Friday, May 22, 2015

WASHINGTON POST GOSSIP COLUMN KEPT NUDGING JOSH DUGGAR TO RUN FOR OFFICE

I haven't got much to add to what's already been said about Josh Duggar, the 19 Kids and Counting star who became an anti-gay, anti-abortion lobbyist for the Family Research Council (as well as a friend to many right-wing politicians), and who's now been revealed to have fondled several young girls when he was in his teens. I will note, however, that the Reliable Sources column at The Washington Post has giddily hinted on more than one occasion that Duggar had a bright future in electoral politics -- an idea Duggar didn't reject outright.

Here's Reliable Sources on October 8, 2013:
The new, young political operative in town hasn’t decided whether he’ll ever run for office. It’s a tough job, Josh Duggar knows.

“I admire these people who are willing to put themselves out there,” he told us, “and live in a glass box and be subjected to the media and all those pressures.”

Aw, Josh, you can deal with that! ...

Tasked with grassroots outreach for FRC, Duggar emphasizes that politics is nothing new -- his dad served in the state legislature; he attended Mike Huckabee prayer breakfasts as a kid; and he campaigned for Rick Santorum. As a used-car dealer, “I learned how you make a payroll and treat people right,” he said. “We could use quite a bit of that in politics.”
An here's a Reliable Sources follow-up on December 4, 2014:
As for running for office himself, Duggar said he’s happy to stick to playing a supporting role. “Politics is quite a game -- it puts things in perspective... I’m not planning to run anytime soon,” he said. “My focus is supporting those people who are doing the right thing.”
Hmmm -- he wasn't planning to run "anytime soon"? I can't tell if he was letting the Post interviewer down easy or acknowledging that this was a possible long-term plan for him. But it seems as if it could have happened, to the delight of at least one corner of The Washington Post.

5 comments:

aimai said...

Atrios is so right--why haven't they opened a Social Services file on the Duggar family and taken all the girls away to be interviewed. Perhaps Josh's crimes have been rendered moot because of the statute of limitations but where there is one set of crimes, in such a large family, there are pretty much bound to be others. If this were a large, sprawling, African American family you can bet your boots the police and social services would be crawling all over them investigating both the parents (for having let this happen) and all the kids.

Professor Chaos said...

Thy say he did this as a teen. I guarantee he's done it more recently also. Being a child molester isn't something one outgrows. And his family sending him to a child pornographer for "therapy" probably didn't fix him either.

Susan of Texas said...

Josh has a daughter.

And yes, it's highly unlikely that Josh did this at 14 and stopped. He probably did it before and after as well, since he learned he can be a serial child molester and get away with it.

And he almost certainly was molested himself, going by what a therapist who works with child molesters told me. By whom?

In these cases it's also common for the family to hide the extent of the crimes.

Those girls are undoubtedly brainwashed into thinking they have to forgive and forget, with no outlet for their anger or self-doubt. No therapy. No validation.

Glennis said...

Used car salesman. Says it all.

Victor said...

He'll say that Jesus forgave him, and he can run for office at some point in the future - and the Godly "Christians" will forgive him too, and vote for him!