Patty Judge: Farm Work is Not Qualification for Office
Iowa Lieutenant Governor Patty Judge had some choice remarks at Senator Tom Harkin’s annual steak fry:
“Sarah and I are both girls. We both wear glasses. We both have families that we’re very proud of. But Sarah does not believe in a woman’s right to reproductive choice and I do. Sarah doesn’t believe in a woman’s right to equal pay for equal work and I do. Sarah doesn’t believe in a solid science-based education as the foundation of truth and learning and I do,” Judge said. “Sarah is taking a job that will put her within a heartbeat of the presidency of my country, and that scares me to death.”
Judge also poked fun at the details that have become widely noted and reported about the array of outdoor activities Palin enjoys in rural Alaska.
“Sarah knows how to field-dress a moose. I know how to castrate a calf. Neither of those things has anything at all to do with this election. But since we know so much about Sarah’s special skills, I wanted to make sure you knew about mine too,” she said.
I continue to be baffled as to how moose hunting, which surely almost nobody in the United States does given what a small portion of the country is within moose range, has been construed as an all-American hobby.
41 Responses to “Patty Judge: Farm Work is Not Qualification for Office”
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September 15th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Similarly, for hockey. Soccer moms. little league moms, basketball moms, or football moms maybe. Most Americans haven’t the vaguest idea what hockey is about.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Yeah. It really seems like more of a Canadian hobby, eh? Suspicious, I say.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
And that goes double for hockey.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
I think a lot of people relate to moose hunting because they or someone they know goes deer hunting. Same with hockey; many people have kids that are involved with some type of sport (soccer, baseball, cheerleading) and can relate.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Oddly enough, with the exception of Alaska and the northern Rockies, the areas of the USA with moose are more liklely to be in Blue states (Minnesota, Michigan, upstate NY, Maine and Vermont).
What you call a ‘woma’s reproductive choice’, I call a grave assault on human life and a grave moral evil.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
“Sarah does not believe in a woman’s right to reproductive choice and I do. Sarah doesn’t believe in a woman’s right to equal pay for equal work and I do. Sarah doesn’t believe in a solid science-based education as the foundation of truth and learning and I do.”
These are really silly gross distortions. So naturally I assume they are standard Democatic talking points. Where is the “IT’S ALL LIEEEESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!” fist-shaking brigade when you need them.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
I think a lot of people relate to moose hunting because they or someone they know goes deer hunting. Same with hockey; many people have kids that are involved with some type of sport (soccer, baseball, cheerleading) and can relate.
Sarah Palin should now start promoting herself as a “helium mom” because she breathes helium and encourages her family to do so. A lot of Americans can relate to this since we mostly breath oxygen, which, like helium, is an element and a gas.
Do you suppose that Sarah Palin eats food and excretes feces? I can totally relate to that. Man, she’s just like me. I can’t wait till she’s VP. Then my concerns will finally be heard!
September 15th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Where are the lies, Brad? Sarah Palin supports the Republican Party platform which would have the government force women to carry all pregnancies to term, even those that result from rape. And Sarah Palin favors the teaching of so-called “intelligent design” (formally known as “creation science”). This would put her against a solid, science-based education.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
I think what’s being construed as American is finding the largest wild creature you can and shooting it.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
Sarah Palin should now start promoting herself as a “helium mom” because she breathes helium and encourages her family to do so. A lot of Americans can relate to this since we mostly breath oxygen, which, like helium, is an element and a gas.
Man, this is stupid. I think it’s pretty clear that moose hunting is, first and foremost, hunting, which is indeed a pretty popular American recreational activity.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
My 86 year old mother knows how to field-dress a moose!
My father, a Marine during World War II was gravely injured trying to establish communications prior to other Marines landing on shore. Even though he never talked about his war experiences, he spent ten months in naval hospitals in California before my mother decided that they should move to Alaska. My father found employment with the CAA, the precursor to the FAA.
While World War II was still raging, my parents moved to a small “town” in Alaska with eight people. The only way in or out was by airplane or dog sled. Twice a month, the airplane brought mail, dry goods and some vegetables. They had several dog teams (1/4 wolf) and hunted for their meat. They never hunted for sport, although one time my father shot a bear at point blank range when my parents walked into their meat locker-shed and discovered the back end of the shed torn off and a bear holding in its arms an entire moose waiting to be dressed out.
My parents decided to leave Alaska when they became pregnant with me. They moved to Panama and I was born in the same hospital as John McCain, albeit several years later.
In the late 1950s my parents and I moved back to Alaska, this time a community near Anchorage. (No not THAT community.) By then, Alaska was very modern.
MY POINT IN WRITING ALL THIS: My father had a war history, but NEVER discussed it; my parents most certainly knew what it was like to live in a small town in Alaska; their dog teams were very gentle even though they were a 1/4 wolf and the wild wolves only ate small animals such as rabbits so there was no need to shoot them from helicopters to protect the moose population; Panama was extremely comfortable living for most Americans (most having full time maids) and probably downright luxurious for the Zone’s commanding officer and family; AND, my 86 year old mother thinks that these “Last Frontier” stories 60+ years after her Alaska experience are garbage. I agree. By the time Sarah Palin moved to Alaska as a young baby in the mid-1960s, Alaska was no more the Last Frontier than Upstate New York, only with LESS snow.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Matt, perhaps because no one can envision the two urban wusses, Obama and Biden, killing and field dressing a moose. Normal Americans are more favorably disposed to hunters than to community organizers. They admire someone who kills her own food more than someone who agitates for ACORN.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
I love it when Republians talk about “normal Americans”. You guys get to define what that means, right? It means you’re white, live in a rural area or small town, are an evangelical Christian, and hunt regularly.
There are a lot of hunters, no doubt. But a lot more people drink lattes than go hunting. A lot more people go bird watching too. Does that mean that latte drinkers and bird watchers are more “normal” than hunters?
The kind of hunting Sarah Palin engages in is an elite recreational activity, more akin to yachting than to subsistence hunting. She kills her own food? Give me a break. No one shoots wolves out of helicopters for food.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
A lot more Americans play basketball than hunt.
Hunting in most places is an elite pass-time. Rifles cost a lot of money. Week-long trips cost a lot of money. Hunting, as in, hunting lodge?
Normal Americans go down the park or the Y for their fun.
September 15th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
Sorry, Brad, they’re all busy covering the McLiar campaign.
September 15th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
I’ll believe Sarah Palin can field dress a moose when I see hard evidence that Sarah Palin can field dress a moose.
Even an eyewitness report would be a start.
September 15th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Are you really confused? Being able to field dress a moose is pretty badass, and American’s like to pretend that anything that’s badass is “All American,” regardless of whether or not many (or even any) people do it.
September 15th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Shooting moose is not like hunting deer. It’s really much more like shooting cows.
Shooting wolves from helicopters is… just wrong, on all levels.
And yeah, given her known history of “truthiness”, the safe bet is that Palin hasn’t, her own self, ever actually field-dressed a moose.
September 15th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Like other commenters I don’t get what the hockey thing is about either. Heck, Palin was in Colorado, where snowboarding is the preferred winter sport, and they handed out “Hockey moms for Palin” signs. I mean, there can’t be that many votes in the UP, Minnesota isn’t really in play, nor is Wisconsin. Who is this aimed at?
September 15th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Er, people don’t shoot wolves from helicopters for the sport of it, or for food. They shoot wolves from helicopters for purposes of animal control, as far as I know. You could argue that wolves aren’t overpopulated and shooting them from helicopters is a poor way to protect caribou and sheep. You’d probably be right, although I’m not a wildlife biologist nor an Alaska resident. But pointing out that shooting wolves from the air is unsporting seems rather beside the point.
September 15th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Hector, not only could you argue that “that wolves aren’t overpopulated and shooting them from helicopters is a poor way to protect caribou and sheep” but you’d not just probably but definitely be right. So if that’s not the reason, then it IS for sport, just a sad sort of sport.
Go watch the Defenders of Wildlife ad about shooting wolves from helicopters. It’s a pretty disgusting practice. And I’m someone who has gone hunting (including the much maligned “canned hunts”) and has several family members who are into hunting (deer, pheasant, turkey, elk).
Maybe I should found Hunters Against Disgusting Immoral Tactics (HAD IT).
September 15th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Well, I’m from rural Pennsylvania, so though I’m a lifelong Democrat I have a pretty good idea of how those who have been decreed the real Americans think.
I’d say that hunting is viewed as hunting and hunters are hunters — people who hunt deer are also very likely to hunt squirrels, turkeys, rabbits, or ducks event though the techniques are very different, and they’d happily shoot a moose if one crossed their path. The point is are you the sort of person who enjoys going out in the wilderness and shooting a gun of some type at a tasty wild animal of some type? If so, you likely relate to others of that type.
Hunting in most places is an elite pass-time. Rifles cost a lot of money. Week-long trips cost a lot of money. Hunting, as in, hunting lodge?
Not really, especially if you can hunt locally and don’t need said lodge. Guns are a one time cost and are often inherited. Bullets aren’t expensive. Yes, you need to take time off work, but it’s such a big part of the culture that people do it, employers expect it, my school even routinely gave off the first two days of buck season and the first day of doe season.
Shooting moose is not like hunting deer. It’s really much more like shooting cows.
Do people outside of moose country know this or care? I don’t know. I have an uncle who went caribou hunting once. This involved a long trip to northern Canada. Basically the Labrador herd has a set migratory pattern, you just go to where they are at the time, they travel in large herds of thousands or so and they aren’t that afraid of people nor are they as fast as deer. As I heard it hunting involved parking the car and watching as they walk across the road, waiting a while until you see one you really like, then shooting. Then keeping it cold for the long drive back. My uncle isn’t exactly rich, and if you added up all the costs of that trip I’m sure it was very pricy meat, but then it probably wasn’t the most expensive vacation he’s ever taken and he seemed to think it was worth it.
Are you really confused? Being able to field dress a moose is pretty badass, and American’s like to pretend that anything that’s badass is “All American,” regardless of whether or not many (or even any) people do it.
I think you may be onto something, but you forgot to mention it involves shooting things.
September 15th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
The kind of hunting Sarah Palin engages in is an elite recreational activity, more akin to yachting than to subsistence hunting.
Isn’t all hunting recreational? Yeah you get food from it but I don’t think anybody hunts because it’s the cheapest way to get meat. What would I know though, I’m a member of the coastal elite. What makes yachting (or anything) “elite” isn’t that you need lots of money to do it but that the image associated with it is, for whatever reason, one of elitism. “Elitist” isn’t a synonym for “rich.”
Palin’s shooting wolves from helicopters is really win-win; her opponents get to sneer at her for being unsporting and cruel while her supporters get to sneer at the other side for being bleeding heart sentimentalists who care about animals more than humans. It’s a shame for the wolves but it’s really generous and bipartisan of her to donate a boring culture war talking point to both sides of the aisle.
September 16th, 2008 at 1:26 am
Palin’s shooting wolves from helicopters is really win-win; her opponents get to sneer at her for being unsporting and cruel while her supporters get to sneer at the other side for being bleeding heart sentimentalists who care about animals more than humans.
The Alaskan bush where this goes on doesn’t have humans. I could understand this to a degree anywhere in the lower 48. I like wolves and all that, but rabid wolves have a unique nasty reaction to rabies where they tend to run into human towns and kill people until someone kills them.
That said, *no one* lives where these guys hunt. They could go rabid as hell, it doesn’t matter. It’s just a matter of some assholes wanting to shoot wolves from airplanes on a big white sheet of paper. It’s the Alaskan version of the Safari where you shoot the tame elephant.
September 16th, 2008 at 3:34 am
Palin keeps dropping hockey mom because it signifies commitment to her children. In most areas, ice time is hard to come by so youngters usually have practice first thing in the morning before school. If your son or daughter is on a travel team, you pack up the kids and their gear (which can get expensive since they outgrow their skates and pads every few years) at some ungodly hour and drive out across frozen roads in bad weather to away games. If you ask any North American born NHLer, it was probably his mother who took him to practice and games for a good ten straight years.
I appreciate what is required to be a hockey mom, but there are thousands of these dedicated women in MA, NY, VT, ME, MI, WI and MN and none of them think they should be Vice President because they wake up at 4:30 in January to shuttle 6 kids to Bemidji.
September 16th, 2008 at 7:54 am
What a nutcutter.
September 16th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
The whole “hockey mom” thing raises another double standard. If any father spent the time Palin did with her kids on the rink, and hired a “city manager” to give him time to do that, he’d immediately be accused of shirking his responsibilities as Mayor. But if a woman dedicates more time to her kids than her job she’s allowed to get away with it.
September 17th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
People hunt for meat. They hunt possum, squirrel, etc. Or at least they used to. I’m not sure guns are that particularly cheap, but a snare or two?
Meat used to be a lot more expensive, and down south it’s still part of the culture, even where people dont’ do it anymore.
UP in rural PA — go grab a gun and shoot a deer! They’re breaking the forests, man. Deforestation by deer. Hunters be blessed, and wolves come soon!
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