Thick as a Brick

After I wrote my post on George Bush -- Is. An. Idiot -- I read about Bush's visit to Pennsylvania to support Lynn Swann's floundering candidacy. See, Swann brings in president to boost gubernatorial bid. I thought OMG -- Bush and Swann together on one stage. What a pair. It could be a convention of Nitwits Anonynous.

Republican gubernatorial hopeful Lynn Swann may have been a great football player, he may have a charming personality (and he may even be a good dancer), but he'll never be accused of being an egghead. For example, see my post on Swann's appearance on George Stephanopolous' show shortly after he announced his candidacy for governor, Swann Song, which was so bad that it was almost painful to watch. (And he hasn't aged well either as his campaign has progressed.)

Likewise, in discussing George "Macaca" Allen on his American Debate blog, The Allen defense: I blame the press for my not knowing that I had called him a monkey, Dick Polman observed: "I've often heard that, politically speaking, George Allen is not the sharpest knife in the GOP drawer, and this macaca incident may well underscore that perception."

It reminded me of this exchange during the Scarborough interview, when conservative pundit John Fund queried:

But you know, let‘s put this into perspective. You mentioned all the Republicans what have developed a reputation for being dim witted. I just have a question.

Obviously, intelligence is not congregated on just one side of the political spectrum, can anyone name me a well-known Democrat, in modern history, who has ever developed a poplar media image as being stupid or dimwitted. You can‘t come up with one. They‘re aren‘t any. So, it‘s only Republicans who develop this dumb image. Some of them really are dumb. But some of them is just a substitute for argument, because you don‘t want to argue their policies so you dismiss them as being stupid. There are no Democrats who have this image.

It's an interesting thought and not without some merit, if you ask me (as evinced by the above examples). Perhaps it's due to the "Stepford Party" mentality that the Republican Party promotes -- the most important criteria for them is that politicans toe the party line. If so, you don't want independent (read that intelligent) thinkers. The result of this view is that the dunces are the cream of the Republican crop, since they are easier to control.

Of course, the dunce downside is the occasional nitwit outbreak. Bush, of course, excells at this. The Allen incident is another example.

Speaking of Allen, I wanted to update my Macaca post, Powerful Words (which also provides additional confirmation of my dunce theory expressed here).

Dick Polman, in New Allen defense: He's poop, not a monkey, explains the most recent nitwit erruption:

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, Virginia senator and GOP White House hopeful George Allen has been trying to defend himself after singling out a Democratic worker in the audience, and twice calling the young Indian-American "macaca" . . . . I said yesterday that Allen was basically blaming the press (surprise!) for his predicament.

But now we have a new defense, and this is not a parody:
Allen wasn't trying to call him a monkey or to racially slur him at all; rather, the senator was only trying to say that S. R. Sidarth was the equivalent of the doggy doo that you scrape off your shoe.

* * * *

According to this explanation, members of Allen's entourage coined this nickname for Sidarth, who has been tracking Allen's speeches on behalf of Democratic opponent James Webb, and Allen picked it up. Therefore, it wasn't a racial putdown at all; as one Republican close to the campaign explained to the Hotline, Allen was trying to tell his overwhelmingly white audience that the dark-skinned man in their midst was really just "a s--thead."

Gaffes like this can dog a candidate . . . . After all, even if we accept the contention that Allen aides made up a word that coincidentally is a real synonym for a rhesus monkey...this still leaves us with Allen's best defense: That what he really meant to say was, "Welcome to America, s--thead!"

For yet more on Allen see this Daily Kos post, A Compilation of George Allens Violent and Racist Past and for a little silliness on the subject, see the results of a Wonkette poll, George Allen, We Dub Thee...?.

Perhaps Allen should have said the the word was a variation of the word Nincompoop and he was talking about himself, not Sidarth.

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I couldn't decide which "not the sharpest . . ." phrase was best, so I've included several options:

Not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
Not the sharpest tool in the shed.
Not the sharpest crayon in the box.
Not the sharpest apple in the barrel.

For other goodies, see ClichéSite.com.

Tags: Bush, George Allen, Lynn Swann, macaca, Political Satire, Racism