“Disingenuous” Is a Polite Word For It

[Pamela Troy]

Last week, the day after Dr. George Tiller was murdered by an anti-abortion activist in the vestibule of a church, Tucker Carlson was asked the following question by a Washington Post reader:

Over the past few years, Bill O'Reilly has made the following comments about Dr. Tiller:

- He "destroys fetuses for just about any reason right up until the birth date for $5,000."
- He's guilty of "Nazi stuff,"
- a moral equivalent to NAMBLA and al-Qaida
- "This is the kind of stuff that happened in Mao's China, Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Soviet Union"
- "operating a death mill"
- "has blood on his hands"
- "executing babies about to be born

Tucker, I'm not saying Billo wanted some kook to kill him, but isn't this playing with fire?

To which Carlson replied:

Every one of those descriptions of Tiller is objectively true. I sincerely think it's appalling that he was murdered. But Tiller was a monster, no doubt.

This week, Carlson got asked another question on the subject of abortion:

if Roe v. Wade is overturned and abortion could once more be made illegal in various states, what is the appropriate punishment for providing or obtaining an abortion? Who should be charged? The abortion provider? The woman? Those pressuring the woman to obtain an abortion? Is it pre-meditated murder? Manslaughter? Generally, those questions never seem to get addressed, but is it worthwhile to ban abortions when we shrink from imposing any penalties? What is the use of such a law? Thanks.

Carlson’s response:

Good question. Let me dodge it: Laws exist not simply so we can punish those who break them, but to inform those who are considering doing so. They're moral statements, in other words. Let's start by agreeing that abortion is wrong, because it so clearly is, and then decide what we think the penalties ought to be. You can hardly do one without doing the other first.

If we wind up deciding to treat abortion like suicide -- illegal but rarely prosecuted -- that'll be a huge improvement over where we are today, when many politicians (Obama included) can't even work up the strength to condemn abortion for purposes of sex selection.

I guess it would be too much to ask that Carlson do a little soul-searching about why his first instinct is to dodge the question.

Maybe because answering it honestly and directly, especially given his loathsome response to the Tiller murder, would be just too revealing and too ugly.

No doubt if Roe V. Wade is overturned and women and physicians find themselves stuck in prison or even executed for performing, seeking, or undergoing abortions, he'll pronounce himself suitably "appalled."

[MineralMan]

1. Rhymes with Tucker...

[gratuitous]

4. Actually rhymes with Brother Tucker

And more in line with my own religious sensibilities of calling folks "Brother" or "Sister."

[Jazzgirl]

8. That is my name for him.

n/t

[ismnotwasm]

2. Much too polite

Falafel O'Reilly. Why is he still around anyway? Misogynist of the first order and major creep.

And Carlson--tool.

[Hello_Kitty]

3. God I hate that fucking little weasel!

[Stephanie]

5. Entitled rich kid, flunked out of prep school, never finished college, failed talk show host, LOSER

Reduced to hosting game shows and making an ass of himself on Dancing with the Stars. Who cares what he thinks? He is dumber than Dick Cheney.

http://thehill.com/cover-stories/redefining-tucker-2008...

Redefining Tucker
By Betsy Rothstein
Posted: 05/05/08 06:45 PM

Tucker Carlson isn’t much of a dancer.

He admits as much and points out that he gained weight when he trained for ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” while others carved out chiseled bodies. “I gained about eight pounds of doughnuts,” he says. “What do I know about dancing? They put me up at a hotel in L.A. with great room service. I had never danced sober before. I had only danced at bar mitzvahs and weddings.”

It comes as no surprise, then, that Carlson, who doesn’t like to comb his hair, was voted off the show first. He didn’t want to do it and said no before he said yes. His wife, Susan, whom he married at 22, convinced him.

“What are you afraid of?” she had asked, goading him into it.

The former host of MSNBC’s “Tucker” is out of a job, at least as political talk show host. The network canceled his three-year-old show in March and replaced him with David Gregory’s “Road to the White House.” Carlson remains under contract with MSNBC as a campaign correspondent through the election.

***

Here comes another never. “I never change my order,” he says; he is regular at The Palm, like his father, who is at the next table.

Carlson habitually makes the sound of a revving motorcycle, apparently to show excitement. “Varooomm,” he says, shaking his fist, when his rare filet mignon arrives beautifully on a bed of large, woven onions. He revs up later when one decaf after another arrives at the table.

***

He revels in this question-mark phase of his life because he knows that at 38, he’s not washed up.

But where will he go? “Broadway,” he jokes.

Carlson has taped a game show, soon to be released by CBS, that is already casting its second season. His ideal next step is to host “Jeopardy!” and a Sunday politics show. “I’m open to everything,” he says. “Something interesting always happens.”

***

So he got out. He went to boarding school on the beaches of Middletown, R.I., at St. Georges, where he didn’t do well. “At 14 they shipped me off. I’m always up for an adventure,” he says. He met his future wife, the headmaster’s daughter, there on the first day of 10th grade. They now have four children.

Carlson went on to Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., but never graduated.

His stepmother is Patricia Caroline Swanson, of the Swanson frozen foods family; his maternal grandmother is Roberta Fulbright Swanson, sister of former Sen. J. William Fulbright. He has one brother, Buckley, a pollster.

***

But he once got so drunk in an airport that he ended up on a flight to Cleveland when he was headed to Dallas.

[madmom]

7. Tucker and Buckley? They really hated their kids didn't they!

[gratuitous]

6. Let me see if I have this right

Abortion, while icky for Tucker to think about, is legal. Quite legal, and has been for more than 35 years all over the country. Tucker would apparently like it to be illegal, "like suicide." Uhm, okay. Why don't we just say it's illegal and forego Mr. Carlson's bizarre analogies?

So, anyway, abortion is legal, but Tucker would like it to be illegal. We just passed out of six years of the most favorable White House, Congress, and Supreme Court any fervent anti-abortionist could hope for. What legislation was proposed in Congress, signed into law by the President, and upheld by the Supreme Court during that time? Zip. Zilch. Nada. Nothing.

Was it because these folks were too timid about legislating governmental interference into private citizens' lives? Hardly; just ask Michael Schiavo. So why isn't abortion illegal, like Mr. Carlson wants it to be? Could it be because he's in a very small minority, and in the United States, we still operate (mostly) on the principle of majority rules. So, abortion wasn't made illegal.

Let us now consider the late Dr. Tiller. We already know that Tucker thinks abortion is icky, but more than that, we know that Tucker thinks Dr. Tiller was "a monster." So, while he is suitably "appalled" at Dr. Tiller's assassination in the vestibule of his church, there seems a strong inference on Tucker's part that Dr. Tiller had it coming to him. Now, why would that be? Dr. Tiller was doing something that is perfectly legal, has been for more than 35 years, and a very Republican and activist Congress, President and Supreme Court hadn't done a darn thing about it. Until Mr. Roeder acted as judge, jury and executioner, an action which appalls Tucker, but not enough that he's, you know, going to condemn it.

So, apparently, the bottom line for Tucker is that if he thinks a legal action is suitably monstrous, it's perfectly all right for a private citizen, offended by the monstrousness of it all, to blow away the offending monster.

Am I reading his carefully weasel-worded responses correctly?

[pipi_k]

9. Another self satisfied asshole

who thinks anything he doesn't believe in should be illegal.


Let's all demand that our own personal dislikes should become illegal


I would like these things to become crimes:

smoking
drinking
fast food
ugly combovers on men
excessive chest hair on men (women exempted from this)
bow ties
men named "Tucker"
testosterone