Thursday, May 31, 2007

Since He Was 7


"[I]'ve been following presidential politics since I was 7 years old, that's 30 years now, and in order to win the presidency you have to win your party's nomination and, mark my words, Rudy will NEVER be the Republican candidate. First of all he's not a conservative. The Republican base wants someone it can be energized about and [a] liberal NY Republican isn't it. Besides, I think you overestimate Rudy's appeal and ability to beat Hillary. There's only 2 Republicans that I could see as destroying Hillary in a debate and they are Fred Thompson and Newt Gingrich. I think Thompson brings a lot of the qualities of Gingrich without a lot of the baggage. None of the other candidates in the Republican field is worth a warm bucket of spit."
Posted [on Babalú] by: Henry "Conductor" Gomez at May 30, 2007 10:49 PM


It was John Nance Garner, the first of FDR's three vice-presidents and the last American politician born in a log cabin, who first used "warm bucket of spit" to describe the office of vice-president. Some claim that what he actually said was that it wasn't worth a warm bucket of shit, but reporters, in order to publish his remark, were obliged to substitute "shit" for "spit." There is some logic to this assumption, since back then Americans used spitoons not buckets to dispose of excess salivation but did employ buckets, especially in the Deep South whence Garner hailed, as portable outhouses. Whether shit or spit, I don't think, however, that Garner would have had any objection to Henry using that expression to describe a bunch of Republicans.

In fact, one Republican whom Henry exempts from this description Garner would have found much to his liking, fellow southside Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. You see, Garner was the product of his age and place, as apologists for racism once used to say. Never had a more rabid racist ever been one heartbeat away from the presidency since Andrew Johnson. The Democrats chose Garner because he balanced the ticket and was much older than Roosevelt and actually made FDR look young and vigorous in comparison (though Garner was to outlive FDR by nearly 25 years). Still, it shows perhaps a little too much tolerance on FDR's part to have twice chosen as his vice president a man who was not only an enemy of blacks but of all legislation meant to improve the lot of working-class Americans. AFL-CIO head John L. Lewis, speaking to a congressional committee in 1939, called Garner a "labor-baiting, cigar-smoking, poker-playing, whiskey-drinking, evil old man." [Ah, for the days when public figures actually spoke their minds publicly!]

Garner was an equal opportunity racist and as a congressman had opposed the immigration of "inferior stocks" from Southern Europe, Russia and Asia while "championing" Mexican migrant labor, which he considered a suitable substitute for black slavery with the additional "advantage" that these slaves were "temporary, powerless and easily expelled." Yes, old "Cactus Jack," as Garner was known back home in Texas, is responsible for embracing as a "solution" to high wages and good benefits what is now denounced as a crisis in illegal immigration.

Of course, I am sure that Henry didn't know the source of his quotation, nor, indeed, had ever heard of Garner despite all his precious precociousness at 7 (prodigies usually never fulfill their promise). Yet it is ironic that he appropriates Garner's phrase in a post where he settles for Fred Thompson as his candidate for president only because his real choice Newt Gingrich carries too much "baggage." What he doesn't say is that this baggage consists of a lifetime of nativism and an inveterate hatred for all Hispanics, whom he was the first to demonize nationally as the greatest menace to this Republic since polio. Even old "Cactus Jack" Garner had more sense than that. He knew that they were here to be exploited and approved of their exploitation. Gingrich also knows that it is Americans who exploit the Mexican migrants and not the other way around, but being less honest and more evil than Garner, he makes the beasts of burden his scapegoats. With Gingrich, of course, it is not the fact that they entered this country illegally that offends him. He hates all Hispanics, illegal or legal. That's why he applied all the punitive measures of the "Contract on America" to both alike. So to him it doesn't matter if Hispanics play by the rules or not; they are all a pestilence in his eyes and should be booted from this country.

This is the man that Henry Gómez, who has been following presidential politics since he was 7, desperately wishes he could support for president except for all that "baggage" (which also includes venality and moral turpitude). So poor Henry has to settle for Fred Thompson. We all knew already that Henry considers himself an "American-Cuban," not a "Cuban-American." That is, we all knew already that Cuba comes second with him. What we didn't know is that other Hispanics come last with him.

Also read:

http://reviewofcuban-americanblogs.blogspot.com/2007/05/most-serious-systematic-revolutionary.html

12 comments:

Sharpshooter said...

Manuel,
the mere fact that he divorced his wife when she was sick with cancer on her deathbed, will disqualify him for the office of the Presidency in my opinion. One has to be a real low life to do something like that. But Newt has been known to do some other despicable things during his lifetime. Definitely not the kind of guy one would like to have in a foxhole next to you during a battle. And his contempt and hatred of Hispanics would be enough for me not to give this foul character a second look as a presidential candidate.I am sure some other folks will overlook that despicable trait and find him suitable for that high office but I certainly do not share that opinion.

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

Agustín:

Yeah, Newt is some kind of guy; a sleezeball both in his public and private lives. He reminds me of the man Newt most despises — Bill Clinton. Except that Clinton never attacked another man for sexual impropriety while himself engaging in the same activity.

Anonymous said...

Actually, Newt reminds me of Tom Tancredo.... As per what's said of Giuliani, well, one would think that the guy's a Spaniard! So much hatred directed on his general direction...,

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

Charlie:

Newt is the "intellectual author" of Tom Tancredo. Of course, if Newt and Tancredo had lived 100 years ago, they would have been on opposite sides of the immigration debate: Tancredo and his family trying to get through the gates of Ellis Island and Newt and his robed friends trying to stop them.

Vana said...

Lol Manuel, Again you gave me a good belly laugh, interested in politics since he was seven years old...lol.. please! I'm sure when Henry was seven he didn't know how to even wipe his ass, let alone be interested in politics, I at my age am not very adept at it, let alone at seven, Gingrich is a contemptuos bigot, and if Thompson is any thing like him, we should all be very scared, if he wins

Anonymous said...

Yes, Manuel and Vana, Tancredo is just a Frankenstein made out of bit and pieces of other bigot who predated him.
Just as a reminder, he would not have been considered "white" in the modern day racist connotation of the word, 100 years ago. All Eastern Europeans, Irish, Spaniards, and Italians were not white as per that day "understanding". There's an interesting book titled "when the Irish became white" that explain the phenomenon.
I've been told many times: Wow, you look white! go figure. As if somebody of European ancestry and stock could be anything else....

bookster said...

Manuel

Let me give you the corgiguy view

Newt and Thompson, now there's two good old boys! i can't wait to hear them speak in spanish or photooping in miami wearing guayabera. And rudy likes to dress in drag and Mitt he's hiding the second wive, and tancredo planning to deport all the hispanics, and then there's the two baptist preachers bombeck and huckabee going to legislate your bedroom.

So who is left on the republican side my man Ron Paul the liberterian, he speaks truth to power.

And the democrats, hide your pockets books they have program for every social ill.

The only democrat that's best qualified is Richardson he will not get elected, he's not pretty enough

Is the world safe for the democracy?

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

Corgiguy:

Good to see your name again in these precincts.

You are right about Mexican-American candidate Bill Richardson; he's not "pretty" at all. But if he were an overweight white guy, with prototypical Anglo looks, it wouldn't matter that he was fat and ugly. There have been a lot of fat and ugly Anglo presidents (in fact most of them would fit under one or the other rubric).

If an Hispanic is ever elected president of the United States, he will have to be from the north of Spain and look whiter than a Klanman's sheet.

bookster said...

Manuel

I've been busy with software projects lately not much time for blogging and musings

----
H. L. Mencken said it well:

As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920
------------------------
On another subject, i see that the venezuelan folks are giving hugo a bit of well deserved love. Could this be another velvet revolution? Could this be the caltalyst that propels the cubans to do the same?

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

Corgiguy:

The catalyst? Well, there must be one. But after 48 years of experiments, we have found no magic bullet.

Sharpshooter said...

Manuel,
I just read on Babalu's blog that you were on a "suicide's watch" because of the Bucl campaign. Hopefully you are not taking too many anti-depressants that it might have impaired your incisive pen. Oh but wait, I read in your own blog Fantomas told you where to put the pen!! Oh my!This is really troubling. Fantomas can be so much fun sometimes!. He even has wished a few hurricanes on the people of Cuba.I guess he thinks hurricanes are selective and only will touch on communist houses and members of said household. Sometimes we Cubans have a knack for the ridiculous and some of these utterances smack of just that. Imagine that! Wishing hurricanes on the people of Cuba, as if they did not have enough problems already with the biggest cyclone of all: Communism!
I will keep an eye on your postings just in case I see signs that your suicide watch is getting worse! LOL.

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

Agustín:

I have answered our phantasmagorical Fantomas in a new post.