17 December 2016

If proud to be white Richard Spencer runs for Congress,
will he run wearing a white sheet or a brown shirt — or both?

Whitefish’s whitest resident, Richard Spencer, is at it again, generating free publicity by being outrageous. His latest publicity ploy? Expressing an interest in running for Montana’s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives the yet to be called special election to replace Rep. Ryan Zinke, who’s joining Donald Trump’s cabinet as Secretary of the Interior. Zinke will resign his seat in the House when and if he’s confirmed.

No qualified for the ballot political party in Montana, not even the Libertarians, would nominate Spencer for the special election. He’d have to make the ballot by gathering approximately 15,000 valid signatures, probably in less than two weeks.

If he worked by himself, he’d have to collect a signature every 40 seconds for 12 hours a day. He’s never worked that hard in his life, and he’s not going to start now. Nor is he going to recruit a squad of canvassers, let along a squad of paid canvassers, to knock on doors, get signatures, and tell the fools who signed, “Thank you, ma’am, that’s mighty white of you.”

He’s just going to say he’s contemplating running and get free publicity in the form of news reports. Cheekiness pays.

And if he does run? Well, I’m reminded of Sammy Davis’ reply when Johnny Carson asked him whether he thought George Wallace would run for President again: “I hope he runs, and I hope they catch him.”