Author Archives: PEB

According to news reports former mediocre rocker Ted Nugent has earned himself the coveted attention of the United States Secret Service after saying he’d be “dead or in jail by this time next year” if President Barack Obama is re-elected.

Short version, Ted’s pretty stupid.

Nugent made the comments during an interview at the National Rifle Association convention in St. Louis, comparing Obama and his administration to “coyotes” that needed to be shot and encouraging voters to “chop [Democrats’] heads off in November.”

Just exactly what our country needs more violence laced rhetoric from far right extremists like Nugent; who by the way is a close personal friend of Sean Hannity.

Republican Tea Party (GOTP) presumptive presidential candidate Willard Mitt Romney, has been endorsed by Nugent, but currently Willard has no comment on whether he agrees with Nugent, but that view will likely change three of four times by the end of the day.

The Secret Service is aware of Nugent’s remarks and is taking the appropriate action, according to Dan Amira of New York Magazine reports. It’s standard procedure for the Secret Service to investigate any threatening comments made against the president, and Nugent just made a whopper.

Various groups and organizations are calling on Willard to distance himself from Nugent and his remarks.

“We don’t expect moderation from Ted Nugent,” said Michael Keegan, president of People For the American Way. “But we do expect a major presidential candidate like Mitt Romney to rebuke a prominent supporter for spewing hate-filled and violent rhetoric against the President of the United States.”

DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz also weighed in on the controversy.

“Romney surrogate Ted Nugent’s comments about Pres. Obama are vile & beyond the pale — and the Romney campaign should denounce them immediately,” the Florida congresswoman tweeted.

The DNC’s also followed up with an online petition encouraging people to tell Romney to denounce “Nugent’s hateful speech,” and has also released a web video hammering Nugent’s position as a “surrogate for Mitt Romney.”

Romney’s camp had not denounced Nugent, but has called for everyone to play nice.

Willard’s spokesperson Andrea Saul said, “Divisive language is offensive no matter what side of the political aisle it comes from,” she said, according to Talking Points Memo. “Mitt Romney believes everyone needs to be civil.”

Bottom line is this is typical far-right get the gun vote out violent rhetoric and it has no place in 21^st century politics; Nugent was a mediocre rock star who’s become a fanatic in his hatred for the President and Romney’s inability to flat out denounce what was said is just one more example of his willingness to let anything and everything be said, either by him or someone else, so he can win the election.

Someone threatening the life of the President is unacceptable, to do it while acting as your surrogate is doubly wrong, and failure – by Romney – to denounce his words isn’t only a sad mark against his character, it’s not presidential.