Tammy, just say no to drugs.

Like most hate-radio jocks, she's projecting.

More projection, this kind of unfocused rage from Tammy Bruce makes me think that she is the one who is "trash".

Thanks for clarifying this; the "fake accent" Bruce alluded to was Obama's imitation of some of her old neighbors, not her own normal voice.

The rest of Bruce's commentary seems deliberately nonsensical; Michelle Obama, an intelligent, talented woman, who has risen far above any place Bruce could ever hope to occupy, is 'trash' because she made a little fun of her old neighbors. Anyone who grew up as Obama did knows that trying to rise above your circumstances isn't just difficult and unpleasant, it can be dangerous.; better to laugh at it than be made bitter. A role model for the country, Obama is saying "I did it, and you can too."

Which still doesn't explain Bruce; this appears to be pure jealous racism, propelled by the money it can rake in.

We all could see this coming. They backed-off a bit during the election cycle because they were sure McAce would win. He got trounced. So now they figure they have nothing to lose. Hah. They are crawling out of their slimy bigoted closets in droves. That a major network (FOX) is giving them a platform will intensify the speed and ferocity of the outing. I do not think they represent white America any more than they represent a majority of Americans who voted against this crap. The open wounds sliced into the karma of Bruce and her ilk have had salt packed into them. Their ugliness will be their ultimate downfall. Poor ratings won't do it. MSM needs to go after Murdoch and his death grip on far right media. If they keep pointing the finger at him, eventually these losers will either be fired or be forced to go to Cheney's "undisclosed location" of hate, fear, and morass.

It won't make them human, just inaccessible t the general population. That the GOP isn't heading this effort says legion about their underpinnings and also to their own death-wish as a party as they drive moderates farther and farther away in droves.

What stupidity...

Who the hell is Tammy Bruce?

I still don't get it. Why is she "trash" for saying she strived to be the best? I can usually suss out rethug double-speak but this one is eluding me.

The party that has typically had problems dealing with blacks has a hip-hop head of party and makes fun of the serious ones who rose to the top through enormous effort?

Pretty soon you'll be able to tell the Republicans because they'll be the white guys wear the droopy pants and have the hat on sideways.

Lori, Coates had a commenter who nailed it right on the head. Exactly what I was thinking:

http://ta-nehisicoates.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/03/were_all_white_trash_now.php#comment-1314764

Chilling.

What Obama was saying fits in with a oft-made conservative critique of black culture-- that striving is discouraged.

So when someone strives and achieves... conservatives switch instead to, "they don't know their place."

She only said "white trash" because you can't say ni**er on the radio.

This kind of racism, usually more veiled, has been aimed at the Obamas, and Michelle in particular, since the campaign began. It's a glimpse of the ugly racist fabric in which they garb themselves, showing even nows frayed but lasting threads and pulls. The more I see, the more endemic racism seems to be in the right wing: they need to feel better than somebody for some innate reason because, I suspect, they know what failiures they are in terms of actual behavior. (C.f. Bush, G.W., their poster boy.) Nixon was bad but brilliant when he tapped into this with his "Southern strategy"; those of us who are not part of it err if we fail to identify it, call it out, push back.

I'd not heard of Tammy Bruce, but I followed the links (and their links) and learned that, in 2003 at least, she was featured on Fox as a "progressive Democrat" and that had been her schtick for many years. She had been the LA branch head of NOW, believe it or not, and she is reputedly gay. Yet she talks as if she were both conservative and Republican, constantly criticizing the left and Democrats, and especially Blacks.

It's unclear what left positions she has on anything other than, presumably, women's rights and gay rights; but one thing is clear, she's a racist.

I think she said "trash" because "nappy-headed ho" had already been taken...

Not that Tammy Bruce isn't clearly a racist, because she obviously is, but the Rethugs took the same attitude toward the Clintons, that they were the Beverly Hillbillies, riding into town with a mattress strapped to the car -- basically white trash who didn't deserve to be in the White House. These people have an incredibly rigid caste system and they worship old WASP money, even if, as is the case with the Bushes, that money was accumulated by consorting with Nazis and other criminals.

But the Obamas give them a chance to add blatant racism to their shameless, sycophantic classism.

So Columbia and Harvard educated Barak Obama is a communist-socialist-Hitler-tyrant and his Princeton-Harvard educated wife is "trash."

Wow. Just wow.

The good news is that conservatives and their Republican cohorts can't get much lower than this so it's got to be mostly up from here for the Obamas. Conservatives undermine their own arguments against affirmative action when they remind people so clearly that racism is alive and well in the USA, even in 2009 after we have elected the first African-American president.

The Mary Contrary comment is hilarious! As Anonymous asked who is this Tammy Bruce to consider her self equal to a Harvard educated, probably by MERIT scholarship, first lady! Brains and education trump rich heiresses any day.

This miserable person falls into the same category as Juan Williams, who considers Michelle Obama to be some sort of angry black militant based on absolutely nothing but his own imagination.
The only thing that gives me some hope is that these lowlifes are part of an ever shrinking minority, and most people aren't buying the propaganda anymore.

gradysu is exactly right. That doesn't mean that this comment and much of the far right's hatred of Michelle Obama isn't racist. It is. But it is also, at base, classicist and they certainly pulled the same shit on Carter and on the Clintons. In fact in a reversal of the "I'm not calling michelle "trash" because she's black...but" line I think we heard endless versions of "I'm not calling Clinton a 'white n***ger' ...but he's trashy..." when he got into the white house. They were especially enraged that a scholarship boy with a Harvard, Yale, and Rhodes under his belt hadn't simply dedicated his life to ripping off the poor like the rest of his new class. And you can see the same thing with Michelle. They were perfectly happy with Nancy Reagan and little miss xanax Laura Bush because it was clear those women didn't give a flying fuck about anyone outside of their own families. The proper attitude of every person, in the right wing imaginary, is selfish egotism and race and class loyalty. They never forgive men and women who rise above their original class but don't forget their roots, white people who aren't racist, or black people who aren't living the stereotype.

aimai

Y'all have shown commendable restraint in not mentioning the GOP's great white hope ...

Sarah Palin

Give that woman a trailer! Hordes of children with funny names. Pregnant unwed daughter. Hubby who fancies himself NASCAR-on-the-snow. Not to mention her ethical record - talk about using people for your own gain!! Per diem, anyone? New wardrobe? Free trips for all the kiddies at government expense?

Like I keep sayin', it's just standard GOP projection. Their kind does it, so they must accuse their opponents - no matter how ridiculous and unsupportable the charges are. Particularly if the charges are unsupportable and ridiculous.

I found this comment particularly interesting: "That's what he's married to."

That's WHAT he is married to. Not that is WHO he is married to. To T-Bruce, or "The Tammy" as her "fans" (can you imagine?) call her, Michelle Obama is a THING, not a person.

Racist, classicist, and depersonalizing. That is what the Repugnican Party is all about. What sickens me is that T-Bruce likes to call herself a Democrat. I would call T-Bruce a vile human being, but if this is a case of projection, I would question if she is in fact human.

Allan Snyder wrote: "This miserable person falls into the same category as Juan Williams, who considers Michelle Obama to be some sort of angry black militant based on absolutely nothing but his own imagination. The only thing that gives me some hope is that these lowlifes are part of an ever shrinking minority, and most people aren't buying the propaganda anymore."

And yet Fox News employee Juan Williams -- who on Fox News has made comments as offensive as those of Tammy Bruce, calling Michelle Obama "Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress", baselessly accusing her of engaging in "militant anger", saying "her instinct is to start with this 'blame America,' you know, 'I'm the victim'" -- appears on NPR's Morning Edition nearly every day, as a featured "political analyst", in which capacity he reliably regurgitates scripted, partisan Republican spin.

NPR never, EVER identifies Juan Williams as a Fox News employee, and recently asked him to stop identifying himself as an NPR "analyst" when he appears on Fox News.

While the hard-core audience for "lowlife" hate radio may or may not be shrinking, the fact is that the so-called "mainstream" corporate-owned mass media (which includes the corporate-sponsored "public" NPR) is busily working hand in hand with the openly partisan Republican right-wing extremist media (e.g. Limbaugh, Ingram, Fox News, et al) to legitimize right-wing hate-speech propaganda for a wider audience.

there is no trash like white trash...

Michelle? Trash?? because she 'talk like a white girl." And what is Tammy Bruce? A white girl who talks like one? "Use" other people to get things? And what is Tammy Br-"use" doing with her website and radio appearances? Using others by attempting to manipulate public opinion through labeling, sophomoric name calling, and other ad homenim attacks? Ergo...,by her kind of twisted logic, Tammy must be the very trash that she espouses others to be. Way to go Tammy!!! Man, can YOU ever make a point.

What constitutes "trash"?

BTW, Mike Stark at Calling All Wingnuts had some conversations with her. He has descriptions up, but not the actual recordings:

http://www.callingallwingnuts.com/category/tammy-bruce/

FWIW.

I still don't get it. Why is she "trash" for saying she strived to be the best?

Because, in the mind of Tammy Bruce and people like her, Michelle Obama only got where she is because of affirmative action. Mrs. Obama didn't work hard or study hard -- she had everything handed to her on a silver platter by guilty white people, so for her to claim she worked hard is "trashy."

It's the same reason they keep trying to push Alan Keyes and Michael Steele as Republican alternatives to Barack Obama -- they genuinely believe that there is no such thing as a minority (and especially not a minority woman) who is as qualified as any random white man. They really think the only reason people like and admire Barack and Michelle Obama is because they're black, so all they have to do is offer up a black Republican and everyone will admire that person instead.

It's really sad if you think about it. And really funny if you think about it more.

Like a couple of earlier commentators I didn't have a clue who this Tammy Bruce person is. . . so I used The Google, went to Tammy's web site, and I think I've got it figured out now: somewhere, sometime she made a pass at Mrs Obama and got rebuffed. She's just jealous!

Gradysu, you're right -- this is Clinton-bashing redux. When you're not going after the man, go after his wife.

gradysu: Not that Tammy Bruce isn't clearly a racist, because she obviously is, but the Rethugs took the same attitude toward the Clintons, that they were the Beverly Hillbillies, riding into town with a mattress strapped to the car -- basically white trash who didn't deserve to be in the White House. These people have an incredibly rigid caste system and they worship old WASP money, even if, as is the case with the Bushes, that money was accumulated by consorting with Nazis and other criminals.

Of course, these same people are only to happy to play at "cultural populism" (i.e., redneck identity politics) with their party's electoral base when necessary. How the fuck does that work?

Yeah, this is purely a case of projection.

If any of you have ever heard Tammy Bruce on her radio talk show, she is absolutely the bitterest and most unhappy person which she uses to energy her "message." Regarding the NOW organization, she was asked to leave because she was so divisive. So of course, she also hates NOW now.