State Rep. Larry Pittman gets ‘binkered’
DC has ‘borking’. Raleigh has ‘binkering.’ Both terms relate to especially sleazy forms of smearing political opponents. The latter is named for WRAL’s Mark “Binky” Binker — the station’s alleged reporter (and man-purse carrier) who loiters around the halls of the legislative building in Raleigh.
Binker has apparently suffered little to no damage to his, um, professional standing after the whole “Witch-gate” affair — when he managed, despite the presence of videotape, to botch a Martin Nesbitt quote and manufacture a smear on NCDHHS secretary Aldona Wos.
Now, Binky comes forward with some YouTube video produced by American Bridge — a George Soros funded opposition research group targeting conservatives. Civitas warned us these guys were descending on North Carolina to try and reverse the state’s GOP trend.
(Personally, I think it makes quite a statement — in a bad way — that a TV station with WRAL’s resources has to rely on video produced by a shadowy leftist group.)
Binky and American Bridge’s latest victim is state Rep. Larry Pittman (R-Cabarrus) — one of the few shining lights for conservatives in the state House GOP caucus. (I think it’s funny that video now accompanies Binker’s written copy. It’s pretty bad when you – as a print journalist – require video documentation of your published material.)
American Bridge released a 45-second clip of Pittman’s opening remarks in a recent speech. It’s pretty common these days to get a few jokes at the opening of any speech. The joke deals with a defense of Obama against accusations of being a traitor because of his devotion to Kenya. Binky was not amused:
[..] The line, which earned guffaws from the crowd, echoes the discredited “birther” theory that Obama was born in the African nation rather than in Hawaii, despite documentation to the contrary.
It’s unclear whether Pittman actually believes Obama was born overseas or was just playing for laughs. A call to his house and an email to his legislative email account were not immediately answered.
After what Binky did to Nesbitt and Wos, why would anyone talk to him? You talk to Binky and suddenly he’s got you . quoted calling somebody a witch.
Binky also throws in a few more digs at Pittman to, um, “make” his case that Pittman is a kook:
[…] This isn’t the first time Pittman has gained notice for remarks he made to a citizen group. In May, Pittman had to apologize to House Speaker Thom Tillis for suggesting Tillis’ U.S. Senate bid had caused the House leader to back off conservative policies.
Pittman has also suggested abortion doctors ought to be hanged and suggested that the state ought to amend its constitution to resist attempts by the federal government to regulate firearms. […]
if you clock on the links in Binker’s you’ll see that Pittman expressed frustration with the bureaucratic mess that has beset death sentences. The legislator advocates reforming the process and bringing back public hangings. He doesn’t single out abortion doctors. He simply includes them — likely in response to a specific question from the media — in a list of people who could be sentenced to that penalty.
Pittman also DID NOT apologize to Tillis for suggesting his Senate ambitions were hampering the advancement of conservative legislation. He DID apologize — surely after some serious behind-closed-doors browbeating on Jones Street — for portraying ol’ Thom in a bad light.
The whole firearms thing comes as part of Pittman’s devotion to the idea of nullification — basically, the states refusing to participate in or recognize federal mandates that do not align with The U.S. Constitution.
Binky is not a big fan of guns. In fact, he stirred up some controversy — and some advertising losses for his employer — by publishing the home addresses of concealed carry permit holders.
It’s a pretty popular thing online for leftist trolls to refer to Texas senator Ted Cruz as “Cuban-Canadian.” I’m not hearing the same level of media outrage about that as we’ve heard in defense of Binky’s beloved Barry.
If reliance on American Bridge is going to become a trend, WRAL can save some money by canning Binky and just running American Bridge’s stuff directly.
The problem is not the reporter. The problem is that an elected official, a pastor no less, continues to reinforce the lie that Barack Obama was born in Kenya. North Carolina–get over it: BARACK OBAMA is duly elected and rightful President of the United States. If there is one person’s birth to question it is Rep. Pittman, who was apparently born in the city of Crazytown in the state of Delusion.
If there is not something funky about Obama’s birth certificate, why has he gone to such extreme lengths to try to keep people away from it? Don’t you find that extremely odd?
Personally, I think the birthers are barking up the wrong tree. I don’t think it is at all likely that Obama was born in Kenya. However, one other explanation I have heard may make some sense, and that has to do with his adoption. Obama was adopted by his step father and began using the name Barry Sotero, which he continued using after he left Indonesia and returned to the US. Most of the time in adoptions, the name of the child is changed legally to that of the adopting parent and the birth certificate is amended to reflect that. It may be that Obama never legally changed his name back, which would legally make him still Barry Sotero, and might call into question the legality of his election.
In any event, there is likely some serious reason that Obama has engaged in a massive coverup as to his birth certificate. I doubt he did it for the fun of it. I also doubt that we will ever get to the bottom of it.
This further tenet on the original “birther” lunacy is even less likely. Regardless, it has been turned down as a general argument in all combinations, including this one, by no fewer than 29 court proceedings. Time to get over it and move on…
This event seems to be clear evidence that Rep. Pittman is a prime target of the national liberal “TET offensive” on the NC GOP majority. Media events like this should alert conservatives who they need to give full support.
Pittman is also a target of Thom Tillis and his Morganite wing of the party. Tillis will not even be in the legislature after the 2014 election, but he has his enemies list and he is busy trying to find primary opponents for them in 2014. We need to let Tillis know that this is arrogant and abusive and if he persists and primaries good conservaitves, then conservatives will all sit on their hands and not vote for him or support him if we should get stuck with him as our Senate nominee, and we will redouble our efforts to obliterate him in the primary so that we do not get to that point. Tillis needs to be destroyed in the Senate race if he goes ahead with sponsoring primary challenges to conservatives in the legislature. It is as simple as that.
The article referenced is a clear partisan hatchet job by an ideological propagandist posing as a journalist.
Anyone coming from another country maintains that identify as to their descendents for some generations. It is not unusual to hear someone called as Irish American or an Italian American even thought their family has been here for generations. Often they are simply referred to as Irish or Italian. Thus it is not at all unusual to have a second generation (first generation born in the US) Kenyan-American referred to as a Kenyan. Especially when, as in Obama’s case, he still has siblings and a grandmother, as well as many more extended family in Kenya. It doesn’t have a darn thing to do with birtherism, and if this guy were a real journalist instead of a political propagandist hack looking for a hit to do on a conservative, he would know that.
I don’t think I would refere to Blinker as ”Blinky”. I would call him ”Stinker” and when he does a mindless attack like this, I would call it being ”Stinkered”.
Odd that you fault the messenger, not the message. Pittman is a continuing embarrassment to the GOP and to North Carolina. Trotting out “birther” lunacy just makes him look like a loon, and makes me question the judgement of anyone who would stand up for Pittman. I’m all for free speech, Pittman’s bizarre comments in no way protect him from an equally free response.
Horsehockey! Pittman did NOT make a ”birther” comment. Obama IS a Kenyan-American, so references to Kenya address his ethnicity, NOT where some say he was born. This is just a political hatchet job by that stinko propagandist posing as a reporter, Stinker, er, Blinker.
Tillis is the continuing embarrassment to the GOP and to North Carolina.