Screw Bill Press

[montanacowboy]

this morning listening to the ONLY progressive am show on the air, Bill Press says he is giving RMoney a pass on the hair cutting incident, saying he did shit when he was in HS and everyone does stuff like that, and this is not important, move on.

Press does not friggin get it, THIS IS who RMoney IS! bully, asshole, liar, sociopath - this goes to his core, if he has one. I was so pissed I shut off Current TV and didn't even leave it on for the Stephanie Miller show. We cannot have this kind of rhetoric from our progressive voices. What the hell are you thinking Bill?

Now if I am not mistaken (DU'ers help me out here if I am wrong) Bill Press and his family were having dinner at at Wash DC restaurant when Bush the lesser walked up to his table and took him on using the F word and trashing Press for something.This happened as I recall several years back, but Press didn't do anything to stop it.

Bill Press is pathetic and I will never watch his morning show again.

[coalition_unwilling]

1. Everyone commits assault with a deadly weapon? I'm not giving

Romney a pass on it, nor should anyone else, until Romney unequivocally accepts responsibility for his actions and pleads for forgiveness. WTF?

[monmouth]

2. Great rant, I would send it on to him at CURRENT...n/t

[ellenfl]

3. as i've said before, it's assault, plain and simple.

btw, i understand that bp is an ex-man of the cloth. i disagree with his stand on the haircut thing but i can see him turning the other cheek . . . even to dubya.

ellen fl

[TeeYiYi]

4. I changed the channel...

...and I won't tune in again.

TYY

[gratuitous]

5. I see Press' point, though I don't agree with it

There are, indeed, regrettable incidents one might perpetrate or participate in while in high school, or even in a tony prep school. It may be an isolated occurrence from a long-ago past, and we are certainly talking about nearly 50 years ago.

HOWEVER, and here is where I diverge from Press (who is usually pretty smart), if an incident from long ago isn't isolated, and echoes of it show up in a person's later life, then I think we can fairly say that rather than an aberration, the behavior is part of a pattern. Is there anything in Mitt Romney's subsequent life that indicates his foray into the forced tonsorial arts in prep school was part of a pattern of behavior? For example, has he ever taunted and mocked people subject to being drafted and sent off to war when he himself was safe from conscription due to his religious obligations? Does he have a subsequent history of oppressing weaker creatures unfortunate enough to cross his path? Has he enriched himself at the expense of others who were powerless to stop him? Does he flaunt his exalted financial position and evince no understanding whatever of people who are not as well off as he? Does he consistently try to avoid responsibility for errors or mistakes of his past when his words and actions turn out to be grievously wrong? Is his sense of personal entitlement beyond anything a normal human being could recognize?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then the hijinks of prep school might be germane to the man as he is now. If the answer to several of these questions is yes, then you can be pretty much assured that as the twig was bent, so grew the child into the man. And if the to every last stinkin' one of these questions is affirmative (and plenty more beside could be so asked and answered), then you're dealing with a very important component of a man's character. It's up to the voters to decide whether they want such a person in high office, and it's up to pundits and observers of the political scene to be sure the paint as complete a picture as possible of such a man.

[PatSeg]

9. Very well said

I have known people who did some pretty cruel things when they were kids or teenagers, but went through some major transformation later on. They would express extreme guilt and regrets for their youthful misdeeds, much like some of Romney's classmates did.

Mitt, however, has shown no regrets and adds further insult to injury by claiming he doesn't remember the incident. His adult life seems to mirror his youthful indifference to the feelings of people he perceives as less than him.

[Peregrine Took]

6. I guess Bill was a bully too?

I know the meme today is "we were all mean in h.s." Uh....not really.

I was a shy little nebish who was, sometimes, pushed around by the nasties in my Catholic all girl's school. Mainly I was looking for someone to be my friend.

[PatSeg]

7. As I recall

It was Judy Woodruff and her husband Al Hunt having dinner with their very young child when GW came up and went off on a profane and drunken tantrum.

[SoCalDem]

8. Their young handicapped son

Bush is a bully too.. It starts young and stays with them

[PatSeg]

10. And all because

Hunt had written an article critical of Poppy Bush. How dare anyone criticize these superior people?

[montanacowboy]

12. oK THANKS

I wasn't sure which couple it was

[PatSeg]

14. But we all know

who the drunken, entitled bully was. And that man was elected (appointed) president of the United States. That's why I never become overly confident; anything is possible, even a Romney presidency.

[jp11]

11. Do as you please though I'd suggest you school Mr. Press first.

The incident reported isn't one of the things that 'kids' do it is one of the things sociopaths, and bullies do. It could have been a 'non-story' had Romney owned it and sincerely apologized for that behavior. Had he spent his life standing up for people like that kid he attacked with his friends or even fighting for them it would be a great moment in his history. It is clear that isn't what happened, Romney didn't learn anything from that then or now. It meant nothing to him, he attacked and bullied that young man, and he didn't even care.

His half-ass apology about possibly being 'rude' to someone but not recalling what he did was pure BS OR just shows he's a monster who doesn't even care about who he hurts. It makes no difference to him if he abuses people or makes them suffer because he doesn't ever reflect on it, it doesn't register to him. Some might do bad things to be cool but they feel bad about being an ass, Romney nope, I might have done something dumb, my bad.

[Ghost of Tom Joad]

13. but its not one incident, its a pattern of bad behavior

dog on roof speaks volumes

[ieoeja]

15. I might have myself. But "I don't remember" begs a followup.

How do you not remember holding somebody down and cutting their hair off? Is it because:

A. that is such a triffling thing to you that it is easily forgotten,

B. you've done so much things this far beyond the pale that you can not possibly be expected to remember them all,

C. you're lying, or

D. you have brain damage?


Had he at least faked an apology I might have given it a pass. Had he denied it, I would have waited for more people to come forward. But "I don't remember"?

The guy who brought this to light was one of the involved bullies himself. And he stated in the article that it was something so horrible that you could never forget it. Yet that is exactly what Romney claims.

Frankly, inability to remember such an extreme example of bullying is even worse than having perpetrated it.

It's pretty bad when, "you're lying," is the best thing you can say of the man.

[donheld]

16. I could never be that horny

[the peoples summit]

17. Wow, someone doesn't agree with you 100%

and it's curtains...Scary...