The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Andrew Sullivan: Does the Phrase ‘And the Horse You Rode In On’ Ring a Bell?

Posted on | November 17, 2010 | 47 Comments

“Here’s Robert Stacy McCain rushing to Willow’s defense . . . Maybe I should defer to McCain as an arbiter of homophobia. He’s one of the vilest bigots on the web.”
– Andrew Sullivan

OK, post-election flame-wars being The New Black, I’m happy at last to have an antagonist who (a) hates all Republicans and (b) throws some pretty hefty traffic. Because when I completely dismantle someone, it’s nice to have the largest possible audience for the show.

My plan for the afternoon had been to compose a thousand-word article about the defeat of the Paycheck Fairness Act, but if I have to lay that aside to write an analysis of Patient Zero in the Palin Derangement Syndrome pandemic, so be it.

Pop some popcorn, hit the tip jar, and check back later.

UPDATE: Let’s begin at the most obvious place — Sullivan’s role as Trig Truther-in-Chief.

It was Sully who, almost from the moment that Sarah Palin was announced as John McCain’s 2008 running mate, lent aid and comfort to the demented loons who claimed without any credible evidence that Palin’s infant son Trig was not actually her son.

Even after every reputable journalist in America had denounced this line of inquiry as misguided, counterfactual and insultingly sexist, Sully persisted until at last — in November 2009 — there arose a new voice in the argument:

To this day, I have no idea who was behind the “Sarah Palin’s Uterus” blog, but it was a perfect distillation of Sullivan’s pathological obsession, which led me to dub him “Dr. Andrew Sullivan, M.D., OB-GYN, excecutive director of research at the Atlantic Memorial Center for Republican Obstetric Investigation.”

Although it has made him an object of ridicule, still he continues to foment the notion that there must be some dark right-wing secret hidden in the medical records relating to “Palin’s bizarre story about her fifth campaign prop.”

“Legitimate questions of fact! Relevant questions!”

How, then, does Sullivan consider himself such a mental health expert that he is fit to diagnose me as suffering from a “phobia”?

UPDATE II: Sully’s obsession has no legitimate basis as journalism, as my friend (and occasional Daily Dish guest-blogger) Dave Weigel said:

Were Sarah Palin to become president and everything the Trig Truthers believed to be proven right, it wouldn’t matter at all. But they won’t be proven right. All of the evidence indicates that Trig Palin is Sarah’s son, and none of it suggests otherwise. I paid close enough attention to this in 2008, and realized pretty quickly that the countervailing theories made no sense.

UPDATE III: Excuse the long delay in continuing this post, as my crusty laptop overheated and shut down while I was researching the history of Sullivan’s obstetric obsession. So far, I’ve arrived at Sept. 3, 2008:

Brandishing a child with Down Syndrome as a campaign statement is daring the press to ask questions about him.

What I’m seaching for, BTW, is exactly when Sully began using his perch at The Atlantic Monthly to throw traffic at other Trig-Truther blogs, giving them and their wild-goose-chase theories a prominence they otherwise would have never had. Please link examples in the comments while I keep searching.

Permit me here to point out that I’ve actually met Trig Palin — even held the romping tyke in my arms for a moment or two — and watched Trig’s father read him a story. As a husband and father myself (with teenage twin boys who might occasionally use impolite language), there is a certain element of personal-is-political subjectivity involved.

Belated thanks to Jeff in Walla Walla and to Suzy and Joe in Olympia (mmmm, Coronas) for having hit the tip jar.

UPDATE IV: Well, that didn’t take long! From Day One, Sullivan was happy to link any Trig Truther anywhere, including an almost-instantly-deleted Daily Kos diary by “Inky 99″ entitled, “Sarah Palin Is NOT the Mother.”

As regards those ugly rumors that “Inky 99″ is actually Andrew Sullivan, “Inky 99″ has been unavailable for comment since that Glenn Beck interview.

UPDATE V: Seriously, from Day One, Sully interpreted Trig strictly as part Sarah Palin’s appeal as a “Christianist” symbol:

“Now I understand: she’s a pro-life mother of a Down Syndrome child.”

UPDATE VI: From Day One, I repeat, including this post (Aug. 31, 2008) entitled “Things That Make You Go Hmmm“:

What was it that aroused suspicion about that photo? That Palin’s oldest child was holding her youngest child while Mom was on stage? Thinking back on all the times my oldest daughter (now 21) held our youngest (now 7) when my wife was too busy to hold the baby, would that also “make you go hmmm”? But let’s look at Andrew in “just asking questions” mode on Aug. 31, 2008:

Where has Bristol Palin . . . been for the past year? Has she been attending high school? Or was she absent because of infectious mononucleosis for between five and eight months, as is now being reported on the Internet?
Why would a 43 year old woman, on her fifth pregnancy, with a Down Syndrome child, after her amniotic fluid has started to leak, not go to the nearest hospital immediately, even if she was in Texas for a speech?
Why would she not only not go to the hospital in Texas, but take an eight-hour plane flight to Seattle and then Anchorage?
Why would she choose to deliver the baby not in the nearest major facility in Anchorage but at a much smaller hospital near her home-town?
Why did the flight attendants on the trip home say she bore no signs of being pregnant?

The way he posted these questions suggests that Sullivan received them in an e-mail, although he has never said from whom, but he himself was the source for this part:

 [T]he rumors buzzing across the Internets and the press corps are unfounded and unseemly. There must be plenty of medical records and obstetricians and medical eye-witnesses prepared to testify to Sarah Palin’s giving birth to Trig. There must be a record of Bristol’s high school attendance for the past year. And surely, surely, the McCain camp did due diligence on this. But the noise around this story is now deafening, and the weirdness of the chronology sufficient to rise to the level of good faith questions. So please give us these answers – and provide medical records for Sarah Palin’s pregnancy – and put this to rest.

That link is, of course, to the subsequently deleted “Inky 99″ post at DKos — which was, so far as I know, the only “buzzing” Sully could have linked at that point — and yet we see that, beginning on Aug. 31, 2008, Sullivan demanded that the McCain campaign provide witnesses and release Palin’s obstetric records to disprove those rumors.

UPDATE VII: Remember that the latest dust-up began with 16-year-old Willow Palin calling one of her older sister’s DWTS detractors “faggot” and “gay.”

To which I replied, “This is not ‘homophobia.’ This is just how teenagers insult each other” — an objective fact, which I confirmed with Mrs. Other McCain, who I would certainly hope is more of an authority on the behavior of contemporary teenagers than Andrew Sullivan is.

We are not debating how teenagers should behave — no one supposes that Sarah Palin approves of her daughters using foul language and puerile insults — but rather discussing how teenagers commonly do behave, and asking whether the phrase “homophobic” may rightly be applied to an angry 16-year-old girl’s use of the schoolyard slurs “gay” and “faggot.”

What about “baldy” or “four-eyes” or “creep” or “psycho”? Are such insults evidence of hate and phobia and whatever “isms” they might be said to represent?

Let me ask whether calling Sarah Palin ”a pathological liar [who] simply cannot be trusted to tell the truth about herself” might be considered an insult, evidence that the person who used such a phrase was a “bigot”?

And what about “Ewok”? Is Ace of Spades insulted when someone refers to him as a hairy diminutive creature who dwells on the forest moon of Endor? Let’s ask Ace’s opinion:

Give It. A F—ing Rest. You F—ing. Child-Hating. Vagina-Envy. Brain-Detrioriated. Bi-Polar. Borderline Personality Disorder. Steroid-Raging. Degenerate. Psychopath.

Uh, maybe I linked the wrong post there. Definitely NSFW. IYKWIMAITYD.

UPDATE VIII: Thanks for the linkage from Republican Redefined and Gay Patriot.

UPDATE IX: While researching — I’m not through with you yet, Sully — I stumbled onto my American Spectator article “Punished With a Baby,” from Sept. 2, 2008:

Strange as it seems in this time of war and economic crisis, the tale of a pregnant teenager could determine who will be the next Leader of the Free World. Surely this wasn’t what feminists meant when they coined the phrase “the personal is political.” Or was it?

Thanks to Susan in New York for making my afternoon labor more lucrative than the article I had previously planned to write today. A few more tip-jar hits like that, and maybe I’ll be able to get the radiator in the Pontiac fixed.

UPDATE X: Ah, found what I was looking for. My blog post of Sept. 1, 2008:

Sully repeatedly gave vent to, and defended, the horrid and baseless speculation — apparently originating with a DKos vermin — that Sarah Palin’s fifth child, Trig, was actually her grandchild, having been born to Palin’s teenage daughter, Bristol. (See here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.)

So, in no fewer than nine blog entries, this contributor to The Atlantic Monthly pumped oxygen into one of the most bizarre and disgusting conspiracy theories ever to emerge from the fetid swamps of the Leftosphere.

Sullivan’s relentless promotion of this sick rumor prompted Ace to organize “heavy hitters” into a boycott:

Let’s see a brain scan, buddy. Let’s get some answers to these questions. Medical f—ing answers. 

Read the whole thing. (Dang, Ace, I’d forgotten how good that post was. As for why I’ve linked Sully here: I wasn’t a “heavy hitter,” so I never got your e-mail.)

UPDATE XI: Rachelle Friberg is one of those Bristol Palin fans who are allegedly undermining the precious “integrity” of Dancing With the Stars, thereby causing people to engage in insane acts of violence.

Bristol: Another Palin.

With a Uterus.

Causing Insanity!

UPDATE XII: “By Any Means Necessary.”

Bookmark and Share
Category: Andrew Sullivan, Gays, Sarah Palin

Comments

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=503847568 Brad Essex

    git em robert git em

  • http://twitter.com/vermontaigne Dan Collins

    What a pussy.

  • http://twitter.com/xRedRoverx Kristi

    Good grief, what an ass. I’ve been delightedly reading your stuff for awhile now, and have yet to read anything that is remotely bigoted. You’re judgmental, garrulous, blunt, caustic… ok, maybe I’ll just stop with the adjectives here. But a bigot? No.

  • Anonymous

    Teenagers talking like teenagers is not evidence of homophobia. It is evidence of immaturity. What an amazing discovery. Teenagers acting immaturely. Wow, who would have thought a twit like Sullivan was an anthropologist capable of such earth shattering discoveries.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=782618577 Brian C. Ledbetter

    This is gonna be an instant classic! Can’t wait to see the smackdown!

  • Ruben

    HA! Can Andrew Sullivan be anymore ridiculous?! Andrew equating a 16 year old’s comments with those of deranged adults proves the mindset and IQ of today’s leftists!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Sammy-Benoit/635446720 Sammy Benoit

    Homophobic? Damn McCain!!! Make up your mind, I thought you were anti-Semitic?

  • http://www.uncoverage.net GoldenEagle4444

    Sullivan, as usual, brings a knife to a gun-fight.

  • http://twitter.com/eaglesdontflock eaglesdontflock

    Hopefully, your update will deal with tMZ, Huffington Post, NY Daily News and assorted other poseurs who enthusiastically bully the minor children of prominent conservatives. And Facebook, where is your vaunted content control???

    If the TSA stuck a hand in their pants, they wouldn’t find anything.

  • http://twitter.com/juanitocabrone John Davey

    The PLACENTA! Andy needs the afterbirth!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1385852725 Richard Mcenroe

    I got news for Andy. I hear this kind of talk from kids in Studio City every week. It’s like they can’t tell the difference between flaming gays and flaming assholes or something… I don’t understand where they can possibly be getting it…

  • The Wondering Jew

    This should be fun.

    And to think that Andrew Sullivan once attempted to pass himself off as a “conservative”

  • Anonymous

    A some what related question: Does anybody know what homophobia means or what a phobia is? It means an inordinate fear of something. I’m not scared of gay people. I think it is a goofy choice for a guy to make, but somewhat understandable choice for a woman. :-) However, nothing to be especially scared about. Anytime a person disagrees with anything regarding the gay agenda they get labeled as homophobic. BS! A reasonable person can be opposed to the idea of hate crime legislation without it meaning they are afraid of homo’s. It is possible to be opposed to the idea of gay boy scout troop leaders without it meaning you’re scared of gays. My guess is very, very few people are really homophobic. Arachnophobia? Now, that’s real. Likely a million times as many people suffer from arachnophobia than homophobia.

  • Pingback: Shocker: Sarah Palin’s Teenage Daughters Act Like Teenage Girls on Facebook : The Other McCain

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Dan-Gillen/1366479171 Dan Gillen

    those lesbians with crew cuts and tattoos… yeah they scare me a bit.

  • Aragog

    On behalf of myself and my 3,274 children living in the forest behind your house, I’m offended.

  • ElAnneinPA

    In Lefty Land, anything a conservative says is bigoted by default.

    What I took away from McCain’s post was the Willow was just acting like a teenager and swinging vulgarities around. Christ, I see my younger cousins pull this all the time.

    But because the word used was an insult often used towards gays, the Left is trying to spin Willow as and Evil-Gay-Hater and the new Anita Bryant. Such babies.

  • Anonymous

    If Andrew Sullivan was committed to an asylum today, would the field of journalism be one whit the poorer?

  • TR Sterling

    Once you start trying to unravel the thinking of a pot-head you risk an unrewarding path that has no moorings to logic or character and integrity. In other words, you can’t pull apart taffy and expect to find anything of value. Sully just wants to have a medical Rx he can use in those states where his wasted thinking and pot smoking can be passed off as groovey but medically warranted.

  • Pingback: The Sully Soap Opera Continues… « Si Vis Pacem

  • http://ifyouseekpeace.wordpress.com/ Ran

    It’s just no longer a fair fight. Stacy: Do you have access to Lexis-Nexis?

  • Anonymous

    This won’t end well for Randy Andy. I remember your devastating takedown of the Griffin. You made him your bi*ch. It wasn’t funny.

    Sullivan won’t be well after you are done with him, but he will have deserved this.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/GFWGCNDU3TDDCDM3PSI4TF2DNY wadi

    Any post about Saint Andy and his… *ahem*… habits has to include this: http://ace.mu.nu/archives/273693.php

  • http://twitter.com/LeatherPenguin TC Lynch

    Stace, your my goddamn hero! Slam Power Glutes’ ass baby–not in the way Andy likes, of course…NTTAWWT.

  • http://ak4mc.us/cms/ McGehee

    Andrew Sullivan? He is so gay!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Chuck-Coffer/1296650908 Chuck Coffer

    In an age where “intelligence” and “insight” (being smarter than everyone else) is to be preferred over such mundane things as honesty and integrity and sanity; Andrew Sullivan salivated over his one true chance to be a moral being. By potentially uncovering the horrid truth no one else was able to even contemplate, he imagined he might become something he will likely never be…a heroic figure.

    Just like Captain Gayhab chasing the elusive White Wang or Dong Quixpoofte dilding at windmills, he sought greatness and never found it.

    He’s a pathetic little creature, and I do pity him whether he deserves it or not.

  • Pingback: Palin Derangement Syndrome has Reached Epidemic Proportions | The Lonely Conservative

  • vr106

    Maybe Willow was confused and thought she was on Journolist.

  • PCP Smoker

    Can you refer to this creep as Andrew Sullivan or Anal Andrew or Bong Hit Sullivan. I got a dog named Sully and would hate to see his name sullied by the likes of that asshole.
    Thanks brother, keep it up!

  • http://twitter.com/dustbury Charles G Hill

    And a butter knife, at that.

  • Wickedways

    Andrew Sullivan is an absurdity taken to the Nth Degree. He is all things to the shinning light of a black hole. He is what you would call an insignificant rant in a sea of insignificant rants. He is a joy to read when I want to spit my coffee on my monitor, roll back and have a deep belly laugh.

    He is the epitome of nothingness that has meaning. And its pretty hard to have meaning when what you have to say means nothing to almost everyone who reads what you say.

    Andrew Sullivan. You make my light dim and my heart weary for in your shining black hole that is your mouth you emit light that escapes reason.

    You sir are the reason black holes exist. They are meant to capture words and deeds of nothingness and turn them into nothing that no one will ever remember because they mean nothing to no one.

  • Joe

    Andrew: I have been reading RSM for quite a while and he is decidingly not anti gay. Yeah he is against gay marriage, so is President Obama. But perhaps you should write an email to Cynthia Yockey about her experiences with Stacy McCain and the subject of homophobic bigotry. Seriously, you are bordering with Charles Johnson paranoia now.

    On the other hand, your intrustive invasions of Sarah Palin’s uterus are pretty damn questionable. I have never seen a guy, gay or straight, so facinated by the subject before. Now I suppose the argument could be made that you’re misogynistic…

    Just sayin, maybe you shouldn’t be throwing stones.

  • Anonymous

    Stacey, Andrew Sullivan has been the poster boy for AIDS-related dementia for quite a while. About all you can say is that he was an early trailblazer of the path followed by Charles Johnson, John Cole at Balloon-Juice, et al.

  • Brianna

    I’m a conservative Republican, but my problem with Palin is I think she’ll guarantee a second term for Obama. She’s unelectable on a national stage, and I could see her tearing apart the Republican Party.

    I absolutely think the Left’s jihad against her is disgusting, but we shouldn’t nominate the person that enrages the other side the most.

    I’d rather see their rage when we take the White House back. and Palin stays as a guest in the Lincoln Bedroom.

  • http://twitter.com/darleenclick darleenclick

    Sully channels his inner church lady “where DID she learn such language!! huff!! puff!!” staring daggers at Willow’s parents…

    which might make some sense if Willow was a hot-house flower, home schooled, never allowed to mingle with other teens or view tv/internet/read books.

    Teenagers can actually be counted on to act or say something that will embarrass their parents. It’s like part of the job description.

  • http://www.southtexian.com Mike LaRoche

    If the whole journalism thing ends up not working out for Sully, the TSA is always looking for a few good crank-grabbers.

  • Pingback: ‘By Any Means Necessary’ : The Other McCain

  • FenelonSpoke

    I thought the very amusing and clever writer behind “Sarah’s Palin’s uterus” was Sarah Palin’s uterus. ;^) Actually, I thought it was Little Miss Attilla.

  • Anonymous

    Brianna,

    She is only unelectable if folks like you buy the media spin that she can’t win because they don’t like her. Reality is Republicans win when they champion conservative values in the election. Republicans lose when they attempt to be “Democrat lite.” If people are inclined to vote for a Dem they will vote for the Dem rather than a Republican who thinks being moderate means being slightly liberal (McCain).

    You say don’t nominate the candidate that enrages the left. Reagan enraged the left. McCain was loved by the left and the media. As soon as he got the nomination the media dumped him for the far left guy.

  • Anonymous

    Brianna, just remember that “cooperation” is defined by RINOs, and “bi-partisanship” by Copperheads, as “We get what we want, with the bonus of ‘conservative’ or ‘Republican’ cover.”

    The nasty little secret is that if we don’t do a 180 on liberal policies, this country will crash, and it will burn. Faced with little existential choices like that, having RINOs and Copperheads think badly of me is definitely small potatoes.

    I assure you that George Washington was NEVER referred to as “Father of his Country” in Lord Cornwallis’ officers mess.

  • Pingback: Teenagers are teenagers … [Darleen Click]

  • Pingback: The WyBlog

  • Anonymous

    The last guy I saw get beaten this badly was Reginald Denny during the ’92 LA riots. The next-to-last guy I saw get beaten this badly was Rodney King.

  • Abraxas

    So …

    Since Ms. Sullivan is so anxious about what happens in Willow Palin’s life – and the attendant influences upon that life – can anyone remind me how high his dudgeon reached when David Letterman blurted out his statutory rape fantasy about her?

    Let’s be clear – Sullivan hates. Sullivan hates conservatives and he hates whatever inspires conservatives. Sullivan believes (as evidenced by his own words – this is not an assumption) that it is fair to attack the children and families of those who are BOTH conservative and inspirational to other conservatives.

    Think about that – Sullivan believes it’s fair to attack the children of his political and ideological opponents.

    Their kids.

    What utter filth.

  • Lynklly8

    Having raised teenagers myself, and now watching them raise their own teenagers, I can attest that teenagers do indeed use words like “gay” and “faggot” as insults (sometimes even good-natured ones between friends), without thinking about what the words really mean. You can reprimand or gently correct all you like, but they’ll still use their own teenage language among themselves.

    But I suppose I can see where that might rile up the bats in Sullivan’s belfry.

  • http://ak4mc.us/cms/ McGehee

    Do you remember the ad campaign sometime last year or earlier this year where gay celebs were shown accosting (actors posing as) teenagers and chiding them for using “gay” to mean “stupid” or whatever?

    In the real world as soon as Mr./Ms. Hall Monitor of the Teenaged Soul left the room, what do you suppose real teenagers would be saying about him/her — though with no sense at all of the irony?

    Yup.

  • http://coalitionoftheswilling.net Mr. Bingley

    I *think* it was someone at Ace’s who said that Sullivan was so upset about Palin because she could actually do the one thing in the world he most wanted to do: have Obama’s baby.

Performance Optimization WordPress Plugins by W3 EDGE