November 16, 2006
Putnam Wants To Know: Where Were The Rednecks?
“White rednecks” who “didn’t show up to vote for us” partly cost GOPers their cong. majorities, Rep. Adam Putnam (R-FL) told fellow Republicans today. And Putnam, seeking the post of GOP conference chair, chided ex-Chair J.C. Watts (R-OK) for ruining the conference’s ability to serve its members.
Three Republicans in the room independently confirmed to the Hotline the substance and context of Putnam’s remarks. But Putnam’s chief of staff insists that the remarks were taken out of context.
Examining the 2006 midterms, Putnam blamed the GOP defeat on “the independent vote, the women vote, the suburban vote.” He said that “heck, even the white rednecks who go to church on Sunday didn't come out to vote for us.”
Putnam used Watts’ tenure as chair to contrast his own vision for the conference, saying the GOP needed a “bolder” vision than the type of strategy preferred by Watts. According to one Republican’s notes, Putnam said that “JC Watts ruined the Conference by removing the member services functions that it offered until 1998” by turning it into only a communications and press vehicle. According to two Republicans, Putnam took the same swat at Watts during a Republican Study Conference session yesterday.
A Watts associate confirmed that he had learned of Putnam’s comments and that he was angered by them. Watts was not immediately available to comment.
Putnam’s chief of staff, John Hambel, said his boss has used the word “redneck” only in the context of sharing polling data from last week’s elections. Hambel said Putnam was listing off different constituencies and ended with saying: “Heck, we even had rednecks who go to church who didn't come out to vote.”
Earlier, and according to Hambel, not in the same context, Putnam suggested that Watts was a great communicator, but did not do enough for member services. He said Putnam believed that Watts was a “great communicator for the Republican party.”
"What he said was that when we were in the majority, J.C. Watts focused on communications and did not focus on member services,” said Hambel. “And in the minority, the conference, we need to focus more on member services.” Two ear-witnesses to this morning’s meeting say they did not remember Putnam praising Watts before he criticized him.
Putnam, the current chair of the Republican Policy Committee, is the House’s second-youngest member and an Episcopalian.
According to the Almanac of American Politics, Putnam represents a district that’s mostly urban and 72% white. His voting record is reliably conservative. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Southern Democratic budget hawks like Phil Gramm casually referred to themselves as the “Redneck Caucus.”
Though some Southerners take “redneck” as term of endearment, it is not a word that Republicans generally use to describe part of their base. Putnam, a favorite of current Speaker Dennis Hastert and Maj. Leader John Boehner, is running for chair against Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Jack Kingston (R-GA) and Dan Lungren (R-CA). [SHIRA TOEPLITZ and MARC AMBINDER].
Posted at 01:50 PM
Comments
Don't Republicans see the writing on the wall? America is becoming more Hispanic and Asian by the day.
The only demographic they won was white, evangelical protestants. They lost every other religious, racial and ethnic group.
Diminishing Returns | 11.16.06 02:46 PM
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I am from the south and go to church and I can tell you that being called a redneck is not a term of endearment. It is just demeaning and wrong. The last thing we need is another George Allen type as the spokes person for our party. We just lost congress over remarks like this and already the republican house has forgotten.
Randy Wallace | 11.16.06 04:31 PM
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Hey, I'm a white redneck Sunday go to church male from Adam's district. Ya'll know what? He's right! I didn't vote for him and never will.
Peace!
PeeJ | 11.16.06 04:38 PM
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JC Watts ought to realize that the Republican party treats him and other blacks (e.g., Steele)as tokens. They should be asking why their party elected a convicted racist (Lott) to its second highest leadership post?
Hughes, BC | 11.16.06 04:48 PM
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Perhaps Republicans should be asking themselves whether or not people that drunken, wife-beating, racist, child molesting, church-going rednecks vote for are really people that should be running the United States.
Satan | 11.16.06 04:49 PM
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Maybe the "rednecks" figured out the Greedy Ole Party shore talked purty but their corporatist buddies were pickin their pockets?
Mensor | 11.16.06 05:38 PM
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I hope they keep putting up racially-coded ads like the ones the aired against Ford, and later deny they had anything to do with racism. Hopefully they will also continue to slip coded bigoted remarks to their base, like 'macaca.'
Anthony | 11.16.06 05:41 PM
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Interesting...I seem to remember the Washington press going ballistic on Howard Dean saying it was important for Democrats to outreach to guys with the Confederate flag on their pick-up trucks. Um, this would seem to be a much more offensive comment, no? Where is the mass outrage??
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Hank Essay | 11.16.06 05:43 PM
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Wow, looks like Dean was successful even with the "guys with confederate flags on their pickups".
feckless | 11.16.06 06:41 PM
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Even church-going rednecks won't vote for torture, trechery, incredible corruption, and pedophilia.
felix random | 11.16.06 07:00 PM
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UTTERLY AMAZING, PUTMAN A FLORIDIAN CONGRESSMAN IN A TREMEMDOUS MAJORITY OF WHITE VOTERS , EXPRESSES VIEWS, SUCH AS THE "REDNECK WHITES " DID NOT COME OUT AND VOTE FOR US !!! MADE IN THE CLIMATE AND WITH FELLOW REPUBLICANS, IT SUITED HIS NEEDS AND OF COURSE, IT BECOMES REFUTED , WHEN EXPOSED, TYPICAL REPUBLICAN BLUSTER AND DENIAL
norman | 11.16.06 07:29 PM
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Without the rednecks the republicans would wither and die. Thanks to the redneck evangelical preachers who seek power unto themselves. It's the repugs who trot out jesus and injects race into each election cycle. may the get their just reward.
joe | 11.16.06 07:49 PM
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These Republicans are in denial.
They don't want to see the writing on the wall.
They pretend the writing is not there.
They pretend the wall is not there.
I wish they'd pretend that THEY aren't there and
just GO AWAY.
Floridians! do't make ignorant choices like Putnam to represent you. He makes you look bad.
“White redneck ”--NOT.
darker | 11.16.06 07:51 PM
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It is the rednecks whose brothers, sisters, sons and daughters are dying in a sensless war. They voted with their blood.
RabidRobert | 11.16.06 07:56 PM
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This is how I see the Republican party from across the pond: Bloated white boys' club, hoarding money at the expense of everyone else and clinging to power with all their might. They'll speak words that voters want to hear, such as not raising taxes, eliminating abortion, and keeping scared people safe, all the while they're slapping all of their "redneck" followers and their kids with an enormous deficit or laughing behind the backs of their "evangelical" followers or keeping the borders open so they can utilize cheap labor (how safe is it when you don't even know who is coming across?). They represent rich white people first and foremost. All decisions are made based on that premise and anything will be said to stay in power.
JD | 11.16.06 07:59 PM
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My guess is that the rednecks were squealing like pigs during the election.
Stan | 11.16.06 08:05 PM
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Finally someone who is willing to admit that the GOP is a party of fat white redneck men. When I was traveling in Europe this summer, it was a shock to learn that we are the most hated nation now, but even more of a shock that all Europeans are educated that Southern white racist REDNECK men are responsible for dumbing the US down to a retrograde pariah nation.
The GOP rallied this base for 15 years and built the party into a juggernaut with an AM talk radio disinformation operation that pumped unchallenged lies into the public square without challenge. When I hear this right wing talk radio I immediately recognize it from whence I escaped some 30 years ago: disgusting corpulent sexually repressed white REDNECK men.
Welcome to Redneck nation, pariah of the world!
greg | 11.16.06 09:31 PM
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Obviously Rep. Putnam doesn't think J.C. Watts is the right person to reach-out to "white rednecks" I wonder why this is?
STParker | 11.16.06 11:11 PM
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Opie needs to think before he speaks.
Redneck Lady | 11.16.06 11:28 PM
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Say D.R. you got a problem with the majority ?
yellowdog | 11.17.06 12:00 AM
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"The only demographic they won was white, evangelical protestants. They lost every other religious, racial and ethnic group."
And they are quickly losing ground with that demo as well.
snoop | 11.17.06 12:19 AM
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Maybe those "rednecks" don't like being disparaged and patronized by Republicans any more than they like being stereotyped by those wacky inscrutable lefties.
mizerock | 11.17.06 01:04 AM
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They were outnumbered by the Macacas.
jnik | 11.17.06 02:20 AM
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Excuse me... I live in the South and yes the "rednecks" did vote. They are also tired of the crap. It happens to be those redneck, good ole boys, children who are being maimed and killed in a an unjust war.
The Republicans have their 71% of evangelicals left and they can keep them. All the normal, semi-normal, somewhat sane, human beings are pretty much over the rhetoric. I remember in 2004 how they (Republicans) bragged about how great the women's vote was. It's those women's babies who are dying in an unjust war. Don't they (Republicans) get it?
The straight, white, conservative, born again every 5 years, male's are not going to be making all the decisions anymore. George Bush Jr., Karl Rove, and an assist from a corrupt Republican party fixed that and all we had to do was watch and wait for the decent Americans to come back around. It just took longer than expected for the Karl Rove "Fear Factor" to wear off.
Radical Left Wing Redneck Gay Guy | 11.17.06 03:22 AM
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These republican retards are so stupid I for one am surprized that they are even capable of running for office. I think we all can see that they are not capable of governing. This is the spend and spend some more party. No matter how many people they kill or wound as long as they can waste our money everything is just fine.
This little putnam creep should be run out of town on a rail along with the whole republiscum party.
Never in the history of our country have so many stupid people been in our government. we had a good start last election now if we can do the same thing in each and every election maybe after a while we will take the profit motive out and get rid of the crminals in our government.
James Ratliff | 11.17.06 07:54 AM
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It is hard to vote for either party, when both parties are out to destroy us.
And if Mr Bush gets his way, in three years, there will not be a United States, we will be a North American Union Dictated to by 15 Council on Foreign Relations "Elites"
grayfox | 11.17.06 08:20 AM
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What respect the Republicans show for those who support them!
When will the "rednecks who go to church" wake up and see who they're voting for? Certainly not themselves or their interests.
Toby | 11.17.06 08:45 AM
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To have a white Episcopalian say that the GOP loses were due to the rednecks not voting is disgusting. It's code for"The KKK" members in our Party were too drunk to drive and vote.
Ed C'Ville | 11.17.06 08:50 AM
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Repubs are scared of diversity and that will be their downfall. I say good ridence. They are very intolorant of those who differ from them and all they want to do is set up a Christian theocracy. They should go back and study their American history. The Founding Fathers did not have setting up a Christian theocracy as their goal.
Cathy
Michigan
Cathy | 11.17.06 08:57 AM
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"White rednecks"...Is there any other color?
nffcnn | 11.17.06 09:47 AM
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It's because a majority of America is in the center. Living in a democracy means you have multiple sides of every issue, prompting people to "do their homework" whenever extravagant claims are made by Fox pundits or GOP talking heads.
And guess what? People finally realized that the GOP has been lying - and the mainstream media has been covering it up for them.
Americans want their country back. They want balanced media coverage. They want accountability. They want the truth about what's going on - and they aren't getting it from their leaders or their GOP-backed media sources.
Ginger Winchester | 11.17.06 10:46 AM
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I am in that red-headed, redneck's district and absolutely did not vote for him. He votes only to the orders of "Dubya" or his brother "Gotcha".
He only gets elected because of the redistricting in our area. I have written to him many times and get the same rsponse each time "stay the course" and we will prevail. B.S.
I will work my hardest to try and get him out of office!!!
Retired Army | 11.17.06 11:43 AM
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“White” rednecks? Are there any other kind of rednecks? Die-hard rednecks actually did show up, which sort of explains the closeness of the overall vote, or that Republicans got votes at all.
Pinchback | 11.17.06 12:04 PM
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I have only lived in North Carolina for 20 years so I can only be treated as a Semi Red Neck but I do begin to understand the folks here,and when a red neck say Hey you pea pickin red neck to another red neck he smiles----But do not try this if you don't understand what" mummied up" means. The censor and good taste prevents me from expressing what red necks think of northerners.
vs1d12 | 11.17.06 12:15 PM
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When you vote FOR the GOP, you're a "NASCAR dad," when you don't, you're a "white redneck." I hope those people, along w/ the Religious Right now realize they've been played like a banjo.
Scott Sintkowski | 11.17.06 04:03 PM
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I am from West Virginia and I would like to take back the term "redneck". The term was originally coined for the red bandanas union members wore to be able to identify members from scabs and Pinkerton thugs. The trials of the mine workers were held in the county I live in now. "Rednecks" probably did turn out but they finally realized the the GOP was not standing up for the working people and the middle class in America. And as I heard a former Methodist Senator from Georgia say "Jesus did not ride on an elephant into Jerusalem on Passover".
Czech w 6 kids | 11.17.06 04:56 PM
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They think that we're all so stupid that all they have to do is say a few of the right words and we'll blindly vote for them without a moment's thought. The repugs don't deserve our votes!
Darrin927 | 11.17.06 06:05 PM
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Speaking as a redneck who has long voted democrat on National issues, many non-evanjelical rednecks are ripe for taking by the democrats if they would just stop sneering, and focus on making real improvement in rural lives. There is no love for corporatist republicans. A example of an issue with potential is health care. Far fewer rural voters have health insurance than do urban ones an it is scary. Issues that will drive off rural voters are welfare (they see shirkers taking the paychecks of those who work hard) and trial lawyers (shirkers, fat cats, and whiners taking from those who work)
bill | 11.17.06 06:42 PM
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Perhaps this will clue in the GOP's base that the GOP doesn't care about them. It just cares about its power and how it holds on to it.
Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran | 11.17.06 07:03 PM
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Being a white Episcopalian inscrutible leftie who hails from South of the Mason Dixon I can assure you that Putnam's comments are atypical of the out of touch, power drunk, warmongering, pocket lining, lying, corrupt and mudslinging Good Ol' Boy Southern Right Wingers. They historically abuse their office, plunder the economy, attack needlessly and then when their asses are in the sling they backtrack and fill the airways with their remorse and new resolution to "get back to basic core values." Putnam is nothing more than a wart on the Republican Party's bum....but the Party of Elephants and Lies poses greater danger when it is wounded and fighting for it's life. We would all be wise to remember that.
H. Brenton Lee | 11.17.06 09:58 PM
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They may be a little slooow, but the rednecks seem to have gotten it after helping give us W (now the lame chicken hawk) in '04. They are the laughing stock of the entire US and especially of corporate America, who controls the Grand Ol' Perverts. Is there anyone in the rest of the US who does not belittle rednecks/trailer trash?
allan wheeler | 11.18.06 09:37 AM
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When Howard Dean talked about appealing to the "guys with the confederate flags on their pickups" it was all over the media, complete with mock shock and faux outrage. This mook calls his voter base "rednecks" and there's a thundering silence about it.
Your liberal media at work.
JDRhoades | 11.18.06 09:54 AM
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I am a constituent and voter in Adam Putnam's district here in Lakeland, Fla.; I am Gordon Wayne "GW" Watts (I'm also Republican like JC Watts) and probably a distant cousin of JC -as we're both part Native American.)
However, as a constituent in Adam Putnam's district, while I applaud him for some conservative votes in the past, I must be honest:
#1: Both Republicans and Democrats are "tax-and-spend" liberals; and,
#2: Both Republicans and Democrats are both riddled with immoral and unqualified candidates. Heck, a congressman is MUCH more likely to have committed criminal acts than your ordinary citizen.
Gordon W. Watts | 11.18.06 11:20 PM
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It's good to know that the pertinent issue here is not the categroical sub-humanizing of an ethnic enclave of a perfectly legitimate race of man, but rather whom these subhumans, in their preternatural stupor, managed to vote or not vote for.
To all of you homo-sapiens superior out there I ask you to enlighten your lesser brethren with your authority to marginalize this singular race. If you aren't aware, redneck pertains to those of North England borderland Scotland extraction and so the slander redneck is quite obviously racism.
This racism has become kosher. The only bonafide racism allowed these days it seems, and from my vantage point-lowly though it be, spits in the eye of any theory that it stems from a rescindance of political power and gives us a glimpse of the hypocritical bigots denouncing those hyporitical bigoted rednecks.
funfoundation | 11.19.06 11:30 AM
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colony of israel..thats what we are vote for RON PAUL.
chuck | 10.05.07 03:32 AM
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The term redneck came from union cole minors. Am i the only one that knows this?
chad | 02.24.08 01:37 AM
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