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Conservative Blogger: ‘Isn’t It Time To Euthanize Reid’s Wife?’

» 32 comments

It has become an almost tiresome game to tabulate and record the classless reactions of those on the left or the right when a political figure meets with mortal peril. Whether it’s conservatives celebrating Ted Kennedy‘s death with animal feces, or liberals crossing their fingers for Rush Limbaugh‘s chest pains to take a wrong turn, it’s apparent that ghoulish attention-seeking is not limited by political ideology. With that fact well-established, I had decided to recuse myself from this pastime, until I saw conservative blogger Dan Riehl‘s vile take on Senator Harry Reid‘s wife, Landra, and her recent car accident.

It’s so vile, in fact, that I’m having trouble zeroing in on a particular quote. Let’s start with this one:

If Democrats want so badly to abort babies because of (healthcare costs), why are we bothering with someone who has a broken neck and back at 69? It sounds to me like she’s pretty well used up and has probably been living off the taxpayers for plenty of years to begin with. Aren’t we at least going to get a vote on it?

Read the whole thing on an empty stomach, if you must. What takes the cake, though, is that when Media Matters gives him the attention he so desperately wants, he has the stones to feign outrage. Just say “Thank you.”

Before any of you even start, please spare me the “satire” excuse. This isn’t about the logical merits of Riehle’s metaphor, although even by that standard, his post is a miserable failure. It is about gratuitous cruelty, in service to the almighty hitcount. His title entreaty veers dangerously close to incitement, as well. We’ll all cross our fingers that none of that hospital’s staff reads Riehle’s blog.

In fact, I hate to even give the guy traffic, but I do hope that if you decide to check it out, you let him know what you think. I also hope that the bookers at news organizations keep this in mind next time they’re mulling a Riehle guest spot.

The point here is not to vilify conservatives. In all of these situations, the vast majority of people on each side react with decency. Obviously, though, there is some reward for those who exploit tragedy to score snarky points, or they wouldn’t keep doing it. Riehle, for example, wears Media Matters’ denunciation like a badge of honor. The message that humanity doesn’t stop at the imaginary border between left and right needs to be delivered to these people by someone they care about.

Update: As Riehl points out, I added an “e” to his name 3 out of 4 times in this post. I regret the error, and thank him for pointing this out.  Keep him in mind if you ever need a copy editor.

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  • Christine

    Tacky and tasteless? Yes. Incitement? No.

    I’ll never forget the way the Left orgasmed over Tony Snow’s death.

    This is one random “blogger” that most never heard of before now. Haven’t heard this from anyone else. Interesting that this is what spurred you to write about the subject.

  • felixw

    This blogger is a nobody. If you wanted to publicize the hateful things left-wing bloggers say on their obscure sites, you could fill up a thousand articles. Okay, this guy said something awful, but I don’t understand why it is news. Except in the topsy-turvy view of the left, in which scoring points against anyone who disagrees with them, however obscure, is the driving force of their media campaigns.

  • felixw

    I went to Wikipedia, to find out who “blogger Dan Riehl is.” But he isn’t listed in Wikipedia. So where is the news angle in an unknown person saying something stupid? Seems like the left lives for these gotcha moments, but if you want to spend your time searching through blogs for crude comments, you can keep yourself busy from now until doomsday, and merely entertain yourself.

  • Puter Boi

    Mutterings of a moron with too much time on his hands.

  • valkyrie101

    I love all these defensive comments. How about just saying: “I’ve never heard of this guy, but I condemn this type of conduct whether it comes from the right or left”?

  • ChrisNH

    As long as Leftists cheer the demise of people whose ideology isn’t theirs, then I see no reason to get angry when the Right does the very same thing. The people who feign ‘outrage’ over this blog are very clearly the same ones who hope Limbaugh or Beck die. I will concede that the ill wishes on Reid’s wife might be a bit over the top; my sincere wish is that Harry Reid himself were in a head-on collision with a vehicle carrying Nancy Pelosi. That would be addition by subtraction.

  • valkyrie101

    Why would anyone wish Limbaugh or Beck dead? They are both some of the best entertainment on TV. The rest of what you say is probably why the author of the above article felt it necessary to write his piece.

  • tjl

    ChrisNH, a typical right-wing piece of trash. My sincere wish is that you grow up.

    And FelixW and Christine apparently care enough about this “no-name blogger” to turn it into a political game. ‘You said something about Tony Snow once, so we’re allowed this one.’ Trash. Trash. Trash you all are. Thanks for stopping by, though. I does make me feel better about myself!

  • Christine

    tjl~

    Complete loser, no one said it’s okay. Blog after blog after blog danced on Tony Snow’s GRAVE!! Huffington Post, Daily Kos, Democratic Underground, all of them. Not one guy no one’s even heard of, yet this is the episode that made Tommy unable to stand it anymore?? I’m sure you need little pissant things to make you feel better about yourself daily. Completely believable.

  • valkyrie101

    Christine,
    Huffington Post. I doubt that. The only article I saw was tributary to him.

  • Christine

    valkyrie101~

    I’m not even gonna bother with you. You’re a pest. You’re wrong, as usual. And you’ve refuted nothing, as usual. All you do is nitpick and avoid the actual point. Go google around. I’m not bothering. The evidence is everywhere.

  • tjl

    OOh Christine, I pity you. So innocent in all of this. Just because you and one other lunatic on this site (what up Felix!) hadn’t heard of this guy means nothing to me.

    “Pissant things”? Ha. You are adorable!

    Listen, I don’t have all day to sit around and chat with right-wing loons. But if you want to take the eye for en eye approach — so be it. Enjoy your day And do me a favor and get out of the house at some point today! Smooches!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/John-Boyer/602168764 John Boyer

    Tommy, what is off bounds when it comes to sarcasm and point scoring?

    Riehl clearly wasn’t calling for Reid’s wife to be euthanized, but I can understand the outrage.

  • Christine

    tjl~

    Lunatic? You’re the only one ranting. I would assume you are in the house since you’re on the friggin computer, moron. You seem so so busy. HA! You shouldn’t try to talk trash since you’re a failure at it, as in all things I’m sure. You started commenting to me so don’t act like you’re put out. I wouldn’t have bothered, personally. You did.

  • valkyrie101

    Christine,
    Not to be nit picky, but please give me a link to that Huf Post article that dances on Tony Snow’s grave. As I said earlier, the only thing to do is just, everybody, agree that dancing on anyone’s grave, left or right, is not appropriate.

  • Christine

    valkyrie101~

    I didn’t say anything about articles, I said blogs, whatever the difference. Your classy Huffington Post has an obit blog where the man/woman praises dead Libs and insults dead Cons. Hilarious. He/she puts (GRL) next to the Cons. GRL = Good Riddance List for whom she will be waltzing on their graves. It’s all in the blog, though rather long. Tony Snow is on there further down the list, though not in any particular order. Also people like Heston, Helms, Buckley, etc. The other Lib websites were even worse, I should have mentioned Think Progress too. Can’t remember the other big Lib sites besides those 4 at the moment. I’m sure you know them well.

    The most egregious remarks were removed by the site a few days after Snow died due to complaints. I found some lovely comments by your fellow Libs but it was before he died so I guess that makes it ok for HuffPo. The first link is the blog, the 2nd is the only comments they didn’t remove. Daily Kos and Democratic Underground were worse but I have to go now so you’ll have to do your own research. The only reason I’m bothering this much is so I don’t get called a liar as you’re obviously insinuating.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tallulah-morehead/dead-folks_b_154862.html

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/09/12/tony-snow-thanks-makeup-a_n_64143.html

  • Cecelia

    I’ve never heard of this guy, but I condemn this type of conduct whether it comes from the right or left

  • TBDave

    I’m not gonna give Huffpo the traffic, but here’s a link to Hot Air that discusses HP’s treatment of Tony Snow’s cancer:

    http://hotair.com/archives/2007/03/27/huffpo-poster-on-tony-snow-how-could-such-a-liar-not-have-cancer/

    From the Huffpo article:

    “I hear about Tony Snow and say to myself, well, stand up every day, lie to the American people at the behest of your dictator-esque boss and well, how could a cancer NOT grow in you. Work for Fox News, spinning the truth in to a billion knots and how can your gut not rot?”

  • valkyrie101

    It is not clear from that Huf Post quote who the poster was. But I think you would agree that the full context of the quote is more revealing than the part you quoted above:
    “I admit my bias shows with these stories. I hear about Tony Snow and say to myself, well, stand up every day, lie to the American people at the behest of your dictator-esque boss and well, how could a cancer NOT grow in you. Work for Fox News, spinning the truth in to a billion knots and how can your gut not rot? I know, it’s terrible. I admit it. I don’t wish anyone harm, even Tony Snow. And I do hope he recovers or at least does what he feels is best and surrounds himself with friends and family for his journey. But in the back of my head there’s Justin Timberlake’s “What goes around, goes around, comes around, comes all the way back around, ya..”…
    Now, I’ve been brutally honest above, and may have offended some, and for that I’m sorry. Again, I don’t want Tony Snow to suffer and die of cancer. But like many this morning, I had the thought.”

  • Christine

    Why the hell has my comment been stuck in moderation for 4 HOURS??

  • Christine

    I’m gonna try to repost it. See ya.

    valkyrie101~

    I didn’t say anything about articles, I said blogs, whatever the difference. Your classy Huffington Post has an obit blog where the man/woman praises dead Libs and insults dead Cons. Hilarious. He/she puts (GRL) next to the Cons. GRL = Good Riddance List for whom she will be waltzing on their graves. It’s all in the blog, though rather long. Tony Snow is on there further down the list, though not in any particular order. Also people like Heston, Helms, Buckley, etc. The other Lib websites were even worse, I should have mentioned Think Progress too. Can’t remember the other big Lib sites besides those 4 at the moment. I’m sure you know them well.

    The most egregious remarks were removed by the site a few days after Snow died due to complaints. I found some lovely comments by your fellow Libs but it was before he died so I guess that makes it ok for HuffPo. The first link is the blog, the 2nd is the only comments they didn’t remove. Daily Kos and Democratic Underground were worse but I have to go now so you’ll have to do your own research. The only reason I’m bothering this much is so I don’t get called a liar as you’re obviously insinuating.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tallulah-morehead/dead-folks_b_154862.html

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/09/12/tony-snow-thanks-makeup-a_n_64143.html

  • http://www.karlspensen.blogspot.com Karl Spensen

    OMG I think I’m in LOVE, Christine!!1 Obviously you are TOTALLY CORRECT – most people think that the only tasteless comments about Tony Snow were in the comments section of the lib blogs!!1 That is NOT TRUE!!1 As we all know, the comments section is the most CIVIL and INFORMED part of any blog!!1 All of these SOCIOFASCIST sites had articles that were almost LITERALLY dancing on Snow’s grave!!1 It was right there on the FRONT PAGE of all of them, horrible articles making fun of him and his cancer!!1 I mean I haven’t seen them myself and I can’t seem to find any when I look, but I just KNOW these blogs were CELEBRATING because I KNOW the mind of the HATEFUL LIB!!1 Why can’t they be respectful like we were when Ted Kennedy and John Murtha died??!!1 Lord knows we True American Patriots know how to be MATURE and RESTRAINED in those situations, just like the Dane Cook of the Right, the hilarious Steven Crowder!!1
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t9Zz5q4gzA

  • Christine

    Actually it wasn’t just the comment section, psycho. Your random use of caps is a sign of mental illness. The modern day equivalent of those that used to cut and paste letters out of magazines to send ransom notes.

  • Christine

    Here’s just one blog from Kos and the comments that follow it. Took me all of 10 seconds to find so try a little harder. Jeez, I always gotta do the work for lazy Libs.

    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/7/12/9943/75678/728/550496

  • http://www.karlspensen.blogspot.com Karl Spensen

    My point EXACTLY!!1 Like I said, I KNOW that they were mocking Tony Snow’s death on the FRONT PAGES of every last one of these America-hating LIB blogs!!1 I am sick of the lib COWARDS hiding behind the “few bad apples in the comments section” defense!!1

    Christine, there is something about the way you talk that makes me want to let you dress me up in a Barack Obama mask and whip me silly with a rolled-up copy of Newsmax magazine!!1 Let’s hit up a TEA PARTY rally together and go back to my place to catch RED EYE!!1 I haven’t been this TURNED ON since I discovered AYN RAND in high school!!1

  • Christine

    Here’s the Huffington Post’s professional grave dancer. “She” loves to “waltz on the graves of dead Cons”. It’s a long blog and my comment about it wouldn’t post earlier, stuck in moderation for no reason. Anyway, read through it, and see the respect for all of the dead Cons on the list. Snow is down further, it’s not in any kind of order which is annoying.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tallulah-morehead/dead-folks_b_154862.html

  • Christine

    Anyway, my point was that both sides do it and there are much worse examples than this random blogger w/ his own website that no one reads. Why did this one guy’s comments finally get Tommy exorcised enough that he just had to break his moratorium on the subject? Makes no sense. Now I’m done w/ this topic.

  • http://www.karlspensen.blogspot.com Karl Spensen

    Christine, I used to be TOTALLY CRUSHING on you until you started using QUOTES and EXAMPLES!!1 Don’t you know that once you start doing that, you’re playing into the LIBS’ game??!!1 A true Right-Thinking American doesn’t have to JUSTIFY their arguments, they just MAKE them!!1 It’s okay, I still think you’re SUPER HOT despite your weakness!!1

  • pyrope

    For conservatives to claim to be “different” than liberals, they have to “act” different.

  • Barney

    Christopher says it’s not satire..cuz..um..he doesn’t want it to be satire.

    Uh…Tommy..it IS satire…and obviously very effective since it got under your skin. Score one for Riehle(e).

    Little tools like yourself are so playable. Would it have been more palatable to you if Riehl(e) said Reid should just give his wife pain pills and let her die…as Obammie suggested?

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