Our extreme wanna-be teabagger Lt. Governor Andre Bauer
defended his comments relating poor people to stray animals.
"There's no way that I was trying to tie animals to people, but what I was trying to talk about is the dependency culture, and just like when you feed an animal, you create a dependency."
Well, Andre, that's a given. When you create life, you create a dependency. But, you're not familiar with that. I am. And I know what's it like to fall on tough times.
I pay taxes, Andre. That's my "earning" of government assistance. They're paid for. When I worked, my employer paid unemployment taxes. The unemployed earned theirs.
South Carolina's Democratic Party chair Carol Fowler doesn't buy Bauer's explanation.
"Andre Bauer's crude utterances once again reveal his immaturity and poor judgment," responded Carol Fowler. "Bauer is a bachelor who has never once had to worry about feeding a child of his own. His notion of punishing children by not feeding them because their parents missed a PTA meeting flies in the face of basic South Carolina values."
Here's the kicker, however. Not one Republican gubernatorial candidate has come out denouncing what Bauer said.
There's a reason not a single Republican candidate has stepped forward to condemn Andre Bauer's comments saying poor people are stray animals - because Bauer is only expressing mainstream thought in the SC GOP.
Henry McMaster, Nikki Haley and Pretty Boy Barrett know that repudiating Bauer will cost them votes in the June primary. But their silence isn't just a political calculation - it's a core conviction of the party they represent.
The first thought of every GOP candidate who heard Bauer's remarks wasn't shock and disgust; it was, "Damn, that son of a bitch beat me to the punch."
I second Tim's take because it's the truth. Bauer has seen that crazy wins now in Massachusetts with Scott Brown and he's just starting to play to it. If you visit his Facebook fan page, you'll see a photo of Bauer cuddling with Senator-elect Brown.
But it's deeper. It's a slap in the face to all those who are unemployed. Those who are single mothers needing government assistance to survive. Those who just can make it on their own. Those who have fallen on tough times when once before they were living high.
I was in church today and my pastor gave a sermon - entitled "Jesus is a LIBERAL!" - and the pastor emphasized the facts that Jesus would be considered a modern-day liberal because of his social stances and importance of taking care of the poor and the needy. This sermon came from a life-long conservative.
The morality argument is destroyed now with the outlandish comments Bauer made - and with Sanford's infidelity - and what needs to happen is these so-called Christians need to hold them accountable for using the word Christian as a political football. It's embarrassing that people continually vote themselves downward when they see someone from the Religious Right use God as a tool rather than what his true purpose is.
Yes. Pay great detail to salvation. But do not act upon this Earth as if you are cashing in or punching a ticket to Heaven. There's more on this planet to do.
Denouncing people like Bauer for his unthoughtful, unintelligent and uncompassionate comments is a starting place.
So, SCGOP... When will you stand behind those Christians you so dearly count on to put you into office? Or, will you continue to enslave them to rhetoric while the truth gets trampled.
Fowler says Bauer's comments do not stand with South Carolina values...
I am still waiting to see whether that is true or not.
Again Chuck, God meant it as a choice. We need to choose to help the needy, not have a government pass higher taxes to pay for the needy.