I chalk this up to the media's treatment of the news event. Rick Perry holding a press conference or town hall meeting isn't a front page article, but Rick Perry saying something insensitive or stupid at a press conference––that's gold.
Below are three of the best and most recent instances of people being bad, chosen not because they're the douchiest bits of douchebaggery, but because they speak volumes about the perpetrator's lack of moral and personal fiber.
Mitt Romney doesn't care about the poor.
This clip has been online for a few days now, and has been the source of unending misunderstanding. It's pretty evident that what he was trying to say is that we need to direct our collective attention to the plight of the embattled middle class; he just said it in a way that marginalized the poor and lumped them with the rich into a group that we should just ignore.
Mitt Romney is in this race because RoboPrez cares
It's the kind of gaffe sensible people would otherwise ignore. Mitt Romney, like all the other presidential hopefuls, is at the center of panoptic media attention. He was bound to slip up sooner or later and say something vaguely ugly.
As Slate.com pointed out, if Romney scores the nomination, the presidential contest will be between two men who are ignorant of huge swaths of contemporary American life. No person aware of poverty would say the safety net is adequate.
But factor in dickitude when you take into account what Romney pays in taxes. Here's a man who has paid the best accountants money can buy to engineer his finances so that he'll be able to pay as little in taxes as humanly possible. What's more, his political platform seems tailored to perpetuate his ability to do this, while non-zillionaire working Americans pay roughly twice that percentage.
I've heard it said that Romney is generous for giving large sums to Mormon charities in the form of tithing, but is charity the same as paying taxes? It's our privilege to give our money away, but our responsibility to pay into the trust that gives us national and social security, industry regulation, and diplomacy.
Raul Labrador bitches at Eric Holder to predictable Republican applause
On the surface, Raul Labrador stands for all the staunch, austere virtues a social and political conservative should. In the halls of power he projects the kind of steely-eyed pragmatism that comes from keeping your own counsel and a lifetime of experience dealing with other people.
Like most people who project this kind of pragmatism, there's nothing behind it. Raul Labrador is one of Idaho's most prolific buffoons, as he demonstrated yesterday during a hearing about the "Fast and Furious" weapons trafficking scandal.
"Because you have been grossly incompetent in the way that you have prepared before coming to Congress, I think you should resign," Labrador said to Eric Holder.
Holder's response: "Maybe this is the way you do things in Idaho, or wherever you're from."
Eric Holder had already been lambasted over this issue during his confirmation hearing in 2009. Labrador is that idiot at a party who whispers something witty, and if he hears someone chuckle, he repeats himself a little louder so everyone can hear.
Komen Foundation de-funds Planned Parenthood in a fit of cowardice, then bows to e-Pressure
I wasn't aware that the Komen Foundation even existed until about yesterday, when Facebook shuddered under the weight of liberal indignation over its move to defund Planned Parenthood.
My first thought was that as a foundation, it's well within its rights to spend its money however it pleases. I still think that. Whatever its stated reasons, Komen Foundation doesn't need to justify itself to the public.
Then, in a bold (or, depending on how you look at it, not-so-bold) reversal, it canceled its plans to discontinue funding Planned Parenthood.
In a statement released by Planned Parenthood (linked to above), spokesman Cecile Richards claims that "Planned Parenthood has been a trusted partner with the Komen Foundation in early cancer detection and prevention services."
And that's fantastic. If only Komen Foundation could be a trusted partner as well.
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