you have actual proof that the son said or wrote that he was committing suicide because he couldn’t stand his father. I mean…jeez. Googling tells me the son was on Accutane which has been the subject of a lot of debate because it can have severe psychiatric side effects, and in fact “suicidal thoughts” were a listed side effect on the documentation when I took it about ten years ago. (I also had to sign a contract that I would use two methods of birth control because it can cause horrid birth defects.) There are other similar cases, and I’ve known two dermatologists who are extremely reluctant to prescribe it even when it’s obviously needed (it’s used for severe acne that does not respond to other antibiotics) because of this stuff.

So anyway - Stupak is enough of an asshole that you don’t need to make extremely inflammatory claims to try to make us not like him. It just makes you sound like an asshole, unless you’ve got videotape of the son telling you what you claim.

Agreed, alisonrose!
Also, I don’t see why being from outside of Michigan makes him a bad person. Or, for that matter, going to a fourth tier law school or not passing the bar on first try. The very specific flaw that he has is this: he opposes reproductive freedom, and he was willing to hijack the health care bill to do this. (Also the C Street stuff, but that’s secondary to opposing choice.)

he’s been living in a 12 bedroom, 9 bathroom house with maid and chef services and paying only $950 per month

He doesn’t live there alone. Like many of us in DC, he rents a room in a house. The cost of a room in a house shared with several other people is in the $700-$1000/month range. He benefited from not having to go through the rigormorole of hunting for roommates on craigslist, but other than he’s paying close to market rates.

Stupak is reminds me of the second teir bullys in high school they did a lot of the dirty work for the mean kids and couldn’t understand when the mean kids turned on them. He thought he was one of the cool c street kids but in the end he learned he was the wrong kind of Christian fanatic.

Maybe a better example would be the Mormons helping Christians to pass amendment 8 in California only to realize that most Christians still hate the Mormons.

He wasn’t even born in the state that he represented as a member of Congress.

Neither was Obama. Or is stupid nativism only OK if it’s directed at politicians we dislike?

As for his law school career, what it might ALSO rather strongly suggest is that he had to pay his own way through law school, rather than going right from college to law school on Mommy and Daddy’s dime. (Which is another reason that people go to “fourth tier” law schools, by the way; because those are the schools with lower tuition and which offer part-time and night school programs.) Working as a police officer could be due to a lot of things, such as not wanting to work as a lawyer, not getting the job he wanted as a lawyer, or finding that being a police officer paid better than the law jobs available. That said, it’s hilarious that somebody is criticizing a politician for not having been a practicing lawyer long enough.

Did somebody hack Mezosub’s ID or what? Because between the stupidity about where Stupak was born, the classist bullshit, and fulminating about his son’s suicide, that post displays a truly mindboggling level of assclownery.

It took him until he was 29 years old to get a law degree from a Fourth Tier law school; one that has always ranked consistently in the Fourth Tier (the lowest ranking a law school can receive and still be in the rankings).

If you graduate at 22, do a regular job for 2-4 years and then return to law school being 29 isn’t unrealistic.  Average age of doctoral candidates is around 29-32 (I haven’t looked in a while).  I’m all for lambasting the dumb fool but pointing out his age and rank of the college (which is largely judged on opinion, size, and how much they’re willing to pay the ranking service) is a bit unfair. 

As for CNN calling teabaggers something newsworthy, well they’re loud.  What more can you ask for?  Why do you think every week when somebody handcuffed themselves to white house or did something equally loud it was on the news.  The difference being these were individuals doing a one-off act, the teabaggers are a series of acts combined with corporate might.  They’re going to be on the news until the hate runs out (namely Nov. 2010).

Yes, you are 100% right, you can’t separate economic and social issues.  If you are hungry and flat broke, you are not really free.

I like what Digby said about his being upset over being harassed and being against the Free Clinic Entrances Act back in the day:

And while nobody should have to deal with death threats, it’s more than a little ironic that someone who adamantly opposed the Freedom to Access Clinic Entrances Act would end up being driven from office by his allies on that issue. Perhaps he can have a better feeling of what it must be like to be a desperate teen-aged girl facing a raging mob and gory pictures, red faced zealots calling you a murderer—- as you try to walk into a clinic.

On that note, the city of Austin has followed in the footsteps of Baltimore:

In a unanimous vote by the city council on Thursday, the city of Austin, Texas will now require so-called crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) to post signs that say they do not offer abortion services or referrals to those that provide them.

I think this makes for a great national issue. Those on the mushy middle can support it - its just fixing false advertising! Maybe we can make the culture wars can work for liberals, too.

Mezosub,
Enjoyed your excellent history of stupid Stupak.

I lived in Michigan for 90% of my life and was more than a bit surprised that a Democrat could get elected in his congressional district during the W era. Until you scratch under the surface and see how far right a lot of his beliefs are. Because his district includes areas that folks here who grew up in the far right, racist, bible belt south would feel right at home in.

Stupak thinks he should be exempted from the “lie down with dogs/wake up with fleas” rules.

Poor little sausage.

I lived in Michigan for 90% of my life and was more than a bit surprised that a Democrat could get elected in his congressional district during the W era.

Yeah, that’s absolutely shocking.

If you really lived in Michigan, you’d know that it’s like most other states with a hard rural/urban divide - Detroit and pockets like Lansing and Ann Arbor lean left, the rest of the state (particularly the conservative western half), which is more rural, leans right. John “Punish the Mentally Ill” Engler ended up governor because of the Muskegon-ite vote.

“Leans right” is hardly a description of the Pentecost Highway section of Michigan. It’s pretty much horizontal.

But yeah, that description of Stupak’s early career doesn’t make me look askance at him—if you’re a police officer, going to law school at night is a damn hard thing to do (and you don’t really get much choice about which law school you do it at). And studying for the bar while working 40+ hours a week: also not easy. But his actions since then make it clear he’s a major-league asshole who is not redeemed by working his way up.

It’s a good thing he gets his congressional pension, because he’s not going to be terribly employable either on the right or the “center”.

Why do you think he’s not employable? Engler jumped from screwing up Michigan to a cushy job with NAM; I doubt Stupak is going to leave his comfy perch unless he has somewhere more profitable to go to. The moneyed wing of the GOP, the part that welcomes former politicos into lobbying and executive positions with open arms, doesn’t give a shit about what working-class conservatives think.

#18

I think this makes for a great national issue. Those on the mushy middle can support it - its just fixing false advertising! Maybe we can make the culture wars can work for liberals, too.

Bay of Arizona, this is the exact same wavelength I’m on lately. Once you accept that culture’s important, and accept that there is actually a (mostly cold) culture war, you start to consider how you can get a balance of terror with the socialcons, and more importantly how you can win.

Tea is for Terrorism : The Providence Pheonix
Thought you might appreciate an article that sees through all the mainstream media kowtow bullshit and waxes a little poetic.

http://thephoenix.com/Providence/news/99670-tea-is-for-terrorism/