The 20 Worst Figures In American History

For Advertising Info, Write.
rwnews@blogads.com

Premium Left blogad

Left Blog Ad

Permalinks

The 20 Worst Figures In American History

Written By : John Hawkins

Last week, I did a conservative blogger poll of the 20 worst figures in American history that has been heavily criticized by both the Left and the Right. You know what I say about that? Regrettably, I have to say that much of the criticism had merit. The list, which was compiled via blogger vote, wasn’t all that good.

There are probably three reasons for that.

The first and most important is that the instructions I gave should have been significantly more detailed. Had I put a line in the instructions similar to the article description, suggesting people think about “gangsters, serial killers, mass murderers, incompetent & crooked politicians, spies, traitors, and ultra left-wing kooks,” it would have almost certainly produced better results. In fact, I’ve done this list in past years and gotten better results (See here (right) and here (Left)) — although it has been intriguing to see the “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” criticism on serial killers. On the previous list, the complaint was that serial killers AND prominent Democrats were on the same list. People didn’t seem to feel like they should be compared. This time, one of the complaints has been that there are prominent Democrats on the list, but no serial killers. Like I said, “Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”

Also, it’s worth noting that in a poll like this, there is ALWAYS going to be a heavy bias towards recent history. Had this been a list of the worst figures in the last 40 years of American history, then people like Jimmy Carter, Al Sharpton, and Harry Reid, who seem out of place on a historical list, would have richly merited inclusion. Placed against the worst people in American history, they don’t quite rise up to that level — but, that’s an easy mistake to make. Even some liberal historians who were polled during the Bush years were ranking him as the worst President of all-time. That’s every bit as ridiculous as having Jimmy Carter as the worst figure in American history — and even historians were making that mistake.

Last but not least, there’s a big difference between people getting around a table and brainstorming out on something like this and just taking the highest vote getters from people who don’t collaborate. On something historical like this, when it’s easy for names to slip people’s minds, people will come up with a much better result if they discuss their selections than if they make their choices separately.

So, since some of the criticism hit home and I wasn’t enamored with the list, I decided to post my own. Here are the people I’d select as the 20 worst Americans in history,

Aaron Burr: Shot Alexander Hamilton in a duel and led a treasonous plot to take over part of the United States.

Aldrich Ames: A CIA spy for the Soviets.

Al Capone: The Chicago mob boss whose name is synonymous with organized crime.

Alger Hiss: Hiss was a Soviet agent who penetrated to the highest levels of FDR’s administration

Barack Obama: His profligate spending, at a time when the United States desperately needed to cut back, imperiled the continued prosperity of the country in a way no previous President ever had before.

Benedict Arnold: Betrayed America during the Revolutionary War.

James Earl Ray: Assassinated Martin Luther King.

Jefferson Davis: He’s on the list as a representative of the rich land owners in the South who preferred to see hundreds of thousands of decent men on both sides die rather than give up slavery.

Jim Jones: The Commie cult leader who led over 900 people to their death in a mass suicide.

John Wilkes Boothe: Assassinated Lincoln.

Lee Harvey Oswald: Assassinated JFK.

Lyndon Johnson: He’s primarily responsible for the debacle in Vietnam and his “Great Society” helped create the backbone of the modern welfare state in America.

Madalyn Murray O’Hair: Nobody did more to promote atheism than her.

Margaret Sanger: Not even Mao, Hitler, or Stalin are responsible for the deaths of as many children as America’s foremost advocate of abortion, Margaret Sanger.

Nathan Bedford Forrest: A military genius who unfortunately, was also responsible for creating the KKK.

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg: Spies who helped the Soviets get the A-bomb.

Ted Bundy: He doesn’t have the largest body count or even necessarily the sickest modus operandi, but he is the most notorious American serial killer.

Timothy McVeigh: The man behind America’s worst homegrown terrorist attack. His truck bomb at the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City killed 168.

Stanley ‘Tookie’ Williams met Raymond Lee Washington: Founders of America’s worst street gang: The Crips.

Woodrow Wilson: Not only was he an honest to goodness fascist, his incompetence in the aftermath of WWI set the stage for WWII.

PS: On Thursday, RWN will be releasing “Conservative Bloggers Select The 20 Greatest Figures in American History.”

Pork_Soda

I'd have to throw in Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot & Mao.

billdalasio

I think Mr. Hawkins omitted them because their role in American history was only a function of their role in world history.

Pork_Soda

Doh! Oh ya…. AMERICAN history. Ya maybe I shoulda read that. I kinda missed the obvious!

Coolpeak

That's James Earl RAY. Jones is the actor.

gfchicago

Thanks for the reminder. When I saw that II couldn't quite put my finger on why it didn't look right.

D-Vega

Didn't James Earl Jones later become Darth Vader?

gfchicago

I believe he did Vega.

D-Vega

Then he is definitely the worst. A Sith Lord who was second in command of a vast galactic empire. Plus, he had the most creepy and well-known theme music.
gfchicago

Guilty of being a so so actor I can agree with, but not on the worst figures list. He does have a great voice after all. :>)
D-Vega

Did you ever see The Great White Hope? He was great.
gfchicago

No I don't believe I've ever seen that one. I'll have to check it out. I know that I've seen him in a couple of B rated movies.
D-Vega

The Great White Hope is an old one, 1967.

billdalasio

Good list, Mr. Hawkins. Although I have a couple of quibbles (for example, I'd probably replace Bundy with H.H. Holmes), I agree that it is a big improvement from the voted list. And I think you're about right on the reasons. Out of curiosity, were the individual entries on the voted list also better?

http://www.thepiratescove.us/ William_Teach

I've seen many of the lists that the polled made (my own is over at my site), and the lists were very interesting. Some very interesting picks. But, because some overlapped more than others, which led to the full polled list, it might have been washed down a bit.

billdalasio

Mr. Teach,

That kind of fits what I suspected. Individual contributors might have pretty good lists. But, put them together and the product gets diluted to the lowest common denominator.

Thanks,
Bill D.

http://www.thepiratescove.us/ William_Teach

Exactly. A few might have throw Hanoi Jane on their list, perhaps near the end, and it added up.

Awe

James Earl Jones: Assassinated Martin Luther King.
That ruined your credibility

Toastrider

Typos and errors do not automatically damage credibility. I seriously doubt Hawkins believes MLK was assassinated by Darth Vader.

Scott5minutes

Maybe he was thinking Mufasa instead…
uncleosbert

yeah, but that's not a typo, it's a completely different name of a real person. it makes the writer seem like he's just throwing these out off the top of his head instead of putting some effort into the project and really hunting down the worst people on their merits.

Ugamasters

Why the hate for Aaron Burr? Hamilton slandered him repeatedly – a pretty common tactic for Hamilton. This was the first time Burr had ever fired a shot in a duel as opposed to 20 for Hamilton. Burr shot down and to the side – unfortunately a bone chip from a lower rib dislodged and hit the heart. And the treasonous plot was about claiming land from the Mexicans – something others had tried. He did, however, trust in the wrong people who for own personal gain/profit/fame 'turned him in'. He was cleared in court, but due to pressures from his opposition in DC, was tried again.
http://twitter.com/Mecahawk Tyler Burnette

Heh heh, yeah. James Earl Jones is Darth Vader.
Though I disagree with you vehemently on Jefferson Davis. You might not have liked him because he was the president of the Confederacy, but he served admirably with a volunteer unit in the Mexican American War and served in US government. It was only really the North that though slavery was evil at the time. Saying that he preferred to see hundreds of thousands of Americans die as opposed to giving up slavery is like saying Lincoln preferred to see hundreds of thousands of Americans die as opposed to giving up his crusade against slavery.

Al

Even the northerners liked Jefferson Davis in the end.
Stand Watie

Good points. And if the Union = God and the Confederacy = Satan, why is Jeff Davis singled out? What about Lee, Jackson, Stuart, and other “rebel” generals? They actually commanded the armies that were sending thousands of Northern men home in coffins and enabling the “slavocracy” to endure for four long years before the North leveraged its manpower and materiel advantages to win the war. If Davis belongs on that list, then so do Lee, Jackson, Stuart, etc.

Kksifford

I think it's James Earl Ray….Not Jones…rks

gfchicago

That's already been pointed out.

Dave

I agree on Wilson but I would substitute Lincoln for Davis. Lincoln was the one who kept an unnecessary war going.

Stand Watie

Yeah, Jeff Davis was a bad guy for trying to do what Washington, Adams, Madison, and his namesake did in 1776??? And since the war was mostly a Northern invasion of the South in an effort to repress the principle of self-government, the blood of the fallen belongs on Lincoln's hands, not Davis'. Slavery should have been permitted to perish peacefully, like in Cuba and Brazil.

Robert B Lange

Is Rachel Carson not an American?

Beauxdog

Yes… dear Rachel I believed has killed millions of African children because of her deceit on DDT. By the way… all of you Yankees itching for a cure to bed bugs… the only thing that works is DDT.

Mahatma

Rachel Carson did not push for the banning of DDT. She spoke of taking caution when using it because it does cause cancer (pancreatic and liver esp.). She warned that indiscriminate us of it would end up with a resistence to it by mosquitos. President Kennedy ofrdered a study of DDT by the scientific community. They agreed with rachel and DDT was banned for a time in the U.S.

The Conservative Enterprise Institute, an organization that champions unfettered free enterprise is largely responsible for keeping alive misinformed stories about Rachel Carson.
uncleosbert

that's funny, because they still use ddt in africa. the who plans to phase it out by 2020 because the risks far outweigh the benefits, not to mention the fact that mosquitoes seem to adapt to it fairly quickly.
http://www.pri.org/health/global-health/who-ddt…
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3186

Greg

Darth Vader killed Martin Luther King?
baoxian

I might replace James Earl Ray with “whoever assassinated MLK Jr.”. Ray was never tried for the assassination, later recanted his confession, and was believed by the King family. Also (although not adhering to evidence beyond a reasonable doubt) a civil trial found Loyd Jowers and unnamed co-conspirators liable for King's death. Not a defense of Ray, who was still certainly involved at some level, but he was almost certainly the fall guy for a larger plot and likely didn't even pull the trigger.

But otherwise a much better list than the one put together by other bloggers last week. I would probably replace Obama with Richard Nixon, at least for the time being. He'll almost certainly wind up on the list but at least deserves a full term before being judged. Nixon did undeniable damage to the office of the President and opened the door for a generation of a highly biased, anti-American, and activist MSM.

http://conservativebootcamp.com Martin Hale

I completely agree on Mr. Nixon (all apologies to TheDickNixon, no insult intended, mate) – wage and price controls, Watergate, formally starting the black hole of money and resources known as the War on Some Drugs, economic turmoil, imperiousness beyond belief, he had it all.

I would give Mr. Obama a provisional place on the list and await his performance during the balance of his term. A solid change of Congressional balance could prompt him to change course for the sake of his own presidency. It's happened before. No matter how much he's said he'd rather be a one-term president than to give up his agenda, believe it or not, he's lied before (gasp!).

He told us that there was no way he'd not finish his Senate term. He didn't. He told us he'd close Guantanamo in a year. He didn't. He told us his stimulus spending would hold unemployment below 8%. It didn't. He told us that no one making less that $250k would pay a dime in new taxes. He lied. He told us that we'd all be able to keep our doctors no matter what. He lied.

There are many reasons to put him on the list, but I think we need the perspective of history to really assess the harm he's caused.

Now Jimmy Carter – he deserves to be on this list simply for being such a patsy for the Islamist throwbacks who've come to dominate many of the Muslim nations of today. If he'd stood up to them way back when, he might well have staved off much of the suffering they've brought the world, or at the least slowed it's spread down substantially. They were in exile and in disarray until Jimmy lent the the benefit of the doubt to their bloodthirsty agenda. But we all saw his prowess at military matters during the botched attempt to rescue the American hostages from Tehran, so maybe he wouldn't have been able to stem the tide anyway. He'd hamstrung the military enough by then that they were not the pride of the nation any longer and I doubt that as CIC, Mr. Carter brought much value to the picture.

TheDickNixon

Master Nixon got us out of the Democratic War in Vietnam, the one that got 52,000 or so Americans killed directly as a result of the management, or mis management of the war by the left.

BTW, found a nice write up about leftists on conservative websites over at Hotair.Com this morning. Rather eye opening.

“In October 2008, the Justice Department’s Office of Public Affairs (OPA) added Tracy Russo to direct the Department’s “new media efforts.” Russo, the Chief Blogger and Deputy Director of Online Communications for the John Edwards for President Campaign,58 was given the title “New Media Specialist.”59 Since October, Russo has served as the author of the Justice Department’s official blog.60
Shortly after Russo was hired, reports surfaced that indicated she was covertly attempting to shape public opinion by searching online for articles, blogs or other entries critical of the Administration and then anonymously, or through the use of a pseudonym, posting comments to those sites attacking the author or contents.61
The blogging and campaign communities refer to this propaganda tactic as “astroturfing.”62 Astroturfing is the action of using fake and anonymous postings on message boards and blogs to push a point of view or to create the appearance of grassroots support for a particular agenda.63″

From Hotair.Com 8-16-10

Wonder how many of the leftists on this website hang around DC?
MissVampireDiaries

Democratic war? LOL. I believe it was the liberals who opposed the war from the beginning. Nice try.

Beauxdog

How about the chick that helped the Japanese in WWII… Rozanne… no… Jane Fonda… no… Whoopie… no… Julia Roberts… no… Tokyo Rose… yeah… that's her.
Beauxdog

You left out the biggest idiot of all. The man who brought us the Sandanistas in Nicaragua, but more importantly… the man who shat upon the Shah of Iran who was EVILY suppressing a minority of his population… a population that has brought us the hostage crisis, al Queda, Himas, Hezbollah, 9/11 and a nuclear armed Iran… I give you the one… the only… Jimmy Carter!!!!!

Mahatma

You forgot he is responsible for AIDS, whooping cough, lead poisoning, meteorites and flooding.

Beauxdog

Humorous… nothing like a little ridicule when you can't counter the truth.

Mazen

I remember Reagan selling missiles to Iranians to finance Coke-dealing mass murderers. And no treason charge. Also he did not respond to the single greatest killing of marines on foreign soil in Beirut

http://www.patriotpost.com bthewolf

But Reagan did put Qadafi in his place after Libyan terrorists ran amock killing all over the Med. So we can call that a wash. But those Marines probably wouldn't have been killed if Carter had declared on Iraq for attacking sovereign US territory.

Way too much of radical Islam can be attributed to squishy passive responses to terrorism, and that was worst under Carter.

http://www.patriotpost.com bthewolf

Sorry 'declared war on IRAN' damned typos!

http://conservativebootcamp.com Martin Hale

I think Jeffrey Dahmer might be a better choice than Ted Bundy in the coveted Mass Murderers category. They were both creepy and notorious, but heck, Dahmer went the extra distance and butchered, stored and ate parts of his victims. For me, cannibalism and a lifelong history of animal torture trumps a WV Bug and a charming smile any day. Plus he died in a crumpled heap on the floor of the prison gym with a shiv in his back – a far more fitting death than Bundy's.

To your spies category, I'd place Klaus Fuchs up for nomination. He's the German-born atomic scientist who shared our nuclear secrets with the Soviets and later with the Chinese. Not a home-grown American baddie, but he blossomed into one once on our fair shores and freed from the Nazi menace which normally persecuted ardent Communists such as him. He was a naturalised American when he went all walk-about on us.

Al

Bundy however fundamentally changed the way people felt about their security.

http://conservativebootcamp.com Martin Hale

Maybe it's just that I'm older, but in my estimation, any cozy feeling of security which Americans might have had before Ted Bundy arrived on the scene was pretty well gone in the face of Albert De Salvo (allegedly), Richard Speck, Charles Whitman, Charles Manson and many, many others. These men each robbed the entire nation of any sense of security they may have been able to convince themselves they had at home or at large in their communities.

Bundy, for me at least, was just a media invention and darling because he was attractive, because he was bright and charming, and because they found they could move a lot of copy and sell a lot of advertising on the back of his story. His cold sociopathy fit the narrative of the times so well.

D-Vega

Bundy and Manson had the special charisma that allowed them to transcend from being just another sick bastard.

No one cared to hear from Speck or Berkowitz.

Dahmer would be right up there, for sheer depravity, but he had no personality.

BTW, Dahmer was not just cannibal, he was a sexual deviant, having sex with the corpses and/or body parts. The only reason why he ate them was to be even “closer” to them. So he took it to another level.

Even Manson and Bundy would say “That was one sick puppy.”

http://conservativebootcamp.com Martin Hale

Yep. Dahmer was damaged goods from way back who'd been allowed to avoid institution for way too long. He put the “ee” in creepy.

That charisma element is why I shy away from Bundy and Manson as Worst Americans, however. They were/are horrid people of the first order, but I hated to see how the media fell all over themselves exploiting their infamy for every scrap of viewership/readership they could while Manson and Bundy exploited the media for all they were worth. It is the sickening convergence of individual and organisational sociopathy between them and the media which moves them further down my list.

Speck, Dahmer, DeSalvo, maybe Berkowitz, on the other hand, weren't in it for the direct fame so much as they were in it for the crazy/grisly, which in my book is whole lot scarier. They were monsters because they wanted their notoriety to rest on the horrors they committed, not on their jailhouse interviews and photos. Bundy and Manson were too glib for me and sort of end up coming off as just another media exploitation job.

StanW

I would add Jane Fonda and John Kerry to the mix. Their treasonous behaviour during Vietnam caused untold pain and grief for this nation and for out Military Personnel. Many have never, nor will they ever, recover.

Mahatma

Many have never, nor will they ever, recover.

True enough stanley. But Jane Fonda and John Kerry had infinitesimal cause. Being sent to a hellhole for no apparent reason, being exposed to agent orange, etc. There's the blame stanley.

As always the last word's yours.

StanW

Do you know how ridiculous you sounds with this 'last word' crap, Martha?

Fonda provided aid and comfort to our enemies in a time of war, and was rewarded for it by the Left instead of being tried and executed for treason. Kerry accused our military personnel of being war criminals, even admitting to it himself, and was rewarded by the Left.

The personnel that were called baby-killers and were spat on when they returned were the product of Fonda's and Kerry's actions. They both caused huge harm to our nation and neither have ever been held accountable.

Mahatma

Do you know how silly you sound arguing down to one word columns, stanley? You are a troll.

Now the last word's yours.

StanW

You already said the last word was mine, then you responded again. What a liar you are, Martha.
Larry

Dood…are you as stupid as you sound, or just playing the ignorant rightwing nutjob for the peanut gallery?

Mazen

Treason, Murder, Racketeering, Spying for the Soviets, Increasing Spending. Hmmmmmm, I can't figure out which of those doesn't fit.
Big Richard

John. thanks for the laughs over the weekend, when the left wing sites picked up on the idiotic results of your query.

I don't blame you for trying to rescue the list idea here, but it's still a fail. You made your side look like it doesn't know history very well and is probably comprised of people under 30. Not one good idea or intelligent comment comes out of twenty-something conservatives, as you have proven.

StanW

Perhaps you could regale us with your list then, Dick.

Xiphiasthegreat

speaking of dick, it's hilarious to see gfchicago swinging off yours.

StanW

Stay classy, Liberal!

mightysamurai

I still say Joe Quesada tops the list.

D-Vega

Ha! How many people will get it?

Mahatma

No Rush Limbaugh?

StanW

No Dan Rather or Walter Cronkite either, Martha. Curious That!

Mahatma

No one tops the Rushbo for increasing the toxic level of discourse in this country. His stink continues.

The last word is all yours stanley.

http://www.patriotpost.com bthewolf

Right because Walter Cronkite lying to the American people for years was non-taxic. You're a waste of oxygen, why don't you quite contributing to global warming.

D-Vega

Walter Cronkite was a great man, a great journalist. There is no one that will be better or even come close.
StanW

Cronkite is a Liberal hack who lied to the American people about Vietnam, specifically the Tet Offensive.
D-Vega

We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders, both in Vietnam and Washington, to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest clouds. They may be right, that Hanoi's winter-spring offensive has been forced by the Communist realization that they could not win the longer war of attrition, and that the Communists hope that any success in the offensive will improve their position for eventual negotiations. It would improve their position, and it would also require our realization, that we should have had all along, that any negotiations must be that — negotiations, not the dictation of peace terms. For it seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate. This summer's almost certain standoff will either end in real give-and-take negotiations or terrible escalation; and for every means we have to escalate, the enemy can match us, and that applies to invasion of the North, the use of nuclear weapons, or the mere commitment of one hundred, or two hundred, or three hundred thousand more American troops to the battle. And with each escalation, the world comes closer to the brink of cosmic disaster.

To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past. To suggest we are on the edge of defeat is to yield to unreasonable pessimism. To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory, conclusion. On the off chance that military and political analysts are right, in the next few months we must test the enemy's intentions, in case this is indeed his last big gasp before negotiations. But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could.

I dunno, you guys may have been alive during that time (1968). But to me, Cronkite was reflecting the national mood and being realistic. Not trying to squash morale and be dishonest.
StanW

And what exactly does the “national mood” have to do with reporting the facts, Vega? He was supposed to be a newsman, not a commentator. And neither of those gives him the right or duty to lie about the Tet Offensive.
D-Vega

What did he say that was a blatant lie?
StanW

The Tet Offensive was a defeat for the Vietnamese and a huge vistory for American Forces. Cronkite reversed the position and called the Offensive a decisive win for the Vietnamese.

Once Uncle Walter decided the war was bad, he had no problem lying about it.
D-Vega

“Cronkite reversed the position and called the Offensive a decisive win for the Vietnamese. Once Uncle Walter decided the war was bad, he had no problem lying about it.”

When did he say this? And what exactly did he say? Are you referring to actual events? Or the rightwing narrative?
StanW

Sorry, Vega, I don't want to turn this into a discussion about Cronkite. I will provide proof to you when we have a post about “Newmen in the 20th Century with a last name starting with 'C'”
D-Vega

Right, Stan. That's what I thought.

It's all about a rightwing hit-job. Cronkite never lied about a damn thing.
StanW

Neither did McCarthy, unless you can prove otherwise, Vega!
D-Vega

Also, that above was specifically an editorial.
Larry

Hmmm…you're an ignorant asshole.
StanW

Thank you for your insightful commentary, Larry. You are all we have come to expect of the Liberal commentators on this site.
http://www.patriotpost.com bthewolf

He outrighted lied on national TV that America was losing the Tet Offensive. He was a partisan hack, and he was the poster child for todays hacks Dan Rather being the most obvious.

That you consider him great says more about how partisan you are than anything else.
Mahatma

Who won and who lost in the great Tet offensive against the cities? I'm not sure. The Vietcong did not win by a knockout, but neither did we. The referees of history may make it a draw.

-Walter Cronkite

UFKA_Smithwick

Rush doesn't claim to be an unbiased reporter. He has always positioned himself as a rightwing pundit.

Bias is not the concern, nor is it even over the top commentary. It's pretending to be unbiased/professional and abusing that trust.

D-Vega

That's a pretty good list. Here are some others I had on the other thread (BTW, I have never seen such an “outside” response to a thread here. Nearly 600 comments and dozens of commenters?):

- Charles Manson: Charlie changed the game forever. His actions are known to have ended the “innocence” of America. AND, he's still healthy and alive.

- Richard Nixon: You can't seriously have Obama on the list, and not have the President who changed the way people look at Presidents forever. A President who got things done, but in the end broke the law, lied, and was discovered to not be a nice guy at all.

- J. Edgar Hoover: A Director who built what is now today the great organization of the FBI. But did so but breaking the law, and writing his own rules. A guy who had stuff on even the Presidents. In office for decades, the closet we came in the modern times to a dictator.

- Joe McCarthy: Senator Witchhunt, a politician that ruined lives, pissed on the Constitution, and is still known as one of the most reviled in our political history.

- Charles “Lucky” Luciano/Myer Lansky: Al Capone is minor league, though more famous.

- John Walker Lindh: The “American Taliban”.

- Boss Tweed: The symbol for American political corruption.

- Jesse James: The icon of the American outlaw, whose legacy lives on to this day.

StanW

Ready to discuss McCarthy now, Vega?

D-Vega

I said the “Best” list, Stan.

The other posters on the other thread handed you your ass on the subject. Why are you so eager to hijack this thread over one guy? Let's see how it goes.

StanW

HiJack? You brought him up AGAIN. And now you are running away AGAIN.

You don;t seem to be critical of a discussion about Mixon on the thread, but McCarthy?

And you may want to go back and read some of those comments, Vega. Most lied even more deeply than you did about McCarthy.

I know you keep throwing out his name because you excect most people to just roll over abd say he was a bad man and let you have your victory, but that isn't me. I am still waiting on you to provide me the name of ONE innocent victim of McCarthy, Vega. Just One. And all youhave done is post Liberal lies.

But run away if you wish, it is clear who the coward is here.

TheDickNixon

Can't blame Nixon for Watergate without mentioning Mitchell and Dean, the two architect's of the whole thing. Especially Mitchell.

D-Vega

My feeling is it wasn't simply the act itself. It was the way it all unfolded and blossomed into something very dirty and surprisising.

http://www.thepiratescove.us/ William_Teach

Interestingly, I had Hoover, as well. (Also Lindh)

As far as McCarthy, you do understand that the hearings were held by the House, not the Senate, right? And, quite frankly, McCarthy was correct: we did have quite a few communist sympathizers in our country, including, as the Venona Papers point out, in government.

D-Vega

Only thing I'll say is that it's not called “McCarthyism” for nothing.

StanW

No, It's called McCarthyism based upon Liberals ability to lie about McCarthy.
http://www.thepiratescove.us/ William_Teach

Yet, you fail to address the fact that a) McCarthy was a Senator, so he was not a part of the House inquiry, and b) he was proven correct, Vega.

D-Vega

I am not just talking about HUAC, Mr. Teach.

And b), he was A LOT more incorrect than correct, which ruined A LOT of lives.
StanW

Then name one, Vega.
uncleosbert

dorothy comingore, who starred in citizen kane. when she refused to testify, her husband divorced her, took their child and she died an alcoholic. jose ferrer was even cleared by the huac, but the american legion still picketed moulin rouge because he was in it. the fbi drove bartley crum, who was just a lawyer for people who had appeared before the huac, to suicide.

why don't you explain how being a communist is a banned by the first amendment right to free speech and free association?

why don't you help us understand when it's ok to suspend the first and fifth amendments?
StanW

Uncle Osbert,

Joe McCarthy was a Senator. HUAC stood for the HOUSE Unamerican Activities Committee. Joe McCarthy was never in the House and never had any involvement with HUAC at all. While those people did have thier lives ruined, Joe McCarthy had nothing to do with any of them.

Before you go out of your way to hate someone, try to do a little research and learn the truth.
uncleosbert

i have done my research. the huac shared information and witnesses with the permanent subcommittee on investigations, which was chaired by mccarthy and served nearly the same function. initially i thought you were asking about the huac, but we can do mccarthy instead: the subcommittee tore through the voa. one of the engineers there, ray kaplan, committed suicide. this committee also investigated dashiell hammett, langston hughes and aaron copland, among hundreds of others.

and i have to point out, in response to your comment below… though the term mccarthyism was coined by a liberal cartoonist, it was extensively used by everyone. “Asked why he didn’t take a more vigorous public role in opposing Senator Joseph McCarthy, Eisenhower replied, “I just won’t get into a pissing contest with that skunk.”
http://sherwright.com/eisenhower_speaks.htm

ah, that old liberal eisenhower.
StanW

Ok, for the last time, Mccarthy was a senator, not in the Housse. HUAC was formed and was doing it's work BEFORE Mccarthy was every elected to Congress. To blame HUAC's failings on McCarthy is the work of a lazy and stupid person.

In the VIOA dispute, Kaplan came to McCarthy with the dispute about VOA. McCarthy was Kaplan's advocate and had nothing to do with Kaplans suicide.

Just because a term is used by a lot of people does not make it accurate. A lot of people call Obama a Muslim, but that does not make it true.

Again, facts are your friend. you shoudl meet a few instead of simply parroting what you can google.

gfchicago

Jeeze Vega, did you have to bring up McCarthy again? Now the entire thread is going to be an argument about him again.

D-Vega

I will not let it be.

StanW

…by running away from topics you bring up because you are too much of a coward to answer simple questions, Vega.

http://www.docmercury.com Dr. Mercury

I read the original article, then the criticisms by the high schoolers over on Hot Air, and now this, and here's my take:

1. Never, in the entire course of humanity, has a “Best of” or “Worst of” list ever been close to correct. Ever.

2. Every time someone posts such a list, half the comments soundly condemn him as a moron because of who he left off, and the other half defend the ones he included.

3. Like Neal Boortz, I believe that the NEA is a far greater danger to our country than al Queda. If the name of the current president of the NEA isn't on this list, then it's not worth spit.

And, just for the record, McVeigh wasn't a terrorist, he was an anarchist. He didn't try to terrorize an innocent public, he directly attacked a government building.
Guest

May I add Robert Macnamara? Schlepped his way through the Vietnam conflict crunching numbers.
sicsempertyrannis

Notice how only one person on this list expanded the size and scope of centralized government.

“Woodrow Wilson: Not only was he an honest to goodness fascist, his incompetence in the aftermath of WWI set the stage for WWII.”

and the reasons for being put on the list mention nothing of the expansion of central government.
http://twitter.com/zaire67 James Adams

I visited the Oklahoma City memorial site. It was very emotional moment as I was overwhelmed by the amount of destruction. I never visited the World Trade center site after 9/11, but I can only imagine the impact visiting that area would have on me. By agreeing with a mosque being built secures Obama a place on this list.

President Friedman

I used to work about 10 blocks from the OKC Memorial, and would go there often at lunchtime. NYC would be lucky to get a memorial site as well done as the OKC site.

JASanders

Despite the government/media lies, Lee Harvey Oswald did not kill JFK. J. Edgar Hoover knew this, and knew of the assassination attempt that was coming… and did nothing about it. He hated the Kennedys, wanted to stay in power, and knew that his good friend, LBJ, would ensure his continued tenure at the FBI. I'd take Oswald off the list, and replace it with Hoover, who was the head of the American Gestapo.
http://www.thepiratescove.us/ William_Teach

Anyone hear the end of Beck's show today? He talked about the original list.
President Friedman

Great list. I'd probably replace Madalyn Murray O'Hair and Aaron Burr with these two:

FDR – He had positives, but he belongs on the list because he was more responsible than anyone else for paving the proverbial Road To Serfdom, and the resulting and unceasing creep of socialism into our sociopolitical atmosphere is the biggest evil in our world today. A little more controversially, I despise FDR because he was responsible for embracing ideals about military conscription (also known as slavery) that would last for almost 40 years, and still haven't gone away completely. He instituted the first ever American peacetime conscription, and from 1940-1947 he presided over the conscription of 11 million Americans, a number that is far larger than the total number of African-descended individuals ever shipped or born into slavery in the history of the USA.

John Dewey – No, not because he invented the torturous decimal system for categorizing books, but because he was one of the original contributors to the idea of public schools as tools for social reform, and educational models that grade based on subjective benchmarks over cold hard metrics. It is very hard to pin down just where our education system went off the tracks, but Dewey's ideas, however well-intentioned, certainly contributed to the sorry state of modern public ed, which is one of our biggest challenges and one of the most looming threats to the future of this nation.

Runner Up: Andrew Jackson – There are a lot of bad things that happened to various Native American tribes in this country that they deserved (especially the Plains tribes), or that were tragically unavoidable (such as smallpox epidemics), but the forced removal of the culturally defeated, increasingly Christian, and largely westernized Civilized Tribes from the American South in the 1830s and 1840s was completely unjustified. Jackson doesn't belong on this list simply because he was but a bit player in a much larger game that preceeded and precluded his Presidency, but he did have the power, authority, and (by Supreme Court verdict) the justification to put a stop to it, but refused, and that will always taint what otherwise could have been a great Presidency.

President Friedman

Correction: since FDR died in 1945 I suppose it is unfair to site conscription numbers that extend to 1947, but still, the point remains.
Larry

Wow…could you be a bigger douchebag?

President Friedman

Possibly, but it would take effort. My current level of douchebaginess is pretty easy to maintain.

Machiavelli

I wasn't really thrilled to be part of the “25 dumbest bloggers”, as it was described by Rick Moron at Right Wing Nut House.

That being said, the inclusion of the several Democratic Presidents seemed out of place to me, though arguments could be made as to why they were included.
GamerFromJump

O'Hair's on it for “promoting atheism”, but you couldn't find one promoter of Islamism or Catholic child rape conspirator that deserved it more? Priorities, man!

D-Vega

I agree. Promoting Atheism is not a bad thing, or illegal, or depraved.

CoolCzech

Merely horribly mistaken and destructive of common decency and American values. But then, that's par for the Liberal course… ain't it?

D-Vega

It's not either, Czech. If you have your own Truth, then what someone else thinks it their business, and their salvation or damnation.

Promoting Atheism shouldn't be up there with any of these reasons to include someone as the “worst” anything.

CoolCzech

Catholic child rape?

As opposed to atheist child rape? Nuance, man!

http://www.facebook.com/kissam Brendan Kissam

You ought to read a biography on Jefferson Davis. He did not like slavery, and was not fighting to preserve it. He was protecting a land that wanted to break free and rule itself.
President Friedman

Upon some reflection I might also have to inlcude Janet Reno, the woman who orchestrated the murder of 76 men, women, and children in Waco, TX, mostly for no better reason than having odd religious views and lots of guns.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_WFMAZ3XATX5Q6ZTRYQE4RAMYHU David Caskey

If you are a true conservative, then Lincoln would be number one on the list.

Mahatma

Could you expand on this some? I don't understand.

dixiechick

Another big win for strong, centralized federal government; another big blow to Confed–er…Republicans' beloved states' rights….

Ryan

Missing: the entire cast of Jersey Shore, Pauly Shore, Carrot Top, John Goodman (he still owes me $50), and anyone who was ever in the Mickey Mouse Club.
MissVampireDiaries

I agree with 61% of Historians that Bush was the worst president, followed by Reagan.
Postmanisms

Argue with us for change, instead of talking to each other:

http://www.postmanisms.com

Postmanisms

That is “a change”.

Karen Frechette

Barack Obama? Financially irresponsible? Seriously?

You do realize that the first round of stimulus money was spent under Bush and that Obama needed to spend the second round to keep the country from going into a depression, don't you? The majority of economists agree that “cutting back” would have been economic suicide for the country.

And you do realize that the financial crisis happened under the Bush administration. And please tell me how a little thing like the Iraq War has been paid for…oh that's right…it hasn't.

Obama financially irresponsible? Exactly how many spending bills did Bush veto? Let me think……um, none!

Cylarz

Oh, you gotta love the Left.

You castigate Bush for doing (or not doing) this or that…but let Odumbo off the hook for doing the exact same thing…TEN TIMES HARDER.

Don't get stuck on stupid.

Kathleen

An accurate list. I agree with every one of your picks. How about a top twenty of the Best Figures in American History?
Electro J. Fudd

Replace President Jefferson Davis with Jan Pieterszoon Coen.

President Davis graduated from West Point; served on the Western Front with honor, distinction, and bravery; served as US Senator; and served as Secretary of War. You can make the argument that SOW Davis won the War of Northern Aggression by drastically modernizing the Army over the inertia and egos of generals.

Coen brought commercial slavery to North America.
Wuzentus

Ethel Rosenberg { It was later discovered she was probably innocent}
Jefferson Davis { It was more about state's rights than slavery}
Timothy McVeigh {NO way he acted alone }
Nathan Bedford Forrest { Great calvary tactics and actually dissolved the first kkk because of their tatics } Great GOD man, get your story right if you are going to print it. Hell, wikapukia is better than you
Wuzentus

And another point , The KKK was founded by democrats
http://www.asicscheapshoeses.com cheap asics shoes

Th is is an informative post, thanks a whole lot!

Ed Klein on ‘The Amateur: Barack Obama in the White House’

Premium Right Ads

Blogads Right

Previous Features

40 Of The Most Bad-Ass, Masculine, Manly, Alpha Male Quotes Of All Time

Why Men Are Becoming Wimpy, Video Game Playing Slackers Who Don’t Want To Get Married

Horror You Will Never Get Out Of Your Brain Again: Bronies

The 10 Best Obama Ate A Dog Images From Around The Web

User Info

Features

Archives Best of RWN Humor John Hawkins Interviews Quotes Special to RWN