GOP staffer declares a ‘battle’ to define ‘what it means to be a true American’

October 15, 2007

In the era of YouTube, I’d thought most political professionals would have learned by now that cameras can record video and audio, and that a person on camera may soon find their public comments online. The “macaca” incident should have driven this point home for everyone quite a while ago.

But, no. Over the weekend, Bruce Fealk, a voter in Michigan, approached his congressman, Rep. Joe Knollenberg (R-Mich.), with video camera in hand, at a pharmacy in the district. Fealk asked his representative about Iraq and S-CHIP — Knollenberg has adopted the Bush administration line on both — before Trent Wisecup, Knollenberg’s chief of staff, intervened.

From there, it got rather ugly. Wisecup didn’t literally assault the local voter, but it looked like it might go in that direction. Wisecup ultimately tells Knollenberg’s constituent, “You’re not a citizen, you’re a political hack.” He added that Fealk is “un-American” because of his beliefs.

The Politico’s John Bresnahan noted that he thought “un-American” went out of style “in the ’60s or ’70s. It is interesting to see someone try to bring it back, although it of course leads to the discussion of what ‘American’ is and who gets to decide that.”

Wisecup responded that he not only believes he should decide who qualifies as an American, he wrote up a list.

Here’s Wisecup’s view on what is “pro” and “anti” American:

“Per Politico’s blog on my run-in with Moveon.org, I will define what’s un-American for you.

It’s un-American to wage a political protest of a congressman’s wife at her home.

It’s un-American to disturb a congressman’s neighbors with weird anti-war tactics while our soldiers are deployed overseas fighting radical Islam.

It’s un-American to cheer for the imposition of $85 billion of Nancy Pelosi CAFE mandates that would destroy the American car companies and the good-paying UAW jobs they provide.

It’s un-American to use bullying, gotcha political tactics that scare female congressional staffers.

It’s un-American to use stalking and harassment as a means to score cheap political points.

True Americans make their political arguments with vigor, honor and pride. I have looked the Moveon.org movement in the eye and I speak with certainty that this element does not want America to win in Iraq. It does want Toyota to beat GM and the other American car companies. And it wants all Americans to pay higher taxes to support more government welfare. Higher taxes + more government welfare = a weaker America….”

Wisecup added, “Let the battle for the definition of what it means to be a true American be joined.”

OK, time for a quiz. If there were a genuine proposal on the table to re-establish the Committee on Un-American Activities, what percentage of the congressional Republican caucus would endorse it? I’m inclined to say about half the caucus, at least in the House. After all, there are “un-American” Americans out there. If there’s no committee to monitor their activities, who knows what nefarious schemes they might come up with?

No more government welfare? Fine. Start by ending farm subsidies, credit market bailouts, and hedge fund tax loopholes.

  • Oh, I bet it would be higher than half.

    Remember, a majority of these people don’t believe global warming is real, or at least didn’t as of a year or two ago. Almost all of them are enthusiastically for every measure we find questionable or distasteful, from the president having unlimited power to detain American citizens without due process to torture as day to day practice.

    They’d throw most of us in re-education camps as soon as they’d look at us. With all too few exceptions, modern Republicans are Good Germand with e-mail acess.

  • lets see how Rethugs might play this out. . .

    if you aren’t a citizen, but you are here questioning them, you must be an illegal alien. we’ll pass a law to have you all deported! to. . . to. . . PoliticalHackistan! and without any legal recourse!

    you laugh now, but just wait until the new Department of Hack Security comes after you un-American commie bloggers!

  • So any US American who buys a Honda is unAmerican?

    BTW, the Deetroit Big Three with some help from the UAW have been doing a very good job destroying themselves.

  • the gop had built up a dedicated cadre of idiots like this, whose whole world view is shaped by movies, comic books, rush limbaugh, black-and-white tv westerns, and similar pop culture ephemera and whose skill set consists of one thing and one thing only: propagandistic word-slinging.

    hell, you’re not trying hard enough to imagine, steve: i’d think you’d get close to a unanimous vote in the house in favor of establishing an un-american activities committee.

  • We may be getting a preview of how Repubs are going to frame next year’s elections. Adding “un-American” to the fear game always grabs a significant batch of the macho, know-nothing, jingoistic crowd. They really miss the good old days when they could utter “commie” or “pinko” to define an issue. “Lib’rul” still works—sorta. Coultergeist and the apoplectic crowd have been using the gambit for years.

  • Apparently, the Bill of Rights is un-American, as are fair elections, balance of powers, the notion of “we the people…” Heck, America is un-American!

  • Several weeks ago Tom Friedman pointed out how Toyota was lobbying against CAFE standards. They’re doing very well thank you with their high gas mileage vehicles. They don’t want to see Detroit actually build some cars that will save gas. When these right wing types say that we’re going to lose jobs, it’s as if they haven’t noticed that our auto builders have lost billions of dollars with huge undesirable SUVs and trucks. Why do you think Detroit gives huge rebates on trucks with a big eight inside ?

  • So … um … the fact Toyota builds a bunch of their cars and trucks in America, while the big three have sent that work to Mexico and Canada, means that GM, Ford and Chrysler are, in fact, un-American?

    Good to know.

    As far as the other stuff (i.e. the stalking and protests), anyone have more info on that? Seriously … if someone is giving the Congressman’s wife grief, then I’d have to agree that’s pretty sleazy.

    Although I should note that has more to do with being sleazy than it does with being an American — after all, if one wants to see one of the dirtiest Presidential campaigns ever, just look at Jefferson vs. Adams. Jeffersion — you know, the guy with his own memorial — slandered and libeled his opponent in some of the most disgusting ways imaginable. So I guess, according to Wisecup, Thomas Jefferson was not a true American, either.

    See? We can do this all day long and include pretty much everyone at some point.

  • I don’t know– no one can take away your citizenship without your consent, for one thing. I think it’s un-American for one bureaucrat to pick out a bunch of behaviors he thinks describes a specific citizen’s actions- and, just like an ex-post-facto law, and an unconstitutional stripping of citizenship without consent- declare that the person is no longer an American because of it. That’s more like something we’d expect from Fidel Castro or Stalin or Mao Zedong.

    A lot of those may be bad behaviors, but there’s a big leap between saying something’s bad behavior or that it should be illegal, and saying you should no longer be an American because of it. What does this guy think of Ted Haggard, or Larry Craig, or all the corrupt Republican congressmen, or Republican congressmen, politicians, or pundits who have stalked, harassed, or physically assaulted women or 16-year-old boys? What they do seems to be on the same magnitude of wrong of what he’s accusing this guy of doing. And of course the Republicans routinely lie in the media. I think by his standard, he’s got to point his un-American brand a lot of other places, too.

  • Watching a ReThuglican attempt to act intelligent is like watching a dog try to play the trombone. Apparently he sat and thought about what it means to be an American and this is all he could come up with as counter examples.

    It’s un-American to disturb a congressman’s neighbors with weird anti-war tactics while our soldiers are deployed overseas fighting radical Islam.

    Apparently it is all right to disturb a person’s neighbors if soldiers are deployed overseas fighting some other enemy.

    It’s un-American to use bullying, gotcha political tactics that scare female congressional staffers.

    Mwahaha! How chivalrous.

    It’s un-American to use stalking and harassment as a means to score cheap political points.

    Fine, give him a pitchfork. He can chase Michelle Malkin across the nearest international border.

    Christ, is there any point in mocking these people? All you have to do is wait until they open their mouths.

  • I don’t think we should be electing anyone who has such a nonexistent grasp on the concept of “American.”

    I guess I see the Wisecup-types as only ever fighting for themselves and their interests and those they see as on “their” side, while I like to think that the liberals/progressives/Democrats would fight for everyone – even those they don’t agree with.

  • ***“Let the battle for the definition of what it means to be a true American be joined.”***

    Oh, joy. Glowing happiness. Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah. Some schmuckish little neocon bootlicking knuckledragging punt-dog of a whore-boy wants to tell me what
    “unAmerican” is.

    It is unAmerican to defend outmoded CAFE standards that promote
    “SUV inbreeding”—when China’s version of CAFE standards surpassed ours in 1996.

    It is unAmerican to seek to impede the right to discourse between an elected representative and a constituent at a public event.

    It is unAmerican to tell people that they must purchase an inferior product, half of which is built in Mexico, and portions of which are manufactured in Red China. (What—you thought all those electronic components are still made on this side of the Pacific Rim? Get a clue, people….)

    Some people go on vacation and hang a sign on the front door that says, “Gone Fishin’.” Others put up a sign that says, “Gone Huntin’.” Maybe I’ll hang a sign that says, “Gone Trentin’.”

    The piad hacks of a previous King George didn’t fare very well the last time they were in “Trenton.” And Wisecup’s just another Hessian….

  • Last I checked, you’re an American if you were born in the 50 states or any U.S. Territories. If Rep. Knollenturd doesn’t like it, he can GTFO.

  • If there is going to be some formal criteria the very first one should be an unwavering belief in the constitution and the principles it enshrines.

  • Wisecup should wise up and resign his position. After watching the video, I was hard pressed to figure out if Wisecup worked for a duly elected Congressional representative or the Brown Shirts. If the chief of staff for any elected official responded to a constituent with, “no you’re not a citizen,” then I say that chief of staff is a fool! Oh, and as for his definition of what an American is, he should be rereading his American Revoutionary history, you know like Morgan’s The Birth of a Republic in order to see the errors of his thoughts and ideas. A true American knows that dissent is part and parcel of our representative democracy. Those who run for office, win, and then serve do just that – serve! If a constituent has a question, the question should be answered, not the constituent bullied! After this observation, it would not surprise me if Wisecup goes home today and laments on what a victim he has become. With a one-way intellect, the Wisecups among us get so many things just plain wrong! -Kevo

  • Wise up, Wisecup!

    I don’t belong to MoveOn.

    I ‘belong’ to the Constitution.
    I ‘belong’ to the bill of rights.

    I belong to the freedoms that cheap demagoguery and political dogma
    can’t even begin to understand.

    What a chump.

  • It is unAmerican to tell people that they must purchase an inferior product, half of which is built in Mexico, and portions of which are manufactured in Red China. (What—you thought all those electronic components are still made on this side of the Pacific Rim? Get a clue, people….)

    Good point.

    Hopefully someday America can strive to always produce a better product, and make that the basis of a continuingly dominant economy.

    FWIW, Wisecup is a humorous name. He should try to start a bra manufacturing plant or something, do something with it. Maybe athletic supporters.

  • Actually, Toyota’s right down there with the rest of them, working hard to destroy the Safe Climate Act while vigorously supporting Congresscritter Dingle-Dingell’s “40% increase in mileage” bill.

    Yep, increasing the Toyota Tahoe from 10mpg to 14mpg will really accomplish the goal, eh?????

    As to Trent, well, with anyone named Trent you pretty much know what you’re getting. That’s right up there with Jared. How did parents go soooo wrong over the past 30 years with these Make Sure They’re An Asshole names???

    I bet little Trent got chased home from school a lot.

  • “It’s un-American to use stalking and harassment as a means to score cheap political points.”

    I actually agree with this, in the sense that it goes against American aspirations and ideals, rather than in the sense that it goes against actual political practice. The fact that Republicans do this as well doesn’t make it OK.

  • “It’s un-American to use stalking and harassment as a means to score cheap political points.”

    Can’t wait to see O’Reilly and Malkin take him to task for this bit of heresy.

  • Does anyone give liberals any credit that we don’t accuse conservatives of being un-American though we could easily come up with our own arbitrary laundry list?

    I’d hate to think people take our impatient, scornful silence as acceptance of the charge.

    Can someone Photoshop some foam around his mouth? Maybe that’d help.

  • I had a close encounter with this Wisecup wiseguy a few months ago. I went to a suburban-Detroit Barnes & Noble store on a weekday night to hear a panel discussion on Al Gore’s new book. There were maybe 75 people in the audience, and as you would expect the audience members were almost exclusively liberal Dem types.

    During the question-and-answer part of the program, this Wisecup guy raises his hand, gets called on, stands up, introduces himself as Rep. Knollenberg’s chief of staff, then starts ranting about how Al Gore is a hypocrite because he owns a large house and sometimes flies in private jets. He then talks at length about how Al Gore wants to make changes to our society that would effectively destroy the domestic auto industry and thus the economy of Michigan. It seemed to me that he was getting a charge out of blasting Gore in an almost vicious manner in front of a crowd of Gore fans.

    For the first minute or two of Wisecup’s rant, the other audience members listened politely, but as he continued to blast Gore (and, by implication, those who like Gore), with no question and no end in sight, it dawned on people that he planned to talk as long as people would allow him to talk. The crowd then shouted him down. He tried to continue with his rant/filibuster for a while, then finally gave up and sat down.

    I still haven’t figured out why this Republican clown did what he did that night. Why was he even there? Was he still on the clock, working for Knollenberg? Did he think he was somehow furthering Knollenberg’s interests by attending and speaking up? Was he trying, in his own ineffective way, to win some hearts and minds? Did he attend the discussion on his own, just for fun? Is it simply that he just really enjoys being a political provocateur, and would rather do that then stay at home at night and watch Fox News Channel? I don’t know.

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