Ted Nugent to attend State of the Union. Will that backfire?

Ted Nugent, rocker and gun rights defender, will be a congressman's guest at Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday night. Verbal broadsides expected, for better or for worse.

|
Gene J. Puskar/AP/File
Musician and gun rights activist Ted Nugent addresses a seminar at the National Rifle Association's convention in Pittsburgh in this 2011 file photo. Rep. Steve Stockman (R) of Texas announced Monday says he's invited Nugent to Tuesday's State of the Union address.

Rock star/gun rights advocate Ted Nugent is attending Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, Rep. Steve Stockman (R) of Texas announced Monday.

Representative Stockman invited Mr. Nugent and gave him a ticket to sit in the gallery overlooking the House chamber. The Texas lawmaker, who recently made headlines by threatening to file articles of impeachment against President Obama over executive actions on gun control, said he was excited to have a “patriot” like the Nuge as his guest.

“After the address I’m sure Ted will have plenty to say,” said Stockman.

Yes, yes he will. That’s certain. But beyond that we have to ask: Is this a good idea?

After all, Nugent will be sitting in the same room with children from Sandy Hook Elementary and other victims of gun violence. He’ll also be sitting in the same room with Mr. Obama. You’ll remember that last spring several members of the Secret Service visited Nugent for a chat after he said that if Obama were to be reelected “I will either be dead or in jail.” The agents came away convinced that Nugent was a bigger threat to grammar and decorum than to the president, but still.

Advocates of gun control claim to be gleeful about the forthcoming Nugent sighting. They figure he’ll be outrageous enough to frighten a large swath of the viewing public. After all, this is a guy who markets his own brand of ammunition, and in the past he has told both Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, in explicit terms, what they should do with his machine guns. He talks about the administration’s “communist-Mao-Che” agenda. All of his clothing appears to be camo.

Also, he is a media magnet. Who do you think will draw more cameras post-SOTU: House majority leader Eric Cantor, or the National Rifle Association board member who wrote "Cat Scratch Fever"?

“It definitely adds more coverage. And it’s going to play terribly for them,” Ladd Everitt, spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, told Talking Points Memo on Monday.

Liberal pundit Greg Sargent goes further, saying that Nugent’s appearance only emphasizes The Crazy, the hard right aspect of the GOP that party leaders such as Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana have complained turns off moderate voters.

“If I were the GOP leadership, the prospect of further comments from Nugent after the speech would have me a bit worried,” writes Mr. Sargent.

We’ll admit that at times it sounds as if Nugent’s verbs are only faintly acquainted with their subjects, and his sentences are delivered with enough force to unfurl a thousand flags. But the left should keep this in mind: The Nuge is a professional performer. Part of his persona is an act. When he wants to, he can dial it down and sound coherent. And he represents a widespread hunting-oriented point of view.

He did a number on gun-control advocate/talk show host Piers Morgan last week, for instance. Invited onto Mr. Morgan’s show as part of its continuing gun coverage, Nugent blasted the veteran British journalist, saying, “would you leave us the [expletive] alone!”

“I think you’re obsessed with guns,” Nugent told Morgan during an interview in a gun shop. “Ninety-nine point nine nine percent of the gun owners of America are wonderful people that you are hanging around with today. Perfectly safe. Perfectly harmless. Wonderful, loving, giving, generous, caring people.”

OK, it did sound at one point as if Nugent called Morgan “Pierce,” and he talked so fast that Morgan needed a crowbar to get a word in edgewise. But “felony recidivism” rolled off Nuge’s tongue like butter. He’s more articulate than many think.

Also, he will not be armed Tuesday night. Just in case you were wondering.

“I will go in at least 20 pounds lighter than I normally walk,” he told The New York Times on Monday. “I will be going in sans the hardware store on my belt. I live a well-armed life, and I’ve got to demilitarize before I go.”

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Ted Nugent to attend State of the Union. Will that backfire?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/Decoder/2013/0212/Ted-Nugent-to-attend-State-of-the-Union.-Will-that-backfire
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe