Minnesota Republican pwned by Neil Gaiman

[Chichiri]

From today's Star Tribune:

(House Majority Leader Republican Matt) Dean also singled out a $45,000 payment of Legacy money that was made last year to science fiction writer Neil Gaiman for a four-hour speaking appearance. Dean said that Gaiman, "who I hate," was a "pencil-necked little weasel who stole $45,000 from the state of Minnesota."

From Neil's twitter feed this morning:

Sad & funny. Minnesota Republicans have a "hate" list. Like Nixon did. I'm on it. They also don't like capitalism. http://t.co/FObmLGo

It's strange watching a grownup high school bully in power. But the bully vocabulary remains the same. http://t.co/FObmLGo

And for those curious how and why I made it onto the hate list, what I wrote at the time on my blog. http://bit.ly/lMxsWQ

The Cliff's Notes version: Neil does charge a lot for public speaking, in order to discourage a shitload of public speaking requests he receives that would otherwise prevent him from what he should be doing, which is writing. He was reluctant to accept $45,000 from a small public library like Stillwater, until he was told that it was a government fund that the library could not spend on books or salaries, and either had to use within a month or lose. So he accepted it, and donated it to charity.

More from Neil:

Any nice, sane Minnesota Republicans reading this, please vote for someone who isn't a bully with a hate list next time.

A few hours later:

Bizarrely, the twit who called me a pencilnecked weasel has posted my blog on his and claims copyright on it. http://bit.ly/j9dEwk #mad

Neil Gaiman, it should be noted at this point, has over a million and a half followers on Twitter -- a substantial fraction of whom went to visit Matt Dean's blog the moment Neil posted that link. The result was a "problem" that has become somewhat common with Neil, so much so that he has invented a hashtag to describe it. Visit the link yourself to see what I mean.

A few minutes later:

Bugger. Did not mean to #neilwebfail the twit's site. Sorry.

[Chichiri]

1. Bump for great justice!

[MountainLaurel]

2. Was reading those today

Another reason why we love Neil Gaiman!

[Ikonoklast]

3. When in a battle of wits, one must first ascertain that one has the proper ammunition.

Dean tried to use his flyswatter mental abilities against a thermonuclear device.

[Viking12]

4. Dean is in Bachmann's district. Surprise?

I went to high school with him. I haven't seen him since but, boy, did he turn out to be an asshat.

[Chichiri]

5. Was he, in fact, a bully?

[Viking12]

6. No.

I actually remember him as a pretty nice guy, a wimpy guy on the cross country team. I'm guessing he's become a bully either a) to compensate for some some perceived slight as a youth and/or b) through osmosis hanging around modern day Republicans.

[crickets]

7. Priceless.

:rofl: