Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Craziest Republican of the Day: Leo Berman


There are so many crazy conservatives to choose from in Texas, starting at the top with Gov. Rick Perry, neo-secessionist, but let's go with state Rep. Leo Berman, who at an up-with-Glenn Beck event over the weekend (attended by the governor), said this:

I believe that Barack Obama is God's punishment on us today, but in 2012, we are going to make Obama a one-term president.

Now, there's nothing wrong, I suppose, with trying to make Obama a one-term president. That's Republican partisanship for you. But how exactly is Obama "God's punishment on us"? Who's "us"? And what did "we" do to deserve punishment?

Perhaps for civil rights, or for being an open and tolerant society (in general, if not so much in Texas)?

Let's just say that Berman has an ugly history of racism and nativism. As Raw Story reports, he has "built a track record of controversial comments. Last year, activists launched a now-defunct Web site, CensureLeo.com, after Berman told a Chinese-American lawyer to 'kiss his ass' and 'go home,' presumably to China." And in 2007 he "delivered what one blogger called a 'hate-filled speech' in which he claimed that 'illegal immigrants were bringing Polio, the plague, leprosy, tuberculosis, malaria, Chagas Disease and Dengue Fever to the United States in alarming numbers."

Charming... and, these days, oh-so-Republican.

Because however extreme his views, he's more than welcome, it would seem, in the Republican mainstream, particularly in Texas, where craziness, like everything else there, comes in huge sizes.

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5 Comments:

  • It is too bad, in the United States that, presently, free speech is misconstrued as craziness.

    Why does one person have the right, through the use of free speech to call someone crazy, however, the person who is referred to as crazy is condemned for expressing a verbal opinion?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:11 PM  

  • This is absolutely not a free-speech issue -- at no time has anyone put a gag on Berman. He hasn't been censured or punished or hindered or prevented from expressing his personal opinion of the president of the United States. However, as an elected public servant, Berman's openly expressed viewpoints are a matter of record, and fair game for critical analysis and comment. And, mercifully, that would include calling out this redneck yahoo crackpot for all the hate speech that flows from the septic tank that doubles for his "brain."

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:06 PM  

  • This is absolutely not a free-speech issue -- at no time has anyone put a gag on Berman. He hasn't been censured or punished or hindered or prevented from expressing his personal opinion of the president of the United States. However, as an elected public servant, Berman's openly expressed viewpoints are a matter of record, and fair game for critical analysis and comment. And, mercifully, that would include calling out this redneck yahoo crackpot for all the hate speech that flows from the septic tank that doubles for his "brain."

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:07 PM  

  • I listened to this guy on CNN last night & he is scary. Scary because we as a country had come so far-or I thought we had in the last 50 yrs. Now we have a black President and it shows that the ugly racisim was just lying below the surface waiting to be released;it actually never went away. No matter how much evidence this guy would be shown that Obama is an American citizen he would still not believe it because he doesnt want to believe it. If you had 20 historic americans in the room when he was born this guy would question the integrity of those Americans. This person is a sad individual who if born 200 hundred yrs ago would have had a plantation and slaves and prevented slaves from ever being free.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:50 AM  

  • Leo Berman - The Joke of East Texas
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKfVCxJ_z54

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:03 AM  

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