Rhode Island GOP lawmaker Daniel Gordon Jr. was last heard from a week ago when the Rhode Island State Police discovered that he is a wanted fugitive in the state of Massachusetts who also turns out to be a prickly violent criminal with a two decade-long rap sheet more extensive than, eh, let’s say “the complete works of Shakespeare,” give or take a few hundred words. This tragic idiot also turns out to be a third-tier con artist whose foolproof response to journalists asking about his criminal misadventures was an epic fiction blaming PTSD he says he sustained while serving in Iraq during the first Gulf War, ’cause the Mooslims blew up his leg. He would love to show you the proof, but also very tragically, uh, a massive house fire sadly destroyed all the evidence! The Department of Defense has no record of any of this either, because they hate freedom.
Here is the hilarious tale of Gordon lying over and over, badly, to an AP reporter:
On Friday, Gordon insisted that his service record is incomplete. He said he couldn’t provide evidence of his time in Iraq because many of his photos and keepsakes from his service were destroyed in a house fire when he was living in Fall River, Mass., in 2005.
“I’m disappointed that the DOD didn’t provide you with a full and accurate record,” he told the AP on Friday. “I don’t know what else to tell you.”
Records obtained from the Marine Corps show Gordon joined the Marines on June 4, 1987, and served at bases in South Carolina, Tennessee, Washington and California, and spent six months with an aviation unit at a Marine Corps air station in Japan.
The records show no deployments to the Middle East. Maj. Shawn Haney, a public affairs officer with the Marines, said Gordon’s file would indicate any time spent in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain or Iraq during the Gulf War.
Gordon told reporters this week that his right leg was struck by shrapnel “eight miles south of Baghdad” in February 1991. He said his unit was based in Bahrain.
“I can assure you, I was there,” he said Wednesday.
Gordon’s record lists two awards, one for his time stationed in Japan. The other, the National Defense Service Medal, was given to all personnel on active duty at the time of the Gulf War, regardless of where they served.
Gordon said he received the Southwest Asia Service Medal, an award given to members of the armed services deployed to the Middle East for the Gulf War. The award is not listed in his file. Asked if he would present the medal publicly, Gordon said it wouldn’t do any good because they are easily found at pawn shops.
GAH! The socialist pawn shop cabal strikes again. [AP]







{ 214 comments }
The party of family values.
The Manson family.
The party of "support our troops."
Because nothing supports the troops more than lying about serving in combat and having PTSD in an obvious attempt to escape responsibility for your criminal acts.
Party of personal responsibility. Also. Too.
Yes, Manson family values.
"Gordon told reporters this week that his right leg was struck by shrapnel “eight miles south of Baghdad” in February 1991. He said his unit was based in Bahrain.
“I can assure you, I was there,” he said Wednesday."
In his defense, it'd be easy to mix up Bagdad and Tokyo if they weren't polar opposites in pretty much any way you can imagine.
Ahh, finally, a Fawlty Towers link– Basil when caught in a uncomfortable situation would grimace and clutch his leg– "Shrapnel!" he'd say. "In the war, Korean!". You just can't make this stuff up.
So, the Rhode Island GOP had better hope that a couple of German tourists don't talk to him, right?
Obviously, Gordon can. And has.
No American units were that close to Baghdad in 1991. Most all the fighting, what little of it there was, was contained in Southern Iraq around Kuwait and Saudi Arabia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DesertStormMap_...
He was wounded during a secret mission with Ice Cube, George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, and Spike Jonze to be stealing the gold.
Can you blame him? He wanted a convertible Lexus. He didn't know Lexus didn't make a convertible at the time. That's why his story gets confused.
Damn, you always get the best gossip. I'm'a visit you and start hanging out in your office wastebasket or sump'n.
Awesome reference.
It's a bonus level in Call of Duty. First you have to unlock the special ops power-up.
Easily found in prawn shops?
What kind of metal is this???
~
Something's fishy here.
He meant 'porn shops', obviously.
Bronze-ino?
The #27.
The #69, methinks.
Chitinous? Exoskeletal?
“I’m disappointed that the DOD didn’t provide you with a full and accurate record,” he told the AP on Friday. “I don’t know
what else to tell you.how much longer I can make shit up" – there, fixed.He should be awarded the Purple Cock for mendacity and prevarication under fire.
In his defense, if it was fake service, there's no way for the rest of us to know just how bad it was. The horror….the horror….
"Also, I was known in the Sudan as Chinese Gordon, in a previous lifetime."
and Khartoom was never the same.
Ha! Hardly anyone remembers that fellow anymore.
Your knowledge is truly encyclopedic.
Yep, he's got a great head for knowledge.
Haahahahahaha! Get it? General Gordon? head? heh. heh.
Is this thing on?
If they gave out a nickel for each trivial bit of useless information stuck in a person's head, I'd have a Lear Jet and a mountaintop villa in Martinique.
I have the same problem, I just have a different subset of Information That Nobody Needs Or Cares About. Like the composition of gripe water in the '50s. Nobody even remembers what gripe water is/was.
Eh, in an alternate universe, we both have Lear jets and mountaintop villas in Martinique or Madagascar.
Gordon said he doesn't know why he didn't receive a Purple Heart for his injury, but he said he never requested the award out of a sense of humility.
LOL! Pull the other one!
~
I have heard tell that the other one has got bells on it.
"public affairs officer with the Marines" You know that the Mariens hate the GOP.
Because if there's one group of human beings that knows how to deal with the public, it's the Marine Corps.
Because if there's one group of human beings that knows how to deal with the public, it's the Marine Corps
Be polite and professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet. Hey, ya just never know…
I'll take pathological for $200, Alex.
"That man for President!" (He's at least as awful as what's currently running for his cabal).
Lying liar surprises us by lying!
Maybe he was lying about his claim that he won a medal for his heroism at the Battle of Yavin during the Star Wars too.
How dare you question his valiant service as Jek Porkins' astromech unit!
Many (fake) Bothans died bringing us this information.
Wake me when we get to the rentboys and meth.
You know who else is a pathological liar and warmonger, but never actually served this country?
With few exceptions, just about the entire administration of President George W. Bush?
Senator Joseph Isadore "Joe" Lieberman (I – Chickenhawk)?
~
Obama?
Oh ChetKincaid, have you gone over to the darkside?
Of course not! s/b OBAMA!!!111!!!!1!1!1
Thank goodness for that.
Rummy " I do it standing up" Rumsfeld?
Actually, Rummy was a US Navy pilot, and didn't crash all his planes. Still a major league asshole, though.
William Randolph Hearst & Joseph Pulitzer?
Madeleine Albright?
"Tricky Dick" Blumenthal?
That would be Richard B. Cheney, with five, (5), count 'em FIVE deferments!
Oh and Rush, too.
Also Gee, Dumb? Yeah, Bush!, Saxby Chambliss (who actually beat out war veteran Max Cleland by painting him as a traitor), and the rest of Bush's "war cabinet."
Even Hitler served.
Ahmed Chalabi?
Curveball?
Still trying to figure out which country that asshole did the most damage; ours, or his own.
Unfortunately, all of them,Katie.
The GOP?
Ayn Rand?
But did the Rhode Island politician actually build a subterranean lair the way Cheney did?
Nobody wanted else wanted to throw El Rushbo the Anal Cyst out there? For shame.
Baron Munchhausen?
I will not be distracted from the fact that Goldman Sachs has taken over our government and is looting the treasury, now, as we speak, and has been ever since Obama was sworn in.
Hear, hear!!1!!
I think he just may be the perfect candidate that the GOP is looking for.
Nobody'd ever check your story, silly…just keep talking. The stupid is strong in this one.
Not in the records? No Purple Heart? Uh, how about showing us the, uh, you know, scar?
It wouldn't do no good. You can buy those at any pawn shop. Everybody knows that.
Mine came from Amazon… and there was sweat all over it.
Anyone with a scalpel, willpower, and free time can do that himself. Showing us wouldn't prove anything, so he won't bother hiking his pants leg and demonstrating that he's too much of a pussy to give himself a convincing faux war wound.
Anyone who can clumsily fall off their porch onto an unfortunately placed garden implement can do that to himself.
Trust me on this one.
Man, there is just no such thing as a fortunately placed gardening implement, is there?
'There's a lot of Purple Hearts in the Purple Heart Store.' — Tom Russell
The scar? Would that be the leg wound one or the lobotomy one?
It's in the taint. No volunteers to certify.
Run Colton run!
At least this guy FOUGHT in a fake war. Dick Cheeeney started one.
Last time I checked, Iraq and Afghanistan are real wars, with real death and really real destruction.
Duly noted. Perhaps I should have said I was only referring to the Iraq war and that it was started on fake 'evidence'.
This was the first Gulf War we're talking about, you know, the one when Saddam actually sent in troops to murder Kuwait.
Just shows you can't trust gubbiment. Why anyone could get a medal or be shipped off to Japan as a member of the Marines!
And I thought all the best bullshit artists were here in the second-largest state, not up there in the smallest.
So the guy's a magnet for flying debris. That wayward satellite held so much promise if only it had been aligned w/ a higher purpose of selective destruction. Now I'm back to wishing for just good old-fashioned lightning bolts.
Anyone can make shit up, but without ovaries and a shrieky voice there's no chance of getting to the White House.
The GOP are such easy marks for sociopaths like this. All you have to do is keep saying "Jesus Reagan Tax-cuts" and apparently everyone gets too hypnotized to check your extensive criminal record.
It's super easy to confirm an injury to his leg. How 'bout some beefcake, Mr. Gordon?
Twit pix or GTFO!
Danny and the other prominent phantom injury Vet Joe Miller (R-Anyone but Romney) can share fake war wound stories around a campfire (or a Tea Party cruise ship lounge.)
My Conflict Resolution professor at college didn't have to show us papers, he just knocked on his titanium leg to prove he served in Vietnam.
Excellent. My father , WW2 veteran, used to wear his uniform every Sunday morning at breakfast, just for the sheer hell of it.
I don't blame him. You never know when The Hun will decide third time's the charm!
He was a crazy man, now gone, he always wore army boots with a suit, claimed they were comfortable, had strange theories about women, they could be other “button faces” which are cute when young or “horse faces” not as cute as children but age better. Also a really pleasant racist, challenged , at the age of 75, the only black member of his badminton club to a game, the younger man was 30 years old!
"Shit at badminton" is probably one of the milder racial stereotypes I could think of, yes.
I just love the fact he was still playing badminton at 75. And that there is a place where black people are in badminton clubs.
Was this right before you shipped out from Buenes Aires to fight bugs on other planets?
Gordon told reporters this week that his right leg was struck by shrapnel “eight miles south of Baghdad” in February 1991.
Oddly, the closest the rest of the ground forces involved in Desert Storm got to Baghdad was about 150 miles. I guess this guy must have been some kind of super-secret mission.
And the Marines were pretty much restricted to fighting in Kuwait.
Well maybe he was on a super top secret special mission that you've never heard of, because it was secret, which is why there are no records of it, and it totally won the war for America.
the records are stored in Area 51, and you know what that means.
That he was Martian Marines?
Making up s$#t is a lot harder in the age of Google.
Not really, but making it stick is.
His leg injury may be fake but his traumatic brain injury is very, very real.
He was dropped on his head as an infant when his mother was trying to hold him while measuring out some Crisco.
"yeahhh… I was in Iraq, got my leg blown up. Got me some of that Post-Traumatical-Distress-whatever. That's what's made me do those things. Yeah, that's the ticket…"
[/Jon Lovitz]
Where are the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth when you need them?
Buffet, their financier (I'm quoting Nina Totenberg here, the arbiter of all things truthful.), is too busy selling natural gas to write them a check this time. He'll get around to it before Hopey runs, I'm sure.
You mean T. Boone Pickens?
Making up crap about people who actually did serve as they say they did.
"He has photos of his unit available"
Will he be posting them to Twitter anytime soon, I wonder?
I fucking hope not.
Posting pics of one's "unit" on the Interwebz is generally frowned upon, no?
Depends on how impressive your unit is.
Didn't ever see the pictures, but I hear that it didn't seem to help Anthony Wiener.
Wasn't Daniel Gordon Jr. a NASCAR driver?
Well, war is hell… and could be confused with Tennessee I suppose…
It's OK, he's GOP. In fact, someone should give him a nice comfy job with FoxNews.
…so when he says "shrapnel from baghdad" he meant "twisted ankle from bitchin moves on DDR".
In his defense, who HASN'T wanted to light everything in Fall River on fire?
Gordon claimed he was also wounded in action in Iran. When asked by reporters to show his wounds he pulled down his pants to expose the entrance wound in the middle of his stomach just above the belt line. He then tuned his back to the reporters bent over and pulled his cheeks apart to show them the exit wound.
Plus that big crack that appeared surrounding the exit wound.
I'm sure a comprehensive internet search of his myspace and fakebook pages will reveal far more information on this matter than his DD-214.
Same GOP character, different lies.
or: Same lies, different GOP 'character'.
This guy's time in the Marines closely parallels mine: mostly stateside with a stint in Japan; no combat action. But I never lied about my time. I mean, it's just too easy for an enterprising journalist to look that shi…
What's that you say? There are no more enterprising journalists left in the world?
Well in that case, back during 'Storm I was leading my platoon… scratch that. I was leading my battalion in a raid just south of Baghdad…
And we thank you for your patriotic service!
Brigadier Applesauce I presume.
Applesauce for president!
Fuck that! As long as people aren't bothering to fact-check, you were at Iwo Jima AND Normandy.
Bull Run and Antetam, too.
Oooh. Tell us all about Khe Sanh in your best grizzled, disillusioned Vietnam vet speaking voice.
You need to be careful. A vague lie will stand up better than a detailed one. You get too specific and I'll know in a heart beat whether you are telling the truth or not. After all, I was there, guiding Schwarzkopf all the way.
He wasn't, by any chance, eating a baby during the course of that interview was he?
"Gordon is one of three Rhode Island lawmakers who have been arrested this year."
They shouldn't have set The Sopranos in New Jersey.
If you try to film a series solely in Rhode Island, you run out of new locations halfway into the second season.
There actually was an episode when Tony visited the crime family in Providence and they were portrayed as slightly agoraphobic elderly weirdos.
Which, having lived there, makes sense.
Silly Gordon: just say that your record at the DOD was destroyed when Al-Qaeda attacked the Pentagon on 9/11.
Just the sort of sociopathic dumb ass I want running the country. Is Rick "Popsicle" Perry his older brother?
In Repubican circles, this guy is more respected than a gay soldier who is actually in Iraq.
I'd like those assholes that boo'd to do so to the soldier's face – did you see the arms on that cocksucker?!!!
A better cover story would be that he was injured in the Boer Wars – I mean who is going to check – or even know what they are???
I stubbed my toe during the Pelopo… Pelleponn…. Pelloponesian …. Peloponnesian war
If he had any talent for lying, he would claim he was covert, and thats why there are no records, and then he would put an end to all further questions by telling the reporters "I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.
That works. Whenever asked just say: "special ops". If any questions or comments follow just smile a little.
Shrapnel or sliver from a park bench? It is easy to confuse the two.
The clap can be hard to distinguish from either, I hear.
This dude has obviously been stealin' when he should have been buyin'.
Is that a Uriah Heep quote?
Yes, and for no obvious reason other than I've had the earworm all morning and writing it down sometimes exorcises is. And at least it's semi-appropriate, not like those mornings when I get "Muskrat Love."
You know how you get a song in your head and can't stop? I've got Captain and Tenille's "Love Will Keep Us Together" playing this morning…
Some weird shit going on here. What is it, their wedding anniversary or something?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqLh3OcwvyI&fe...
Feed the worm.
TOO MUCH HAIR.
Also pink.
Mister Micawber, I think.
Nah, it's a quote from Nancy Sinatra "These boots are made for walking".
Even if the dude's rapsheet is longer than the complete works of Shakespeare, we can sum up the whole thing in two lines:
"No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity."
"But I know none, and therefore am no beast."
Hey, give the guy a break. Enough Saki could – COULD – make Tokyo look like "suburban Baghdad."
Having been both places, I can say that a bottle of scotch is as ludicrously expensive in either.
What? I've read a number of H.H. Munro's stories, and they have never had this effect on me.
Sake. Saki was the pen name of Hugh Hector Munro, whose uncle got et by a tiger and immortalized by the French for Tipu Sultan, the Tiger of Mysore.
Sake, OTOH, could probably dissolve tigers, in sufficient quantity.
You say Sake I say Saki… Let's all go get drunk. Is heavy drinking acceptable on a Monday.
Fuck, it's acceptable to me! Chilled Kokuryu Junmai Ginjo?
"…Gordon said it wouldn’t do any good because they are easily found at pawn shops." As are phony cocksuckers like him buying up said Medals. What an asshole!
He could find hisself facing additional charges under the Stolen Valor Act.
It's a scandal and a shame that chickenhawks like this should claim what cost so many able-bodied troops their lives, limbs, and health to win.
I'd sooner listen to Mike the Headless Chicken.
Or Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner, for that matter.
I thought accepting personal responsibility for one's actions was a republican core value. He should have used Rep. Joe Walsh as a role model.
Well, his being in the military would be consistent with his being a violent criminal. Oh, did I say that aloud?
It's true he picked up a wound in his leg, but it was eight miles south of Bagdad [sic], Kentucky, and not Baghdad, Iraq. Very easy to confuse the two.
Or maybe Bagdad-sic, California. Very desert-y, and the Marines have a base nearby…
If only someone had convinced Bush to invade Bagdad (either of them) rather than Baghdad. It would have done at least as much good for the "war on terror," and would have been a lot less costly.
Any man named Gordon knows the value of a good crow-bar.
Oh, I like him! Let's nominate him for the GOP presidential campaign! Can you imagine what a debate with this nutjob would be like?
Indistinguishable from the other GOP debates? I'd say 'even more shameless' but I'm not sure that's possible.
Oh, but the insanity levels would be through the roof!
Ya, that would add an element of lying sleaze-bag to the proceedings. Oh, wait…
I'll bet he busted a knuckle while punching his wife.
…when she walked in on him with an underaged male hooker.
"This week, Gordon showed The Associated Press paperwork from the Department of Veterans Affairs showing he was eligible for a disability payment of $123 a month for his injury. The paperwork showed that Gordon was honorably discharged in 1991."
This is exactly the same amount of money I'm paid for my disability. I'm 10 percent disabled because of a wacky arthritic left knee that was the result of a service-connected disability.
I got it storming Normandy, which is eight miles south of Berlin.
Thank you for your service.
I would have thought 8 miles south of Berlin would have been a lot safer than Normandy!
He tripped over a wrench trying to hide from the Gunny and hurt his knee. This guy needs a blanket party, know what I'm sayin'?
He has had a tough life–getting his wooden leg burned up in a house fire and all that.
Corporal Clegg, is that you?
“I’m disappointed that the DOD didn’t provide you with a full and accurate record,” he told the AP on Friday. “I don’t know what else to tell you.”
"Now officer, arrest the guy that asked that question."
Hey, don't feel bad, Daniel. The DOD can't seem to find W's Air National Guard service records either, and he was President (sort of).
Fork him! He's done.
Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive!
Needs moar practice.
Dammit! If I'd been 25 minutes earlier!
Utter Bullshit and rap sheets are the fuel which keeps the fires of Rhode Island politics burning.
Judging by the criminal history of Rhode Island politicians this guy is a natural for elective office. Maybe Buddy Cianci and his crew should have chat with this guy.
Reporter: "Do you have a military ID?"
Gordon: "ID? Charlie didn't ask for ID when I fought at La Choy and Chung King. I saw my best friend's head explode at Margaret Cho."
Not to mention the battles of Long Wang and Suc Muc Dic.
Actually, he suffered a serious wound to his unit in the Boxer Rebellion.
Does Rhode Island count as a red state?
Needs more Whitey Bulger
Needs more Bulge and less Whitey, I'm thinkin'.
Although on the run from the law, he can remain in good standing as a Republican as long as he is not the geh.
Tell you what. Give us the names of 5 Marines you served with there. Last names are fine, but no Jones or Miller or Johnson allowed. Can't do that? How about the name of your CO or your 1st Sergeant? What was the name of your frigging unit when you deployed?
Anything?
In the opinion of this former marine, there are few more despicable than shitbirds like this, who capitalize on sacrifices others have made. I'll bet his "war heroism" was the centerpiece of his election campaign.
None of the Republicans want to serve, yet ALL of them want to claim the glory.
Well, he did serve, but it looks like he didn't raise his hand to go play in the sandbox.
I was speaking generally, which is always good for a few punctures to the old self-esteem. But, see, he could have said "I served," and left it at that. That was honourable of him, to serve his country. Why ruin that by lying about it? They all want more glory than they're entitled to, the miserable schlumps.
You should see the blaster wound he got at the battle of Hoth.
Through the choice of photograph, is Wonkett trying to suggest that this guy is a total cock?
Probly more like a chicken. Bok!
Found in porn shops? What kind of twisted son of a…Oh, PAWN shops. Well, that's different, and totally says nothing about how the patriotic Teapublicans have ensured the welfare of our veterans.
"Gordon told reporters this week that his right leg was struck by shrapnel 'eight miles south of Baghdad' in February 1991."
That's one damn long leg.
"I'm a hero. I was shot twice in the Tribune." – Nick Charles
"I read where you were shot 5 times in the tabloids." – Nora Charles
"It's not true. He didn't come anywhere near my tabloids. " – Nick Charles
- The Thin Man
I love the Thin Man dialogue. And Powell and Loy did it so well, too.
PAD:
I also recommend reading Hammett's "Maltese Falcon." Wonderful language in so many of his books and stories (including, of course, "The Continental Op").
I was fortunate to grow up in a house full of books, most of which I was permitted to read without supervision (which resulted in some ghastly adventures, like reading Shirer's "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" at age nine, and "Lady Chatterly's Lover" at age 12). By some stroke of luck, my parents had a ton of murder mysteries, and Hammett was one of the prominently-featured authors. I miss the witty, snappy, sparkling repartee that characterized much of the work of that period.
He's also seen attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.
It was more like a local council club, not country clubbish. We are the working-classes, darling.
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