Sunday Discussion Group

January 21, 2007

The Beast magazine offers a nice, light-hearted cover story in its new issue that’s almost custom-made for a Discussion Group: “The Most 50 Loathsome Americans.”

The Beast listed 50; I suggest we narrow things down to our top five.

For what it’s worth, here’s who came out on top of the magazine’s list:

5. O.J. Simpson: Simpson’s gruesomely detailed, revoltingly coy confession of multiple homicide in the nixed If I Did It may have finally lost him the supportive denial of even his most alarmingly loyal fans. 2006 saw O.J. finally give up the exhausting search for the real killers and focus his energy on more thoroughly demonstrating his lack of remorse or respect for his victims. The project was so repulsive it was cancelled in a rare victory of decency, answering the old question: “How horrible does a person have to be for Rupert Murdoch to balk at doing business with him?”

4. Mark Foley: In a year filthy with miscreants masquerading as moral authority, the former Congressman’s well publicized sexual advances toward clearly freaked out underage male pages still stood out like an erection in sweatpants. As pure smokescreen or a way to meet victims, served as co-chair of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children.

3. George W. Bush: This spoiled, whiny pinhead is, regrettably, responsible for the nauseating fiasco he’s made of America and the world. Employs an effective strategy of creating so many deplorable scandals that it’s impossible for anyone to keep up, guaranteeing that most will slip by with little notice.

2. Richard Mellon Scaife: The patron saint of rich radical right wing fu**heads. Thanks to a massive fortune bequeathed to him by his superior ancestors and an unhinged reds-under-the-bed paranoia, hateful billionaire Scaife has deluged the worst elements of conservative opinion ghettos with cash, creating an evil empire of artifice. If you’re a malicious prig who can’t distinguish between Democrats and Stalinists or you’re just an amoral mercenary asshole, hang around long enough and Scaife will give you a million dollars.

1. John McCain: McCain has so successfully snowed America the he could go around kicking puppies all day and he’d be applauded for his authenticity. In reality, McCain is as phony as slimeballs come, having reversed his positions on Roe v. Wade, Bush’s tax cuts, the gay marriage amendment and Jerry Falwell in the last year alone, while the mainstream press looked away and whistled nonchalantly.

What, no room for Coulter?

I give The Beast a lot of credit for keeping it down to just 50; there are plenty of worthy candidates. Coming up with a top five is bound to leave some real doozies out.

We’ve got our loathsome media figures… (O’Reilly, Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, Malkin, Gibson, Beck, D’Souza, Novak)

… our loathsome lawmakers (McCain, Inhofe, Brownback, Ted Stevens, Tancredo, Steve King, Patrick McHenry)

… our loathsome right-wing personalities (DeLay, Norquist, Ralph Reed, George Allen, Rick Santorum)

… our loathsome religious-right figures (Dobson, Falwell, Robertson, Ted Haggard)

.. and our loathsome administration officials (Bush, Cheney, Snow, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, Rice, Gonzales).

I’m sure I’m missing plenty of worthy candidates. What does your list look like?

I’m still trying to figure out how these guys names Jesus Christ as an “American.” I always thought he was a Nazarene. For the stupid notion that everything is “American,” I shall have to include the Beast as being among the top five. Damned imperialist swine….

As for the other four, it’s Tony Show, George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Tony Snow.

Yes—I know I named Tony Snow twice—he’s worth naming twice. I’d have named him more than that, but it would have kicked Bush and Cheney off the list….

  • Though he from Australia and perhaps not considered an American by some, Rupert Murdoch should have made the list. I would count him, since he spends so much time in this country and, if my memory is correct, has become a US citizen.
    Also, I would have loved to see Barbara Bush on the list, for always insisting her family is above public criticism and imparting to her children a sense of absolute entitlement.

  • Whoa, that’s really hard. I remember an Olbermann “Worst Person In The World” a day or two ago where he actually named three worst persons- one was a mother who ran over her kid with her truck or something like that, and the other two were Bill O’Reilly, maybe, and some other right wing personality. I can’t remember for sure who they were or what he said they did but I remember thinking that what he said they did sounded pretty bad to me, in spite of the mother running her kid over.

    I guess I’m just not an encyclopedic source of all this stuff. I’ve heard of so much from the blogs but I just don’t absorb all the villainy that well. I can’t attempt a good top five.

  • How about Micky Mouse? Between The Path to 9/11, and the KFSO adventure, the mangy mouse deserves a mention. I realize he’s not a real person. But the same could be said for almost anyone in the Bush regime, who all belong, but will not fit into a worst 5 list.
    However, I will single out the Condiliar – just for making my skin crawl.
    A few months ago, I would have put McCain on the list. But he’s become such a hollow parody of a right wing politician, that it seems a waste of a spot.
    Joe Lieberman is top 5 material and seems committed to claiming the top honors. Just more evidence how out of touch he is, he’ll never overtake Bush or Cheney.

  • I just want to mention George Allen, though, for giving that standard, canned “I’m such a sensitive nice guy” concession speech after he lost his campaign, and Condi after her remarks about Boxer- I really wanted to write something about that because it really showed, I thought, how bad the administration is.

    I know canned remarks are pretty low on the list of evils but these are the two that stuck out in my mind.

    I’m still trying to figure out how these guys names Jesus Christ as an “American.”

    A more generic “most loathsome Americans”- how do the white, racist christian Americans know that God is a white racist? Do they ever think, “What if I’m wrong, will God be mad at me for supposing he wants us to screw over more than half the population instead of ‘love thy neighbor’?” It boggles the mind how much these people supposedly know about what God thinks and wants them to do.

  • 1. The Bush Crime Family — since they’re each merely manifestations of the same thing, much like Hindu or Chinese or Aztec “deity” avatars or apparitions, it’s neither necessary nor possible to single them out; they are an undifferentiated bundle of pure evil.

    2. TeeVee “news” people — same thing, sorta: since they’re all just pretty-face place-holders in the nightly parade of what their corporate masters want us to think of as news and analysis (while they pump our heads full of motivations to buy), it doesn’t make any difference which one we single out.

    3. The Republican Party — until recently they were all of a kind, spouting the party line on all occasions (and the few who lately seem to be independent are themselves candidates for nomination and so must distance themselves from Shrub). I’ll never be rich enough or mean enough to be a Republican.

    4. TeeVee Preachers and Sex Predators (is there a distinction?) — They all make a practice of preying on naive, innocent people who trust them for whatever reason. I find genuine con artists who take advantage of people’s foolish pride to be genuinely entertaining; these, by exploiting people’s good qualities, are truly loathsome (as well as being ugly).

    5. Barbara Bush — she not only rakes in a sizable income through the prisons she owns, not only told those people from Katrina that considering their background (i.e., black) they were doing pretty well living in a shit filled football stadium for a week, not only said she didn’t want to soil her pretty mind learning about her family-caused casualties in the Quagmire … towering over all such things she spawned the scum at the core of the Bush Crime Family.

  • Gotta put Dobson and Cheney in there – maybe in place of Foley and Simpson – after all, as bad as they are, the number of Foley’s and SImpson’s victims are limited – Cheney’s and Dobson’s – countless

  • Top 5? I could name 20 that I would put in the Top 5. That reminds me of Robert DeNiro in Midnight Run where he tells Charles Grodin:

    I have two words for you: “Shut the fuck up.”

    But seriously, can you do any better (worse?) than Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Snow?

    I think an even tougher one is the 5 worst policy decisions made by these scumbags. I’ll have to think about that one.

  • There are many worth candidates for this list, but the top five really has to include the most deluded, arrogant, self-righteous, and hypocritical. In my book that has to include Bush, Lieberman, and McCain at the top of the list. All three of these should have been tarred and feathered long ago, considered untouchable in public life.

    After that it becomes harder, but I think it is important to single out one of the stable of Fox Big Lie propagandists, and who better than architect Rupert Murdoch? To round out the list, we need to include at least one of the theocons, and Dobson is my pick for the worst of that lot.

  • In the same, cheating, vein as “the mangy mouse” (JoeW) that offers a corporation as a person, I would suggest lazy political journalists collectively to the extent they spread demonstrably false reThug talking points as CW (conventional wisdom) that frames Democratic politicians in a highly unfavorable and incorrect light. Al Gore springs to mind as one the media loves to savage with false narratives – ” he said he invented the internet. ha ha ha.” The flip, of course, is their insistence on framing reThugs in a wholey underserved positive light, as you noted above on #1 McCain “while the mainstream press looked away and whistled nonchalantly.”

    If they would just do their jobs, as the wonderful Dan Froomkin (Washington Post) noted the other week after the McClatchey reporters produced an article that produced the following memorable headline in the Miami Herald “Bush version of Iraq ignores facts.” Hilariously, he suggested that political reporters should all clip that story and post it on their wall as an example of what real journalism looks like.

  • I I would suggest lazy political journalists collectively to the extent they spread demonstrably false reThug talking points as CW (conventional wisdom) that frames Democratic politicians in a highly unfavorable and incorrect light.

    And if we were to pick just one of the representatives of this class as an exemplar, I would pick Cokie Roberts and add her as the sixth person on my top five list. There’s lots of competition for the smuggest and snidest of these Friedmans, Brooks’s, Millers, and Liassons, but I’ll vote for Cokie.

  • With so many Republicans acting as if they want to be on the top five of this list, this is a truly impossible task. But no mention of the Supreme Court? Where’s Scalia and Thomas? The right wing blogosphere went unscathed on the list and there’s a goldmine over there. No David Brooks? He deserves an emmy for loathsome TV commentary alone. The WaPo and WSJ editorial boards will have a special place in hell reserved for them. The religious right teams with options unmentioned. Are you kidding me … Fred Phelps isn’t on the list?

    The way to solve this issue is to pull a Time magazine and post a mirror on the cover of the Weekly Standard and say the most loathsome person is a tie for all who see themesleves in the reflection. Or maybe that’s just the list of “dishonorable mentions.”

  • After reading the interview in Salon, I pick Dinesh D’Souza as particularly loathsome.

    Bush and Cheney are more loathsome than McCain although as Taio once said,”he makes his own skin crawl.” But McCain hasn’t actually had the power to kill a lot of people yet.

  • I’d put Bush #1 and give the others a “dishonorable mention.” The repercussions of what ’43 has done, hasn’t done and yet may do will have worldwide implications for some time to come. To the extent that the future is a reaction to the past and present, he has changed the course of history and, as far as I can see, without one step in a positive direction.

  • GWB has to be number one because – whether he likes it or not – “the buck stops here.”

    Cheney #2 for the crime of being Cheney.

    Murdoch #3 for creating Fox News and all his other crimes against civilization. Boy, if there could have been just one more fatality in World War 1, his father is my candidate.

    Dobson #4 for his threat to take civilization back to the Dark Ages.

    Lieberman #5 for his treason.

  • all the above along w/anal cunt (coulter) and her wannabe twinsie, the toxic twat (malkin).

    ps, as i’ve said before, i’m a grrl and i have no reservations about calling these bitches that which they truly are.

  • Loathsome doesn’t quite work as a criterion – our prisons hold a good many people who are far more loathsome than any of the people on the list, plus we have large numbers of neo-nazis, holocaust deniers, and so on who are hugely loathsome but largely faceless and ineffectual. However, if we were to discuss people in public life that we would most like to see in jail, or people who would most improve the national dialog by retiring from public life, that’s a little easier.

    Bush first, because he scores so high on the scale of potential plus actual damage.

    I’d put Rove second. (I think you really missed out by not mentioning him.)

    Scaife is an inspired choice. Third.

    Beyond that, there are so many options.

    I can’t imagine such a list without Limbaugh and Coulter very near the top.

    A whole bunch of Republican politicians would have qualified (Delay first, then Gingrich, Norquist, Santorum, Allen, Rumsfeld, Cheney, and a host of others, even before getting to Reed and Foley), except that most of them just dropped entirely off the scale by becoming totally irrelevant.

    The religious right never stops giving in this category. Falwell, Reed, Haggard, Hovind, D. James Kennedy, Robertson,….. The list is nearly enldess, and I’m having trouble picking one as far worse than the others. And some of the intelligent design proponents are remarkably loathsome.

  • Sorry, but the only hard part here is whether Bush is No. 1 and Cheney is No. 2, or whether it is the other way around. Aside from the obvious potty jokes, I would just put them in a tie for No. 1. They have trashed the world, and they are proud of themselves for doing it. It will take us years — perhaps decades — to undo the mess that they have made. Enough said.

  • Here’s a few names I’d like to add:

    Kate O’Bierne – a total turd. Throw her hack of a husband in there with her

    Michael Savage – can’t forget this mouthy douchebag

    The entire “news division” at Faux News – they should have their own category

    Samuel “Strip-search Sammy” Alito – an unctuous, amoral fraud

    Jean “Shit” Schmidt – I’d like to see Murtha choke the life out of this bitch

    There’s bound to be more. These are just the ones I can think of quickly.

    Oh, and don’t forget “Dame” Judy Miller, a lying whore if there ever was one.

  • Timpanist: Oh, and don’t forget “Dame” Judy Miller, a lying whore if there ever was one.

    damn judy miller and the paper she shat all over which permitted her fucking bullshit.

  • 1. Shrubwit
    2. Cheney
    3. David f’ing Addington, John f’ing Yoo
    4. Perle/Ledeen
    5. Murdoch
    6. Kissinger
    7. Norquist
    8. Dobson/Fallwell
    9. Rice
    10. Tom piece ‘o crap Delay

    And lesser but still barf worthy:

    1. Karen Hughs
    2. Kristol jr.
    3. Kenneth Y. f’ing Tomlinson
    4. Lieberman
    5. This week’s current whining pissant: Thomas Friedman

  • Burro,
    If we could:
    Elevate Bill Kristol up with Perle and Ledeen and
    add Pat Robertson and Fred Phelps at #8,
    you’ve pretty much spoken for me.

    I also would add a special category for those whose talents are limited to finding a means to profit from the actions of top tier enfants terrible:
    > Those who personify and appeal to the lowest Common Denominator: Coultergiest, Savage, Beck, Malkin, etc.
    > Those who seize the “free market opportunities” afforded by war and natural disaster: Haliburton, MZM, etc.
    > Those who use their postions of power to feather a nest or two: Cunningham, and others yet to be completely crushed under the wheels of justice.

    Plus, like some others, I think ol’ Bar Bush deserves the Miscongeniality award.

  • Kristol can go right to the top of any list of loathsome luminaries. But Kristol, like Lieberman, prides himself on parading his neo-con predilictions in public and I didn’t want him getting a big head thinking that his public fascistiskkk brown nosing had earned him a place with the real heavies. His yapping is incessent and predictable. He’s irritating background noise. And he’s increasingly taking on the Death Mask pallor of Robert Novak. Right wing dementia is taking it’s toll.

  • So many choices. I need to use some Republican Math here. You know, in the same way BushCo (TM) pretended 160,000 soliders were enough to subdue and keep peace in a country the size of Iraq, I’m going to pick a few people but each person will represent a number of other people:

    1. George Wanker Bush – Which includes every single one of his cronies/appointees. Stand up Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Gonzales, Brown, Saurbrey … would you like a blind fold? Last cigarette?

    2. Denny Hastert – And his fellow Repukelicon congress critters for his role in the Foley Fiasco (including the infamous maf54 himself). “It’s homophobia, it’s a prank, it’s a Democratic plot!” No, you fat sweaty fuck it’s a plain old pervert you kept around so you could hang on to a seat in the House.

    3. John Q. Republican voter in 2004 – Some have since repented of their mistake. However, I believe there were warning signs a plenty that the planet did not need Four More Years. The RV who is pouting because BushBrat lost interest in the “Sanctity of Marriage” after he re-elected President Disgrace to Carbon-based Life Forms should ooze back under its rock and die.

    4. Tel-Evangelists/Mega-Church pastors – How can you wave a Bible around all day and not ever read the fucking thing? Or is your copy filled with cash you’ve stolen from your credulous followers? You’re extra loathesome because you cause some atheists to hope there IS a God and a Hell just so you can receive a Divine Smackdown and people don’t need that sort of confusion.

    5. John Q. Sub/Urban SUV Driver – When DC is sweltering under its 15th consecutive day of Code Dead Air Quality, guess who is in part to blame? You don’t need it to drive from your house to the gym and you never go any where an SUV might actually make sense you pampered arse hat! Is there anything more laughable than an “off road vehicle” with a paint job worth more than a Honda Civic? Only your delusion that it keeps you safe/compensates for your personal defects. Plus I nearly got taken out AGAIN yesterday and I’m starting to wonder if I could justify putting a bullet in your radiator as self defense. Hang up the god-damned cell phone, stop doing your hair, reading that map, jerking off, shouting at your kids, drive to the nearest Subaru dealer and get a Forrester.

    There. Five.

  • I’d have to put myself at the top of the list for thinking so badly of so many people except, thank goodness, I’m not American.

    P.S. I mean: Thank goodness I’m not in any real danger of having to put myself at the top of the list because I’m not American.

    P.P.S. It’s a pity really, because it would have been fun putting myself at the top of the list considering all the terrible things I would have to have said about myself. Of course, no one would have believed any of them.

    P.P.P.S. If I were American and had put myself at the top of the list would that have been a very un-American to have done? I suspect it would, which would have been another reason to have put myself at the top of the list.

    P.P.P.P.S. Of course, I wouldn’t have restricted myself to the top. No way. I could easily fill all five places, if I put my mind to it, which is where I would find all the loathsomeness.

    P.P.P.P.P.S. I think, after having messed up your Sunday reading so thoroughly, you will now wish that I was American so that you too could put me on your list. OTOH, maybe you wouldn’t.

    So that’s five, isn’t it?

  • The field is too large for me to choose just 5 from it.

    But I would like to register an objection to one of Beast’s choices — Pelosi. She made the list, because she’d said impeachement was off the table. Well, that only makes her a realist — you work with what you have. Besides, construction comes before destruction and I think she’s got her priorities right.

    Re TAIO’s, @25: You don’t need it (a SUV) to drive from your house to the gym.

    A walk to the gym and back would give you plenty of useful exercise. But… It took me a year to convince DH that, instead of driving to the gym (not in a SUV, but), he could walk the dog around a couple of blocks. Working out in a gym is, somehow, more prestigious… Because it has less practical value?

  • Foley scopes teenagers and builds relationships with them until they are adults then pounces.

    And that gets him in the top five?

    Simpson now, he led to the decline of American Justice. Though Lance Ito is mostly to blame for that.

    And yes I hate the fact we have the same name.

  • George Bush–Duh

    Alberto Gonzalez–Habeas Corpus Shmabeus Corpus

    Ann Coulter–There’s not many people I wish would die a horrible, violent, painful death. She’s one of them.

    James Dobson–If Jesus ever does come back, he’d slap Dobson. Hard.

    Carl Peterson–If you’re a Kansas City Chiefs fan, you understand.

  • Man, how could I have left off Abu G. I’ll tie him up with Addington and Yoo for a nice little Constitutional Destructo Team package.

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