Up North Progressive

Like a narcissistic moth to a media flame, Michigan State Representative for the 98th District Gary Glenn found this humble blog with a post about how much he craves attention, especially when it pairs his name with someone who is more famous or powerful than he is. If he does it enough, some of that power might just rub off on him and make him famous and powerful too. Gary Glenn is the kind of opportunistic politician who floats from place to place, seizing opportunity whenever possible until he’s burned all of his bridges with his attack dog methods and has to slink off to a place where people don’t know him by reputation, yet. What’s interesting about his comments about this blog however: He didn’t object to being called a homophobe, or that he hates people who don’t worship the same invisible sky alien that he does in the exact same way (Muslims and Christians worship the same deity, although some Christians refuse to acknowledge that). Nor did he get upset about his history of making it harder for working people to work for a decent living wage. What was his objection to the article? The use of an altered photo.

There are lots of pictures of Gary Glenn standing next to famous people, like this picture from 1987 with “from my cold dead hands” Charlton Heston. Remember a couple of years ago when Gary decided to practice the black art of necromancy and bring Charlton Heston back from the dead to stump for him during his campaign for the Michigan state house? Apparently the only famous person willing to campaign for him was a dead man.

And what about this just as homophobic person, James Dobson of Focus on the Family? Gary Glenn objects to photos being cropped whenever he’s in them, because it takes away the whole purpose of being photographed with a well-known person when you’re an opportunist wanting as much attention as possible.

What Gary Glenn doesn’t understand is all of the people he likes to be photographed standing next to are just as horrible as he is. We’re not impressed by all of these images of people who hate Americans so much they would rather destroy America rather than let people they don’t like live here, much less enjoy all of the same rights.

We need more people to see that opportunistict grifters like Gary Glenn are not working for the people they represent, but for their own personal agenda to marginalize and discriminate against a large majority of Americans, because they’re not just like Gary Glenn.

What about the cropped image Gary Glenn keeps whinging about in the comments? The woman he’s standing next to in the image has a famous last name, and everyone knows how much right wingers love to use minorities to try and convince people they’re not bigots. The fact that she’s black had nothing to do with why the image was cropped. The picture was cropped because it fit better on the page that way. As consolation, there are lots of other uncropped pictures of Gary standing next to more powerful people than he will ever be, because that is the only reason he wants those pictures seen.

Let’s end this with a quote from an Idaho Republican who got to know Gary Glenn very well:

OK Gary. You have always been a loud squawker even when you were on the Ada County Commission. So, in the spirit of total disclosure, I have to say you are the only Republican incumbent I ever voted against. You made such a disaster of your one term in office that you became an embarrassment even in the heart of heavily Republican Ada County, Idaho. That colors my opinion of you. In my prejudiced mind, you started off with two strikes against you. You pretty well burned your bridges here in Idaho with a lot of the Republican party save for a few, You left Idaho because of your reputation. Say whatever you want, but your value in Idaho politics was severely limited by your approach.

As for the image? Do a google image search if you really need to see who he’s standing next to.