Newspaper Page Text
Page 4A
The Braselton News
Wednesday, August 2, 2017
Buddy Carter
tries to jerk a
knot in their tail
By Tom Crawford
The biggest political story in the nation, the
defeat of Obamacare repeal legislation, featured
an unlikely appearance by a person you would
never expect to see there: Georgia congressman
Buddy Carter.
Carter, who is serving just his second term in
the House, is one of many Republican congress
men who want to kill off the Affordable Care Act
— it's almost an obsession with him.
You might think it odd that Carter would want
to shoot down Obamacare. It's been estimat
ed that repealing it would result in about one
million Georgians losing their health insurance
coverage, with an estimated 64,000 of those
unfortunate souls residing in the 1st Congressio
nal District that Carter represents.
It doesn’t make sense that Carter would want
to hurt so many of his constituents, but then, this
is a guy who really hates Obamacare. He hates
it so much that he got a little carried away after
the Senate failed to pass one of the motions to
repeal Obamacare.
That repeal motion lost in large part because
two Republican women, Senators Susan Collins
of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, voted
against it.
When he was asked what he thought about
Donald Trump criticizing Murkowski in one of
the president’s tweets. Carter blurted out: “Let
me tell you, somebody needs to go over there to
that Senate and snatch a knot in their a**. I’m
telling you. it has gotten to the point where, how
can you say I voted for this last year but I'm not
going to vote for it this year?"
Carter’s rustic remark caught fire and touched
off a genuine media frenzy, with everyone try
ing to explain what it meant to snatch a knot in
someone’s hind quarters.
Earlier in the week. Carter's Republican col
league from Texas, Rep. Blake Farenthold,
expressed similar frustrations about the women
senators and said he wanted to challenge them
to a duel because they had voted against killing
Obamacare.
This prompted some media observers to accuse
Carter and Farenthold of calling for violence
against women.
Not so, said a spokesperson for Carter, who
quickly sent out a clarifying statement: “Rep.
Carter’s comment was in no way directed
towards Sen. Murkowski specifically. His words
speak for themselves, that he was not speaking
about a single senator. This is a southern phrase
used frequently throughout Rep. Carter’s life
time which simply means get your act together.”
Carter later tweeted that he was “shocked this
is so confusing.”
He was forgetting that people from other
regions don’t always talk the way that Southern
ers do. Consequently, it’s easy for something to
get lost in translation.
The phrase “snatch a knot in their a**” — a
milder version of it is “jerk a knot in their tail”
— is one of many slang expressions that a person
hears when they grow up in the South.
These Southernisms often have a hint of vio
lence to them, especially when they are said
in the heat of anger or frustration. You'll hear
someone say, “I’m gonna snatch you bald-head
ed,” for example, or “I’m gonna whip you like a
red-headed stepchild.”
These regional phrasings also can be quite
humorous. One of my favorites was the one I
heard from a state legislator who was about to
vote on a very controversial bill: “I'm as nervous
as a whore in church.”
To use some other Southernisms, Carter was so
upset at Lisa Murkowksi that you could reason
ably say. “He's got a burr under his saddle,” or
“His knickers are in a knot.”
Or maybe he was, in that fine Southern expres
sion, “having a hissy fit.”
What some people see as colorful phrasings,
however, are seen by others as physical threats,
especially in these hyper-partisan times.
By the end of last week. Carter’s colorful lan
guage turned out to be all for nothing.
Two days after Carter’s memorable diatribe
against the senator from Alaska, the Senate
voted down the last attempt to pass a bill that
would repeal Obamacare. Murkowski and Col
lins once again cast the negative votes on that
motion, and they were joined by Arizona Sen.
John McCain in shooting down the bill.
I didn’t see Carter trying to jerk a knot in
anyone's tail at that point, but I’m sure the con
gressman was feeling “lower than a snake’s belly
in a wagon rut.”
Tom Crawford is editor of The Georgia Report,
an internet news service at gareport.com that
reports on state government and politics. He can
be reached at tcrawford@gareport.com.
STAY INFORMED
THROUGHOUT
THE WEEK, VISIT
BRASELTONNEWSTODAY.COM.
We learned, a lot, although we seldom noticed
By Ron Bridgeman
We had a “buddy” sys
tem in scouts in the early-
to mid-1960s. Everywhere
we went we had to know
where our buddy might
be, and we had “buddy
checks” regularly.
Most often that would
be a way to keep up with
everyone in the troop
when we were swimming
in a lake or mountain
creek.
I helped twice get a
buddy out of the under
tow at Abrams Falls in the
Great Smoky Mountains.
I had help myself from an
assistant scoutmaster and
a couple of other scouts.
We helped each other.
At summer camp, we
did things largely as a
group by tent. Each tent
held eight kids.
On Appalachian Trail
hikes, we were responsi
ble for checking the pack
of the boy in front of us
when we started in the
morning and each time we
stopped for a break.
One of my humiliating
moments was having to
re-roll my sleeping bag
which had not been tied
correctly. That was on
my first AT hike when I
was 11. My “buddy,” who
was 12, helped with the
re-rolling.
I helped my share of
first-timers when I was
12 to 14.
I learned to start a fire
in a pouring rain, using
a “Firestarter,” a piece of
cardboard tied with cord
and dipped, repeatedly, in
paraffin. Mostly. I learned
to finish the job, to pay
attention to the task at
hand.
I never went to a nation
al jamboree, but I would
have been bewildered, and
a little ticked off, if I had
and listened to a speech
like Donald Trump gave
in West Virginia recently.
I would have wondered
why this man was spout
ing nonsense about a
bunch of things that had
nothing to do with the
jamboree or scouting or
growing up.
Scouts had lots of les
sons for me - indepen
dence, planning, helping
other kids, standing up
for “right,” which was
defined by our scoutmas
ter. But one of the lasting
lessons was how to act in
civil society.
Our scoutmaster had a
litany that he said when
ever we went somewhere.
He would spew it out in a
rush because he knew we
were anxious to get food,
or visit the restroom or
go swimming or any of a
hundred other things.
The litany involved
being polite, not yelling,
spitting, fighting, cursing
and generally not behav
ing like morons. I heard
that hundreds of times.
We had a sign for quiet.
The scout sign, the three
middle fingers up. facing
out and the thumb and
little finger crossed. It was
universal.
A couple hundred kids
would go quiet and wait
for whatever came when
anyone, boy or adult, lift
ed that sign.
For four years, scout
events were a major part
of my life. Weekend
camps and hikes, week
ly meetings, track meets
and practices in the spring
and summer and work on
merit badges.
I kept a pack with
enough food and clothes
for three days ready in a
closet. About once a quar
ter we had a drill to see
how soon we could gather
as a group.
It was the middle of the
Cold War. We were pre
pared to go to the woods
if something drastic hap
pened or to go help folks
if the bombs fell.
We had cliques in the
troop and fights occasion
ally. We wrestled a lot, for
fun and for exercise. We
ran. We swam.
Our scoutmaster
referred to boys getting
“14-itis.” He meant we
noticed girls. He was right
- except it probably was
closer to 12, certainly 13.
Mostly we learned,
although it was some
years before most of us
recognized what and how
much.
Trump apparently never
had a scoutmaster like
mine.
Ron Bridgeman is a
reporter for Mainstreet
Newspapers. Send him
email at ron@mainstreet-
news.com.
Great Careers
Begin Here