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GOP Senate Candidate Rob Simmons Adds Tea Bag To His Constitution
Eric Kleefeld | October 14, 2009, 2:19PM
Rep. Rob Simmons (R-CT)
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Former Rep. Rob Simmons (R-CT), the national GOP's favored candidate for Senate against Democratic incumbent Chris Dodd in 2010, has departed from his former reputation as a moderate Republican -- he's now become such a devotee of the Tea Party movement, that he's inserted a tea bag inside his pocket Constitution!
"I've made it a habit over the years to carry my Constitution in my pocket as a reminder of what this country and what this country's government is all about," Simmons told a recent event. "But more recently because of the participation of many of you, I've added something to my Constitution. I've added a tea bag."
Simmons seems a bit half-hearted, though -- the tea bag is still inside the wrapper.
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CT Voter
October 14, 2009 2:33 PM
You moran, Rob. Connecticut has a semi-deserving reputation as being relatively sane. Carrying teabags around in your pocket Constitution (hello? Who carries around a pocket Constitution, anyway???) isn't helping that reputation.
And while a teabagging Constitution might fire up the Republican base here in CT (and I question whether it will), it's probably not going to be all that attractive to all those independents.
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Dorn76
October 14, 2009 2:48 PM in reply to CT Voter
This is a loser in CT. Teabaggers are few and far between around here.
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counter coulter
October 14, 2009 2:51 PM in reply to CT Voter
Who carries around a pocket Constitution, anyway???
I've found that those who carry one around do so strictly for show and have absolutely no understanding of it.
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counter coulter
October 14, 2009 2:52 PM in reply to counter coulter
...except for Kucinich.
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GTFOOH
October 14, 2009 3:05 PM in reply to counter coulter
...and Byrd!
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richard f
October 14, 2009 6:34 PM in reply to GTFOOH
And Justice Hugo Black did the same. Black had the ability to reduce complex questions to simple answers which were sometimes right and sometimes wrong. The idea that any constitutional question can be resolved by looking at the text of the Constitution and nothing else, which is the premise behind carrying around a pocket copy, is a stupid one.
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Devon
October 14, 2009 4:08 PM in reply to counter coulter
It makes a lovely cup of tea to warm your insides on a cold day. To warm your outsides, you need a full-size one, and a match.
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Skybolt
October 14, 2009 4:08 PM in reply to counter coulter
I carried a pocket Constitution with me for a few years as an argument settler. I used it once or twice. Of course, I read the thing first.
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ondioline
October 14, 2009 4:35 PM in reply to Skybolt
That's the key: Carrying it around is useful as far as it goes, but READING IT trumps that many times over...
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CS
October 14, 2009 4:51 PM in reply to counter coulter
"I've found that those who carry one around do so strictly for show and have absolutely no understanding of it."
I've found the same usually goes for Bibles too.
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Captain Dan
October 14, 2009 8:08 PM in reply to counter coulter
Supreme Court Justice Black was reputed to carry his copy of the Constitution. So it is not only the repugnant nuts who do so. I have a pocket sized edition distributed by "Commission on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution", although I only carry it when I anticipate an opportunity to put down nuts arguing that the U.S. is a christian nation.
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Jen R
October 14, 2009 4:04 PM in reply to CT Voter
(hello? Who carries around a pocket Constitution, anyway???)
I used to have a copy of the Constitution on my Palm Pilot.
What? Sometimes a girl needs to look stuff up!
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CT Voter
October 14, 2009 5:25 PM in reply to Jen R
Well, to both you, Missouri Voter, Skybolt, Byrd and Kucinich, I stand corrected!
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A Missouri voter
October 14, 2009 4:14 PM in reply to CT Voter
Correct me if I am wrong, but I was under the impression that Rep Kucinich also carries both a pocket constitution and a tea-bag in his pocket. Perhaps this is an instance of imitation as the sincerest form of flattery?
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BluGrass
October 14, 2009 3:04 PM
Let's see... the original Boston Tea Party members were mostly Freemasons. The Freemasons have a history of persecution by the Catholic Church. Connecticut is, by some indexes, the most Catholic state in the U.S. Yet, now this mor*n in Connecticut says he's a tea-partier. Owww... it makes my head hurt.
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nova voter
October 14, 2009 3:05 PM
i guess a chunk of bullshit would have been too messy.
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BluGrass
October 14, 2009 3:08 PM
I guess the fact that Simmons always uses a wrapper on his tea bag makes him a member of Planned Paranoidhood.
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Corambis
October 14, 2009 3:15 PM in reply to BluGrass
I think Dan Savage might have had a recent column about keeping a prophylactic on your teabag.
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rbeats
October 14, 2009 4:00 PM
And the rest of the world shakes their heads, and continue to pull away financially, intellectually, and morally.
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johnmccsf
October 14, 2009 4:18 PM
Best news Chris Dodd's heard in a while I'd imagine
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ohyeathatsright
October 14, 2009 4:24 PM
I carry a pocket Constitution on my iPhone to remind me how far we've come. Different approach.
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tinmanic
October 14, 2009 4:31 PM
There's actually a more substantive argument against mixing teabags with the Constitution. The Boston Tea Party is more closely associated with the Declaration of Independence, and the Declaration and the Constitution do not quite come from the same intellectual place.
The Articles of Confederation went into effect shortly after the Declaration, and they were deemed a failure because they didn't provide for a strong enough central government. The Constitution that replaced it provided for a stronger federal government -- once the idealists realized that their fantasy of a weak central government wouldn't work.
And it's the Constitution that has legal status, not the Declaration. The Constitution was ratified by state conventions elected directly by the people. The Declaration... was ratified by nobody. It's a spiritual document, and so it does have lots of emotional appeal. But its legal force is nil.
So making your tea with the Constitution doesn't make much sense.
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Gopherit
October 14, 2009 4:52 PM
That's a man who knows a thing or two about teabagging.
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mans_best_friend
October 14, 2009 5:23 PM
Nothing says Democracy like a cheap gimmick.
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Exhausted Pennsylvanian
October 14, 2009 5:29 PM
You're just now noticing this? Rep. Simmons was all over Twitter with his April 15 Tea Party attendances: http://twitter.com/robsimmons/status/1528510136
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