Roger Stone, dumb out loud

Following his very narrow (four points) second place Iowa finish, Donald Trump was both gracious and appreciative of the hard work of his Hawkeye State supporters.

"My experience in Iowa was a great one," he tweeted, the day after. "I started out with all of the experts saying I couldn't do well there and ended up in second place. Nice."

Also, the same day: "I will be talking about my wonderful experience in Iowa and the simultaneous unfair treatment by the media - later in New Hampshire. Big crowd."

But the class demonstrated by Trump was not shown by former Trump advisor, now ubiquitous cable news irritant Roger Stone. 

"Iowa hicks choose wrong, consistent with their history," was how Stone tweet-slurred Iowa voters once caucus results had been tallied.

Let's now cast our gaze backward.

In August 2015, the Trump campaign had announced its firing of Stone:

"Mr. Trump fired Roger Stone last night. We have a tremendously successful campaign and Roger wanted to use the campaign for his own personal publicity," a statement read.

(Stone maintained that it was he who had chosen to sever relations. But his recent promoting on Trump's Twitter feed of a show the dispatched advisor hopes to launch is in keeping with the campaign's complaint that Stone was exploiting Trump for personal publicity.)

Roger Stone does have a fetid history of half-witted smears, stereotypical brickbats, and imbecilic observations, only a few of which I'll detail, here.

A 10/12/2011 essay Stone penned for his Stone Zone site, "Hicks in Iowa shouldn't pick next president," decried the state's ethnic homogeneity. "I don't know why we should abrogate our right to choose the next president to a bunch of hayseeds because of some quaint notion that 'they should be first,'" he sneered.

That would conflict resoundingly with Trump's recent assurances to Iowa crowds that, as president, he would ensure the state retained first-in-the-nation status.

Also among Stone's 2011 complaints: Iowans are "stout and a lot of them smoke;" Iowa restaurant food is "awful" ("one cannot possibly find edible linguine in white clam sauce," Stone sniffed, perhaps holding a pinky in the air); and the state's hoteliers jack up room charges for "them Jew-boy reporters from New York." 

That last inference of nasty antisemitic attitude was, of course, not attributed to any actual Iowan. It sprang instead from Stone's own distasteful fancying. Make of that what you will. It is what passes for wit in the ugly world of Roger Stone's brain.

(The prejudice Stone expresses -- against average Americans/Iowans and for upscale, metropolitan sensibilities reminds forcefully of the Clinton/Sanders liberal bias against traditionalism and in favor of a sissified progressivism that reviles the established and common.)

Now, all that having been said, here's a point worth remark: Roger Stone has a considerable background in national political campaigns. And he might in some circumstances be an effective operative.

I recall that Trump often tells crowds he would, as president, draw on the talents of acquaintances "some of whom are nice people, others are nasty people you wouldn't want to have dinner with."

Roger Stone - table for one.