Well, now you know Obama's really in trouble. The corpse of Richard Nixon is being dragged across the stage one more time.
Richard M. Nixon made disparaging remarks about Jews, blacks, Italian-Americans and Irish-Americans in a series of extended conversations with top aides and his personal secretary, recorded in the Oval Office 16 months before he resigned as president.Disparaging Remarks! Made in 1973!! America! Wake up!!! The GOP will destroy us!
“The Jews have certain traits,” [Nixon] said. “The Irish have certain — for example, the Irish can’t drink. What you always have to remember with the Irish is they get mean. Virtually every Irish I’ve known gets mean when he drinks. Particularly the real Irish.”Apparently, these are newly released recordings — 265 more hours of Nixon talk — but it sounds like stuff we've heard a thousand times before. But what a lovely distraction for us on this wintry weekend, when we might otherwise be wondering who, among the living, doesn't have his head screwed on tight.
...“The Italians, of course, those people course don’t have their heads screwed on tight. They are wonderful people, but,” and his voice trailed off.
A moment later, Nixon returned to Jews: “The Jews are just a very aggressive and abrasive and obnoxious personality.”
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80 comments:
Oh good God.
Presumably, this is only because they couldn't dig up any really juicy fresh dirt on Warren Gamaliel Harding.
In other breaking news, Millard Fillmore sent a naval task force to assist in opening diplomatic relations with the Empire of Japan.
Commodore Perry commands.
"Virtually every Irish I’ve known gets mean when he drinks. Particularly the real Irish.”"
Inaccurate. We occasionally fight when we drink, but we're never mean about it.
Wasn't there some commentary hereabouts the other day regarding giving people a pass based upon when they were born? When was Nixon born? Didn't pretty similar info come out about LBJ? Are all of our Presidents prejudiced? Is it possible for me to stop asking questions when commenting?
"The corpse of Richard Nixon is being dragged across the stage one more time."
Love it!!
The "blame Bush" well must be running dry.
Are you ready for the snow and cold weather Althouse?
A holiday invitation to your home for snacky wackys with special cheeses would be nice.
Thanks doll.
So, Ann, when will you cease dragging the corpse of 70s feminism back onto the stage for the ritual flogging?
Apparently, never.
the Irish can’t drink. What you always have to remember with the Irish is they get mean. Virtually every Irish I’ve known gets mean when he drinks. Particularly the real Irish.”
Hold on!
I'm part Irish and I sure as hell can drink!
Do I get to call the NYT grievance office for these hurt feelings!???
I am going to Olbrich Gardens to see trains and birds and can make it after that.
Time? Dress? Gift?
Is there anybody out there with the courage to say the obvious:
Talking bluntly about racial, ethnic and national differences, real or imagined, is not such a big deal.
The real BS here is the NYT's obvious belief that such talk is original sin and will lead inevitably to the resurrection of the Third Reich.
What a bore!
I'm glad I spend half my life among Filipinos. They are completely outside this conversation. Notice that Althouse never even mentions Asians. They don't even enter her consciousness.
Filipinos know they are completely outside the conversation, so they speak bluntly and hilariously about their own racial characteristics, and about those of others.
It's really a relief to be away from the white/black obsession with this crap.
ShoutingThomas, when did you officially transform into a troll? Did you have to take a special test or something?
The "blame Bush" well must be running dry.
Well, considering Biden called OIF an Obama Administration success story, DADT is still in effect, innocent civilians will die today in Obama ordered predator drone attacks, Gitmo will be open for the entirety of the Obama presidency, there is a troop surge in Afghanistan, the NSA is conducting warrantless wiretaps as we speak, and the Obama White house is saying if we don't keep the Bush tax cuts there will be a "double dip recession," um, hell yeah!
Forget about Nixon, Ann. Will you please do a post on this?
In a Nevada debate, Obama admitted that he wasn't a particularly organized person. But that was OK because a president's core role shouldn't be organizational but inspirational: "It involves having a vision for where the country needs to go . . . and then being able to mobilize and inspire the American people to get behind that agenda for change."
Pshaw, responded Hillary Clinton, the president is really a "chief executive officer" who must be "able to manage and run the bureaucracy."
I remember this very well, she elaborated on that even more that would make perfect sense today.
Titus,
What ever happened to you taking us out to L’Etoile?
The historical record is updated to reveal they do have Nixon to kick around.
Given that the Lefties haven't raised the specter of Tricky Dick since the Serial Rapist In Chief left office, it's a sign of how scared they must be.
And I can't blame them.
Jay said...
the Irish can’t drink. What you always have to remember with the Irish is they get mean. Virtually every Irish I’ve known gets mean when he drinks. Particularly the real Irish.”
Hold on!
I'm part Irish and I sure as hell can drink!
I think he meant hold their liquor. And he was right. Most Micks don't turn into Barry Fitzgerald when they've had a few.
(I should know - 100% on Mom's side)
As an Italian, I feel like we got off rather lightly. Just a vague insult, but the addition of being "wonderful people" and a trail off.
We're cool. Carry on, Mr. Nixon.
- Lyssa
President Nixon ended the war in Vietnam.
He did what Kennedy and Johnson could not or would not do.
He bombed the hell out of Vietnam for a couple of years, declared victory and got the hell out.
Give the man credit.
As an irish-italian American, I resemble Mr. Nixon's remarks...seems to me he's right on target if you're talking about Anthony Weiner, D-NY...
@pm317
Heh. Bring on the 'Miss Me Yet' Hillary billboards - ahh, what could have been...
Nixon was of an age when the use of "ethnic shorthand" was acceptable. JFK's journals of his travels through Europe prior to WWII were replete with his "assessments of the national character" of lands he visited. LBJ also looked at ethnicity when counting votes or courting donors.
Now we are in an age when we still use ethnic shorthand, but only for singling out ethnicities and cultures for positive affirmation.
"The Wonderful Vast Majority of Muslims - Who are Peaceful"
"Wise Female Latinas"
"The Great Contributions of Recent Somali Immigrants"
"The Deep, Rich Complex Life of Black Housing Projects."
"Noble Iraqi and Afghan Freedom Lovers"
Nixon just lived in a day when you could also say the negative.
Italians are wonderful people but..
Jews are intelligent and industrious but meddling, pushy, aggressive, and largely unwelcome change agents..Look at the Bolsheviks.
The Vast majority of Arabs are peaceful, but you could say the same thing about Germans in Nazi Germany.
Hollywood is an amazing creative place when they are not being leftist tools.
Oh, please! It was a different time, before political correctness. You certainly couldn't get a show like "All In The Family" made today, because too many offended people would be picketing whatever networkd tried to do it. You couldn't make a movie like "Blazing Saddles," either. Hell, you can hardly even see it any more on the movie channels without it being bowdlerized.
On the trip back to relevancy, apparently the NYT put the car in R.
Nixon just said what everyone else thinks anyway.
I wonder how many people - even liberals - read those comments of his and privately thought, "hmm ...well that is sort of what I've noticed too."
I bet over 90% privately agree. Even the Jews, Irish, Italians, and blacks.
"Oh, please! It was a different time, before political correctness. You certainly couldn't get a show like "All In The Family" made today, because too many offended people would be picketing whatever networkd tried to do it. You couldn't make a movie like "Blazing Saddles," either. Hell, you can hardly even see it any more on the movie channels without it being bowdlerized."
No, you have that backwards. "All in the Family" was daring and funny because it had been clear for years that you shouldn't talk like that, and Archie Bunker was a funny throwback, whom, everyone knew you were supposed to hate for what he said but you had to deal with the conflict you felt when you kinda enjoyed his freedom to spout off in the old-fashioned style that had been long suppressed by the new color-blind etiquette.
What kind of half assed bigot considers the Italians a wonderful people? Any fair minded bigot would agree that they are much more annoying than the Irish or even the Jews. These fucking Quaker WASPS have their heads so far up their ass that they wouldn't recognize a true stereotype if it rubbed garlic on them. I don't know about you, but I'm getting a little fed up with Quaker WASPS.
No, you have that backwards. "All in the Family" was daring and funny because it had been clear for years that you shouldn't talk like that, and Archie Bunker was a funny throwback, whom, everyone knew you were supposed to hate for what he said but you had to deal with the conflict you felt when you kinda enjoyed his freedom to spout off in the old-fashioned style that had been long suppressed by the new color-blind etiquette.
I got the opposite message.
Archie was right about most everything. He was an extremely likeable man who didn't really give a shit about anything except his wife and daughter.
Meathead, the leftist world saving son-in-law was a thorough prig. He was a pain in the ass to everybody around him and he didn't care about anything except his own fucking halo.
Norman Lear, a confirm leftist, let the cat out of the bag against his own will.
Don't know about that, Ann.
What one of my cousins loved about "All in the Family" was, as he said, "It's just like us", meaning all his older relatives.
It was about know-it-all youth making a big show of cringing when their elders made ethnic remarks the younger generation claimed to rise above.
Until their leaders talked about fucking Jew bastards and bitter clingers and guys who would have been fetching coffee a couple of years before.
In Tapes, Squirrel! Rants About Ethnic Groups
Remember the Presidential popularity charts from the other day?
Nixon was way ahead of Obama at the same time in their tours.
likewise, I see a lot of comparisons between the Holder DoJ and Mitchell's, but I think Mitchell's was better led...
You people really are hillbillies!
My last comment was aimed at edutcher and shoutingthomas.
You people really are hillbillies!
My family first landed in America in Boone County, Kentucky.
I did a contract job in Louisville some years ago. While I was there, I attended the County Fair in Boone County.
It featured spitting and arm wrestling contests and a tractor pull.
And my grandfather ran bootleg.
Israelis felt safe during the Nixon presidency, which is all that counts. Deeds not words. If memory serves so did Ireland and Italy. Now, under The Gift To All Mankind no one feels threatened except for every natural ally of the United States. I guess it's revenge time. But hate? How could All That Is Sweetness And Light hate?
Ann Althouse said...
My last comment was aimed at edutcher and shoutingthomas.
Since we come from the same part of the country (your home in NJ was a stone's throw from my aunt), that's a stretch.
But the irony is, what I said is the way it's turned out.
PS I disagree with shout. Archie was wrong about a lot. But Stivic was a sanctimonious jerk and even Lear ended up portraying him that way.
When someone calls me a hillbilly, do they mean toothless redneck white trash living in double-wides fucking their sister?
Is that what you mean, Ann?
But we can't use the n-word, because thats an ignorant racist bigoted stereotype...
"You people...", eh?
Tsk, tsk, tsk...
I watched "All In The Family" back in the Seventies when I was a tyke, and then watched the entire series a few years ago when one of the local channels ran a couple sequential episodes every day for a few months.
Some episodes, Meathead was made a fool of for his Libtardery, and in others Archie "learned a valuable lesson". It was pretty evenhanded over all, though I do remember some lamely aggressive pro-Union/anti-corporate story lines.
WV: hypol
What the Corinthians wrote back?
When someone calls me a hillbilly, do they mean toothless redneck white trash living in double-wides fucking their daughter?
``...But Stivic was a sanctimonious jerk and even Lear ended up portraying him that way.''
He wasn't very Polish, either - in fact he didn't resemble any Poles I know. He was, however, the stereotypical leftist Jewish know-it-all.
As for the NYT doing the "Boo! Nixon!" routine, I bet everyone under 35 is rolling his (or her) eyes and thinking, "Boomers ... will they EVER get over it?"
Ann - you're sort of correct about All In the Family - but in spite of that, you still couldn't make the show today, not even if the whole thing was supposed to be one giant teachable moment.
I find the most interesting things about these types of stories to be the stories behind the by-lines.
"Adam Nagourney"
Now where have I read that name before?
Well, now you know Obama's really in trouble. The corpse of Richard Nixon is being dragged across the stage one more time.
Impossible things before breakfast time again. The professor implies:
1. The Nixon Presidential Library is in league with the White House -- the NPL released these particular tapes yesterday, not as part of a planned program to release them all by 2012, but simply to make Obama look good.
2. That the NY Times seized on this opportunity to distract from Obama's failings by running the story on page A12 of the National Edition -- right above another historical story of Eisenhower's "military industrial complex" speech. (The National Archives released the Ike documents yesterday -- I suppose they are under the control of the Executive Branch.)
Reading the NYT over the internet could obscure the former distinction between "front page" news, and news fit only for page A12.
"God bless the Irish, whom God made mad, for all their wars are happy and all their songs are sad."
I can say it 'cause i R one.
And you're right - this entire nation needs to get its head on straight, and stop electing worthless culls like this guy: DEM REP CALLS FOR CHRISTMAS CRISIS TO FORCE GOP ON TAX DEBATE Did you know? He is so honorable, he is trying to save us from ourselves because "THEY don't just use it to buy yachts and boats and more houses - they use it to buy Congress people." Thus he is justified in taking your hard-earned money. Who knew? Congressman are the new yachts.
We need a whole new set of classes, courses and textbooks to train our people how to recognize bullshit and talking points when they hear it.
Talking points like "hostage-takers." Prepared scripts like that, spouted by the President on down - this is going to destroy us as a nation.
The only reason Nixon should matter is that we who grew up in those times came to have a faith in journalism that is proving completely false. In our post-Watergate mentality we saw reporters as guardians, almost an arm of law enforcement, who would expose liars and frauds. They don't and we are all paying the price for our folly.
In publishing these divisive statements, the NY Times is inciting racial hatred.
And Nixon causes global warming.
Thinking of Archie makes me look back with nostalgia at that TV era. We laughed at Archie because he was so behind the times with regard to race relations, but we loved him because he had a good heart. Sanford and Son was the same. It was the innocent days of looking forward on improvements in race- and sex-relations. Back when OJ was famous for dodging luggage in the Avis commercial, and Maude broke us up with, "God'll get you for that, Arthur."
But OF COURSE you could make the same type show today. Anything goes, these days.
PJ O'Rourke wrote a book about his world travels and he critiqued every country he saw.
He described the Koreans as the Irish of Asia because they love to drink, gamble and fight. I am motly Irish-American and did not find any fault with PJ's description.
FLS: Impossible things before breakfast time again. The professor implies:
1. The Nixon Presidential Library is in league with the White House -
No, she didn't imply it, you did.
As she said, there's nothing new in the release. Its the same stuff we heard from the last release.
What you should be asking is: how much coverage did the NYTs give last night's little abdication? Was it even on the front page? And how did they slant it?
*tapping foot impatiently*
Yada, yada, Nixon racist/bigot, GOP racist/bigotted, y mas yada.
Where are the Allah cartoons Mr. Keller?
When someone calls me a hillbilly, do they mean toothless redneck white trash living in double-wides fucking their daughter?
Not necessarily. Today's socially approved, daughter-fucking "hillbilly" is a liberal Columbia professor who writes frequently for The Huffington Post.
Leftards make the worst magicians on earth. They are totally artless when it comes to misdirection. I mean Erkle has been trying to tell is he is a magic man and look where that got us. Ann, you voted for The Wizard of Oz.
Today's socially approved, daughter-fucking "hillbilly" is a liberal Columbia professor
Columbilly?
Are you actually pretending this isn't newsworthy?
"Are you actually pretending this isn't newsworthy?"
You think the fact that Nixon was a bit of a boor, and perhaps a bigot on the scale of a Kennedy or an LBJ is newsworthy? Not for 35 years.
wv: consatch
What Slip used to do with ease...
If they ever release transcripts of Lyndon Johnson's oval office discussions I predict that Tricky Dicky Nixon will seem positively angelic by comparison. (Remember LBJ? President that just preceded Nixon? The guy who tried to climb into a female reporter's bed blandly announcing "I am your President?)
@Drill SGT, I used to think that John Mitchell set a record for incompetence as an Attorney General that could never be broken. But Holder has not merely been vastly less competent than Mitchell, but is dropping past him at an accelerating pace.
“The Jews are just a very aggressive and abrasive and obnoxious personality.”
The first president of the modern conservative era describes the secret to Rush Limbaugh's success: He became a Jew!!1!11!!1!
So, Rush Limbaugh is a Jew. Who knew?
I guess this mean Sean Hannity is also somewhat Jewish. Funny, but he looks Irish.
I guess a good drink or two will help resolve the matter.
I'm ethnically half irish and I have no problem whatsoever with Nixon noticing that many of our number are mean drunks. None whatsoever.
He'd be an idiot if he didn't notice that - particularly in the days when Catholicism was part of the mix - bad combo with an Irish personality.
Now if he'd said "The Irish have a lot of mean drunks, so therefore they can't drive, vote, or own property," that'd be a different matter entirely. :-)
'But Stivic was a sanctimonious jerk and even Lear ended up portraying him that way.'
Yeah, even when Mike was right he was so unlikable I wanted to agree with Archie. The ethnicity in the show was all wrong. Archie was supposed to be a working class WASP but was obviously Irish, Mike wasn't the least bit Polish.
IMO, Mike was made Polish so the Jewish writers could use their "Polish Jokes" and Archie was made WASP to offending avoid Catholics. But that's a guess.
So the Irish are "Mean Drunks"?! Well, I guess we know why those "No Irish Need Apply" signs existed.
Are you actually pretending this isn't newsworthy?
You didn't get all this in the first batch that was released years ago?
...and if this doesn't work, the Times is going to drag out the corpse of Herbert Hoover and smack him around a few times to see if that can take people's minds off the current political situation.
I liked Nixon's decisions while President...all except not burning the tapes in time. Even until today he has been enemy #1 for the Marxists who wanted to see a USSR victory, ever since he exposed the USSR's American spy ring in the early 1950s. He ended Viet Nam successfully. He ended the Draft. He ended the US-China undeclared war since Korea.He saved Israel from a sure annihilation. But a Hoover want a be got revenge using Nixon's association with a plumbers unit checking out the Dems who were then trying to destroy him, and so they did.
"Today's socially approved, daughter-fucking "hillbilly" is a liberal Columbia professor"
I love me some Park Avenue Hillbilly.
Shore do miss her.
John Henry
Nixon is the gift that keeps giving to The New York Times. The man's been on the front page now for 60 years. Probably good for at least another 10. Slow news day, hmm, let's see what naughty thing (can't mention te good; that's old news) Nixon did 27 years ago. There's our page 1! You rule Mr. N. RIP.
37. My bad. I am a meam Irish drunk!
@shoutingthomas:
My family first landed in America in Boone County, Kentucky.
Did they land in parachutes? Or did they sail up the Mississippi and Ohio? I don't see how that works, geographically.
My family landed in Charleston, SC, 1730ish. They pretty much stayed there until my dad moved to Washington State.
@Ambrose:
Nixon is the gift that keeps giving to The New York Times.
Futurama still makes fun of Nixon. Matt Groening said if you'd have told him thirty years ago he'd still be making jokes at Nixon's expense, he'd not have believed you.
Regardless of Nixon's negative comments about Jews, he managed to surround himself with a number of Jewish advisors; e.g., Herb Stein (Chief Economist), Henry Kissinger Secty of State), Murray Chotiner (Campaign Manager), Arthur Burns (Fed Reserve Chairman), Leonard Garment (Presidential Counsel).
In addition, he supported Israel during a critical period of ’73 attack against Israel by supplying arms and other aid against the strong objections of both his Sect’y of State (Kissinger)and Sect’y of Defense (Schlesinger), European opposition to any aid, and amid threats by Soviet Union against supporting Israel.
Politicians talk a lot, but what they do is what counts. All the rest is commentary.
Gabriel: I hope I am still around in 2040 to see what is being said about Nixon. "He always wore atie! Used a dial phone. Put his pants on one leg at a time."
No more 12 year old single malt, pure pot Irish Whiskey for Ambrose. The time's are a going faster and faster and he needs to be sober to figure out the numbers.
TG: Math is not so important for an island nation. All my forebears needed to know was "Hey what time does the that boat for America leave?"
A racist with a jewish Secretary of State.
A racist that changed the USA - Israel relationship for good
And fought for the freedom of russian jewishs
The man hated all the humanity . Greenspan+s words
josil:
Also see every other European monarch from the fall of Rome through WWII.
Somehow being smart enough to be the advisor doesn't obviate the damage caused by nurturing sick old hatreds.
Ironically, the GOP is still using this technique. NIXON IS THE REPUBLICAN TEMPLATE,the southern strategy.
It is the winning method of hating those others, like Blacks,Mexicans.
Pure Nixon,Wallace and Reagan, if you're poor white family it is not our fault but those others.Ironically Nixon expanded food stamps program and gave us the EPA. So his evil deeds have been replaced by his accidental social programs they now disavow.
Ironically, Nixon the QUAKER hated everybody,so he could be considered an equal opportunity racist.
I would say that the Romney and Nixon are both strange people, who love money more than the country.
Romney loves his family along with his Swiss,Cayman funds and Nixon loved his friend Bebe and the money
they stashed together. The jury is out on how Nixon treated his family. The secret service state that poor Pat Nixon turned to the bottle to live with that horrible man.
The past becomes the present and remember that Romney is never going to invite you to any of his homes for cookies, unless you are bringing bags of money to get him elected.
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