Last night, I told you about how Florida GOP chairman Jim Greer went all ape shit and accused Obama of trying to indoctrinate children into Maoism or something by having the audacity to, you know, tell them to stay in school. It's gotten a lot of play these last 24 hours, and here we have party flack Nicole Gordon defending Greer's absolute stupidity to TPM.
Gordon directed me to the official teaching materials that the Department of Education has posted. Gordon especially took exception to this part of the materials: "Write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president. These would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals." I pointed out that this item came from a list of bullet points headed "Extension of the Speech," which clearly means it's in the context of the speech on personal responsibility and academic goals.
But Gordon begged to differ. "Why are you willing to accept that in good faith, the Obama administration is asking them to write a letter in the context of the speech," said Gordon, "but you're not willing to accept in our release, where we're saying there's no guidelines that it has to be in the context of the speech?"
snip
"Our point is that there are some questions about this address that need to be answered, and parents need to be given the option to choose whether or not their children who are students are going to be expected to watch this propaganda in a public school," Gordon later explained. "Students can't pray in school, but they can discuss new ideas and actions that the President is challenging them to think about. Well, I know that a lot of the President's ideas don't reflect my values and don't reflect the values that I would be teaching my children. And to be quite honest, there are a lot of the President's ideas that I wouldn't want my children discussing in a public school. It's not appropriate, the place for that is in the home."
Note to Republicans: When in a hole, stop digging. And whatever you do, DO NOT declare victory. Except, you know, that's what Greer did. Hey, what do you know, another press release!
Greer Leads the Charge – White House Backs Down
Department of Education Revises Biased Teaching Materials
Tallahassee–Yesterday, Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer released a statement condemning the Obama Administration’s attempt to indoctrinate American children to his liberal ideology through the use of biased teaching materials surrounding the President’s address to school children scheduled for early next week. Today, the White House told the Associated Press that Chairman Greer had nothing to worry about, but Chairman Greer kept the heat on, and late tonight the Obama Administration backed down, withdrawing a controversial portion of the teaching plan and issuing revised materials via the Department of Education.
He's a brave, brave man, standing in the gap.
Serious question: Why does anyone take this dipshit seriously?