It’s become a bit of a cliche in the Obama era. Every year, when the President delivers his State of the Union address, someone in the Republican Congressional caucus makes an absolute jackass of him/herself. Let’s call it the Rep. Joe Wilson “YOU LIE!” syndrome.
They just can’t seem to help themselves in those grand moments in the bright lights during which they are finally forced to be in the same room with the actual reality of the person they’ve spent the bulk of the year deluding themselves — with no small amount of help from Fox “News” and even the so-called legitimate news networks — into believing to be an incompetent, dictatorial, fascistic, imperial-socialist evil genius. (I’ll leave it to you to figure out how he can be all those things at once.)
We thought we had last night’s winner of the Republican SOTU Jackass of the Year Award when Texas Rep. Randy Weber tweeted, before the speech even began…
On floor of house waitin on "Kommandant-In-Chef"… the Socialistic dictator who's been feeding US a line or is it "A-Lying?"
— Randy Weber (@TXRandy14) January 29, 2014
Setting aside the impressive typos and incoherence, Rep. Weber’s idiocy was clear enough. But, as it turns out, he was an amateur last night. There were at least two other elected officials in the GOP caucus vying for last night’s (dis)honor, with one even willing to threaten a violent offense against a reporter on camera. But, in truth, it was the third who really represents the gravest threat to our democracy…
The story of Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY)’s violent, caught-on-camera threat against NY1 reporter Michael Scotto seems to be getting plenty of play today. But, if you missed it, here’s what happened in a nutshell.
After the President spoke, Scotto was interviewing Grimm on one of the Capitol’s interior balcony locations about the speech, which the Congressman described (with complete detachment from reality, naturally), as “divisive”.
At the end of the interview, Scotto attempted to ask a question about a campaign finance scandal in which a supporter of Grimm’s was charged by the FBI earlier this month, according to NY1, “with using straw donors to exceed the maximum allowable contribution to Grimm’s campaign committee.”
The Congressman would have none of the inquiry, cutting off Scotto’s question about it by responding: “I’m not speaking to you off-topic, this is only about the President.” He then walked off camera, leaving Scotto to say: “So Congressman Michael Grimm does not want to talk about some of the allegations concerning his campaign finances.”
After Scotto tossed back to the station, but while the camera was still rolling, Grimm came back at Scotto with a threat to toss him “off this fucking balcony” and to “break [him] in half. Like a boy.” Here’s NY1’s description of what happened when Grimm reapproached Scotto after the interview:
Grimm: “Let me be clear to you, you ever do that to me again I’ll throw you off this f—–g balcony.”
Scotto: “Why? I just wanted to ask you…”
[[cross talk]]
Grimm: “If you ever do that to me again…”
Scotto: “Why? Why? It’s a valid question.”
[[cross talk]]
Grimm: “No, no, you’re not man enough, you’re not man enough. I’ll break you in half. Like a boy.”
Unfortunately, NY1 doesn’t allow their videos to be easily embedded here, but you can watch the video confrontation, with sub-titles provided by NY1, at their site.
After the incident last night, Grimm released a statement in which he failed to apologize in the least. In fact, the Republican Congressman from Staten Island did what all good Republicans do when they get caught, he doubled-down:
Today, undoubtedly facing pressure from his own House caucus, not to mention, possibly, from law enforcement, Grimm called Scotto to apologize and to say that he “overreacted”. Scotto is said to have accepted the apology. Grimm then offered this written statement this morning:
Threatening a reporter with bodily harm is no small thing, and, in fact, arguably a crime in the District of Columbia…
Whoever is convicted in the District of threats to do bodily harm shall be fined not more than the amount set forth in § 22-3571.01 or imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both, and, in addition thereto, or in lieu thereof, may be required to give bond to keep the peace for a period not exceeding 1 year.
Nonetheless, it was, neither Weber nor Grimm, but our third candidate for GOP Jackass of the Night who, it seems to me, is really the most endemic of all that is currently wrong with our politics, our media, and, thus, our nation.
We’ll let Rachel Maddow do the heavy lifting here, as her incredible confrontation with Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KA) speaks volumes all by itself. Huelskamp is a second-term Congressman, meaning he is absolutely this batshit insane and yet, he was re-elected in 2012 anyway.
Watch the video…
That video is getting a lot less attention today than the Grimm video, understandably, because it doesn’t involve breaking “a boy” “in half”, but still. While MSNBC describes the Congressman’s interview as “giv[ing] voice to extremist right,” I don’t believe there’s anything “extreme” about it. That is the Right these days. That’s not extreme, that’s the mainstream. And it’s aided and abetted by media outlets (most notably Fox “News”, of course, but there are many beyond them) which give members like Huelskamp a pedestal to spout that bullshit without challenge simply on the grounds that they are “elected officials” and, therefore, are owed some form of due deference.
No. No they are not. And I’m happy that Maddow did as much as she could to hold that jackasses feet to the fire.
There is much that can be fact-checked in that video to make the case against Heulskamp’s deceit (Really? Someone from the administration accused his office of “politicizing the military” by inviting a veteran to the SOTU? Really? He didn’t vote to defund embassy security before the Benghazi incident? Etc.) but I’ve got to scramble to put together my KPFK/Pacifica Radio show shortly, so don’t have time to do it myself right now. I suspect Maddow will do so herself later tonight, though that’s just a hunch.
But, my point in running it is just to highlight everything that is currently wrong with our political system, as Chris Hayes also alludes at the end of the clip. There are two different “realities” here. One is actually real and the other is based on the years-long fraud perpetrated by Fox “News” and tolerated, even encouraged, by the bulk of the mainstream corporate media.
In turn, that has broken our system, giving the President very little room to do anything, other than actions that he is able to do on his own, such as issuing lawful Executive Orders and other such actions which, in turn, leads to tweets like those from Weber at the beginning of this piece, and the firm belief from jackasses like Huelskamp that he is an unlawful “Imperial President”.
Round and round it goes. Where it stops, right now, nobody really knows. But none of it is good for this nation.
There is, and always has been, plenty to criticize this Administration about. A case can even be made, if one is really interested, against inappropriate executive actions by the Obama administration. Unfortunately, guys like Weber and Huelskamp and even Grimm — who wouldn’t recognize real “divisiveness” if it threw him off a balcony — are nowhere even close. They aren’t interested in making the system better, they are interested only in making it worse, because that’s how they think they win.
We all lose in the bargain. And that’s why, as I’ve said many times before, no matter what you think of our elected officials, elections really do matter.
Fox news==FOX cult….What else can explain Fox watchers knowing less than people not watching any news at all. It is just as hard to convince someone that Fox misinforms it’s viewers as is to tell someone in a cult that they are being played
Good politicians really do matter, and so do bad ones.
What we are seeing off TV in the panoramic view is very difficult to believe.
So is the degree of mental degeneration some of the stars are showing us on the tele.
My thoughts about Cong. Grimm are that I give respect and show deference to people who earn and deserve it, which is certainly NOT you. Also, sir, you are a public servant. You are supposed to be humble, not arrogant. You serve at the pleasure of the People, and it’s a temp job. Your actions tonight just gave your Democratic opponent his first TV ad for the Fall campaign. As for the legal troubles that started your tirade, orange is the new black, buddy. Hopefully by this time next year your biggest worry is whether you’re going to be a “top” or a “bottom” when you get to prison (along with Christie and the rest of the NY/NJ “Sopranos” wannabes).
In The Time Michael Grimm Yelled at Me, the National Journal’s Marin Cogan offers up an intriguing background about the radical right wing NY Congressman who threatened to throw NY1 reporter Michael Scotto off the Capitol balcony.
Grimm was originally “elected in 2010 on the strength of his experience as an undercover FBI agent on Wall Street.”
Cogan relates an earlier New Yorker story about a 1999 incident in which Grimm wielded a gun at a Queens nightclub, while confronting the estranged husband of a women he had taken to the club.
Off-duty NYPD officer Gordon Williams claims he saw an armed Grimm “carrying on like a madman” in the nightclub’s garage. “He’s screaming, ‘I’m gonna fuckin’ kill him.’ So I said to him, ‘Who are you?’ He put the gun back in his waist and said, ‘I’m a fucking F.B.I. agent, ain’t nobody gonna threaten me.'”
According to Williams, Grimm, left, but later returned with another FBI agent and a group of NYPD officers.