Tucker "Jacuzzi" Carlson

Kid Oakland over at Daily Kos has this post up called the Raise Hell Machine- Tucker Carlson. He suggests that bloggers use the power of Google to associate Tucker Carlson "to his noxious "jacuzzi" line." After reading Hunter's posts on the subject, which detail at least eight instances where Carlson used it over the last two years, I wholeheartedly agree.

Mr. Carlson apparently can't resist tickling his own sick, demented funny bone. Dogdamn, he must consider himself a clever wit, to use such a reference to describe the tragedy that almost took the life of Valerie Lakey.

I added a post Tuesday, and referred to Jacuzzi Tucker Carlson's "callous remark"(for some reason my settings change hasn't taken effect, and the link requires a scroll down--apologies). Kid Oakland was nice enough to include this with several others, including Caleb Hayes, who notes Carlson's reference (and points out that NO ONE ever questions the source of Bush or Cheney's wealth). Gone Mild has his take on Jacuzzi Tucker, asking if ANYONE "would...trade their child's intestines for $25 million dollars," and concluding with "People like John Edwards see situations like this and say why. Republicans see injured little children and say why not." Indeed.

Root Cellar notes that "Tucker Carlson has heard about the case" (more below). The Pragmatic Progressive correctly calls it a disemboweling and says Carlson "smugly dispatches the tragedy of a child whose guts were ripped out."

Hunter takes a particular exception to Carlson's absolutely crass insistance on using the jacuzzi line, even though he KNOWS the particulars of the case, which in a nutshell are:

Valerie Lakey, at the time five years old, was playing in a public swimming pool--a wading pool for children, in fact.
A defective drain sucked her down to the bottom of the pool. The force of the drain literally ripped her intestines out.
Almost miraculously, the young child survived. However, she will require special care for the rest of her life (read: 12 hours each evening attached to a feeding tube connected via a needle).
John Edwards, representing the family discovered 1) at least a dozen children had been seriously injured by the drain, 2) that what made it defective could be corrected by the addition of two screws, at a total cost of $1 per drain, and 3) that the company KNEW this, but took no steps to correct the flaw.

If you ask me, the executives that run the manufacturing company should be thrown in jail (if not disemboweled themselves). To Tucker Carlson though, it's just a way to play politics. I can't bring myself to say, for instance, that I wish something so vile would happen to Carlson's children, because it's no fault of theirs that their father is capable of being such an unbelievable asshole. But I can certainly say that I'd offer Carlson not so much as one whit of sympathy should he ever be greviously injured due to manufacturer neglience.

Because, as Hunter's second post points out, Carlson admits he's heard about the case. At a certain point, one would think simple decency would compel him to stop referring to such a tragedy in such an asinine way to score a cheap political point--in fact I hear he's not nearly the asshole that Bill O'Reilly or Sean Hannity is. But he certainly deserves to be googlebombed in this instance. Maybe, even though I doubt it, Carlson could be shamed into leaving this tragedy out of the picture and look for other dumb things to say.