How sad. A US Senator created a fake name for Twitter and became "Pierre Delcto." Hiding behind a pseudonym is what kids, cowards, couch potatoes, or perverts like "Carlos Danger" do. https://t.co/E9ti4dUSZ1— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) October 21, 2019
Pseudonyms are an American tradition. They're all over the place in debate over ratifying the Constitution.
And how about Rocky Clark? Was he a kid, a coward, a couch potato, or a pervert? (Rocky Clark was the pseudonym Steve Wozniak used "when attending the University of California, Berkeley after co-founding Apple Computer, because 'I knew I wouldn't have time enough to be an A+ student'" — see "Pseudonym" (Wikipedia)).
And then there's Donald Trump:
Donald Trump, an American businessman, politician, and 45th president of the United States, has used several pseudonyms, including "John Barron" (or "John Baron"), "John Miller" and "David Dennison". His practice of sometimes speaking to the media under the guise of a spokesperson has been described as "an open secret" at the Trump Organization and in New York media circles. Some New York editors recalled that "calls from Barron were at points so common that they became a recurring joke on the city desk." A writer for Fortune reported that Trump's father Fred Trump had used the pseudonym Mr. Green in business dealings....Was Huckabee couch-potatoing when he came up with that pathetic tweet? He didn't even spell Pierre Delecto right.
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I can't use my "written strangely early in the morning" tag anymore. It's not at all strange. But I was tempted this morning... what with the talk of couch potatoes. I'm up and at my desk writing hours before sunrise, which I happen to know is at 7:19 this morning.
piece of advice; Don't EVER listen to what ANYONE from Arkansas says
Too Harsh? Then Don't EVER listen to what ANY Politician from Arkansas says
Serious Question though
WHY does Mitt Romney ALWAYS have that Deer in the Headlights look?
Is he Still surprised that anyone would pay any attention to someone who's Claim to Fame is that his dad was the CEO of American Motors?
How do we know that Huckabee is his real name?
Does using stevew indicate I'm a kid or couch potato or whatever? Probably not, doesn't have the ring of Pierre Delecto or Carlos Danger. Those are more like porn names, right?
Althouse, yours is a fair point. But In today's political climate, I thought Huckabee's gibe was pretty gentle.
Open secret.
Made-up bullshit.
You decide.
Pierre Delecto was created not to write anonymously but to lurk anonymously, like peeping Toms do.
Huckabee had probably just pounded a plateful of Ritz crackers with peanut butter and Cheese Whiz.
We've seen this before. His people are supposed to hide his phone when he's high, but sometimes he finds it.
You notice that no tape recording of Trump's calls has ever been produced. Why do you think that is? At least one of the reporters making the claim said she recorded the call. Some might say that Donald Trump has too much of a distinctive and recognizable voice to fool anybody. Like Bill Clinton did. That'a why Time/Warner bought Gennifer Flower's phone message tape where Bill told her to lie, lie, lie if deposed or questioned for megabucks and stuck it in a vault. Transcripts--which had been published--just didn't have the same impact on public opinion.
I’m sure some anti-Federalists would agree with Mike Huckabee. They probably called Madison, Jay, and Hamilton worse.
The authors of the Federalist Papers were at risk of their lives and liberty if they were identified.
Not really a fair comparison to make.
Pierre ain't Publius.
Pierre picked a peck of pickled peppers.
"Pierre Delecto was created not to write anonymously but to lurk anonymously, like peeping Toms do."
Like 99% of readers do.
And that gsspencer guy/gal.
Huckabee's criticism hits the mark. Too many of our "elites" are phoneys and backstabbers. The fact Romney hides his true opinions and views behind a false front is a little too on point for the Romney's and Never Trumpers.
I give Trump great credit for ripping off the masks of so many.
What? A pseudonym? Used on the internet??!!! That's outrageous, says Amadeus 48.
Romney wasn't doing this to debate a Bill of Rights or even get good publicity for his business. He did it so he could kiss NeverTrumper butt! What a dork!
The only public person I've seen use twitter effectively, without shooting themselves in the face, is President Trump.
I know lots of people are on twitter. I tried for a little while, but never "got" it.
The first thing I thought of, when Romney's alias came up, was the federalist papers.
Because the experts that run education today are so smart, if your under 40 you have no idea of what the federalist papers are. Or why they are important. Hell, if your under 60 you cant define federalism. (present company excluded)
"Pierre Delecto" is the least of Mitt's phoniness problems.
Romney used his sockpuppet Pierre Delecto to affirm his Twitter comments and bash people who disagreed.
That should be grounds for censure in the Senate.
My problems with the Mittster isn't that he used a pseudonym on the internet, which I do all the time. My problem is Mitt's cringe-worthy need for approval that let him be bullied and mocked by Obama and flummoxed by Candy Crowley, of all people. Kurt Schlichter nails it in "Snit Romney" on Townhall.com.
Mr. Self-righteous probably will vote to convict Trump if the Dems ever crawl out of the shadows on impeachment.
As I said yesterday, just when I thought McCain was finally buried, along comes Mitt.
Romney said, if the Althouse Blog can have "Craig" and "Sunsong," why can't I have "Pierre Delecto?"
You see how these things start?
Mittens played kittenish cutesy and confess to lurking.
That's the issue.or joke.or jibe. Not his pseudonymity
If Mitt didn't pose as a conservative, nobody would mind him using a weird name to lurk the internet.
That said, Trump really pulled the zipper off Huckabee.
Silence Dogood
Secret societies must have their secrets. That is the fun part. They beclown themselves in secret communications and secret handshakes and many other ways they pretend to be an elite group.
College Fraternities do it. They all claim a Greek Goddess or other pagan Diety. The Freemasons were so good at making it up that their ways were copied by the Mormons and by the KKK.
But the group that probably most proudly opposes such self appointed hierarch play would be Huckabee's Southern Baptists. And then there was always Thaddeus Stevens who made it a political Party.
Ononymopoeia, imitative anonymity.
Romney did more than lurk, he also anonymously replied and interacted with various anti Trumpers.
And when found out, Romney then made his account private.
I’m so disappointed in Romney.
He’s coming off as a fake, and a gamma.
Trying desperately to please the in crowd.
Kurt Schlichter Has a brutal takedown of Romney
Snit Romney
A more interesting question is why the huge pushback, as evidenced by Huckabee?
My guess is Romney’s perceived hypocrisy.
Pseudonyms are Orwellian.
Pretty sure *their* pseudonyms were to protect themselves from arrest and prosecution, and they didn't use them as sock puppets.
Nice try, though.
Isn't the handle "Governor Mike Huckabee" a pseudonym, since the guy hasn't actually been a governor in years?
Look at the all defenses of Mitt "PD" Romney. He's the Liberals New Favorite Republican. There are two things about Romney's fake twitter account. One, it showed he was a passive aggressive, gutless coward, but then we already knew that. Remember, he could have followed Trump's example and tweeted his own thoughts and fought for his beliefs and opinions online - but refused to do so. Or Look at Huckabee, out in the open tweeting his opinions.
Second, if you look at who Mittens followed, re-tweeted, and liked, it was almost all people who hated Trump, and/or were liberals and Neo-Cons. He even followed/liked Social liberals who hated Mormons like Mittens. Completely absent? Anyone "Severely conservative".
The scorning of sock puppets is an ancient and honorable internet tradition.
Bringing up Hamilton and Federalist papers to support Pierre Delecto is laughable. I suppose we defend A. Weiner with that too. Hey, Carlos Danger was just following the tradition laid down by the founding fathers = laughable.
Not using your real name was done often in the 18th century, it was felt that by not using your real name in a newspaper, allowed people to concentrate on merits of the arguments being made and not focus on who was saying it. IRC, the TLS used to have unsigned book reviews for that reason, and the economist also had unsigned articles.
Regular people are naturally anonymous. Politicians and celebrities are not.
Shame on Utah for letting this statist swamp creature from the east coast take over.
Shame.
When liberals/Lefties start writing about how "funny" and "witty" Romney's "C'est Moi" response was, you know they really, really, like him now. He's joined the Resistance - and will provide Schumer with bi-partisan cover.
Althouse - We do more before 5 Am then most people do all day. Which I always thought was a good reason NOT to join the Army.
The main difference is Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison were visionaries. So is Trump.
Mitt "Delecto" Romney is a whiny douche. Nice stretch for and equivalence.
I'm going to email Trump and suggest he use the pseudonym "Gusty Winds".....
these toppled the grafton government in 1770:
https://books.google.com/books?id=D70uAAAAMAAJ
reputedly they were written by phillip james, who was behind the scurrilous charges against warren hastings, that Edmund burke took up,
“Like 99% of readers do.”
Is that accurate? That’s a lot of traffic for a blog. What percentage of readers ever comment? What percentage of readers come for the post and stay for the comments?
Mitt is on an accelerated self-clowning trajectory. As a Democrat useful idiot he seems to become markedly less useful every day. I guess the question would be is that because of who his friends are or who his enemies are? Probably the former.
kids, cowards, couch potatoes, or perverts
I'm not a kid!
Problem is, Twitter tradition is that public figures use their verified names. Pseudonyms are for us nobodies worried about being doxxed.
I don't know why, but that's how it is now.
All I can say is "Thank Yuu Mitt for providing me with my Halloween costume this year!"
"Mitt" is a very, very disappointed and rejected candidate for the Presidency of the USA.
His bitterness at being democratically rejected by the People has moved him to, what was described in my youth, as SPITING IN THE SOUP.
Take it back, Huckabee! I'm not a kid!
Pierre sounds like a "voulez-vous couche" potato.
As a sitting senator, using a pseudonym has the whiff of dishonesty and given his recent attempt to garner votes to impeach his party's President; corrupt.
Using a pseudonym often has a good purpose, and that is how you judge whether or not the user is a coward. What Romney seems to have done with his secret Twitter account is cowardly and vainly self-serving. It takes a real moron to compare this favorably to the what the American found fathers often did- it isn't like Romney is facing a death sentence for what he was doing with the account.
Huckabee’s mistake is in focusing on the existence of the pseudonym (which does, really, come across as a porn star’s handle — and probably a gay porn star at that) and not on what he actually wrote while using the pseudonym. I gather that he was quite uncomplimentary to some of his fellow Republican senators, and, if true, that will certainly come back to bite him in the butt.
I really do wonder at Romney’s level of intelligence and overall technology awareness. Telling someone you have a secret is the first step in having that secret compromised, and in the case of a Twitter pseudonym it was trivial to figure out once people knew it existed.
What did Mitt post under his pseudonym?
James Pawlak said...
"Mitt" is a very, very disappointed and rejected candidate for the Presidency of the USA.
His bitterness at being democratically rejected by the People has moved him to, what was described in my youth, as SPITING IN THE SOUP
________________
Is Mitt a trans-Hillary? (trans from D to R)
tres Vichy, Monsieur Delecto!
Reinhold Neibuhr agrees with Althouse.
Delicious Peter says it all.
I take the point.
But has Trump held himself out to be an ethical paragon as has Romney?
Also, fuck Mitt Romney.
Is that why there are as many pseudonyms here as there are, because of fear of doxxing? I have no idea.
I only comment at, oh, maybe a dozen sites, and at only a couple of those with any regularity; don't have any apprehensions at all about online people being obnoxious.
Even if I used my full name it is so common (49m results on a google search) that I would still be anonymous.
"Bringing up Hamilton and Federalist papers to support Pierre Delecto is laughable."
This.
But of course, our hostess, being a blogger, cannot allow herself to just say the obvious. Obvious is boring, and boring is wrong, even if it is correct.
I always assumed “Huckabee” was a pseudonym meaning “fat inbreed,” but If it’s the man’s real name I apologize.
Operating multiple Twitter handles is a violation of the terms of service.
That alone makes it a dishonorable thing.
My original reaction was that using anonymity to "lurk" or express unpopular opinions was no big deal. But then when I saw how pusillanimously Romney used the pseudonym to "defend Romney's honor" as a senator... Sad!
Here are a few notable ones:
May 9, 2019
Delecto awoke from his slumber earlier this year, with Romney now a U.S. senator. He replied to a tweet by reporter Steven T. Dennis of Bloomberg, who noted the names of four senators who were "sticking up for" Sen. Richard Burr as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Delecto chimed in that Romney was also sticking up for Burr. "Said to Post he has confidence in Chairman Burr."
Delecto then defended Romney's honor to reporters or TV personalities at least four times:
May 31
He told conservative writer Jennifer Rubin that she "needed to take a breath" after a critical piece on Romney and a tweet in which she called his strategy toward Trump "nonconfrontation verging on spinelessness."
Delecto: "Maybe you can then acknowledge the people who agree with you in large measure even if not in every measure."
June 8
Former CNN reporter Soledad O'Brien tweeted that Romney has an "utter lack of a moral compass" in response to a story that noted Romney might not endorse Trump in 2020.
Delecto: "Only Republican to hit Trump on [Mueller] report, only one to hit Trump on character time and again, so Soledad, you think he's the one without moral compass?"
Sept. 22
This might be the most house of mirrors one of all the tweets.
Romney, under his official account, tweeted that if Trump pressured Ukraine's president to investigate Biden, then "it would be troubling in the extreme."
Joe Scarborough of MSNBC's Morning Joe commented on the tweet, noting that Wall Street Journal reported that Trump did pressure Ukraine eight times. "Your move," Scarborough noted to Romney.
Then Romney did respond, but not as himself. He left it to Delecto to slide into Scarborough's replies.
" 'Says WSJ,' " Delecto noted. "Credible but not certainly. Let's see the transcript."
Oct. 7
The Daily Caller, a conservative website, noted that Romney called Trump an "unreliable ally."
Fox News' Brit Hume responded to that with a quip that "Some might say Romney is too."
It was time for a Delecto burn. He replied that Romney is "loyal to principle," while Trump's "loyalty [is] to party or person, right Brit?"
Oct. 9
After Trump's announcement removing U.S. troops from Syria, John Weaver, a GOP strategist, who helped run John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, noted that Trump "betrayed our allies in Syria."
He then sarcastically noted, "Congrats GOP Senate. Well done."
Delecto responds with this revelatory tweet to the mind of Romney: "John, agree on Trump's awful decision, but what could the Senate do to stop it?"
Saturday
Conservative writer Erick Erickson commended Romney for being critical of Trump and "for not being fearful. Frankly, more Republican Senators need to speak up ... ."
Delecto: "Don't read the comments, ever."
Now that's the last straw!
Mitt is a democratically elected, and should be a democratically accountable, Senator from Utah.
If Pierre Delecto was there just to keep in contact with family, without drawing them into the political hurly-burly, it would have been a moral and proper choice
But that's not how Senator Romney used it
He used it to advance political causes and actions that he didn't want voters to be able to connect to him
THAT makes what he did corrupt, evil, and utterly wrong.
In a different post, you bashed "zero tolerance" policies. You were right to do so. Because what "zero tolerance" is about is letting administrators get away with exercising "zero judgment".
So it's really sad seeing you display zero judgment here. Because the reason behind the action, the thing we should judge, is entirely different WRT Pierre Delecto vs Publius
I just Googled myself for the first time in ages. There is apparently another Yancey Ward out there! Has a Twitter account and Instagram account, and apparently a more interesting life than I do!
You know who is really disgusting? Marion Michael Morrison. And don’t get me started on that Samuel Clemens guy.
Delecto responds with this revelatory tweet to the mind of Romney: "John, agree on Trump's awful decision, but what could the Senate do to stop it?"
Gee, I don't know. Declare war on Turkey?
Which, it just so happens, is a power the Constitution reserves for Congress, NOT the President.
Trump is guilty of Andrew Jackson level Nationalism. To the world money flow boys that is a high crime. They bought DC long ago and want what they paid for. So impeach, slander, anything is justified to get the Presidency back from the Deplorables. And Romney is a total nothing.
I have no problem with the pseudonym itself, he can make a thousand alternate accounts to bash Trump and praise himself with if he wants.
The problem I have with Romney is that he sold himself in 2008 and 2012 to Republican voters as their guy, while he is now taking it upon himself to bash a president Republicans find popular in the most annoying DC-virtue signalling manner possible. For that, he deserves ridicule and mockery, in part because he never was this assertive when Obama and the media were pummeling him with falsehoods.
Pseudonyms are an American tradition. They're all over the place in debate over ratifying the Constitution.
I love Althouse -- her intellect, her curiosity, her rigorous evaluation of all 3 sides of an issue (your side, my side and the actual truth).
Every once in a while, though -- like all of us -- she gets it wrong.
The primary issue is whether it's cool or uncool for a sitting United States Senator to use a pseudonym on Twitter to politically critique a sitting United States President.
Obviously, it's pretty goofy and makes Mitt look like a devious idiot. Why can't he give a public speech criticizing Trump?
The secondary issue is whether Huckabee's criticism of "Pierre Delecto" was valid or not -- a much less important inquiry.
True, certain Founding Fathers in the 1780s used pseudonyms (Publius) to publicly argue for adopting the Constitution. They just won an unlikely war against the powerful British, they feared another attack by the British, they weren't sure how the political experiment into "Federalism" was going to turn out, or whether they'd be sent to the "guillotine" a la the French.
Comparing the use of pseudonyms in this historical context to Mitt's twitter use of "Pierre Delecto" is, ahem, a bit of a stretch. The contexts are profoundly different. As John McEnroe once screamed, surely you can't be serious!
Now I understand Ken B.
rcocean is correct about the common use of pen names. And, the Federalist Papers were written during the Confederation period and the authors were most assuredly not in fear of their lives.
P.S. When it came to the issue of being a possible death sentence, all of the Founders signed their own names to the Declaration.
King Louis XIV- L'etat c'est moi.
Senator Romney- La twat c'est moi.
"My original reaction was that using anonymity to "lurk" or express unpopular opinions was no big deal."
Same here. Thanks for posting those tweets from the account. At best, they're very weird.
The distinction, I believe, is intent. Romney acted with cowardice. And stupidity.
I'd bet some of the Founding Fathers were perverts, btw.
That stands to reason.
Pretty sure none of the examples listed included a sitting US Senator who spends every waking moment criticizing the guy who defeated him and then confirming those criticisms under a false name.
Ok, pseudonyms, ...whatever.
But did it have to be "Pierre Delecto"??
That's half the problem right there!
The Trumpkins now sound just like the anti Trumpers: this is *it*, we finally have him, this is the last straw, what an outrage, I never imagined anyone could be so awful.
Althouse is right, and neither Huckabee nor those high giving him gave any thought at all to Publius and the actual implications of what they are saying. It’s a gotcha moment for a hate-fetish.
Althouse, we are supposed to pay attention to Huckabee why exactly?
So, Ken, please explain why it's perfectly fine for a US Senator to grab a fake account so he can make public pronouncements on politics that his constituents wouldn't like, under a fake name, not his own.
Oh, that's right, you're a leftist, so you're perfectly fine with screwing over the voters
well we don't think he has any thing interesting to say, I picked my nom de plume, for a particular reason,
Those upset about Pierre, I hope your heads don't explode with news that the Anonymous insider who wrote that op ed is about to publish a book anonymously. Probably not as prominent as Mitt but sure will drive POTUS to (further) distraction.
hosenball, was the one that uncovered the ghcq along with Duncan campbell, and worked with phillip agee,
https://www.amgreatness.com/2019/10/21/43539/
You make it sound like being a pervert is a bad thing.
some interesting background on the gossiper, brennan's minime, if you look close,
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1186653904840331264.html
Ken B (hot off his failed Syria takes): "The Trumpkins now sound just like the anti Trumpers: this is *it*, we finally have him, this is the last straw, what an outrage, I never imagined anyone could be so awful."
Ken B now sounds just like Adam Schiff-ty and simply making it up as he goes.
Well. That should turn out swimmingly.
readering: "Those upset about Pierre, I hope your heads don't explode with news that the Anonymous insider who wrote that op ed is about to publish a book anonymously."
OH NO!!
This just in: Anonymous Washington "insider" pens screed criticizing Donald Trump!!
Unheard of!
Unprecedented!
LOL
btw taylor's info is not second, its third, he heard from morrison, who heard from sondland, apparently the Ukrainians didn't know the weapons were on hold, snorfle,
Ken B,
It's cute that you defend one of your own.
from that silly natasha Bertrand,
https://twitter.com/JerryDunleavy/status/1186683825738452994
Oh Birkel, I will always defend Mark Twain, always. To each his own.
Greg
What is it, 10 tweets over several years? He's hardly making pronouncements. Actually it sounds like a few times he forgot he was using the Pierre account.
I am not actually a leftist at all, but as for screwing over the voters: I am a constitutionalist and a believer in enumerated powers. That means I often think screw the voters. For example I think Trump won the election because he won the electoral college. I suppose you think Hillary won, popular vote and all that. We must agree to disagree there.
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