Archive
Mudline Archive
STICKS, STONES, BROKEN BONES
During the 2000 Bush-Gore presidential race, we began collecting negative soundbites and posting them weekly on a MUDLINE ticker, as a temporary election feature. But in the aftermath of that tumultuous contest we realized that the tone of public discourse was unlikely to improve, and elected to continue the feature. Unfortunately, we were right; two decades later, incivility is hotter than ever. If you just can’t get enough snark on social media, this mud’s for you.
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January 29, 2012
Romney on Gingrich: "Flailing around."....Tom DeLay on Gingrich: "He'll tell you what you want to hear."....Joe Scarborough on Gingrich as Speaker: "Arrogance, self-satisfaction and a fatal tendency to flit from issue to issue."....Romney on Gingrich: "His record is one of failed leadership."....David Brooks on Gingrich: "In his ideal world, he'd have a six-hour debate, but with himself and all the positions he took five minutes ago."....Presidential grandson Harrison Tyler on Gingrich: "A great big jerk.".... -
January 24, 2012
Chris Christie on Gingrich: "Has been an embarrassment to the party."....Former Rep. Martin Frost on Gingrich: "I have great confidence in his ability to screw up in the future."....Gingrich ad on Romney: "Will say and do anything to become president."....Romney ad on Gingrich: "An historian. Really?"....Steve Karnacki on Gingrich: "The more people see of him, the less they like him."....Gingrich ad on Romney: "Goes around using Castro phrases."....Noah Millman on Gingrich: "A walking catalog of everything that is wrong with alpha-maleness."....Gingrich on Romney: "A very good salesman, who very much wants to sell, but has a very weak product."....Gingrich adviser Kevin Kellems on Romney: "Bouncing around the podium like an overcaffeinated high-schooler."....David Zielenzeiger on Gingrich: "A motormouth...A phony...Utterly inauthentic."....Rod Dreher on Romney: "The Canned Cranberry Sauce Candidate: the appearance of substance, but made of jelly, and so recently glopped from the can I can still see the rings."....George Will: "Mitt Romney's problem is somehow his Romneyness."....Sarah Palin on the media: "Dumb arses.".... -
January 20, 2012
Santorum on Gingrich as Speaker: "No discipline, no ability to be able to pull things together."....Former Rep. Susan Molinari on Gingrich: "Had a leadership style that can only be described as leadership by chaos."....Romney campaign on Gingrich: "An unreliable leader."....Lloyd Grove on Gingrich: "Like a giant Death Star."....Gingrich on news media: "Destructive, vicious, negative."....Romney on Obama: "Taking away the rights of our citizens."....Bill O'Reilly on Ron Paul: "Doesn't get it, and he hasn't ever gotten it, and he never will get it."....Glenn Beck on Paul foreign policy: "Sounds a little like Osama bin Laden."....Paul Begala on Perry: "A dope."....Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson on Kwanzaa: "The racist holiday from hell.".... -
January 16, 2012
Romney on Gingrich Super PAC ad: “Probably the biggest hoax since Bigfoot.”….Perry on Romney: "There's a difference between venture capitalism and vulture capitalism."....Romney on opponents: "Bitter politics of envy."....Gingrich on Obama: "The best food stamp president in American history."....Romney on Obama: "Everywhere he goes we hear him talking about millionaires and billionaires and executives and Wall Street. It's a very envy-oriented, attack-oriented approach."....Perry on Obama administration: "Disdain for the military."....Andrew Sullivan on Perry: "A walking parody of a troglodyte...Will say anything to smear the commander in chief as a traitor.".... -
January 12, 2012
Paul Begala on Gingrich: "Grandiosity, self-delusion, and brazen, utter, shameless chutzpah."....Maureen Dowd on Gingrich: "A crazed Chuckie doll."....James Taranto on Gingrich: "Wretched and unprincipled attacks."...National Review on Gingrich's Romney attacks: "Foolish and destructive."....Club for Growth prez Chris Chocola on Gingrich attacks: "Disgusting."....Rush Limbaugh: "This is not a campaign for the presidency. That's not what this is anymore. This is payback time. This is Newt."....NH activist/artist Vermin Supreme at Gingrich event: "Newt! Newt! Newt! We have you surrounded. Come out with your hands up and your pants down!"....