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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.

  • April 7, 2012

    Sen. Chuck Grassley tweet re Obama: "Am ppl r not stupid as this x prof of con law."....Obama adviser David Axelrod on Grassley: "I think a 6-year-old hijacked your account."....Romney ad: "The Obama attack machine...is spending millions to fling mud...er, oil at Mitt Romney."....James Carville on Rick Santorum: "Like a chicken with his head chopped off."....Rush Limbaugh on Keith Olbermann: "You're the guy wearing a $50 lampshade sitting in the corner of the room that nobody else wants to go in."....
  • April 7, 2012

    Romney on Obama: "Will say anything, will attack any institution, will distrort the truth with reckless abandon."....Karl Rove on Obama: "Acting like some sort of political thug at the White House, threatening the Supreme Court."....Obama on Ryan budget: "So right wing it made the original Contract with America look like The New Deal."....Arlen Specter on Santorum: "Beating a dead horse."....Mitch McConnell on Obama: "A fundamental lack of respect for our system of checks and balances."....Maureen Dowd on SCOTUS: "Run by hacks dressed up in black robes."....Fidel Castro on GOP primary: "The greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance there has ever been."....Ted Rall on SCOTUS strip search ruling: "The United States is officially a police state."....
  • April 2, 2012

    Obama on Ryan budget: "Nothing but thinly veiled social Darwinism."....Paul Krugman: "Surely the most fraudulent budget in American history."....Arlen Specter on Mitt Romney: "Has changed positions more often than a pornographic movie queen."....Newt Gingrich on Obama Administration: "So pro-Islamic that it can't even tell the truth about the people who are trying to kill us."....Geraldo Rivera on hoodies: "As much responsible for Trayvon Martin's death as George Zimmerman was."....Fox News' Liz Trotta: "Watching the coverage of Trayvon Martin's case this past week has been like watching sausage made."....
  • March 27, 2012

    Santorum on Romney: "Desperate and pathetic."....Gingrich on Romney staff: "They don't even have the decency to wait until they get the nomination to explain to us how they'll sell us out."....Santorum on Romney: "The worst Republican in the country to put up against Barack Obama."....Romney on Russia: "Without question, our number one geopolitical foe."....Medvedev on Romney: "We are in 2012 and not the mid-1970s."....
  • March 25, 2012

    Romney spokesman Ryan Williams on Santorum: "Becoming more desperate and angry and unhinged every day."....Santorum on Romney: "The Etch a Sketch candidate."....Romney on Santorum: "Desperate polls call for desperate pols."....Gingrich on Obama: "Consistently apologizing to Islam while attacking the Catholic church."....Santorum ad: "Where does Romney stand on the issues? It all depends on who he's standing in front of."....Romney on top Obama energy advisers: "Gas-hike trio."....Gingrich on Obama's Trayvon Martin remarks: "Disgraceful."....Obama adviser David Plouffe on Gingrich’s remark: “Reprehensible…Speaker Gingrich is clearly in the last throes of his political career.”….Peggy Noonan on Romney: "Seems stuck in 'I am extraordinary.'"....Rep. Brad Miller: "I have said very publicly that if Duke was playing against the Taliban, then I'd have to pull for the Taliban."....