Cuba Libre
Somewhat forgot to tell this guy that conservatives are only supposed to talk like this behind closed doors. It’s not the sixties anymore!
Adam LaDuca, 21, the former executive director of the Pennsylvania Federation of College Republicans, wrote on his Facebook page in late July that Obama has “a pair of lips so large he could float half of Cuba to the shores of Miami (and probably would.)”
LaDuca, who previously had called Martin Luther King Jr. a “pariah” and a “fraud,” also wrote: “And man, if sayin’ someone has large lips is a racial slur, then we’re ALL in trouble.”
The College Republicans asked LaDuca to resign after his remarks were publicized by the Pennsylvania Progressive, a blog written by a Democratic committeeman from Berks County. The group announced LaDuca’s resignation on its Web site Friday.
I, for one, am absolutely certain that five or six weeks went by during which zero members of the Pennsylvania College Republicans saw the Facebook page of the group’s executive director. That must explain why he was forced out only after The Pennsylvania Progressive drew attention to his remarks. If any PA conservatives had seen it first, certainly LoDuca would have been forced out preemptively since, as Anthony Pugliese is quoted as saying later in the article, “The P-A College Republicans do not accept or tolerate racism in any way.”
Meanwhile, I’m interested in LoDuca’s policy argument. Presumably he’s trying to say that Barack Obama, being soft on Communism, will allow tons of Cuban commies onto our shores. But it’s actually current United States policy to encourage as many Cubans as possible to emigrate to the United States, a policy that was implemented on anti-Communist grounds.
58 Responses to “Cuba Libre”
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September 9th, 2008 at 9:09 am
Maybe he was worried that Barack Obama (and his lips?) would be bringing Cuba itself physically to the U.S., rather than just Cubans, perhaps stationing half the island in the middle of DC so that he could establish his Cuban / Secret Muslim Empire.
September 9th, 2008 at 9:13 am
“Maybe he was worried that Barack Obama (and his lips?) would be bringing Cuba itself physically to the U.S., rather than just Cubans”
Meh.
Angelina Jolie style lips can act as an inflatable raft to float folks across the water, but actually moving an island requires heavy machinery.
September 9th, 2008 at 9:13 am
A college student said something stupid. The horror!
September 9th, 2008 at 9:13 am
Maybe this is the kick in the pants he needs to finally go and see a recruiter.
September 9th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Just like Ralph Reed and Karl Rove before him I’m sure Mr. LaDuca is slated for very big things with the Republican party. His exile will be short lived, followed by grunt work for some semi-obscure state representative or think tank. Pencil in about 2028 for his debut as the communications coordinator for a prominent Republican presidential candidate.
September 9th, 2008 at 9:18 am
“Meanwhile, I’m interested in LoDuca’s policy argument. Presumably he’s trying to say that Barack Obama, being soft on Communism, will allow tons of Cuban commies onto our shores. But it’s actually current United States policy to encourage as many Cubans as possible to emigrate to the United States, a policy that was implemented on anti-Communist grounds.”
Indeed. He should be more concerned about Obama using his gigantic ears to act as a hang gilder and fly Mexicans over the border fence.
September 9th, 2008 at 9:18 am
“Maybe he was worried that Barack Obama (and his lips?) would be bringing Cuba itself physically to the U.S., rather than just Cubans”
But then wouldn’t Guantanamo fall under US law? This guy just isn’t too bright.
September 9th, 2008 at 9:19 am
A college student said something stupid. The horror!
A college student with a planned future in national politics, part of an organization seen as an intern program for our national leaders, said something flagrantly racist in public, confident that no one he knew would be offended and most would agree with the sentiment.
September 9th, 2008 at 9:24 am
The republicans are checking off all the racial stereotype boxes. We’ve had trash-talking inner city hoopster, too cool pimp styling at the country club, urban druggie, uppity and presumptuous, sexually threatening to white women, and exotic. Now were getting down the basest ones. Next up, nappy hair and undeserving quota king. I’m surprised they haven’t photo shopped him into Huggy Bear yet.
September 9th, 2008 at 9:24 am
But, duh! This is Barack Obama, who the good GOP’ers tell me is out there trying to secure home mortgage loans for Al Qa’ida and to get Osama bin Laden his own HDTV network, so of course he wants to bring Gitmo here!
September 9th, 2008 at 9:34 am
So prominent young Republicans are bigots, and their bigotry is widely tolerated. Shock piles upon shock this election season . . . Next thing you know I’ll find out that every white supremacist & klansman I’ve personally known is a Republican. Wait, no – knew that already.
September 9th, 2008 at 9:39 am
The republicans are checking off all the racial stereotype boxe
jimbo, you forgot the dreaded urban community organizer.
September 9th, 2008 at 9:42 am
A college student said something stupid. The horror!
A deeply ironic comment to make on the blog of someone who became a reasonably well-known pundit as a college student.
September 9th, 2008 at 9:42 am
The Huffington Post, Daily Kos, Andrew Sullivan, et. al., were pushing the scurrilous rumor a week ago that Gov. Palin’s son was really her grandson. Were you morons outraged? I didn’t think so. But one Republican college student on Facebook — now there’s a scandal!
September 9th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Do people really perceive Obama’s lips as extraordinarily large? They seem about average to me. In fact, they almost seem thin to me because his actual mouth is fairly large relative to his face. I guess parsing racist rantings is a fool’s errand but I genuinely don’t get it. If the Republicans are going to go there, just drop the N bomb and be done with it.
September 9th, 2008 at 10:02 am
The Republicans in my home state have never been all that well versed in foreign policy, so I can understand the director of College Republicans being grossly undereducated about Cuba policy, even if it is part of his job to know such things.
But what planet is this guy living on where Obama has large lips? If Jon Voight or Angelina Jolie were to wander into the room, would this guy run away screaming, “ALIENS!”?
September 9th, 2008 at 10:10 am
What conclusions should we draw about his ears? I mean c’mon, those things are pretty dorky (not really). I think we’ll be able to completely surmise his policy positions by simply cruising over his bodily terrain.
Up next, a body scan of Sarah Palin as a means to understand her policy positions, since there’s very little else to on.
Our next pundit class: cosmetology expertise
September 9th, 2008 at 10:18 am
I wonder if any fellow members of the Pennsylvania Federation of College Republicans wrote on his Facebook wall while that was still up.
And E. O’Neil, this is really quite a bit different than those Palin rumors. First, I don’t think this is getting much more than a roll of the eyes from most of us. Second, we have that reaction because this type of stuff happens *all the time*. People in both parties get caught up in conspiracy theories from time to time while the majority read their crazed rants and say, “Well, let’s see some proof…” Separate and apart from the occassional conspiracy theories, however, people within the Republican party, and occassionally these people are frightenly high up in the organization, say something incredibly sexist or racist and those comments are either tollerated or approved of by the party. It’s only when these things become a story that Republicans bow to public pressure and distance themselves.
As Matt points out, it’s possible that nobody saw this guy’s Facebook page until an intrepid liberal reporter found it, but it seems pretty unlikely to me.
September 9th, 2008 at 10:20 am
Speaking of Ralph Reed, how can that s***heel still speak for Christian Evangelicals?
The Huffington Post, Daily Kos, Andrew Sullivan, et. al., were pushing the scurrilous rumor a week ago that Gov. Palin’s son was really her grandson. Were you morons outraged? I didn’t think so.
The difference? The possibility was interesting, and cackle-worthy if true, and was dropped once it was shown to be impossible.
But you knew that. But maybe, being Republican, you get your experience via osmosis and actually need to be physically next to someone holding that point of view for it to sink in.
September 9th, 2008 at 10:21 am
loose lips sink ships,
big lips provide trips.
September 9th, 2008 at 10:28 am
Rush Limbaugh will defend him by suggesting B.O. only has one large lip.
We in FL have as much foreign policy experience as Sarah Palin. Cuba has been battered by 3 hurricanes in 2 weeks; sure proof those Castro boys are sinners.
September 9th, 2008 at 10:43 am
Not all Republicans are racists and not all racists are Republicans. However, the GOP provides a safe haven for racists. The GOP has built a whole language that legitimizes racism and even makes it seem as if the white majority is the one being oppressed.
September 9th, 2008 at 10:47 am
What Tom Veil said. Has this guy even seen a photo of Obama? Is there someone else he’s confusing him with?
September 9th, 2008 at 10:49 am
Look, MY, they’re *college* Republicans. They have the racism down pat, and I’ll bet their bowties are straight and everything. They’ll learn the actual policy positions of the GOP later on.
“The Huffington Post, Daily Kos, Andrew Sullivan, et. al., were pushing the scurrilous rumor a week ago that Gov. Palin’s son was really her grandson. Were you morons outraged? I didn’t think so.”
It was pretty stupid, but I’m not sure it was “scurrilous”. Her daughter *really is* having a child right now, and it seems to be no big deal. I’ll disown Kos any day. But you don’t get to tar liberals with Andrew Sullivan, who was for McCain big time before he was against him.
September 9th, 2008 at 11:08 am
The weird part is that Obama really doesn’t have very big lips.
September 9th, 2008 at 11:12 am
E. O’Neal: The fact is that Sarah Palin stoked those fires herself when she decided, for political reasons, to adopt a strategy of pathological secrecy to hide her fifth pregnancy. (Then engaging in behavior that might be reasonably described as unsafe.) It’s not shocking when rumors result from such behavior.
Me, I’d prefer a politician who is relatively forthcoming. If a person is willing to stonewall her own family, and engage in baldface lies during her stump speeches, I’d hate to see what kind of relationship she’d have with the American people once she achieves real power.
September 9th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Yeah, a woman not revealing her pregnancy until necessary to avoid distractions in her job — that should certainly open her and her family up to weird, slanderous rumors from the moonbats. Thanks for clearing this up for me.
September 9th, 2008 at 11:35 am
What Tom Veil said. Has this guy even seen a photo of Obama? Is there someone else he’s confusing him with?
You are over-intellectualizing the comment. Racism is an inventory of cliches for most people. The racist, in this case, pulled a stereotype out of his mental image files and used it. Whether Obama fits the racist image is something that might have come up if the bonehead had thought the thing through, but that would take all the fun out of his racism.
Way back when Steve Dahl was head Shock Jock in Chicago, he used to do what he apparently thought was a good imitation of Harold Washington, Chicago’s first black mayor. Problem was, the voice was high-pitched, sing-song, like a teen-age jive high school kid. Washington had a deep, resonate voice with a good, lawyerly vocabulary and pronunciation. Dahl was smart enough to come up with a good spoof of Washington’s ponderous erudition. The overtly racist voice was just more fun.
September 9th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Give the GOPs a little more time. After years of ridiculing pregnant teens who decide to have their babies, they’re now embracing them. They’re coming around.
September 9th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Yes, O’Neill: nothing distracts from the job as much as announcing you’re pregnant. Much better to adopt an elaborate system of disguise for months and months, before dropping the news in the laps of your staff, admitting that you didn’t believe they were sufficiently professional to deal with the news until it could no longer be hidden. And admitting to your daughters that, though they’re mature enough to raise children of their own, they’re not yet mature enough to handle the news that they’re about to have a disabled sibling, for whom they’ll be partly responsible for the rest of their lives.
Yes, nothing provides fewer distractions in the work environment than no-faith dealing.
September 9th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Rachel, so you’re saying that makes her fair game for defamatory rumors from the big-time moonbat bloggers? Interesting.
September 9th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
You’ll have to define “defamatory,” I guess. The rumors said that Palin lied about being pregnant with Trig and that her daughter was actually the one pregnant.
Compare that with the truth: Palin engaged in deceptive behavior, for months, to hide the pregnancy, then engaged in behavior that was dangerous regarding that pregnancy. Her daughter is in the process of a separate pregnancy.
I guess in this case, “defamatory” could be defined as “more acceptable than the truth; a rumor is which the person looks MORE reasonable.”
September 9th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
What do they teach in schools these days?
September 9th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Rachel, Gov. Palin wore loose clothing and didn’t announce she was pregnant — hardly “deceptive behavior”. The so-called “dangerous behavior” was flying home with her husband when her amniotic fluid was leaking and after her doctor OKed it. She said she had been through four pregnancies and knew that she wasn’t in labor. Isn’t this a totally private matter. What’s your point? Are you the Pregnancy Czar?
September 9th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Rachel, so you’re saying that makes her fair game for defamatory rumors from the big-time moonbat bloggers? Interesting.
More to the point, which of the liberal bloggers (a) took this rumor seriously, (b) Reported it as something other than a bizarre rumor, (c) flogged on national television for weeks at time in place of real knews, and (d) reported it as though it were verified facts?
That’s the standard for the average primetime political smear. I haven’t yet read a blog entry on this bit of stupid gossip that actually took it seriously.
September 9th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
Amazing! Someone who’s actually too stupid to be a Republican!
September 9th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Whoever was trying to push the Palin rumor didn’t do a very good job. I didn’t even hear about it until after the Bristol story came out. Though that’s probably because I’ve been avoiding DKos lately.
I love how LaDuca knew he was going to get called on the lips line, but still couldn’t help himself.
September 9th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
I’m white as snow and I got bigger lips than Obama.
September 9th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
What blows my mind when stuff like this comes up is that Republicans think it compares exactly with the nonsense that they push. This was never something that I took seriously and I never saw any other liberals taking it seriously either. This was a National Enquirer/US Weekly style rumor. It would have been amazingly funny and politically devastating to the McCain campaign if it were true, but I don’t think anyone ever really thought it was true.
On the other hand, Republicans go on talk show after talk show talking about Reverend Wright, but you never hear a peep about Palin’s pastor. They lie about the Bridge to Nowhere. Both talking heads and campaign staff take half truths and outright lies and repeat them over and over in the press.
But that’s how Republicans operate. They’re always victims of elitists or the media or somebody saying mean things about their mom. Then they run the dirtiest campaign they can.
September 9th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Berken, Daily Kos, DU, Huffington Post and Andrew Sullivan all promoted this rumor. The left is scared and throwing everything they’ve got at Gov. Palin. They realize that if they can’t destroy her personally, they’ll spend four more years in the wilderness where they belong. Fortunately, the sleaze is backfiring and Palin has taken a double digit lead among white women.
BTW, do you know the difference between Sarah Palin and Barack Hussein Obama? One is sexy eye candy with a cute smile, the other kills her food.
September 9th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
E. O’Neal, by all accounts, Palin is a dangerous, dishonest, ignorant lunatic. Why you feel the need to defend her is anyone’s guess, by I assume that you identify with people who share you moral and intellectual shortcomings. I, however, do not, and am thus repulsed by those such as herself that promote such dishoensty and fanatical, extremist behavior. Why you think that your defense of Palin makes you credeible is anyone’s guess, but it paints you with the same sort of irrational fanaticism displayed by Mr. DeLuca here: McCainiac wild-eyed craziness and attraction to ignoramuses. That pro-Bush dead enders like yourself think that Palin is wonderful isn’t a surprise. But that’s just another symptom of your poor judgment and pride oin your own willful ignorance.
September 9th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Tyro, “by all accounts”? You’ve been spending too much time at Daily Kos. Try NRO instead.
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