He left his teeth in the Hanoi Hilton
posted at 6:30 pm on March 25, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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The local media watchdog in the Soros-funded Center for Public Integrity web is the Minnesota Monitor. Perhaps most famous by the departure of the only real journalist it employed, Eric Black, and his admission that MinnMon existed on Soros’ money, it provides a haven for mostly unreadable Twin Cities progressive writers. One of them, Molly Priesmayer, proved that she and the MinnMon can’t even do research in their latest “news” story. Molly notes the laughter erupting over John McCain’s teeth:
If bloggers are saying one thing about John McCain this week it’s that the 71-year-old has some serious grit. Of course, that grit comes in the form of McCain Mouth, a deformity that apparently causes teeth to look like a mess of yellowed and contorted Chiclets. Today, BuzzFeed.com has picked up on the mouth meme, turning McCain’s piano-key chompers into an official phenomenon.
The consensus? “They’re old.” And, “He looks like Reverend Kane from Poltergeist II.” And, “Dude has had a ton of plastic surgery, can’t he afford a dentist?”
While looks are an easy and lame target, it’s at least refreshing to see McCain’s teeth get a razzing (though, unfortunately, not a cleaning). It gets a little tiring listening to the same sexist cries that Hillary Clinton is just too ugly to be president. Hatin’ on the looks of all the candidates? Now that’s equality!
No, it’s the result of torture McCain suffered at the hands of the North Vietnamese. As Michael Brodkorb notes — by doing something foreign to the Sorosphere called “research” — his teeth had to be replaced:
In 1968 he was offered early release, and when he refused, because others had been there longer, his captors went at him again; he suffered cracked ribs, teeth broken off at the gum line, and torture with ropes that lashed his arms behind his back and that were progressively tightened all through the night.” Source Vanity Fair, February 2007
“He spent two years in solitary confinement, suffered from dysentery and even tried to commit suicide by hanging himself with his own shirt.
In 1968, the Vietnamese broke off many of his teeth at the gum and tortured him for hours on end. They offered him early release, knowing his value as an admirals son, but he refused, saying others had been held captive longer.” Source Daily Mail, February 1, 2008
Mitch Berg has an accurate analysis of the MinnMon and its sponsors:
No, that’s just stupid and sophomoric. Dinging Senator Clinton on her looks is stupid and sexist. Ripping Senator McCain for the appearance of a mouth that had the living sh*t beaten out of it by NVA goons is its own punishment, at least among people with consciences.
Glad to see [former City Pages editor] Steve Perry’s bringing some professionalism to the good ol’ MNMon!
It’s a good reminder, however, that John McCain didn’t just dream up the danger he faced abroad. He experienced plenty of sleep deprivation, but it wasn’t because he spent too many nights trying to conjure up snipers in Tuzla. It was because he had to spend five and a half years being tortured as a POW just so idiots like Priesmeyer could have the freedom to make fun of the teeth he lost at the Hanoi Hilton.
What’s next, MinnMon? Want to make fun of his arms, too?
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Get ready for Passionate Liberalism!
Entelechy on March 25, 2008 at 6:35 PM
Disgusting. Dems can have racial hating bigots as preachers but let a war vet get kicked in the teeth again is beyond the pale.
William Amos on March 25, 2008 at 6:35 PM
Alas, Compassionate Liberalism…
Entelechy on March 25, 2008 at 6:36 PM
Ignorance is a virtue to the Lefties.
EJDolbow on March 25, 2008 at 6:36 PM
Oh, self pwn3d!
doubleplusundead on March 25, 2008 at 6:36 PM
that makes me want to go out and punch a hippie…you know…to balance the scales a bit
spacekicker on March 25, 2008 at 6:36 PM
“…lame…” - Molly Priesmayer
That sums up her writing pretty well.
forest on March 25, 2008 at 6:36 PM
What a bunch of dumbasses, what the hell were they thinking ragging on the appearance of a guy who was brutalized in some Godforsaken camp for five years, and had cancer? Gotta appreciate that they made such asses of themselves.
doubleplusundead on March 25, 2008 at 6:40 PM
Quality journalism by those Lefties!
Sanjoboy on March 25, 2008 at 6:40 PM
They want to make this an issue? Let’s help them.
Vizzini on March 25, 2008 at 6:40 PM
Disgusting pieces of cr@p. Words can’t even describe my anger.
amerpundit on March 25, 2008 at 6:42 PM
The man is getting my vote. He earned it, as opposed to the empty pantsuit carpetbagger dodging imaginary sniper bullets, and an empty suit full of white hate. By the way, who does Soros think he is, Hitler? Go buy another country bro…………..
adamsmith on March 25, 2008 at 6:43 PM
dumb libs.
Chakra Hammer on March 25, 2008 at 6:44 PM
More of the left’s support of the troops.
davidk on March 25, 2008 at 6:45 PM
You know, I can never really gauge my reactions when these sorts of things come up. Some days, it infuriates me and pisses me the hell off, other days, I’m just sickened, and then there are those days where I just can’t help but be entertained by their sheer stupidity…today, I’m entertained by their stupidity.
doubleplusundead on March 25, 2008 at 6:45 PM
I’m just saddened by the fact that people pay attention and agree with it and will probably quote from it at a future date. And entertained. A mixture of both, really.
lorien1973 on March 25, 2008 at 6:48 PM
Hey Ms. Priesmayer,
Care to step into another flaming bag of dogshit?
Cicero43 on March 25, 2008 at 6:48 PM
Expect more of the same with it getting really ugly coming from the left.
Kini on March 25, 2008 at 6:50 PM
Ed…..it’s nice having a fellow Minnesotan as a contributing blogger at HA. I have been trying to let my fellow Americans know what it is like living in the People’s Republic of Minnesota.
Slippery on March 25, 2008 at 6:51 PM
This is the level of intellectual political discourse I expect from the left. Move along people, nothing to see here.
HawaiiLwyr on March 25, 2008 at 6:51 PM
That post looks like something perfect for the Gawker or Wonkette crowd. Maybe MNMon is moving into less serious “journalism” in order to boost traffic. Soros must want an actual return on his investment.
Classless.
seanhackbarth on March 25, 2008 at 6:52 PM
Fine by me, I kinda hope they all let fly and be honest about what they are. Liberals telling the truth about what they are should be music to a conservative’s ears.
doubleplusundead on March 25, 2008 at 6:52 PM
Minnesota Monitor = Toilet Paper
Molly Priesmayer = Bovine Excrement
Minnesota Monitor + Molly Priesmayer = Skidmarks on the bowl
Seven Percent Solution on March 25, 2008 at 6:58 PM
Sheesh…
Chakra Hammer on March 25, 2008 at 6:58 PM
Agree.
C’mon, guys! Keep talking trash about John McCain’s time in captivity and his “non-beauty”! Just keep talking!
Yep. Keep talking until November! That’s it!
Keep talking!
newton on March 25, 2008 at 7:03 PM
Seven Percent Solution,
Please don’t insult excrement.
amerpundit on March 25, 2008 at 7:05 PM
I’d like to have those brain dead fools that were making fun of McCain join me in a small room with no windows and locked doors for about 15 minuets. Anyone that would ridicule the pain and agony McCain suffered is pure human slime.
rplat on March 25, 2008 at 7:05 PM
McCain’s teeth saved his life, before the Vietnamese knocked them out.
Chakra Hammer on March 25, 2008 at 7:05 PM
“And we ran across the tarmack, heads down, dodging bullets.”
Sickening.
davidk on March 25, 2008 at 7:06 PM
This sorta’ reminds me of that scene in True Grit where Bruce Dern’s character shouted “I call that bull talk for a one-eyed fat man!” at Rooster Cogburn (John Wayne) — right before Rooster put the horses reins in his mouth and proceeded to shoot the stuffins’ outta’ the whole lot of ‘em.
My collie says:
Hopefully, you’ll get to witness an encore performance of that scene in November ‘08.
CyberCipher on March 25, 2008 at 7:10 PM
But liberals get a pass with that nonsense. McCain has already said he won’t get into that mud fight. While, I can admire civil discourse in the election race, it’s a pipe dream not to expect dirt to fly from both sides. But like I said, liberals generally get a pass.
Kini on March 25, 2008 at 7:10 PM
There’s yet another thread on DU today about McCain losing planes.
Classy folks, these liberals, but they do have the redeeming quality of turning their hate on one another though…
rw on March 25, 2008 at 7:11 PM
15 feet deep, that is an honest to goodness lake, I live in MN and 15 feet thats a lake, not a Rice Paddy field..
Chakra Hammer on March 25, 2008 at 7:11 PM
And yet, McCain instead of going home choice to be reassigned to a different ship, headed to Vietnam.
Chakra Hammer on March 25, 2008 at 7:13 PM
Mac won’t get in the mud. I respect him for that.
But I will–for what he did for me/us, I am more than willing to go toe-to-toe with turd slingin’ lefties.
davidk on March 25, 2008 at 7:15 PM
Please let’s just lay low on this stuff for a while.
Let’s just hammer Hillary and Barack X for a few more months.
faraway on March 25, 2008 at 7:16 PM
This is nothing new. Look around for comments on Bob Dole’s arms. You’ll be suprised what you find. Wait…no you won’t.
I found this (check out the answer selected as “Best Answer”). You’ll find more, but this pretty much summed things up for me.
29Victor on March 25, 2008 at 7:18 PM
Please let’s just lay low on this stuff for a while.
Let’s just hammer Hillary and Barack X for a few more months.
faraway on March 25, 2008 at 7:16 PM
I agree, and I think McCain needs to “reintroduce”, himself to the American people..
With his history and story also.. it’s pretty powerful.
(When the time comes)
Chakra Hammer on March 25, 2008 at 7:19 PM
Be outraged, but don’t be surprised. These are the same type of libs that were happy when Laura Ingraham and Tony Snow revealed that they had cancer.
In the end, it may be for the better. There are people that get increasingly turned-off and alienated by the lib attitude of making fun and throwing insults instead of facing the issues. Eventually those people will come over to our side of the aisle and become conservatives. I speak from experience. The mean-spirited and ignorant attitude of the libs was one of the factors that drove me to the right.
Mallard T. Drake on March 25, 2008 at 7:23 PM
I think Hillary left hers in Tuzla.
Utah Boy on March 25, 2008 at 7:25 PM
I found this from 1996:
In this case the author sees Dole’s war injury as a source of negative attributes.
29Victor on March 25, 2008 at 7:26 PM
Just to be clear, this is a reference to DU’s vicious bickering in their primary forum and not an implication that they are turning their hate on one of their own in McCain.
Viva McCain (but only in a non comprehensive immigration reform supporting way)
rw on March 25, 2008 at 7:26 PM
i love when a noob self pwnz
blatantblue on March 25, 2008 at 7:28 PM
The left really has a lot of room to talk about looks. Not exactly many hot marxist ladies out there. Very short list. Rachal Sklar? Kirsten Powers? Am I missing anyone?
chief on March 25, 2008 at 7:35 PM
It’s really sick for those people to denigrate the sacrifices people like John McCain and Bob Dole made in service of this country.
If Bob dole has a “sardonic humor”, he sure earned it. He has every right in the world to be anything he wants to be. Same with John McCain.
How many more vets out there have overcome so much after serious injuries while on combat? Are those people going to throw garbage at these vets because their wounds “may cause them to get mean and nasty”?
I thought these liberals were not addicted to “stereotypes”. They sure know how to make them stick!
Just for this, John McCain should win this election, just to make their heads spin in agony.
newton on March 25, 2008 at 7:35 PM
It makes me ashamed of the state I used to call home.
I now live in PA, but have most of my family back in MN, all conservatives (well except a sis).
pathetic
Markvike on March 25, 2008 at 7:35 PM
I was once a typical conservative McCain sceptic, in the mold of the NRO team, etc. It wasn’t until recently (post-NH) that I informed myself of the entire McCain POW story, many aspects of which awed me (the extent of the torture, refusal to be released early, standing up to his captors).
I realize that war heroism should not lead automatically to national office without other qualifications, but the McCain story is truly something that could have been told by Homer. Not that I expect the Facebook-Apple-Yoga generation to appreciate that.
The_Freeze on March 25, 2008 at 7:36 PM
Planes crashing and busted teeth. It’s obvious the DU crowd has too much time on their hands and little to really go after McCain about. (Part of that is McCain’s liberal tendencies.)
McCain’s story is awe-inspiring. Only a DU crank can not appreciate that.
seanhackbarth on March 25, 2008 at 7:43 PM
The American left has no merciful reaction whatsoever to the torture of American soldiers. They never have. They never will. In fact, it’s something they frequently celebrate. Don’t bother reminding them that John McCain was a tortured American POW. They don’t care. He served in the military, and he supports the military still, so they hate his freakin’ guts. Period. End of story.
Rational Thought on March 25, 2008 at 7:46 PM
If I ever came upon the pos who posted that, I’d gladly take my time in jail for the beating I’d give him or her.
THE CHOSEN ONE on March 25, 2008 at 7:51 PM
major dad is stalking around the living room exclaiming “Just pieces of POOPOO*!”
Exactly.
[*ths substitution]
tree hugging sister on March 25, 2008 at 8:02 PM
Absolutly. Keep Operation Khaos going until the DNC convention. We’ll have plenty of time for slinging their mud back at them when they are done flinging it at themselves!
opusrex on March 25, 2008 at 8:20 PM
If you take a step back and look at this clinically. If that’s the only type of attack they can throw at McCain, the man has been in the U.S. Senate since the Reagan era, and the best thing you can come up with to criticize is part of his appearance.
Then I say McCain is in good shape. And yes, those people are scum eating parasites.
Hog Wild on March 25, 2008 at 8:33 PM
I won’t comment for fear of being banned. But I just donated $100 to McCain to commemorate these assclowns. Who’s laughing now, spineless cretins?
Vote Sauron 08 on March 25, 2008 at 9:05 PM
And let’s not forget the Duke’s immortal response to that Dern putdown, which we can only hope McCain will roar at whichever of their two joke candidates the Democrats put up in November:
Fill your hand, you son of a b***h!
… well, maybe McCain will be roaring it figuratively. I plan to scream it at the top of my lungs as I dive into the voting booth.
Doctor Zero on March 25, 2008 at 9:05 PM
Note to:
Molly Priesmeyer, you are classless moron. I hope one day you can afford to send yourself to a journalism school where you can pay special attention to ethic and integrity.
I am no McCain fan but you have crossed the line and should be fired.
Zorro on March 25, 2008 at 9:09 PM
So McCain’s brain is in Iraq,
his heart is in Mexico
and his teeth are in Vietnam.
MB4 on March 25, 2008 at 9:10 PM
McCain is something that none of the metrosexual wussy boy reporters are… a real man.
Mojave Mark on March 25, 2008 at 9:49 PM
MB4 on March 25, 2008 at 9:10 PM
How will you celebrate the inauguration? Perhaps a pinatta stuffed with z visas?
THE CHOSEN ONE on March 25, 2008 at 9:57 PM
Growing up farming I admired my father for his kindness to animals. People that pissed him off on the other hand got a huge earful or a few fists(and sometimes a shotgun pointed at the belly if they pushed him to far).
As I have grown older I realize that animals do not think and the manner in which you treat an animal shows the merit of a man. People on the other hand get the level of pain they deserve - the liberal mindset is the worst depravity invented by man to cover moral lapses. Just wait patiently - the left is imploding and will burn themselves to a crisp - well deserving a horrible end.
For those who joke about the crippling of John McCain - everlasting agony in the fires of hell are far to easy for you. The man gave almost the last full measure to protect our freedoms - and gets derision from fools in return.
I look forward to a great 8 years of President John McCain.
Colonel_prop on March 25, 2008 at 10:05 PM
Sounds about right.
MB4 on March 25, 2008 at 10:13 PM
You have an unhealthy fixation with burning people.
MB4 on March 25, 2008 at 10:16 PM
You can contact Paul Schmelzer, the turd who runs Minnesota Monitor, at eyeteeth.org@gmail.com. Why be polite?
Vote Sauron 08 on March 25, 2008 at 10:19 PM
Zombietime has a photographic essay of the 2008 anti-war demonstration in San Francisco. This particular page of freaks and mindless drones portrays the type of tools and useful idiots that besmirch our true heroes and adulate the world’s worst tyrants.
onlineanalyst on March 25, 2008 at 10:21 PM
Was that an attempt at humor?
carbon_footprint on March 25, 2008 at 10:27 PM
It was an attempt at satirical humor.
A sense of humor is the ability to experience humor, although the extent to which an individual will find something humorous depends on a host of variables, including geographical location, culture, maturity, level of education, intelligence, and context. For example, young children may possibly favor slapstick, such as Punch and Judy puppet shows or cartoons (e.g. Tom and Jerry). Satire may rely more on understanding the target of the humor, and thus tends to appeal to more mature audiences.
Was your comment an attempt at a retort?
MB4 on March 25, 2008 at 10:50 PM
North Vietnam tortured Americans horribly, now that we’ve made nice with a communist Vietnam, you’d think an apology would be forthcoming for some of the worst torture in history.
After all America is supposed to commit an act of contrition and repentance for each and every typo.
I don’t suggest you hold your breath, this from a regime for which the term waterboarding means nothing simulated.
http://www.mishalov.com/Vietnam_McCain.html
Speakup on March 25, 2008 at 10:54 PM
Nice, that.
RushBaby on March 25, 2008 at 11:05 PM
yep
funky chicken on March 25, 2008 at 11:08 PM
Every four years at the party convention, they play a short bio film of the candidate before he comes out to give his acceptance speech. Typically, these are good at making even the lamest candidate seem like a pretty good guy, in much the same way that NFL Films is able to make the seasonal retrospective of the Arizona Cardinals seem like the upcoming year will be the year they make the Super Bowl. I can even remember watching Gore’s film in 2000 and thinking that maybe this guy was a little cooler than I thought.
To his credit, McCain himself doesn’t get much into the details of his personal story in Vietnam. And yet, if the RNC has any talented filmmakers whatsoever, they will be able to make McCain’s pre-speech film one that has everyone in the audience in tears and ready to run through a brick wall for the guy by the time he walks out on the stage. With a life story like his, it won’t even be hard. Forget what you think of his positions on immigration or the Gang of 14, etc, it is this life story that will win him this election.
Dudley Smith on March 25, 2008 at 11:09 PM
Actually the Gang of 14 got Judges Confirmed, that were getting filibustered.
Chakra Hammer on March 25, 2008 at 11:42 PM
Stupid lefty tactic, for sure, but…I don’t get it. McCain’s teeth aren’t fake. Fake teeth look really good; that’s the point of them. Maybe he has a partial or an upper or something, because ugly teeth are a litmus test of realness.
S. Weasel on March 26, 2008 at 6:20 AM
There are quite a few conservatives that would tell you if McCain didn’t broker the Gang of 14 the R’s would have exercised the Constitutional/Nuclear Option and done away with the Senate rule allowing filibusters of judicial confirmations completely, allowing all of Bush’s nominations to be confirmed. I’m not really hung up on this issue with him, but it is one item in the laundry list of grievances that conservatives have with McCain, whether you think it should be a legitimate grievance or not.
Dudley Smith on March 26, 2008 at 6:28 AM
Thanks for the intense research and copy/paste.
Your attempt at satirical humor failed.
carbon_footprint on March 26, 2008 at 8:12 AM
carbon
He’s calling you stupid. You aren’t mature enough to get his “edgy satire”.
Techie on March 26, 2008 at 2:08 PM