In a stunning rebuke, Alan Simpson, former Republican senator of Wyoming, has spoken out dramatically against his Republican Party, blasting the GOP for its egregious tactics of recent years.
Mr. Simpson, who loves calling out "bullshit" as Speaker of the Truth, recently served as co-chair of President Obama's deficit commission. He made his attack on Republicans in a letter to the Huffington Post that also slammed the co-directors of Social Security Works for what they suggested was an attempt to dismantle Social Security -- a charge Mr. Simpson called "bullshit,"™ and wrote that "your accusations of 'bigotry' on my part are nothing more than pure McCarthyism."
No, that wasn't his reprimand of the GOP. But sometimes you have to slog through the bluster before getting to the point. After all, the former senator has acknowledged a long history of outspoken hyperbole, occasionally nasty: "Over the last 40 years, I have had my size 15 feet in my mouth a time or two."
Indeed. Like wanting you to believe that criticizing him for bigotry is "McCarthyism." Alan Simpson is a bright man. He knows what McCarthyism actually is. And he knows that making the accusation only diminishes the horror of what McCarthyism actually was.
Actual McCarthyism forced Americans to testify before Congress under oath about their private beliefs. They were pressured to inform on friends. An actual Blacklist was created -- called "Red Channels." People lost jobs and were put in actual federal prison for their beliefs. Most often, those beliefs were liberal.
No one likes being portrayed as a bigot. But to suggest "McCarthyism" is a fake persecution complex. An attempt to deceive.
But that's the Alan Simpson gumfummery you have to get past before coming to his noble hatred of "bullshit."™ As Speaker of the Truth. When Alan Simpson finally got fed up and berated his own Republican Party.
"I'm damned tired of people who use emotion, fear, guilt and racism to stir up their troops for their own benefit, and not for our nation's."
Welcome to the club, Alan Simpson. Now you know how liberals have felt for the past four years. Finally, you criticize your Republican Party for its tactics doing all that.
Oh, sure, some will say he was merely referencing Social Security Works, but we know that Alan Simpson is an honest, honorable man, so it's obvious what he was really talking about.
After all, ever since Barack Obama became the Democratic nominee for president, the highest levels of the Republican Party have used emotion, fear, guilt and racism to stir up their troops for their own benefit, and not for our nation's.
When Barack Obama and his wife touched their hands together, a concerned Fox commentator worried whether it was a terrorist fist bump.
The most recent Republican vice-presidential candidate emotionally proclaimed that Barack Obama "pals around with terrorists."
The current Republican presidential nominee stood silent when a supporter said to his face that Barack Obama "should be tried for treason."
A national, conservative TV commentator warned that President Barack Obama "hates white people."
Just weeks ago, a proposal was uncovered for a $10 million campaign trying to tie Barack Obama to racist comments by others.
Republican leaders continue to stoke fear in constituents that President Obama isn't American-born.
A Chief Federal Judge appointed by George W. Bush sent around an email comparing Barack Obama's black and white parents to bestiality. The vice-chair of a GOP county commission circulated email about the "Black House."
Republican rallies are the definition of whipped-up fear with signs calling Barack Obama a Muslim, Nazi, Communist, traitor, Socialist, and agent of the devil. Last week, a frenzied pastor in Florida hung the president of the United States in effigy, claiming that Barack Obama was "killing America."
Republican leaders terrified constituents into believing that Democrats wanted to create death panels to actually kill old people.
The Republican governor of Mississippi said in April that Democrats' "one mission in life is to abort children."
After once co-sponsoring legislation for immigration reform, the most recent Republican presidential nominee ran a race-baiting ad for his Senate campaign calling for a fence to be built between the U.S. and Mexico.
A former Republican senator from Wyoming colored his critics with the guilt-ridden specter of McCarthyism.
The Republican Senate Minority Leader said, "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." Not deficit reduction, not national defense, not jobs, not what benefits America. But doing what benefits the Republican Party.
Republicans brought America to the edge of default by refusing to raise the nation's debt ceiling for the first time in history, holding the country hostage for the party's benefit, not the nation's.
Over the past 12 years, Republicans have pushed fear of anything related to Americans who practice the Muslim faith, raised terrorist "threat levels" when elections neared, conjured up the terrifying specter of mushroom clouds, and painted as traitors those who spoke against the lies which buried America in an eight-year war.
So it was with much admiration when Alan Simpson wrote: "I'm damned tired of people who use emotion, fear, guilt and racism to stir up their troops for their own benefit, and not for our nation's."
Hats off to Alan Simpson!
No doubt, Mr. Simpson will release another profound letter even more specifically decrying his anger at Republican tactics over the past decade, and in particularly against Barack Obama, that have used emotion, fear, guilt, and racism to stir up their troops for their own benefit, and not for our nation's.
No doubt we will now see Alan Simpson speaking out loudly and angrily, standing by his very own words and take on the fear-mongering so long a staple of the Republican Party.
Unless, of course, he's too damned tired.