HOW LONG UNTIL WE CAN "JOKE" ABOUT KATRINA?

It's been 18 years since Claytie Williams forgot he wasn't surrounded by reliable Texas good ole boys and said "Rape is like weather. As long as it's inevitable, you might as well lie back and enjoy it." A nearby reporter faithfully repeated the remark, and -- make no mistake about it -- this comment is what lost him the governorship of Texas.

Ann Richards tied this slice of hate (it was definitely not a joke) to Claytie's Big Oil anti-environmentalism, to his OTHER public woman-hating remark about treating Richards like a steer, and to his attempt at smearing her for being a recovering alcoholic. It disgusted enough people that she won by a narrow 49-47%.

Richards went on to completely re-energize the Texas busted economy, re-fund education, reform prisons, and do more good than this state has seen in decades. Claytie remained an anachronism, except, of course, to the misogynist, racist, classist white boys who agreed with everything he said.

Ann lost to Dubya in 1994, despite her wild success as a Governor, because Bush trumped her AA treated alcoholism with his "God saved me, I don't need no fucking 12 Steps" version (much more popular with all the secret drinks in evangelical circles) and because Karl Rove spread the rumor that she was a lesbian. When Bush ran for the Presidency, all the things for which he took credit as Texas's governor were, in fact, programs initiated under Ann Richards. WE knew he was an abject failure, lying about his past. But the rest of the country bought it.

So, all this was 18 years ago. That's not long enough to excuse the decision on the part of whoever it was in John McSame's campaign remuda that having Claytie host a fundraiser would be a smart move. Either they are too young to be put in charge of such things (and the Republicans do rely inordinately on young and stupid white boys for their grunt work) or they are so indoctrinated in the culture of hate speech they thought it would be a funny anecdote now. I mean, look how Hillary was smeared by anti-woman shit, with no backlash or outcry from most of the Democratic party, right?

Well, the McSame folks had to cancel their event once a news reporter made the connection that they apparently could not, but they've made no comment about returning the more than $300,000 Claytie has already raised for them.

You know, bedbugs can live for 18 months without a fresh meal. The subterranean life of Neocons seems to be much longer. The only way to cleanse our habitat of them is to flush them into the open and deny them any nutrition whatsoever. We can begin with Midland, Texas, which remains a hotbed for those would destroy the Constitution for profit, white supremacy, and the right to make rape "inevitable".

Below is Richards' campaign ad from 1990. Rest in peace, Ann. Some of us are carrying on your work.