OK, that headline may be a little over the top. But only a little. The real story is that “Texas Congressman Invites Ted Nugent, Who Threatened The President’s Life, To The State Of The Union.” Yep, that is actually happening.
“I am excited to have a patriot like Ted Nugent joining me in the House Chamber to hear from President Obama,” [Rep. Steve] Stockman said on his congressional website on Monday.
Stockman is the GOP crackpot who promised to fight President Obama’s perfectly reasonable gun safety proposals with everything, up to and including, filing articles of impeachment. Now he will be personally escorting into the halls of Congress the washed-up schlock-rocker who publicly told Obama that…
“You might want to suck on one of these, you punk? Obama, he’s a piece of sh*t and I told him to suck on one of my machine guns.”
And then there was the time that he said…
“I vow that I will use our freedom to get these dirty c*ck-suckers out of the White House. The president is a bad man. The vice president is a bad man. They’re all bad people. If you don’t get that, you’re a dead motherf*cker.”
And who could forget his threat that…
“If Barack Obama becomes the President in November again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year.”
Nugent is an utterly repulsive, pseudo-patriot whose very presence at the State of the Union is an insult to the solemn historical address that is mandated by the Constitution. Furthermore, it is an overt act of disrespect on the part of Stockman to invite a man who expresses such vulgar disdain for this president and the country who elected him. However, it does help to make clear the level of hatred that the Republican Party harbors and how eager they are to embrace the sickest freaks in their flock. America will be able to judge the dignity (or absence thereof) of the GOP and their guests as compared to, for instance, Michelle Obama’s guest, Cleopatra Cowley, the mother of slain fifteen year old Hadiya Pendleton, a victim of the sort of gun violence that is the predictable result of Nugent’s NRA agenda.
Stockman and Nugent are well aware of the deliberate controversy and divisiveness they are inciting. It is their intent to drive a wedge between Americans who are anxiously seeking common ground on the critical issues that will be discussed by the President. And it is the sort of brazenly political gesture that has resulted in Republicans sinking to record lows in favorability and congress having a lower rating than cockroaches, lice, and root canals.
[Addendum] Media Matters has posted a collection of 20 Inflammatory Comments by Ted Nugent. Don’t click unless you have a strong stomach. And while these remarks reveal Nugent to be a humongous douche nozzle, they say far more about the congressman who is making Nugent his date to the SOTU prom.