Sunday, May 2, 2010

Co-Weasels of the Week: Gov. Jan Brewer & Todd Clem

Two sets of weasel ears to hand out this time, and largely for similar reasons.

As most of you know by now, Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona has plunged her state into national headlines by virtually making racial profiling legal. I get she's trying to stem the tide of illegal immigrants crossing the border from Mexico into Arizona, but by authorizing police officers throughout the state to question the citizenship of every Hispanic-American they run across, be it on the street or at a traffic stop or whatever, she is risking mass rioting, not just from Hispanics, but other minorities as well. We're supposed to be well past racial bias in this country, but it just won't go away. If Gov. Brewer's up for re-election this year, stick a fork in her, she's done.

And who is Todd Clem, you might ask? You might know him better by his stage name, "Bubba the Love Sponge", well known Tampa, Florida-based radio shock jock and friend to Hulk Hogan. Clem was hired by TNA Wrestling in January at the request of Hogan, and they tried him out as a backstage reporter. He infamously ripped into 2-time women's champion Awesome Kong (Kia Stevens) for her fund-raising efforts for disaster victims in Haiti after the earthquake there, and all Kong did was dim Clem's running lights. However, Kong was cut a few weeks ago, a clear sign that Hogan was doing all he can to protect his friend.

Clem, however, didn't get the message. He reportedly ambushed Kong on his radio show earlier this week, and that was the final straw. TNA terminated Clem's contract on April 30 after 4 months, perhaps realizing that he was more of a liability to the company than they originally thought. Well, DUH! I get that TNA might want to bring Kong back at some point, and in order to facilitate that, they needed to get rid of Clem, who more recently was a mascot for The Band (not the rock group), aka the former New World Order Wolfpac (Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, & Sean "Syxx-Pac" Waltman), a trio of past-their-prime bad boys that were brought in because of the misguided belief that they are still a draw. TNA President Dixie Carter had to lay down the law, and all Clem did in response was to turn on TNA and urge his loyal listeners to virtually boycott the promotion, at a time when they need all the fan support they can muster, given the miniscule ratings they've generated since moving Impact to Mondays 2 months ago.

Clem is a poor man's Howard Stern. Gov. Brewer may think she's the 2nd coming of George Wallace, the former Alabama governor. They're both weasels in my book.

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