That’s right: Vitter didn’t fire Furer over this incident until it was publicly reported. Furer pleaded guilty to three misdemeanors, escaping assault charges, and his jail term was suspended.
So Furer finally leaves Vitter’s employ, years after the assault. Did Vitter just find out about it? Well, no. His spokesman confirmed to the AP that Vitter was “aware” of the incident at the time. But they decided to let Furer go, apparently, because they just found out that he was also arrested in 2003 for drunk driving. So a 7-year-old drunk driving charge outweighs a much fresher domestic abuse charge. Good to know, for other Vitter employees. (His community service after the DWI included painting the church of one of Vitter’s regional directors, so I’m not sure that this nonsensical explanation from the Vitter office is even true.)
One of Furer’s main priorities in Vitter’s office was “women’s issues.”
David Vitter, a Republican senator from Louisiana known solely now and until the end of history for enjoying the company of prostitutes, had a great idea: He was going to petulantly skip Barack Obama’s speech to Congress about his jobs proposal, and go to a football party instead. This would show his constituents how much contempt he has for Barack Obama, because that is how Republicans prove seriousness, these days. Well, Harry Reid scheduled some votes for after the speech, just as a sort of mildly amusing “screw you” to the high-profile skippers.
David Vitter is not happy! He is so unhappy he immediately emailed his supporters to whine and carry on about the grave injustice of David Vitter having to go vote on stuff instead of watching a football game, at a party.
“Apparently my attending my own Saints game party at home in Louisiana is the latest casualty of Washington partisanship,” Vitter wrote. He’s right. That is the latest casualty, and will remain so until someone else loses their illegally foreclosed upon house or falls off the unemployment rolls, both of which will probably happen within the next hour of two.
This HAS gotten out of hand! See the update I just posted on social media below:
Typical Harry Reid. He’s now scheduled votes that should’ve been held this morning for right before and right AFTER prez’s speech. Pens in those who would have skipped speech, like me. So now I’ll miss my own Saints game party at home. Always knew Harry was a Dirty Birds fan! Don’t worry — only strengthens my Who Dat resolve. On to the Super Bowl!
Yeah Harry Reid is such an Atlanta Falcons fan, that is very obviously why he did this, to David Vitter.
Why does any politician ever think this line is a winner, exactly? “They’re forcing me to vote when I’d rather be not voting!” Voting is a U.S. senator’s job. Everyone in the world would rather go to a party and watch a Saints game than go to work, but because most people are not spoiled children, they do not complain to thousands of strangers about the unfairness of the “having a job” arrangement. Especially when millions of people have no jobs, at all.
And voting is not even a hard job! It seems pretty boring, but you just show up and say yes or no. That’s it!
Freshman Tea Party pseudo-libertarian Sen. Rand Paul and Louisiana embarrassment David Vitter are introducing legislation that will end birthright citizenship. While birthright citizenship stems directly from the 14th Amendment, which means that banning it would require a constitutional amendment, Vitter and Paul have figured out a loophole: Their bill claims that the 14th Amendment doesn’t mean what it says. Brilliant!
Vitter and Paul do not believe that the 14th Amendment confers birthright citizenship to the children of illegal aliens, either by its language or intent. This resolution makes clear that under the 14th Amendment a person born in the United States to illegal aliens does not automatically gain citizenship.
And here is what the amendment says: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
Now, there could be some debate over that “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” bit, sure. And, in fact, there has been debate over that bit, for 145 years. And everyone has basically decided, repeatedly, that it means that the children of immigrants are citizens. Senators in the 19th century understood what that sentence meant. The Supreme Court has been unambiguous on this point for more than a century. Even if David Vitter is too dense to understand this and too vile to care, Mr. Randy I Love The Constitution Tea Party Paul should not be pretending to not understand this point.
“Closing this loophole will not prevent them from becoming citizens, but will ensure that they have to go through the same process as anyone else who wants to become an American citizen.”
“Citizenship is a privilege, and only those who respect our immigration laws should be allowed to enjoy its benefits,” said Sen. Paul. “This legislation makes it necessary that everyone follow the rules, and goes through same process to become a U.S. citizen.”
OK, well, what did Paul and Vitter do to become citizens, exactly? I’m guessing they were just born here! Sure, maybe their parents were citizens, but how did they earn that privilege, exactly? These freeloaders should play by the same rules as everyone else!
Incumbent Sen. David Vitter, R-La., right, and Louisiana senatorial candidate, Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-La., prepare for the start of their debate at the WWL television studios in New Orleans, Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) (Credit: AP)
When the election is less than a week away and you’ve been trailing your opponent by double-digits for months, you’ve really got nothing to lose. So you can certainly understand why Democrat Charlie Melancon, in the final debate of Louisiana’s Senate campaign last night, bluntly and repeatedly challenged David Vitter over the “serious sin” that the senator confessed to a few years back.
Melancon’s most forceful attack came when the candidates were given a chance to air their grievances with their opponent’s attacks. Vitter complained that Melancon had included his children in a two-minute “R-rated” anti-Vitter ad this summer — one that focused on Vitter’s prostitution scandal. “If that’s part of your Melancon family values, Charlie, I don’t want anything to do with it,” Vitter told his opponent.
“David,” Melancon shot back, “you’ve never had family values. You demonstrated that to America quite keenly”
“You railed against Bill Clinton and the blue dress,” he said. “You railed against Bob Livingston because you coveted his seat, when he had an indiscretion. And then you said, ‘They sinned, they lied, and they should resign.’ You sinned, you lied, you’ve broken the law, you’ve embarrassed the state.”
Vitter, who has never publicly addressed the specifics of his “serious sin,” was also asked by a debate panelist whether he had broken the law. But he dodged the question.
“I’ll be honest with you,” he said. “I think Louisiana citizens all around the state heard me, and I think they understood me. They understood what I was saying.”
To which Melancon replied: “Mr. Vitter has a problem with the truth. You just heard it. He would not admit that he lied, that he broke the law.”
You might think Melancon would benefit from all of this, but he probably won’t. Vitter is a perfect example of how a deeply flawed candidate can be protected simply by having the right party label in the right political environment. Louisiana is a conservative and increasingly Republican state, but in 2008 — when even GOP-friendly voters were willing to vote for Democrats out of frustration with George W. Bush — he would have been in serious trouble, and a candidate like Melancon, a moderate-to-conservative Democrat who represents a GOP-leaning district in the House, would have been well-positioned to beat him.
But when Barack Obama was elected with deep Democratic majorities in 2008, the equation changed almost instantly. Louisiana’s voters may not be too fond of Vitter, but that doesn’t matter in 2010; they are not in the mood to remove a Republican senator and to send another Democrat to Washington — no matter how aggressively Melancon plays the hooker card. Thus, poll after poll has shown Vitter comfortably ahead. He should win easily on Tuesday. Still, if you’re outraged that he’s getting away with a sex scandal (especially after criticizing Bill Clinton for his), then you’ll probably enjoy this exchange from last night:
Are you scared of gang-banging Mexican illegals? Islamic sleeper cell jihadists? Chinese people? Then this was the election cycle for you! From the primaries through the week before election day, America’s been blanketed with race-baiting political campaign ads from insufficiently guarded border to shining sea. Today’s the day when those countless hours spent by soulless political consultants poring over stock images of young Latino men looking for the shot that screams “about to kidnap your daughter” pays off. (Election day, historically, is also that day.) We’re proud to present the first annual Salon Baity Awards for Excellence in the Field of Race-baiting.
(There will be no live ceremony, so we ask you to please just imagine that the winners in each category were introduced by an oddly mismatched couple of celebrities, like Katherine Heigl and Pau Gasol.)
Best Attempt at Convincing People That Mexican Immigrants Are Drug-running Cartel Assassins
Our next Baity winner is one-time victim of a race-baiting whisper campaign John McCain. Senator McCain once honorably refused to support the flying of the Confederate flag. Then, ten years ago, he folded on that issue for reasons of political expediency, so I’m not sure why everyone is being such a baby about him folding on everything else he ever pretended to believe in. This ad is shameless primarily because John McCain was once a major supporter of comprehensive immigration reform (a.k.a. “shamnesty”) — but once he ended up in a primary campaign against a more conservative challenger, McCain decided remaining in the Senate was more important than standing up for the rights of immigrants. So: Complete the danged fence!
Next up: Nevada’s Sharron Angle, who just may defeat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, despite the fact that basically everyone acknowledges that she’s crazy. Angle shot out to an early lead with her “Thanks, Pal” ad explaining how much Harry Reid loves Mexicans, who are scary.
The original ad was scrubbed from YouTube after a copyright complaint by a Reuters photographer, but you can see it at the beginning of this clip from The Young Turks. You’ll note that happy, white college graduates are compared to young Latino men in backwards baseball caps. Reid wants to give the Mexican ones in-state college tuition, which is for some reason horrible, because we must never allow immigrants to go to college.
Angle quickly released another incredibly similar ad without the offending stock shot:
And another:
This ad — titled “At Your Expense” — explains that Reid “sides with Mexico” when it comes to immigration. (Mexico doesn’t want all those horrible Mexicans in it!)
While it looks like Angle is running away with the category, Louisiana’s David Vitter — incumbent Senator from a state that does not border on Mexico — has some anti-Hispanic fearmongering of his own to dish out. Vitter’s “Welcome Prize” is practically an insane piece of art, with its own Lynchian dream-logic.
Apparently Vitter’s opponent, Democrat Charlie Melancon, hires welcoming committees — with fireworks and brass bands! — to meet illegal immigrants at well-marked holes in the chain-link fence that protects us from Mexico (which, again, Louisiana does not share a border with).
But this, friends, was not the end of it.
Sharron Angle’s latest and greatest ad — our overall Baity winner in this category –squeezes more anti-Latino imagery and immigration fear-mongering into 30 seconds than you ever thought possible:
The professional announcer can barely keep up with the hateful script!
Best Scaremongering About the “Ground Zero Mosque” by a Performer From Nowhere Near New York City
The fact that an Imam intends to build an Islamic community center in lower Manhattan became national news this summer, because Republicans are scared of Muslims. Our own Justin Elliott already rounded up the best anti-”Ground Zero Mosque” ads of the year to date. Who can forget this classic from a North Carolina candidate?
There’s this weird one from Ohio Republican Josh Mandel, which suggest that his Christian opponent attends a mosque:
The American Future Fund attacked Iowa Democrat Bruce Braley for considering the Cordoba House project to be a Manhattan-area zoning issue instead of a fundamental assault on our values:
Best Attempt to Make Everyone Afraid of New York City’s Hundreds of Thousands of Muslim Residents by a Local Politician
While a national Republcan group gained attention for trying and failing to air a brutal anti-Muslim ad featuring footage of 9/11 in New York TV markets, this category belongs to Buffalo-area developer and America’s angriest gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino. Paladino won an upset primary victory over longtime loser Rick Lazio thanks in part to being even more against the mosque project than his anti-mosque opponent. Paladino promised to blatantly violate the constitution and use the power of the government to block the construction of a religious building, because of The Terror:
Best Ad Intended to Make People Resent Asians, For Some Reason
A Chamber of Commerce-linked group called “Americans for Job Security” aired this ad, featuring Indian people thanking Blanche Lincoln primary challenger Bill Halter for sending them all of America’s jobs.
This commercial from Spike Maynard, challenging Nick Rahall in West Virginia, explains that Representative Rahall is made in China, like our horrible bluejeans. There is also some really classy “Asian” music.
Nick Rahall wants to give your toy-making job to a Chinese person, who will give your children lead poisoning.
Rahall is also the victim of ads worthy of Baitys in the all-purpose anti-Arab category.
Rahall’s opponents want you to know that he’s Lebanese. Which means he loves Hamas! And he wants to “mobilize” Arab Americans!
Terrifying!
Craziest All-Around Race-baiting
I’m not sure why anyone thought this would work, but an anti-Harry Reid group sponsored a Spanish-language ad instructing Hispanic voters to stay home, because Democrats didn’t tackle immigration this year:
The message of these ads from a GOP congressional primary loser in Florida — featuring a literal “towelhead” — is that people with dark complexions are probably trying to blow up airplanes.
Then there was Tim James, the Alabama gubernatorial candidate who was sick and tired of people not constantly speaking English everywhere in his state at all times.
Finally, fringe Missouri candidate Glenn Miller receives a special Baity for Old-Timey Racism, for his Kansas City radio ads urging white people to “take our country back” from the Jews, and not, as today’s Republicans generally put it, the Muslim Socialists.
Willie Horton Lifetime Achievement Award for Exceptional Race-baiting
Former Roger Ailes aide Larry McCarthy was the man behind 1998′s “Willie Horton” ad, the harrowing tale of how Michael Dukakis allowed a black murderer to get out of jail for a weekend of rape and murder. (A sign of McCarthy’s brilliance: Horton went by “William.” No one called him “Willie” until McCarthy decided it sounded blacker.) That brilliant piece of fear-mongering about a furlough program started under a Republican governor helped George H. W. Bush win the presidency. The lifetime achievement award is named in Horton’s honor, but presented to the ad that most embodies the spirit of Larry McCarthy.
And, look at that, McCarthy is this year’s winner! McCarthy is the man behind that anti-Mosque ad attacking a random Iowa Democrat! The ad was one of the most shameless of the entire anti-Mosque campaign, cheerfully lying about Imam Abdul Rauf and assigning collective blame for 9/11 to the world’s billion Muslims.
But McCarthy wasn’t done. This month, McCarthy produced an ad for “Citizens Against Government Waste” designed solely to make Americans resent smug Chinese people, who will own us in 20 years if Barack Obama continues spending government money on infrastructure projects.
The “Chinese Professor” ad is a brilliant return to form for the horrible mastermind behind the original race-baiting campaign ad. We hope Larry McCarthy’s Baity helps fill the hole where his soul is supposed to be.
Congratulations to all our Baity winners! But they better not get too comfortable — 2012 is just around the corner, and I have a feeling that it will be filled with grotesque images of the darkest recesses of the resentful White American psyche.
Rep. Charlie Melancon’s best shot at beating Senator David Vitter is just to remind voters, over and over again, that David Vitter enjoys the company of prostitutes. And so the Melancon campaign has released this two-minute ad that is a sort of pretend “America’s Most Wanted” episode about how David Vitter sleeps with prostitutes. The worst revelation comes from the woman herself: Vitter “wasn’t there 15, 20 minutes at that.”
One thing I don’t get: Why did his constituents need their identities protected? They’re not the prostitutes. They’re just people who live in Louisiana who don’t like David Vitter.
But Melancon doesn’t have a lot of cash, and a 2-minute ad is a big buy. Is this thing actually going to run? Looks like it:
A source familiar with the buy said the commercial will initially run largely on cable – possibly during the New Orleans Saints or LSU games this weekend. It is expected to reach every market in Louisiana.
To ? or Not to ? 
Democrats "win" as Weiner resigns: Party business as usual 
Weiner's Lies Pale Compared to Other Congressmen's Actions 
When Iran and Israel were friendly 
The anti-Santorum onslaught begins 
Occupy defends the Volcker Rule 
Nancy Grace is more terrible than ever 
How to write about poor people 
Obama to unions: see you later 
The threat to Mexico’s machismo culture 
Rep. Issa to air bishops’ complaints 
America’s apocalyptic imperial strategy 
Diane Sawyer and Brian Ross belong in a fear-mongering museum 
