His cheekbone is crushed, his eye socket is shattered, and his nose is broken

September 30, 2006 12:56 PM

Meet the next generation of GOP leaders, part 8,493: Justin Zatkoff, Dan Carlson, & Jim Runestad. ... the conservative student Web site Truth Caucus posted photos of his (Zatkoff's) injured face, pronounced the incident a "hate crime,' and speculated it was the work of "liberal thugs.' A Republican organizer in Michigan e-mailed campus Republicans, warning them to travel in groups until the election was over. ... Um, no--Zatkoff was severely beaten by his own friend while both were drunk.
posted by amberglow (66 comments total)

Is this really MeFi worthy? It's not like this is the first time self-indulgent right wingers have taken ridiculous flights of fancy. It's worth pointing out that the actual victim never accused "liberal" groups or anything like that. He just said he didn't remember.
posted by delmoi at 1:01 PM on September 30, 2006

What a loser this guy is... only the finest losers in the Republican party. He'll go far.
posted by squidfartz at 1:02 PM on September 30, 2006

I wasn't aware there were liberal thugs.

Can I join? What's their website? I've got a few ideas they might like.
posted by nyxxxx at 1:03 PM on September 30, 2006 [1 favorite]

Well, there's the lavender panthers.
posted by delmoi at 1:05 PM on September 30, 2006

I do--it's interesting and it's online. The blog post started a process where Runsestad and Carlson called the newspapers seeking publicity, saying he wanted the public's help identifying Zatkoff's attacker to spread this totally unfounded lie of "homosexual rights groups" and "militant leftist groups" savagely beating this guy. There never was any basis to do so, yet they saw an opportunity to score political points and smear who they see as opponents, truth be damned.
posted by amberglow at 1:07 PM on September 30, 2006

Rumor carries more weight than fact.
posted by zerolives at 1:12 PM on September 30, 2006

more on a nat'l College Republican Conference: Policy holds little sway; the ambition of most CRNC insiders, one delegate told me, is to become "the next Karl Roves." Ideas, it seems, are out of vogue among young Republicans.
posted by amberglow at 1:13 PM on September 30, 2006

more on them as a farm team for the GOP
posted by amberglow at 1:15 PM on September 30, 2006

I hear those liberal thugs attacked a radio staion in Gleiwitz too. We should invade Poland.
posted by orthogonality at 1:18 PM on September 30, 2006

I briefly looked into joining the College Republicans in my undergraduate days, and found them, at least those with whom I had contact, to be more interested in personal ambitions than any real dedication to conservative principles.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 1:20 PM on September 30, 2006

Only in Ann Arbor.
posted by blucevalo at 1:24 PM on September 30, 2006

delmoi writes "Is this really MeFi worthy? It's not like this is the first time self-indulgent right wingers have taken ridiculous flights of fancy. "

Yes, yes it is.

Divisive rumors like these undermine democracy; it wasn't that long ago that Charlie Mason murdered white families hoping to blame blacks and start a race war. (Or for that matter, George Allen vandalizing his own high school with anti-white graffito, in order to whip up anger against a rival and mostly black football team.)

The history of race relations in the US is a history of hundreds of blacks (and some Jews) being lynched because of hysterical and often untrue rumors, just like what these College Republicans did.

You think that it couldn't have led to a lynch mob baying for a gay or leftist student? Maybe not the first time -- but ask Matthew Shepard about what hysteria can do.

For anyone to use an attack to whip up group hatred (whether the group maligned is "Eternal" Jews, or black "rapists of white women", or "queers", or "liberal thugs") is dangerous and destabilizing, to both civility and democracy.

Yes, this needs to be reported, and the rumor mongerers need to be publically shamed.
posted by orthogonality at 1:29 PM on September 30, 2006 [1 favorite]

Don't forget about the time those liberal thugs attacked the USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy.
posted by rxrfrx at 1:30 PM on September 30, 2006

er, Manson, of course
posted by orthogonality at 1:30 PM on September 30, 2006

(Or for that matter, George Allen vandalizing his own high school with anti-white graffito, in order to whip up anger against a rival and mostly black football team.)

What?! When did that come out? Not that I don't believe it, but where is the evidence?
posted by delmoi at 1:35 PM on September 30, 2006

Yes, this is important. The original story got a lot of play -- I didn't hear the truth till now.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 1:35 PM on September 30, 2006

er, Manson, of course

Aha! I knew They were behind it all along!
posted by sonofsamiam at 1:37 PM on September 30, 2006 [1 favorite]

I wasn't aware there were liberal thugs.

They sure have been quiet, haven't they?

Worse, these liberal thugs were incompetent. That wasn't a beat down. That's one black eye (and the idiot was too stupid (or smart enough not to ) ice it up, which is why it looks so horrible. Probably hurts a bit, but he can still walk, talk and type. That's not a beatdown. He's a crybaby.

Yes, this needs to be reported, and the rumor mongerers need to be publically shamed.

Shame? Hah. You have to have morals to feel shame. A real beatdown would be a far better answer.

See, lynch mobs go after the weak. If the mob gets the idea that anyone who tried to lynch a "liberal thug" is going to enjoy several weeks of pain ridding healing, the mob suddenly remember that they have really important business elsewhere.

Even better, if the word gets out early, when someone tries to form a mob, everyone then remembers that they *really* need to go floss their cat, right now.
posted by eriko at 1:45 PM on September 30, 2006

It was the night before a major basketball game with Morningside High. The mostly black inner-city school adjacent to Watts was coming to the almost entirely white Palos Verdes High to play. When students arrived at school on game day, they found graffiti spray-painted on the school library and other places. All five people who described the incident say the graffiti was racially tinged and meant to look like the handiwork of the black Morningside students. But it was actually put there by [Georeg Felix] Allen and some of his friends. "It was something like die whitey," says Campbell. The school administrator, who says he is a Republican and would "seriously consider" voting for Allen for president, says the graffiti said, "burn, baby, burn," a reference to the race riots.

--The New Republic magazine, Issue date 05.08.06
posted by orthogonality at 1:46 PM on September 30, 2006

Yes, this needs to be reported blogged
posted by sidereal at 1:46 PM on September 30, 2006

Zatkoff was severely beaten by his own friend while both were drunk.

Apparently, things got out of hand.
posted by three blind mice at 1:49 PM on September 30, 2006

Looks like a few political careers just went down the toilet here.
posted by Brian B. at 1:50 PM on September 30, 2006

Now, this is what I would consider post-worthy. Turns out high-level republicans knew about serial page-fucker Mark Foleys 'issues' for almost 11 months, and did nothing about it.
posted by delmoi at 1:54 PM on September 30, 2006

I think the evidence is pretty clear that somewhere around half of all republicans are dumber than average and that about half the democrats are smarter than average.
posted by srboisvert at 2:04 PM on September 30, 2006 [1 favorite]

This reminds me of when a campus Republican was shot and killed by a fellow College Republican who was rather unhinged. It was understood on campus that the killer and victim were once in an intimate (and possibly sexual) relationship that had gone further downhill when the victim took on a girlfriend and became leader of the Republican club — yet press coverage seems to glance over these details of the crime.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:08 PM on September 30, 2006

I think the evidence is pretty clear that somewhere around half of all republicans are dumber than average and that about half the democrats are smarter than average.

Um, you're being sarcastic, right?
posted by delmoi at 2:12 PM on September 30, 2006

Sounds logical to me.
posted by squidfartz at 2:25 PM on September 30, 2006

"homosexual rights groups" and "militant leftist groups" savagely beating this guy.

If the term "gay bashing" came to mean "roving bands of gay men beating the shit out of intolerant yahoos" instead of its converse, I would be pretty psyched, actually.
posted by dersins at 2:28 PM on September 30, 2006

Um, you're being sarcastic, right?

Um, you're being sarcastic, right?
posted by rxrfrx at 2:39 PM on September 30, 2006

I heard somewhere that George Allen spraypainted racial slurs at his high school in order to murder black people from a neigbhor's football party.
posted by undule at 2:43 PM on September 30, 2006

The self-important antics of student politicians should not be taken as evidence of anything.

Though, I guess if your only interest is to keep banging the same old gong, any old hammer will do, eh?
posted by docgonzo at 2:52 PM on September 30, 2006

he should have drank coors instead of that commie bacardi stuff ...
posted by pyramid termite at 2:53 PM on September 30, 2006

The self-important antics of student politicians should not be taken as evidence of anything.

Those student politicians grow up to be ... practitioners of bare-knuckle politics.
They include Rove, President Bush's top political adviser, the late Lee Atwater, anti-tax leader Grover Norquist and Jack Abramoff, the Republican lobbyist embroiled in an ethics scandal. ...
posted by amberglow at 3:04 PM on September 30, 2006

Um, no--Zatkoff was severely beaten by his own friend while both were drunk.

Who's to say his friend isn't a hate crime'in liberal thug? Just another reason not to make friends with anyone who thinks differently than you, if you ask me.
posted by pokermonk at 3:07 PM on September 30, 2006

Related -- Patrick Henry, the grooming ground for the next generation of conservative Republican leaders.

New Yorker: God and Country

BBC: God's Next Army

[previously discussed - 1, 2]
posted by ericb at 3:11 PM on September 30, 2006

Also -- even younger recruits for the cause -- Jesus Camp

[previously discussed - 1, 2]
posted by ericb at 3:15 PM on September 30, 2006

dersins writes "'homosexual rights groups' and 'militant leftist groups' savagely beating this guy.

"If the term 'gay bashing' came to mean 'roving bands of gay men beating the shit out of intolerant yahoos' instead of its converse, I would be pretty psyched, actually."

In (I believe) Lady Slings The Booze, Spider Robinson offhandedly describes a certain part of New York as being full of "roving gangs of bull queers, looking for gaybashers to chain-whip."

That red, screaming hindbrain part of me really, really likes that idea.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 3:37 PM on September 30, 2006

Those student politicians grow up to be ... practitioners of bare-knuckle politics.

No, the vast majority of these pinheads grow up to be disaffected divorced dads and cubicle jockeys. That a v. small percentage of them include Rove et al. does not equal causality.

Methinks you might have bigger fish to fry than these punks?
posted by docgonzo at 3:37 PM on September 30, 2006

Methinks you might have bigger fish to fry than these punks?

Frying guppies stops them from becoming bigger fish, darling.
posted by amberglow at 3:45 PM on September 30, 2006 [1 favorite]

Uh-huh. Have fun with that.
posted by docgonzo at 3:47 PM on September 30, 2006

Frying guppies stops them from becoming bigger fish, darling.

No one is going to care about this in six months.
posted by delmoi at 3:51 PM on September 30, 2006

delmoi writes "No one is going to care about this in six months."


An interesting parallel is Horst Wessel:

Horst Wessel was born in Bielfield Germany on 9 september 1907. He dropped out of law school joined the NSDAP becoming an SA storm trooper.I n 1927 he composed a simple poem that would be put to music and became known as [the] ' Horst Wessel Lied'. After his death it became the marching song of the SA and was later raised to the status of a National Anthem sung at public meetings and used as a musical background to the Nuremberg rallies of the 30's.

The young storm trooper was killed in a brawl in Berlin on 23 February 1930 and the furor over his death was manipulated by Joseph Goebbels to swing public opinion in favor of the Nazis against the communist, Goebbels claimed Wesssel was murdered in his apartment in Berlin by a communists* Wessel was given an elaborate funeral, which was interrupted by rock throwing Communists. The murder and reaction helped transform public opinion in favor of the Nazis and against their political enemies on the left.

* in all probability it was not a politically motivated murder, rather it was a dispute over a prostitute.

Horst Wessel's poem, as set to music.
posted by orthogonality at 3:58 PM on September 30, 2006

Oh, in the above, for those who don't recognize teh acronym, NSDAP = Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei = National Socialist German Workers Party = Nazi Party.
posted by orthogonality at 4:00 PM on September 30, 2006

I agree that casually dismissing this as harmless is unproductive and wrong. At the risk of seeming like a humorless bore, any false accusation of politically motivated violence, in this country, especially at this moment in time, needs to be challenged directly and loudly.
posted by Hypnic jerk at 4:14 PM on September 30, 2006

Um, you're being sarcastic, right?

Um, you're being sarcastic, right?

Um, you're being sarcastic, right?

Wee, this is fun!
posted by Stauf at 4:28 PM on September 30, 2006

At the risk of seeming like a humorless bore, any false accusation of politically motivated violence, in this country, especially at this moment in time, needs to be challenged directly and loudly.

At the risk of seeming like a lighthearted snarker, metafilter is not an especially direct or loud platform for said challenging. Blog warriors, examine thyselves.
posted by cortex at 4:33 PM on September 30, 2006

Is there a queue to kick this fellow's ass? Or do I just have to put a quarter on the machine? Either way I have next dibs.
posted by i_am_a_Jedi at 4:43 PM on September 30, 2006

Next thing you know it will be those damn liberals who got us into Iraq.
posted by cell divide at 4:44 PM on September 30, 2006

Worse, these liberal thugs were incompetent. That wasn't a beat down. That's one black eye (and the idiot was too stupid (or smart enough not to ) ice it up, which is why it looks so horrible. Probably hurts a bit, but he can still walk, talk and type. That's not a beatdown. He's a crybaby.


WRONG. His cheekbone was crushed. His eye socket is shattered. He's already been in surgery. That's definetely a fucking beatdown, in my opinion.
posted by QuarterlyProphet at 4:57 PM on September 30, 2006

QuarterlyProphet writes "WRONG. His cheekbone was crushed. His eye socket is shattered. He's already been in surgery. That's definitely a fucking beatdown, in my opinion."


Which, bad as it is, comes nowhere close to what was done with police dogs and fire hoses and nooses to blacks trying to vote in the south. Or to James Byrd or Matthew Shepard or Leo Franks.

I guess the upshot is, non-existent liberal thugs just aren't as good at beta-downs are real, existing "traditional conservatives".
posted by orthogonality at 5:06 PM on September 30, 2006

Come to think of it ... have we actually *had* a good liberal-thug beating in this country since King George got a shellackin'?

Hmmm. Interesting idea...
posted by Twang at 5:20 PM on September 30, 2006

I think the evidence is pretty clear that somewhere around half of all republicans are dumber than average and that about half the democrats are smarter than average.

I'm pretty sure I saw mention of a government study that proved your assertion true, somewhere .... Might have been on some democ-rat website ....
posted by Twang at 5:23 PM on September 30, 2006

His cheekbone was crushed. His eye socket is shattered. He's already been in surgery. That's definetely a fucking beatdown, in my opinion.

That's the result of drunkenly going one on one with a guy with a good right cross, not a beat down form a group of thugs.
posted by fshgrl at 5:28 PM on September 30, 2006

Which, bad as it is, comes nowhere close to what was done with police dogs and fire hoses and nooses to blacks trying to vote in the south. Or to James Byrd or Matthew Shepard or Leo Franks.


So these college republicans are responsible for all that?
I know MeFi is a blue state, but come on guys, this is distatesfull. It's some stupid college guys. They're a dime a dozen. I'm with delmoi.
posted by Richard Daly at 6:13 PM on September 30, 2006

Stauf for the win!
posted by squidfartz at 6:16 PM on September 30, 2006

Right sarcastic, you're being, um?
posted by xod at 6:34 PM on September 30, 2006

You never hear about this sort of thing with college Libertarians. Are there any?
posted by Didaskalos at 6:51 PM on September 30, 2006

metafilter is not an especially direct or loud platform for said challenging. Blog warriors.

Please. I was speaking about the the attitude rather than the medium. I bet you a hundred bucks my wife will be getting some spam on Monday from her idiot republican stepmother circulating this story and citing this as more proof as to what unruly thugs liberals area. The point is that poisonous disinformation like this needs to be debunked everywhere. I don't think it's possible to underestimate the kind of legs this piece of shit can get in the current climate of mistrust and fear.
posted by Hypnic jerk at 7:07 PM on September 30, 2006

WRONG. His cheekbone was crushed. His eye socket is shattered. He's already been in surgery.

Well, that's what his friend said. Same friend that said Zatkoff was brutally beaten by black people, or gay people, or liberals, or perhaps feminazis. BAMN is singled out as likely culprits.

All we really know for sure is that particular picture is about to be photoshopped to hell and back by FARKers digitally enhanced by ADOBE(tm) PhotoShop(tm) Photo Editing Software.

More from Wonkette:

truth caucus: he doesn’t remember anything about what happened
truth caucus: And, I’m think that he might be jewish
truth caucus: and Ann Arbor has a large muslim population
operative: wow!
....

MUSLIMS! Maybe they used Weapons of Mass Destruction!
posted by swell at 7:24 PM on September 30, 2006

so basically the complaint is that he wasn't whomped on enough

*rolls eyes*

you're a bunch of bleeding heart liberals ...
posted by pyramid termite at 7:38 PM on September 30, 2006

No, the complaint is that he's lying about who whomped him, in order to frame his political opponents.
posted by swell at 8:04 PM on September 30, 2006

It's worth pointing out that the actual victim never accused "liberal" groups or anything like that.

So he's not personally associated with the Truthiness Caucus then?

They just happened along, took his picture and published their bare faced lies without bothering to get his side of the story?

Um, OK. Sure.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 8:06 PM on September 30, 2006

the complaint is that he's lying about who whomped him

which is why someone complained that it "comes nowhere close to what was done with police dogs and fire hoses and nooses to blacks trying to vote in the south"

but i suppose he's got a point ... the democratic party had a lot tougher brand of thugs back then ... now, all we can manage is a good punch once in awhile ...

(really, people, do we have to match the idiocy of college republicans with our own idiocy?)
posted by pyramid termite at 8:12 PM on September 30, 2006

Ummmm ... (and yes I posted this on Wonkette this morning) ...

GOP Nerd Beaten By His Own Friends

Drunk young college kid, his friends hate him, he is savagely beaten, and he can't remember what happened so some Michigan conservative student website claims he was beaten by fags or homos or dykes or minorities or whatever ...
posted by kenlayne at 9:55 PM on September 30, 2006

you're doing Wonkette now? cool--it'll improve
posted by amberglow at 9:57 PM on September 30, 2006

WRONG. His cheekbone was crushed. His eye socket is shattered. He's already been in surgery.

Sorry, the source of that information is the President of the North Oakland Republican Club, which means that until it is confirmed by sources that don't habitually lie, I'm assuming that "several hours of surgery" was "several hours waiting in the emergency room, followed by an icepack."
posted by eriko at 7:53 AM on October 1, 2006