Labor leader, introducing Obama at Michigan rally, says of Republicans: “This is war. Let’s take these sons of bitches out.”

Of course, to “take someone out” in contemporary American idiom means to kill him. The phrase is used all the time by military and political figures, in real life and in movies, when they are speaking about whether to kill some terrorist or other enemy. There is no mistaking what “take these sons of bitches out” means. Remember that, the next time you hear some liberal complain about how Republicans are haters who use violent rhetoric.

The video of Jimmy Hoffa (who I assume is a son or grandson of the late Jimmy Hoffa) speaking these words on the same stage as the president of the United States is at RealClearPolitics.

The thought occurs to me that if the Democrats keep this up (which they may think is necessary to fire up their base), the 2012 elections will be an even bigger disaster for them, on the presidential as well as the congressional level, than the 2010 elections.

* * *

Rush Limbaugh said of Hoffa’s remarks:

That’s a call for violence. It’s a call for violence, folks. From Don Hoffa to Barack Obama, standing right beside him….

Ladies and gentlemen, Hoffa was not speaking metaphorically. This was not about targets on some online map. This was not talk about reloading. This was a, this was a direct call for violence. Make no mistake about this. It was a direct call for violence, a direct threat against a large portion of the American people.

- end of initial entry -

JC in Houston writes:

He is Jimmy Hoffa Jr., son of the late unlamented corrupt Teamster’s boss James R. “Jimmy” Hoffa.

James N. writes:

And which candidate (or non-candidate) went right back at Hoffa? Was it Romney? Perry? Bachmann?

Let me help:

In my speech on Saturday in Iowa, I said: “Between bailouts for Wall Street cronies and stimulus projects for union bosses’ security and ‘green energy’ giveaways, [Barack Obama] took care of his friends. And now they’re on course to raise a billion dollars for his re-election bid so that they can do it all over again.” This was shamefully on display yesterday at President Obama’s taxpayer-funded campaign rally in Detroit. In introducing the President, Teamsters President James Hoffa represented precisely what I was talking about as he declared war on concerned independent Americans and on the freshman members we sent to Congress last November by saying, “Let’s take these son-of-a-bitches out!”

What I say now, I say as a proud former union member and the wife, daughter, and sister of union members. So, as a former card-carrying IBEW sister married to a proud former Laborers, IBEW, and later USW member, please hear me out. What I have to say is for the hard working, patriotic, selfless union brothers and sisters in Michigan and throughout our country: Please don’t be taken in by union bosses’ thuggery like Jim Hoffa represented yesterday. Union bosses like this do not have your best interests at heart. What they care about is their own power and re-electing their friend Barack Obama so he will take care of them to the detriment of everyone else.

You betcha.

LA replies:

If it’s true that Perry, Romney, Bachmann had nothing to say about Hoffa’s remarks, that speaks very poorly of them.

As a general matter, Republican politicians give Democrats a pass on their most egregious behavior. I think the reason for this is that if they named the Democrats’ thuggish behavior for what it is, it would break down the belief in a basic American comity which is the core of the Republican philosophy. If Democrats are not good people with whom we happen to disagree on policy, but a party of thugs and criminals, then America is no longer the wonderful country Republicans believe in, but a country that has been at least half taken over by a criminal party. Republicans by temperament and outlook are completely unprepared to deal with such a reality, so they give Democratic thuggery a pass, allowing the Democratic thuggery to continue.

Meanwhile, we should point out that liberals think the same about Democratic politicians: they think they are softies, who allow those Republican thugs like Boehner and Cantor to get away with murder. This has been one of the leading themes in liberal complaints about Obama.

September 7

James N. writes:

I said, right after Florida 2000, that within eight years the Democrats would have to have an SA (stormtroopers) because they no longer believed that simple arithmetical vote counting produced a legitimate outcome.

Nothing since then has changed my mind. Just listen to the constant litany of warlike talk.

And history suggests that they will be very successful. The organized Republicans are not prepared for war. Not in the least.

Look at the Republican candidates’ reaction to Hoffa. Nothing.

That’s because Romney, Perry, and perhaps Bachmann (the Bachmann campaign is almost over [LA replies: that’s news to me]) believe that, with the right candidate winning the election, we can go back to the way we were. A little civility, a little “can’t we all just get along,” Republican chairmen taking the place of Democrats, and everything will be fine.

Except that the Democrats have been transformed into a “votes plus” movement, the “plus” being some sort of direct action. So far, it’s mostly talk—although I’m sure that somewhere, someone, is fantasizing about some SEIU / Teamsters / flash mob synergy. If the Republicans win the 2012 elections, everything is NOT going to be fine.

There is no Republican candidate who is committed to tearing down the Obamastaat and to destroying his reputation before history. This is either because they are afraid of civil unrest, or because they agree with him on some level but believe they can run Obamacare and the regulatory machine in a better way.

And beyond that, all the candidates on some level support, or do not object to, the fountain of corruption that results from the synergy between the regulatory state, the tax laws, and contributions to members of Congress. This corruption is at the heart of the forces destroying the Republic.

James N. replies to LA:

Perhaps I was premature in casting gloom on the Bachmann campaign.

After all. McCain “ran out of money” in the Fall of 2007, and yet he was able to pretend to run against Obama a year later.

Congresswoman Bachmann does have more problems than Perry or Romney, but she is still able to run a campaign. I take it back.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 06, 2011 08:21 PM | Send