| This excerpt pretty much sums up the event as described in the blog:
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"When we did return we went out to eat and witnessed some of the drunkest, most ridiculous political discussions and pathetic sleeze-ball dancing of our lives. Beer and foo-foo drinks and you name it were all clutched in the hands of the under-aged cr's [College Republicans]- however, they were all incredibly careful about not getting kicked out or noticed for under-aged drinking to avoid getting the candidate who had been throwing the party into any sort of career-jeopardizing trouble. There were no MIP's given out or DUI's. Thank God Mackinac island cops are on foot and bicycles and that no cars are allowed on the island.
I can't wait for CPAC."
- Blog Entry: "A Real Political Party" September 28, 2009 | 11:01 am
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If this is what Conservative Republicans are like when they're not out moralizing and condemning the immorality of everyone else, I can't wait for the Conservative Political Action Conference either! After all, as Oblinger puts it:
"Let's just say that most of the bigger Republican events all is hard-work in campaigning until the sun goes down. Let me tell you, rich politicians know how to throw a pretty damn good party and they definitely do treat the cr's pretty well- a free trip to mackinac including free fairy trips, free hotel rooms, free food, and "the drank"."
Oblinger apparently thinks that if she doesn't mention the conference by name, nobody will know what she's talking about (which likely explains her candor):
"A certain Republican conference took place (it's probably better I don't give the conference title), and all College Republicans went for free to help campaign for different candidates running for office solely in the state of Michigan."
In a spectacular example of naivete second only to Sarah Palin's use of YahooMail, Oblinger's blog "Bottoms up" (which features a masthead photo depicting students doing shots of Busch beer) and MySpace profile feature images of the underage and less-than-conservative behavior, all of which are available to the public (which is how I happened upon them after a keyword search brought up the Mackinac Conference entry from her blog).
Sandwiched between photos of the students with republican politicans like Bill Schuette and Bill Hardiman are photos of the following:
- garden-variety underage drinking in a hotel room.
- a male and female student posing together wearing only what appears to be the promotional T-shirt given out at the 2009 Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference. (Is this what conservatives teach in abstinence-only sex education programs?)
- students collapsed in the grass as a result of intoxication (which later apparently resulted in a broken finger - given that the GOP opposes universal healthcare, I hope that student can afford insurance!)
- a group shot in which one female student is seen grabbing another female student's breast (does this mean they're for legalizing same-sex marriage?).
- students playing the drinking game "waterfall" in which the cards one draws from a standard deck determines who drinks when.
- a photo captioned "drunk, female, hot hitler?" that is pretty much self-explanatory.
Lest anyone think that this conduct was limited to one isolated case, Oblinger notes that she was out partying with not only fellow CMU students, but "MSU's College Republicans, and Grand Rapids Community College College Republicans."
On an ironic note, if we're to believe Oblinger's blog, there was apparently a swinger's conference scheduled on Mackinac the same weekend as the Mackinac Conference. During a carriage ride, the "conservative" College Republicans mingled with some of them and encouraged them to molest (for lack of a better word) one of their fellow "CRs":
"...She kept touching at Zack's face talking about his eyes and his great hair and she especially fell in love with his cartilage earring. She asked if she could kiss it and their drunken gang all egged her on. I joined, because I was so amused by Zack's level of discomfort that I had to support this drunken MILF's desires."...
One should rightly ask why the irresponsibly typical behavior of a college student is relevant in a political context. Certainly virtually everyone has done stupid things in their lives (I sure as hell have), and we're all now faced with unprecedented (and some would say unfair) scrutiny in the era of Google.
However, the GOP (and particularly its conservative wing) has positioned itself as the party of moral values and accountability. As such, it takes on certain obligations to practice what it preaches. That's why it's more newsworthy when a Republican politician is caught in a sex scandal: it's hypocritical because they're out condemning and attempting to criminalize the behavior they're engaging in.
For example: from the description in Oblinger's blog post, she and her boyfriend may have been staying in the same room. Personally I don't care (they're adults - they can do what they want) but some of Michigan's conservative Republicans have spoken openly about wanting to recriminalize cohabitation and the tab for the hotels was apparently being picked up by the Republican party (or one of its affiliates).
The same goes for the zero-tolerance, "tough on crime" policies pushed by the Republican party; should the politicians that hosted these soirees at which minors were (allegedly) freely drinking alcohol be punished as severely as they advocate punishing others?
I wonder if Oblinger would advocate she and her fellow students be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for going to rather lengthy measures to thwart their attempts to violate alcohol consumption laws (to say nothing of the other illicit behavior she describes her friends engaging in). Probably not - and yet she's working for politicians who want to lock up others for similar infractions.
As Oblinger notes in her blog, the students weren't the only ones acting irresponsibly - the politicians were partying as well:
"We hit the bars around 11 am. I'm not kidding. Drunk politicians swarmed the island early."
It bears noting that this 11am drinking was going on September 25-27 while the state of Michigan's budget was imploding as a result of the legislature's terrible performance.
This means that while the people of Michigan are anxiously waiting to see what critical programs are going to get the axe - these politicians were taking a break from the budget process to party like the cast of "the Hangover." |
