Weird 91-year-old Republican state representative Martin Harty’s short career in New Hampshire politics is now over, because he said Hitler must have done “something right” and also that crazy people should be sent to Siberia for some reason. If Harty had only been about 45 years younger and maybe wore glasses to “look smart,” he could have a reality show about Siberia now. Instead, he resigned. Not because his ideas are wrong, mind you, but because of the “slightly unfavorable publicity” surrounding his comments. Because if Hitler was terrible, then why is he still so famous, right?
Harty, who turns 92 this month, came into spotlight last week after telling a voter during a phone call that he thought the best treatment for the mentally ill would be a one-way trip to Siberia. He also said population growth and mental illness could be controlled with eugenics, a form of genetic engineering commonly associated with Hitler’s Germany.
In his letter to Speaker of the House William O’Brien, Harty apologized not for what he said, but for the disruption he caused.
But this 91-years-young legislator could’ve had a bright career, if only he kept quiet. Much like President Barack Obama, ex-Rep. Harty had no idea what he was voting for and couldn’t even figure out if he had voted in favor or against things (“present”). Harty admitted this to a newspaper, saying he just did whatever the people around him were doing — which is, actually, the way all Republican legislators vote!
Good-bye, sir! And congratulations for somehow avoiding the death panels required by eugenics. [Slate/Union-Leader]
{ 177 comments }
What, did the teabaggers take that as an implicit endorsement of Obama?
"Harty, who turns 92 this month, came into spotlight last week after telling a voter during a phone call that he thought the best treatment for the mentally ill would be a one-way trip to Siberia. "
When is he leaving?
Representative Martin Harty-Har-Har quit so that he can be the opening act for Carrot Top. I hope they have butterscotch candy in the green room and foods that are chock full 'o fiber!
He'll have a Van Halen moment when he finds a Brach's mixed in with the Werther's Originals.
"Ha ha Harrrty har har!"
In fairness, dudes like this aren't taken seriously. Being in the New Hampshire house of reps is like being on jury duty. It doesn't pay, and most people would get out of it if they could.
"The legislature is called the General Court. It consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate. There are 400 representatives, making it one of the largest elected bodies in the English-speaking world,[35] and 24 senators. Most are effectively volunteers, nearly half of which are retirees. "
- Wikipedia
Sounds like the teabaggers' ideal form of small government. Obama: take heed!
Exactly.
An All Volunteer Gum'mint composed of ignorant, cranky old people working for frrrrreeeee!
Most of whom would be vastly overpaid…
400 representatives? From a State that size? If you don't count forested areas, state or federally owned lands, and water, that must come to about one representative per square mile.
I think you are automatically a rep if you own a bed and breakfast, or a meth lab.
Thankfully, I own both. Can I get two votes?
I thought Tennessee was the Volunteer State…
Next career: FOX pundit?
dang!
He can go on that racist kid's show!
Hannah Montana?
I hear they are looking for a more liberal counterpart for Hannity. And you know the ticker will say "NH (D) Martin Harty" when Gretchen reports on this.
What? She will, TOO!
Hmmm 91 you say?
That would mean he would have been 21 in 1941 when a soon-to-be irradiated nation led by RW fanatics bombed a pre-long form outpost of the US America.
Apparently even living through the history isn't enough to stop the stupid.
This revelation has given me a case of The Sad. Where did I leave my Aqua Velva?
Siberia? I thought that was Stalin's playpen, not Hitler's.
Hitler, Stalin, Franco, Pinochet… I'm sure Harty could find something to admire in every one of them if he just thought about it for a second.
Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Couscous…there all the same in a feeble old man's very small world
I prepare my Couscous ("gusgus", in the (un)original German) in a Pol Pot. It's a really great prep, like a Dutch Oven.
Mentioning ovens is really bad taste.
Down with couscous! Up with farina!
Communists and Nazis are the same people. don't you watch Beck?
And socialists (i.e. social democrats) are the same too!
So why couldn't they have had a nice coalition back in 1930s Germany instead of Hitler persecuting the political opposition?
Brought to you by How To Get A Beck Fan To Shoot Fire Out Of His Ass
You know what Stalin did to cheeky commenters? Sent them on the Bataan Death March, is what he did.
Michelle?
Time to set Harty adrift on an ice floe.
Which is then bombed.
With Agent Orange so he dies a long, slow painful death from cancer.
Or have him run for governor.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: old people are just no good for anything.
You forget Soylent Green.
Not so. Not so. They keep our health Insurance corporations profitable. In fact, these insurance companies want only old people in the US of A
Old people, they make young people scream.
Hey, doesn't ranting on the web count for something? We can do that pretty near as well as the young'uns. Well, not me, I'm not all that funny.
"Practically, the old have no very important advice to give the young, their own experience has been so partial, and their lives have been such miserable failures, for private reasons, as they must believe; and it may be that they have some faith left which belies that experience, and they are only less young than they were. I have lived some thirty years on this planet, and I have yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from my seniors. They have told me nothing, and probably cannot tell me anything to the purpose. Here is life, an experiment to a great extent untried by me; but it does not avail me that they have tried it. If I have any experience which I think valuable, I am sure to reflect that this my Mentors said nothing about. "
Thoreau
If you tasted my mom's rhubarb pie (still cranking them out at age 82) you'd eat your words.
If you had any room left after pie.
Does Harty need to be dead before they have a Viking funeral for him?
Crazy pro-eugenics legislator in New Hampshire… I smell the Free State Project.
What happened to the first Amendment right of GOPers to say whatever horribly offensive, racist, and/or flippantly insensitive thing that comes to mind?
You know who else said population growth and mental illness could be controlled with eugenics…
Oh, right, it says who in the article.
Khan Noonien Singh?
George H.W. "Rubbers" Bush?
Margaret Sanger?
EDIT: I'm getting downfisted for this? By Real US Wonketters, or by our Breittardian friends? Help! Help! I'm bein' repressed!
I can't tell you how many times this rabidly pro-life girl I know has thrown that at me. I always shoot back that Sanger never fired a gun or triggered a bomb, unlike some people that spring to mind, but she just pretends she can't hear me.
My grandfather has pulled out that hoary chestnut a few times as well. "Ha ha Margaret Sanger if you believe in birth control you're racist ha."
Shut up, grampa.
Useful point. I don't have a problem with saying that Sanger was a hero for founding Planned Parenthood AND she was seriously wrong in thinking that eugenics was a good idea. I don't need heroes to be flawless–when my kiddo was tiny, he loved stories about how brave and smart Charles Lindbergh was when he flew across the Atlantic, and when he was older I also told him about Lindbergh's slimy flirtation with fascism (and a bit later I read him Thurber's brilliant "The Greatest Man In the World."). Doesn't make that pioneering flight any less impressive, it just means that actually worshiping heroes is a risky proposition.
EDIT: I like your name change! Today we SHOULD all be Japanese. (You've got me turning…)
Anton LaVey!
Abe Simpson is cute on TV, but in real life, not so much.
Sometimes more famous crackpots weigh in for eugenics and removing chaff from our social wheat:
"I appeal to the chemists to discover a humane gas that will kill instantly and painlessly. Deadly by all means, but humane not cruel …"
George B Shaw; 7 Feb 1934 on "parasites" who do not produce what they consume. Ten years before Cyclon-B, which Eichmann described in the same term, "humane."
Shaw was not even forced to resign from respectable society of his day.
Were his comments made in a Swiftian mood of satire or was he fer realz on the that one? Maybe he was just being cranky; cynics say a lot of cynical stuff.
You decide.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WBRjU9P5eo
There are plenty more, If he were "ironical," then he kept it up longer than SNL has.
GBS was clearly speaking ironically in the context of his quote. Please don't dig up these stupid old chestnuts unless you know how to use them.
He was a lifetime Eugenicist, which is the topic of the entry. As to whether he was doing his SNL impression years before the fact with his Final Solution soliloquy, it's still true he believed in selective breeding for a master race. He was a great admirer of all the dictators of his day, in fact praising Hitler and predicting he would be a great asset to the world. That's enough to cause the odd state rep to head for the hills today.
Hey, did you know that there was this one English guy that suggested EATING BABIES?!!?
Lots of people think it was satire, but on the other hand, yum, babies.
Popular fiction, late 19th and early 20th centuries, was full of genocides and the like.
He resigned? Don't you just fire your press secretary and "move on"?
Little known fact: Adolf was quite the cuddler.
Did a passable Irish jig, also.
Now, of course we all know that Hitler's little "victory jig" after the French surrender was faked….what I did NOT know is what a cornucopia of time-wasting silliness would result when I searched "Hitler dance" on the YouTubes. (similar weirdness for "Hitler Disco" and "Hitler techno").
"He also said mental illness could be controlled with eugenics."
Why is he trying to eradicate his base?
"Harty, who turns 92 this month"
Soon to be his base: Earthworms
Uh… perfect example for fucking term limits?
This guy was in his first term! It's a perfect argument for not electing a fucking nonagenarian to a state legislature.
I have an 89 year-old neighbor. She couldn't bring herself to vote for McCain because she thought he was too old. It was another story convincing her to vote for that colored fellah, but she eventually did.
No terms for the olds!
According to the State GOP chair, ""He failed to represent the sentiments of his constituents and the core values and principles of the Republican Party." No actually Martin did so perfectly; his offense was being honest about it.
Citing what he called "slightly unfavorable publicity" over his statements, he said "Sorry my big mouth caused this furor."
Führer Furor is the new Bieber Fever.
Awww, don't think of him as a disgraced Republican state representative, think of him as a new Republican strategist on Fox News.
They're not even trying to hide it any more.
new hampshire. 91 years old. did he fire the shot heard round the world?
That's where Concord grapes came from!
TP'er are a little put off by the "new" in New Hampshire. They much prefer original Olde Hampshire.
Aw, man. The old eugenics thing again. I'm not mad a Hilter because he liked the eucgenics so much; it was much more the murdery-genocidey thing that chafed me.
You know, what with the advancement of genetic research and the inevitable real-world applications, some form of eugenics is inevitable, and eventually, it's going to be pretty damn effective. I know, and gladly accept this as fact, because nobody in Star Trek teevee shows and movies is ever retarded. And they all look great in body suits.
Well, Dr Crusher did get to wear those long jacket things to cover her arse during some of the seasons.
She was definitely MILF material, but I would have shot that fucking kid of hers out of an airlock at the first opportunity.
You do not speak of our friend Wil Wheaton that way. (Sorry, Wil.)
Hey, I was hatin' on that twinkie Wesley Crusher. I liked Wil Wheaton in Stand By Me and Toy Soldiers.
We've been practicing eugenics for a while now. You must remember all the hubbub over gender selection during fertilization by various methods (timing, sex positions, diet, etc.). We have genetic counseling now to allow informed parents to abort babies known or very likely to have terrible genetic problems. And of course, there has always been conscious selection of mates based on characteristics anticipated to create better babies.
"all the hubbub over gender selection during fertilization by various methods (timing, sex positions, diet, etc.)."
So, my son Fido – his drooling is because of the position I used, and not a salivary infection?
Fido? Did you do it doggy style? Could explain a lot.
Maybe Fido's drooling because he's a St Bernard?
The eugenics and the genocide were linked and can't really be separated. Genocide was just one of Hitler's mechanisms for implementing eugenics and achieving racial purity.
I'm not sure we need eugenics per se. There are probably some genes out there that make people smarter and some that make people dumb. And we could probably boost the IQ of the country a solid 8-10 pts by displacing some of the stupid genes. But I think that if private organizations just marketed "New Improved Smart Genes" to potential parents then we could probably displace most of the stupid genes on a purely voluntary basis.
KKKKKHHHHAAAAANNNNN!!!!!!!
I'm still fapping over Deanna Troi.
I fear it'll more like Brave New World, with the majority retarded and otherwise engineered for boring jobs.
American politicians: Keeping the memory of hitler alive since 1776.
Give the old man a break…he probably meant "a one-way ticket to Alaska."
Eugenics, huh? Say it with me, folks…
KHAAAAAAN!
Oh, sorry, I didn't see this.
I have an awful feeling that someone should check this guy’s attic.
I mean that both ways.
All due respect, but it's always the crawlspace.
Another one of the GOP Young Guns, shooting from the hip replacement.
Only in Wingnut Marty's world would citing eugenics as a solution for population control and shipping off the mentally ill generate "slightly unfavorable publicity".
Meanwhile, in Kansas: "Kansas legislator suggests using hunters in helicopters to control illegal immigration"
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2011/mar/14/legislat...
It's the Tyro Tyrant's way of saying, "Don't bring a knife to a gunfight, Esse".
You means them there animales done jumped over the electric fence?
"…he just did what the people around him were doing."
Nice to see the electorate in New Hampshire is as dumb as the electorate of Texas. For a minute I thought the folks in NH had something new in the form of educating people before they vote.
Of course the folks in NH are probably smart enough to not screw with school books so they are a few points ahead in "we're smarter than you Dumbass" category.
Hooray! America has a renewable resource to export. Get busy Glennda — America needz more of teh crazy.
I don't see a cranky 91 year old here, I see a scholar versed in geography and history. How many elected officials know about Hitler, eugenics, and Siberia? That's an electable trifecta!
This is good news for Albert Speer.
He added, "With the amount of time and effort he has given us all, he has earned the right to say what he thinks, needs to appreciate that, as a representative, he will be held to a higher standard."
Or: He is old and on the steep slope toward dementia so he gets to be a disgusting fuck.
You forgot having an affair with his (preferably) cancer stricken wife/rentboy
And perhaps his stint as a POW of the Austro-Hungarians after being shot down while flying for the Lafayette Escadrille?
Marge Schott?
Well, I do, at least in one area. Hitler funded an advanced rocket engineering effort which we captured and used to get golfers to the Moon, create a vast GPS network that allows you to get lost in even more remote places, and allows people to bitch about their satellite TV instead of just cable.
Oh, and let's not forget about death rays from the heavens.
What are old people good for? You can dress them up funny and make fun of them. Just look at Bob Dylan!
I am quite sure Bob Dylan picks his own handsome suits.
(And wasn't that another smart Dylan move, switching to something so timeless/old-timey and elegant for an older gentleman? He did that about … oh, I guess on 9/11, when Love & Theft was released, on that actual day. Haha the Strokes' Is This It was also released that day. So it's time for those guys to start wearing old-timey western suits.)
Leonard Cohen pulled off the classy suit/fedora/cape look in his last tour.
Pat Buchanan?
Of course Hitler did something right – all those funny youtube videos where he gets angry about topical news!
Oh, downfista, you may come to devour our rhetorical P but at least enjoy the funny!
Dr. Laura? Pat Buchanan?
New Hampshire is trying to match South Cack, Ioway, & Nevaduh stride-for-stride in batshittiest way to pick a Prexy nominee.
We do have a movement afoot to rid ourselves of the odious caucus. There's a lot of olds here that can't stand long enough to be counted. Wait, that's supposed to be a bad thing?
Athenians used lotteries and it turned out OK for them.
So how many more must say something stupid / post beefcake photos online / fuck a dog before Democrats get the House back?
It will be an agonizing, (but hilarious!), two years.
Please, no beefcake photos of Harty, okay? Deal? That would be hella NSFW.
Republicans have a really good habit of letting these bad things happen to them out of cycle. Don't worry, come Fall 2012, they'll be squeaky clean and talking about how the Democrats lack morals!
he is a state legislator-so not much help there.
Looks like Alan Simpson and Walnuts have some competition in the "Batshit Crazy Old Fart" Category of has-beens.
But this guy is a full two decades older than Walnuts! Imagine, now, if Johnny Boy lasts as long as his mom….
You mean it could get better? Walnuts has me in Snark Heaven as it is.
All I can hear in my head is that song from Sound of Music. "Somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something right."
Pat Robertson
Why do I think it would be cool to see him being interviewed by Megyn Kelly on Fox? Imagine the things he might say or do!
He'd whip it out, play with it, then blame it on dementia, or say he is a veteran, so get over it.
Godwin's law in human terms: as you live longer, the probability you will make a stupid remark about Hitler approaches 1.
In ole Marty Harty's defense, considering the winter they've had this year, there is really very little difference between Siberia and New Hampshire.
When I first read that somebody thought Hitler has done "something right" I briefly thought he might be referring to Nazi state funding for innovations like the Jet Engine. But no, he actually just liked the racism and killing part. These people never surprise me.
I think the eskimos had a point when they'd drop their elderly on ice floes. I am sure Mr Harty will be the first to volunteer.
C'mon everyone….dude is 92 years old. When I'm 92 (if I make it)…I'm gonna say the wackiest shit I can think of – just for the fun of it. I might poop my pants too.
Fuck it, why wait?
Pretty sure that even at 92-I won't say good stuff about Hitler- however, being incontinent is a sure thing based on my relatives as they got old.
Don't run for office, please!
Vidkun Quisling? Marshal Petain?
say, was this guy white?
Meanwhile, in Kansas: "Kansas legislator suggests using hunters in helicopters to control illegal immigration" : http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2011/mar/14/legislat...
Needs more sharks
"Take a step behind the scenes of Hitler and his NAZI sharks. Today, on the History Channel."
"Did aliens give the Aztecs the secret of Nazi sharks, later to be rediscovered by Nazi archeologists? Next."
He would accrue more delegates to the convention than Herman Cain.
In Martin Harty's defense, sending Glenn Beck to Siberia is a great idea.
I'm bothered by two things here –
First, it's getting very easy to get fired or have to resign for some silly ass thing you say in private. I don't know about you, but I say stupid shit on the spur of the moment at times.
I know, I know, people with a public persona should be responsible in both their speech and actions otherwise the naive may be influenced or have their prejudices reinforced. But how can Wonketteers, of all people, want to punish brash or offensive ideas or speech?
If eugenics is taken to mean improving the human gene pool, then are many sanctioned ways to do this "genius" sperm and egg banks, blood testing for hereditary diseases and others, however, clearly, it's not an emphasis on genes or evolution that is dangerous, it's the desire to remake humanity by coercive means.
But eugenics aside, most important is the free exchange of ideas. What political figure on the right or the left dares to break lockstep for fear of ridicule and dismissal? If there was ever a time we need new approaches and original ideas, it's now.
Second, if there were laws about ageism like there are about sexism or racism many people would be in deep shit. And isn't judging someone by their age, saying they or either too old or too young, just as stereotypical as judging by race, sex or religion?
Reading back over this there's not much funny there and I'm sorry for that – just a couple things I wanted to say and I'll probably wish I had said it better. Once again I'll just stick around and watch my P score plummet.
"I'll just stick around and watch my P score plummet."
Not on my watch, buddy! (Just upfisted you as many times as possible, which unfortunately is still only one.)
The problem is that what you are saying is simply false. Eugenics can not accomplish any "improving of the gene pool", (look up Hardy-Weinberg). Eugeneics is not a route to any kind of science, it is purely an expression of hate, the idea that one can relate "defects" to what people "look like".
As far as ageism, no one said anything about him until he said that he didn't know what he was doing as an elected official, and advocated for eugenics.
so being pro the worst of Hitler is "breaking lockstep for fear of ridicule and dismissal. "New approaches and original ideas"? Basically, you are just wrong about this guy. I hope you only said this stupidly and are not as stupid as your remarks make you seem.
There is such a thing as modern eugenics which is a term used to encompass the things I mentioned…"genius" sperm banks and other things…in short anything done to improve the gene poll – like laws against marrying your sister – no, it's not that his ideas are good, but like the NPR people recently as another example, I am not convinced that one misspoken (or misinterpreted) statement should bring about the end to a career. It makes people too cautious, too conformist.
I think people should say what they believe and stand up for and if mistaken, be allowed to change their opinion without suffering the loss of their livelihood.
If Marty Harty is so terrible, why is he still famous?
Diana Mitford?
Apparently, Mr. Downfister.
Eugenics Death Panel: How did we miss this putz?
This guy now has the awesome distinction of having something in common with Hitler: being famous for being terrible!
John Galliano?
Most are tax dodgers who work in Mass.
Nashua sucks…
With a Justin Beaver hockey haircut…
He loved his country so much it made him say senile things.
Eva Braun?
While not pro-eugenics, I donate generously to SNAR (Spay 'n Neuter All Republicans), so I guess I have something besides my mustache in common with Hitler.
"He also said population growth and mental illness could be controlled with eugenics, a form of genetic engineering commonly associated with Hitler’s Germany."
Yeah, but they wouldn't be the bad Obamacare socialist death panels, so it'd be OK.
i say we need to deregulate eugenics. the tax payers should not have to suffer this burden when a private firm could do the job more efficiently. if you want to be forcibly sterilized you should pay for it out of pocket. that's the bottom line.
I am the above named person but now undergoing medical treatment in London,England.
I am married to Dr. Rebecca Johnson who worked with British Railway Commission in Chelsea England for nine years, before he died in the year 2000.
We were both married for eleven years without a child.
That is all…
To be fair, it should be noted Mr. Hardy denied that he'd made the Hitler comment. He stated the woman with whom he was speaking brought Hitler up.
Additionally, Mr. Hardy served in North Africa and Italy during WW II. He was a Quartermaster with Gen. Patton.
My uncles all served in WWII(on our side)- and while none of them would ever say what this guy did- one of them was a terrible racist(in remarks- not action). His service to his country does not make up for his racism-so I am not sure how you think this guy's service makes up for thinking mentally ill people should be sent to Siberia or that eugenics is a good solution to anything. Without giving props to Hitler, his own remarks were still reprehensible.
And as someone pointed out, no one gets paid for being a state rep in NH- so he didn't lose his livelihood.
finallyhappy: Mr. Hardy said he didn't make the Hitler remark. The fact that he put his life on the line to defeat the Nazis makes me tend to believe him.
Was his remark about sending mentally ill people to Siberia to freeze to death in remarkably poor taste? Of course it was. Do I cut people 90 and above some slack? Sure I do. I hope to get there myself.
Although I'm not in a big hurry to make it.
PS: My wife's family has a good friend who served on both sides during WWII. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do…
Harty is an insult to the elderly, many of whom still can think and speak without drooling.
All this commentary plus a random and nonsensical slam on Obama? Jane Hamsher shrilly approves!
It wouldn't be a Ken Layne post if Obama weren't Morally Weak.
And a fixed gear.
Eisenhower!
Bad in a colorful way!
Stupid shit goes into the head, stupid shit comes out of the yap, never a miscommunication. You can't ex- oh, wait … yeah, you totally can explain it: dude's a blithering dipshit. Okay then.
one person's stupid is another person's………well, you get where I'm going, he'll be a hit at the GOP Convention in his plaid shirt and overalls.
Did you catch him as a voyeur/slasher in the that one episode of Criminal Minds?
Seriously creepy.
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