Ted Nugent has carefully weaned an image as a rock star/outdoorsman/gun rights advocate over the years. However, like most aging stars that devolve into irrelevance, his public antics have become extreme and even a form of caricature at times. However, it is not his rock star excesses that have made him news relevant, it is his evolution to a right wing hero. I recently read this that he feels “insulted” when he was disinvited to play in front of troops at Ft. Knox. This incident (coming on the heels of his conviction for poaching) encapsulates a lot of the right wing hero worship that goes on, and how the right has lived in a parallel universe since Obama was elected President.
Nugent never had the courage or the patriotism to serve in the armed forces (see also Dick Cheney), so it is understandable that he doesn’t understand the military ethos. When he threatened President Obama, he threatened their Commander in Chief. The military has a strict ethos of avoiding any political position on leadership, and it is a bit of an understatement to say that threats against the chain of command are prohibited. No patriot, no matter how alienated would suggest violence against a President. Then again, to true hunters and outdoorsmen, nothing is lower than a poacher.
The hero worship of the right includes Sarah Palin. I once sat at dinner with a man who said that she was the “most articulate voice of the right”. I demurred, saying that someone who had to write crib notes on her hand did not strike me as articulate. Then there’s Rush Limbaugh, a man whose personal life including multiple failed marriages, drug addiction and criminal conviction probably illustrates the total disconnect between reality and the values of the right. They talk the talk but don’t walk the walk. It seems that all they do is give a voice to hatred, and the lesser angels of our nature.
But Nugent is one of our own – the Motor City Poacher , errrr, Madman.
FiegerTime - Geoffrey Fieger's Blog 
“Then there’s Rush Limbaugh, a man whose personal life including multiple failed marriages, drug addiction and criminal conviction probably illustrates the total disconnect between reality and the values of the right.”
I HATE Rush Limbaugh!
Yeah, I’m not sure what point Dr. Kevorkian was making in this clip when he talked about the Crucifixion, and yeah it was amusing the way Limbaugh imitated Kevorkian’s Doc-from-“Back to the Future”-eyes, but Limbaugh is a moron. It makes me roll my eyes when I see how he twists everything else around in this video. And of course this is only one clip of many where Limbaugh shoots his mouth off and wastes oxygen.
As Bill Maher once said, “Rush Limbaugh is a child, but he gets his way because he’s the fat bully on the playground!”
Geoff,
I was in Des Moines for Gerry’s closing. Any advice for a law student on getting into trial work? It seems the opportunities for any real trial work and proper training are becoming more limited by the year for younger lawyers. It seems that the opportunities for lawyers to cut their teeth on small cases are limited. People are running around with less insurance, malpractice caps haven’t been raised in years, and most lawyers can’t try a case- or haven’t in years. The trial advocacy and clinical programs are underfunded at my school and those running the trial program are non-practicing lawyers. It is a shame that the power structure is not only actively striving to dismantle jury trials, but it is also succeeding in leaving would be opponents toothless.