Truly the worst of them all: Did Romney do something wrong at Bain Capital? Who cares, when you can type a headline like this:
“Mitt’s Big Love”
As you may know, Romney has only one wife. But Maureen Dowd comes from a very old world—and she doesn’t much seem to like Mormons. On Sunday, she wrote the fourth column in which she has poked her big, long, old-world nose around in the world of that church.
Romney has only one wife. But Dowd ended her column like this, discussing the book, The Real Romney:
DOWD (1/15/12): The book also features a colorful history of the candidate’s polygamous Mormon ancestors living in Illinois, Utah and Mexico—running from the law at times—that evokes the HBO series “Big Love.”Truly, Dowd's an instinctive bigot. How often do journalists discuss the conduct of a candidate’s great-grandparents?
Mitt’s great-grandfather Miles was happily married to a young woman of Scottish descent named Hannah, with two daughters, when Brigham Young ordered him to take another wife.
At 80, in a memoir written for her family, Hannah was still able to recall the jealousy and tantrums of the second wife and the depth of her own distress: “I felt that was more than I could endure, to have him divide his time and affections. I used to walk the floor and shed tears of sorrow. ... If anything will make a woman’s heart ache, it is for her husband to take another wife.”
Give her credit. Dowd will never waste your time talking about Romney’s own conduct—at Bain Capital, let us say. Nor will she waste your time with his regressive proposals. But in three previous Mormon-based columns (three!), Dowd has nosed around in the question of that “magic underwear,” the term she used in a column on October 19, 2011. In 2007, she introduced her concern with the topic:
DOWD (12/9/07): You'd think Catholics, who watched with trepidation as J.F.K. battled prejudice, would be sympathetic to Mitt Romney.Dowd comes from a very old world. If you think Catholics of her very old type would be sympathetic to anyone else, you simply don’t understand the shape of such very old worlds.
But even for those of us in religions that were once considered cults by other religions—my mom and another Catholic girlfriend actually had Southern Protestants ask them to lift up their hair so they could see the mark of the devil or the horns—Mormonism is opaque.
Now in addition to asking candidates about boxers or briefs, we have reporters asking Mitt Romney if he wears The Garment, the sacred one-piece, knee-length underwear with Mormon markings and strict disposal rules.
"I'll just say those sorts of things I'll keep private," he told The Atlantic.
Very few Catholics are like this today. Maureen Dowd still is.
Truth? Romney won’t keep “those sorts of things private” if Dowd has any say in the matter! On March 27 of last year, she went there again, that time musing about those “sacred undergarment.”
In Sunday’s column, he finally got her nose out of the underwear drawer, a task she rarely achieves with any major politician. Instead, she put “Big Love” in her headline—and talked about Romney’s great-grandfather.
Dowd comes from a very old world—and she truly is an instinctive bigot. That said, you will learn nothing from her scratchings about Romney’s business behavior or his proposals.
Romney wants to cut taxes for millionaires even more! Maureen Dowd, a nut from a very old world, won’t ask readers to go there.
Headlines from a very old world: These are the headlines Dowd penned for the four columns we’ve cited:
December 9, 2007: Mitt’s No JFKThat first headline explains the real thinking of people from such old tribal worlds. But Maureen Dowd is a balls-out nut—and an instinctive bigot besides. Over the years, she has slimed an array of major hopefuls on grounds of gender, race and religion.
March 27, 2011: Coffee Cups in Hell
October 19, 2011: Anne Frank, a Mormon?
January 15, 2012: Mitt’s Big Love
And concerning their hair!
It tells a very sorry tale that the New York Times keeps this throwback on—that they think she’s full of insight. That “liberal” “intellectual leaders” refuse to challenge this (powerful) nut.
The repeated expression of religion prejudice in the New York Times is truly dismaying. Harold Bloom wrote an especially offensive screed against Mormorism for the NYTimes.
ReplyDeleteUnder today's "rules" of political correctness, different minorities get different degrees of protection against bigotry. Blacks and Native Americans get the highest level. E.g., I was told by a Professor at Northwestern U. that anyone charged with offending a black person is automatically judged guilty. The only question is the degree of guilt and the level of punishment.
ReplyDeleteJews get a somewhat lower level of protection. Traditional antisemitic claims about Jews secretly controlling the government are sometimes found, generally in the context of secretly manipulating the US government to support Israel. E.g. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Israel_Lobby_and_U.S._Foreign_Policy
Rednecks don't get any protection. Redneck jokes are totally acceptible.
Mormons also get no protection. In fact, it seems that political correctness actually applauds bigoted attacks against Mormons.
David in Cal is not telling the truth, or he needs to provide proof. What "Professor at Northwestern U." told you this, and I ask because I am at Northwestern and I can tell you that either he is grossly misinformed or lying, or you are.
DeleteYou also say that "anyone charged with offending a black person is automatically judged guilty." Charged by whom, David? What are you talking about? Does this professor even realize that the Northwestern faculty have freedom of speech, which means they can insult anyone at will (most do not); that there are strict procedures for adjudging verbal attacks or assaults against students and fellow faculty, and that NO ONE at Northwestern is "automatically judged guilty," and that in fact, he is selling you a racist bill of goods?
You seem to spew racist commentary on here periodically. Please stop it. You already slandered African Americans and Latinos once before by saying that they harbored more prejudice against Mormons than other groups, only to have to back away from it when shown that you were wrong. Now you are making outrageous statements about private institutions; about Jewish people; about "rednecks" and Mormons; and you seem incapable even of grasping how in appropriate and racist your comments are.
So why do you just avoid the topic, since you cannot seem to help yourself? Do tell your "Northwestern U." professor, however, that he should either learn more about his employer or STOP LYING.
"I was told by a Professor at Northwestern U. that anyone charged with offending a black person is automatically judged guilty."
ReplyDeleteThis is so intellectually shoddy I don't even know where to begin.
It might be worse than a post I read on the internet making the claim the poster knew someone who couldn't live in New York City on $250,000 per year earned as a doctor when the fact of the matter is the median household income for New York City residents is around $50,000 per annum.
"Under today's "rules" of political correctness, different minorities get different degrees of protection against bigotry. Blacks and Native Americans get the highest level."
ReplyDeleteYes indeed!!
If a black man ever decided to run for president he would never be accused of endorsing Black Revolution Theology. In fact, religion might be ignored in this case due to political correctness, right? He certainly wouldn't be required to make a speech outling his religious philosophy.
And if a black man were ever elected president he would never be accused of endorsing reparations for the families of former slaves either and certainly not by someone who was made an honorary member of congress by Newt's house in 1995 and whose views are broadcast coast-to-coast and border to border every day of the week.
You're making me laugh over here.
@David in Cal
ReplyDeleteYour claims are as stupid as they are offensive -- not to mention inaccurate. The greatest opprobrium in American society is reserved for atheists -- just try running for national office after conceding that you don't believe in the supernatural.
Racial attacks against blacks and Hispanics -- and appeals to racist attitudes -- are, moreover, the stock and trade of every national Republican campaign, and can get quite brazen. Get a load of the stuff run against Harold Ford, for example, in Tennessee -- and that guy is hardly a threat to the white status quo. And of course there are a host of other examples, from fantasies about Welfare Queens buying lobster with food stamps to Willie Horton -- to Newt Gingrich's latest (Obama is a Luo Tribesman Food Stamp President).
Ah, but I forgot -- white retirees like you, who apparently made millions in the stock market, are the only real oppressed Americans! That is, if you're a real person. If not, you're an oppresssed bot.
Back to bob's post (less the David in Cal silly distraction -- please don't feed the troll!). Certainly I agree with him re Dowd and think it important that he keep calling her out. At the same time, to say that "'liberal' 'intellectual leaders' refuse to challenge this (powerful) nut" isn't accurate. Most are way past challenging her and simply ignore her -- which is what I suspect most NYT readers do and have been doing since the Clinton years. Which may make bob's work that much more important -- somebody needs to stay on this, and bob s. has good insights about what precisely makes her columns so offensive-- but which doesn't make liberal intellectual leaders negligent, either.
ReplyDeleteThe Daily Howler's long held contention is that Mo Dowd is a hack with some really ugly underpinnings floating around in her work. The only aspect of this I can disagree with is that I tend to thinK "The Twilight Zone" is somewhat better than The Daily Howler gives it credit for and like Mo, I too used to enjoy the Marathons. That said, he couldn't be more correct.
ReplyDeleteSo, who LIKES Mo Dowd? Surely anyone who celebrates this nitwit is doing a certain amount of damage. Well, I can think of two: Charlie Rose and Bill Maher. Both have given their seal of approval to her work.
And perhaps David in Ca could chew on this: I like The Howler's praise for Parker's tribe crossing the other day, but in one sense the howler had it wrong: First ladies and their do gooder projects are generally (rightfully) viewed as apolitical, and the right has gone after Mrs. Obama not just for her poorly chosen words in that one instance, but will real venom for TRYING TO WORK ON CHILDHOOD OBESITY. Bad diets are a real, apolitical problem in this country, but Sarah Palin and others have attacked the first lady for this. Had a liberal of any consequence attacked Mrs. Bush's literacy efforts, they would have been hammered and rightfully so. These attacks on Mrs. Obama are really not comparable to sniping at politicos.
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