Saltsman: It's Hard Out There For A Republican
Chip Saltsman, the candidate for RNC chairman who has gotten in trouble for sending out a gift CD to committee members that contained a parody song called "Barack The Magic Negro," had an incredible interview this morning on MSNBC, blaming the whole flap on the media.
Contessa Brewer asked Saltsman about the offense that people have taken. "You know I think it highlighted a couple things, one that we're definitely not playing on a level playing field with the media," Saltsman said, complaining that the media didn't go after the Los Angeles Times for running a column that served as the basis of right-wing satirist Paul Shanklin's song.
(By the way, the piece was not from the LAT itself, but was an op-ed written by David Ehrenstein, who is black.)
Brewer insisted that there are many people out there who are offended by the parody song, which features the white conservative Shanklin doing an Amos & Andy-style impression of Al Sharpton. "Well, I think there's some people that--" Saltsman began in a confrontational tone, before stopping short and simply replying, "I understand that."
Late Update: Here's the video:
Josh
Matt
Eric
Brian
Still waiting on your "outrage" post discussing the unabashed racism of Robert Downey Jr. and everyone involved in producing "Tropic Thunder,"...wait. They're not Republicans...
January 27, 2009 1:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
TPM has always had an obsession with protecting Senator Downey.
January 27, 2009 1:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Neither are they trying to run a national political party.
I'm not sure what your point is, Sarge. Is TPM supposed to scan the world looking for evidence of racism?
January 27, 2009 1:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ok...I got it. As long as no Democrat goes and sees Tropic Thunder, and no one involved in the movie participates in any Democrat's functions then you're off the hook.
January 27, 2009 1:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Really?
That's your best shot?
This is your response to the tired, old, failed, race baiting, elitist, money grubbing, party first, country last, Rethuglicans?
You bring up some drug addict movie star and his latest Hollywood schlock project?
Why don't we discuss the foundation of the Republican Party, Mr. Hill Billy Heroin Addict Rush Limbaugh while we're at it?
January 27, 2009 2:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think Eric should send out an email demanding to know which Democratic Reps and Sens have seen Tropic Thunder and if any of them laughed when Kirk Lazarus said "What do you mean; you people?"
January 27, 2009 2:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why? What on earth does that have to do with campaiging for the head of a major political party? Nobody cares what movies Saltsman goes to or what movie dialogue he laughs at. That's a strawman argument Wallace. What people care about is what Saltzman sends out as campaign material when he's running for HEAD OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.
That said, I'm glad Saltzman did it and I hope he gets the job. I hope he never apologizes for it either.
A really stupid ploitical blunder like this doesn't comae along every day (even from the Republicans), and I'd hate to see it go to waste.
January 27, 2009 7:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
January 27, 2009 7:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Saltsman is the perfect guy to represent the Repuglican Party. Better even than Robert Downey Jr.
January 27, 2009 2:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well I can see why the GOP would be so upset about a movie that makes bad taste jokes about mentally defective people. But none of the people involved in making that movie are running for chair of the DNC, nor is anyone who is sending it out as campaign material.
Few people here will be surprised that some Republicans are unable to see the difference between a personal attack on the basis of race against a black politician who just happens to be the leader of the governing party and a Hollywood movie made by a drug addict who happens to vote for Democrats.
Saltsman knew what he was doing in sending out the CD, he was setting up a sign that says 'Racists welcome here'. It was almost certainly intentional, and even if not intentional, it was incompetent.
There is certainly a large part of the GOP that is more interested in consolidating power within the party on the basis of the racist rump in the old confederacy than outreach to make it electorally viable as a national party.
January 27, 2009 3:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nice try in changing the subject.
January 27, 2009 1:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Um, what's the connection, Jorge?
On one hand, we have a stupid movie. On the other, we have someone running for the chair of a political party who has distributed something that, on face value, seems somewhat racist.
TPM covers politics. Not movies.
January 27, 2009 2:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm just saying that if Chuck Schumer bought a Tropic Thunder DVD it would be a non-story. If Chip Saltsman sends a parody CD he's a racist trying to run racist party. I think Chip has a point.
January 27, 2009 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Your argument is flawed. A bad movie vs. racial mocking of the President for political gain are two completely different things. The fact that you don't understand that speaks volumes.
January 27, 2009 2:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
No.
If Chuck Shumer, in an attempt to get elected to a position, sends a borderline racist DVD around, as a "joke", then we're talking an equivalent situation.
This isn't that.
January 27, 2009 2:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Your feeble attempts at being witty and humorous are so laughably bad. No wonder Hollywood is populated by liberals and progressives; wingnuts couldn't write a decent joke if they walked into a bar with a priest, rabbi, and witchdoctor.
Try "An American Carol" for the 'best' attempt at right wing humor. They just don't have it in them.
January 27, 2009 2:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
From Shakespeare's Political Dictionary:
Republican Joke(noun)
...it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
January 27, 2009 2:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wallace, the Senator in the next stall is tapping his foot for you. And your buddy from Louisiana still hire prostitutes. Are you the prostitute or the man in the stall down on his knees? Either way, don't worry, the media isn't paying attention.
January 27, 2009 2:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow, seriously? Did you even see the movie? Did you not understand that the whole point of that character was to satirize and MOCK the Hollywood itself and their penchant for hiring white actors to play completely inappropriate roles, like say Tom Cruise in "The Last Samurai"? They even EXPLICITLY point that out in the film (I assume for mentally deficient members of the audience) and you STILL didn't get it? Wow. Just wow. Did you not realize that they were making fun of self-important actors themselves in that film? And then you compare that movie, a movie mocking Hollywood itself for it's veiled racism with a song sent out by the Republicans that is making poking fun of Obama for BEING black? Can you not see the disconnect in how one is humorous as satire and one is simply racist?
This is shocking to me. In much the same way in college when I first met someone who ACTUALLY couldn't find Africa on a map. I'd heard of their existence, but I never really believed in it.
Did you also think that the Colbert Report was serious too?
January 27, 2009 3:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Did you not realize that they were making fun of self-important actors themselves in that film? And then you compare that movie, a movie mocking Hollywood itself for it's veiled racism with a song sent out by the Republicans that is making poking fun of Obama for BEING black?"
Actually it was a song that was making fun of the Civil Rights establisment (Al Sharpon...Jessie Jackson...) and their questioning of whether Obama was "black enough."
January 27, 2009 3:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not really. The song is about CARICATURES of the Civil Rights "establishment" questioning whether Obama was "black enough". I don't believe Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton or anyone in the actual Civil Rights movement had anything to do with the song and whether they are worthy of mockery is beside the point. That being the case, it is just straight up racist. Had Jesse Jackson written and sung it, it might have been a different story, because that would mean he was making fun of himself as well. But no, it was some Republicans who made a song mocking both the so-called "Civil Rights establishment" (a group that Republicans haven't historically liked or supported for various reasons) and the candidate (now President) Obama. Essentially, the song is poking fun at (what they writer perceives to be) the internal struggle of Black identity and what it means to be black. All from a position of being rich, racist, white guys.
Yep, they're comedy geniuses. (/sarcasm)
January 27, 2009 4:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
I always knew that one day someone would call us out for covering up the Tropic Thunder scandal.
January 27, 2009 9:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
The real story here is Contessa Brewer cutting Saltsman off when he tried to turn the issue into media bias. Not what one sees from CB in most interviews.
January 27, 2009 1:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
2nd. Finally, a reporter with a spine.
January 27, 2009 4:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
I feel for Wallace, I really do. There's millions of sore loser wingnuts still in their temper tantrum phase. They still cannot get it through their heads that they lost the elections as bad as they did, and their entire failed conservative bowel movement lost too. So now, all they will do is act like spoiled 4 year olds who dont wanna go to bed, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Time for the adults to put the children to bed, so they can get on with the cleanup process.
January 27, 2009 2:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
SFC isn't a sore loser. In fact, SFC has consistently been significantly more civil than many of the long time "winners" around here.
I think he's pretty much out to lunch on this issue, but I have to stand up for him.
January 27, 2009 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you CT, while I'm sure this isn't the only issue you think I'm out to lunch on, you are one of the few I'm sure I'd enjoy lunch with.
P.S. You missed an "H"...lol
January 27, 2009 2:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hah! Some days, I couldn't agree more.
January 27, 2009 2:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sarge's main purpose here was an attempt to derail the thread. And he pretty much succeeded.
I hope to hell the RNC picks this Saltsman guy. He can lead them down the isolationist path they've started, and can look to lose all seats north of the Mason Dixon line in 2010.
He'll line up the Huckster and Sarah for 2012, and they'll consolidate the nutters at a solid 28% of the population.
January 27, 2009 2:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
You mean this thread isn't about whether or not actions of a politician are considered equally as racist by the media simply because of the party affiliation of the person doing them?
January 27, 2009 2:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
No this thread is about politicians shooting themselves in the foot by doing something blatantly racist ... and the amusing way they have to bite their tongue mid-sentence when their every screaming desire is to make the situation even worse by blaming their actions on someone else.
Your Tropic Thunder dodge is just spurious irrelevancy. That's the biggest problem with republican framing, no personal accountability. The immediate reaction is to create a false equivalency and hope everyone bites on it and moves past the actual issue.
I would observe that if it weren't for stuff like the totally race-baiting Obama Waffles and similar types of "humor" embraced and distributed through official GOP channels it would be easier to argue in favor of benefit of the doubt. But at this stage, it's clear that racism is ingrained in the GOP leadership's methodologies.
January 27, 2009 3:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Waffles are racist?
January 27, 2009 3:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dude you are either completely insincere or completely an idiot asshole. Not a good choice.
It is exactly like the old saying "I am laughing WITH you and not AT you"
If you sincerely do not understand what that means you are really kind of stupid and you just need to shut up. If you do know what that means and you persist in trying to make your "point" about satire and racism being the same thing then you are just another loudmouth asshole.
Call FoxNews, they hire people just like you to circle jerk with other people just like you......
January 28, 2009 2:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
If the republicans ever get rid of idiots like Saltsman, it might just start to get a little easier for them.
January 27, 2009 2:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have not seen Tropic Thunder - not my type of film - but looking at the description, it sounds like Downey is not playing blackface, he is playing a white man who does blackface - a significant difference because this exposes white privilege - his decision to take the role anyway rather than recasting.
Of course, nuance is not a GOP strong suit.
January 27, 2009 3:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
You should see it, it's pretty funny, definately worth $4 to rent it. Paul Blart Mall Cop, however, is worth full ticket price at the theater.
January 27, 2009 3:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
And yet Wallace has succeeded in his intent; many have allowed him to to make them defend a movie.
How often have Republicans used that tactic to obscure a real issue? Why can we not just ignore his attempt to change the subject? We rise to the bait like hungry fish.
January 27, 2009 5:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not at all. The topic at hand is the veiled racism of Republicans and their efforts at somehow turning that racism on it's head and claiming the victim status, even though they are actually the perpetrators. It's like shooting someone and then claiming that you're the injured party because the murder you just committed has traumatized you. This being the case, I think that Wallace hasn't derailed the thread at all! He's a living breathing example of what this thread is about. A person who retreats to willful, unparalleled ignorance and non sequiturs when his fallacious arguments are exposed (e.g. "waffles are racist?" the comment of the amazingly dense - I could see him saying "Burning crosses are racist? How could a symbolic action have a referent? In my world everything exists without context.") and engages in the worst kind of false equivalence (something that the average Republican constantly accuses their opponents of engaging in) until then.
Man, he can't derail the topic . . . He IS the topic.
January 27, 2009 6:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow, this reporter completely did not back down at all from this conversation. Its nice to see reporters actually asking real questions to politicians these days as opposed to when they used to just kiss ass.
January 28, 2009 2:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Tropic Thunder is racist just like Huck Finn is racist. The Cons and the Fascists just do not get satire of any kind. They do not get Colbert and they do not get Mark Twain. I honestly believe they have a cognitive defect that is like a hole in a tennis ball, the harder you hit the more pathetically it goes nowhere. The truth is they try like hell to rationalize their seething distain for anything not white and conservative like them. I loved watching the reporter in the interview move the ball back to "PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY" and keep it right there. The Cons and the Fascists just melt when they cannot blame someone, anyone for their bigotry.
January 28, 2009 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink