Sid Miller, Twitter: That’s rough riding




 

 

Donald Trump’s Twitter blitz raised eyebrows enough that the New York Times ran a two-page spread, repeating just some of the insulting blasts he has sent out at all hours.

Now Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, who says he has become Trump’s “go-to guy” in Texas, may be in competition with Trump for internet notoriety, after a vulgar tweet from his Twitter account went viral.

The Miller tweet, like Trump’s “Access Hollywood” videotape from 2005, used a five-letter name for a woman’s private parts.

Trump is heard on tape boasting because he is a star, he can get away with grabbing a woman by her genitals.

The Miller tweet substituted a derogatory four-letter sexual term for a woman, in place of Hillary Clinton’s name in a report on a Trump-Clinton poll in Pennsylvania.

While Trump admitted the words on the 2005 tape were spoken by him, Miller’s campaign spokesman, Todd M. Smith, initially claimed Miller’s Twitter account had been hacked.

But shortly later, Smith walked that back, and said a new staff member had copied the material from another Twitter feed from an alt-right group without noticing the offensive word.

Miller said the tweet was pulled down minutes after he learned of it, and apologized to anyone who had been offended.

He told a reporter the word was “nothing that I would ever approve of — it’s despicable and vulgar.”

Gov. Greg Abbott had been quick to condemn the foul tweet.

“The language is reprehensible & is an embarrassment. No true Texas gentleman would ever talk this way.”

Ironically, Miller had tweeted Oct. 28 – five days before the vulgar tweet – poking fun at Clinton for needing help with her social media.

“#CrookedHillary needs a dozen people to check her tweets. My thoughts are my own.”

Miller said his Facebook and Twitter accounts have been so busy recently since he became a surrogate for Trump that he had to hire two new campaign staffers to deal with it.

Democratic women, as might be expected, were highly critical of the tweet, as the latest sign of Miller’s offensive behavior, and the relative silence of most Republican officials to condemn it.

“Have you fallen so deeply into the cesspool created by Donald Trump that you’ve forgotten how to be respectful to your fellow men and women?” Rep. Celia Israel, D-Austin, asked rhetorically at a Nov. 3 news conference.

“Step up to the plate and apologize for your actions and apologize to Secretary Clinton, because no woman should be referred to by that word ever.”

Israel recalled Miller’s earlier social media post, including comparing Syrian refugees to rattlesnakes, and suggesting bombing “the Muslim world.”

Several Republican women in politics were also critical. The Texas Tribune’s Abby Livingston said in a story that perhaps most outspoken was Jenifer Sarver, who worked in the George W. Bush administration and as a U.S. Senate staff member.

She blamed Republican primary voters in 2014 for nominating Miller in the first place.

“He’s a disgrace and an embarrassment and has easily coasted into office,” she said in an email, adding that the vulgar tweet “says more about the GOP primary voters in Texas than it does about him.”

Sarver said Miller “is vulgar and offensive and revels in being so.”

“I’ve always felt pride in being from a state that supports and nurtures strong women,” Sarver wrote. “But this new wave of openly sexist attitudes perpetrated by Texas GOP leaders is disheartening and shameful, and I worry about the message it sends to the little girls in my life.”

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Trump’s Texas campaign chairman, castigated reporters for focusing on the “social media outrage generated by . . . Miller” – while agreeing the language “is intolerable and there is absolutely no excuse for it.”

Patrick also charged that “the main stream press, including most of the press in Texas” are backing Clinton.

“But the press was wrong to suggest that this incident would impact the way women in Texas will vote in the presidential race,” Patrick contended.

“(W)omen are working hard from the Red River to the Rio Grande to get out the vote and Keep Texas Red, from the White House to the Court House.”

*******

Yosemite Sid. . . . That’s the nickname that Texas Tribune columnist Ross Ramsey affixed to Miller in April, after a series of snafus and questionable actions.

That’s a takeoff on Yosemite Sam, the cartoon cowboy, with a large western hat perpetually affixed to his scalp – like Miller – and a gun in each hand, though not much of an aim.

Yosemite Sam did continuing battle with other cartoon characters – especially Bugs Bunny.

Yosemite also Sam produced a string of threats, including “Say your prayers varmint … dead rabbits tell no tales.”

Contact McNeely at davemcneely111@gmail.com or (512) 458-2963.


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