August 26, 2013
Marc Caputo
The Miami Herald

RE Sticks & Stones or is Debbie Wasserman-Schultz really an “unamiable dunce”? Some comments on your column in today’s Herald about civility and the absence of same in American politics.

Mr. Caputo,

Your lack of knowledge about the rough and tumble world of American politics is clear.

Start with the campaigns of 1800 and 1828 – the two dirtiest campaigns in American History. That they earned their laurels before electricity is a testament to American exceptionalism.

It is an inconvenient truth, one that modern American Liberals are always ready to shove down their convenient memory hole, that the Democratic Party and its dead tree shill, the New York Times called Abraham Lincoln a “baboon”. That’s Lincoln, as in President Lincoln. He was in charge of the war to end slavery. That’s the war that neither the Democratic Party nor the New York Times supported.

It is in the nature of a free people to speak with sharp elbows, particularly in political campaigns.

I have been particularly critical of Little Debbie since her days in the Florida legislature. I have and will continue to call her many names, “dunce” not being one of them.

For someone who claims to have 2 degrees, including a Master’s, in Political Science from the University of Florida, her lack of knowledge of the History of free speech, particularly political speech, is appalling.

Beginning in the agora, continuing into the forum, strengthened at Runnymede, nutured in 1688, bursting forth in 1787, speech has always been the most fragile of our freedoms. It is Important to note that these freedoms are ours at birth, “gifts from beyond the stars”. These rights are not granted by any government. Governments can either restrict or codify them. They cannot “bestow” them.

Debbie the dunce? No.

Debbie the fascist thug? Maybe.

Debbie the thin skinned whiner? Absolutely.

Debbie the meaner than cat shit hissing Hecate? Of course. That’s Debbie.

Why else would she send the coppers, men with badges and guns, after me for something I wrote?

On the morning of September 18, 2001 2 members of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Agent Thomas, AKA “good cop” and Agent Mineva, AKA “bad cop”, came to my house to question me about things I had written about Debbie Debbie.

My first thoughts were “chilling effect” followed quickly be “slippery slope”.

If I had said something threatening I would have been arrested. If I had said something actionable I would have been sued. Since neither happened the only conclusion left is that she suffers from “non-malodorous fecal matter syndrome”, a disease commonly found in shrill modern American Liberals.

“I know what I can do”, she said. “I’ll send the cops after him. That will shut him up.”

It didn’t.

Nat Hentoff, with one glaring exception, is as modern an American Liberal as one can be. He wrote a book called “Free Speech For Me But Not For Me”.

Debbie validates the title every day.

2 years ago, true to her essential “jackboot, brown shirt” nature, she introduced a resolution on the floor of the House banning the term “Obamacare” as hate speech The first response of a card carrying modern American Liberal is to restrict someone else’s rights. 8 days ago, on the Michael Putney TV show, she called the Affordable Health Care Act “Obamacare”.

It took less than 2 years for “Obamacare” to become an acceptable, indeed appreciated and admirable word for this Rube Goldberg nightmare Even the President uses it. [May I add that I think President Obama is the best President we have? I can? Good.] 149 years after her predecessors called Lincoln a “baboon” the stench remains.
Was that the original “code word”?

Would it be a “personal attack” on her if I were to ask for a bit of sunshine to be cast on her personal finances? Her husband is an employee, shareholder, and member of the Board of Directors of Community National Bank. Debbie co-sponsored legislation that directly benefitted the bank, her husband and her family. Even if she files an individual tax return she still benefited from it.



It may not have been illegal but, by God, it isn’t right, either then or now
.
Can we add “politics” to “love and war” when saying what is or isn’t “fair”?

Who knows what’s at the end of the feared “slippery slope”. Probably more than a “chilling effect”.

Let every voice be heard.

Even the ones we don’t like.

Particularly the ones we don’t like.






KEVIN SMITH