Juan McCain

I hadn't heard about this before, but apparently it's all the rage in some conservative circles to refer to John McCain as "Juan McCain." It's Glenn Beck, but it's not just Beck by any means. The idea, it seems, is that to call someone a Spanish name is a witty and cutting insult. After all, he likes immigrants.

Meanwhile, millions of Americans have Spanish names. You can meet us in your neighborhoods or even read our blogs. It's sad to think someone somewhere might be calling Matt Church by my name as some kind of diss.

Comments

That CNN continues to host that pendejo is just pathetic, though hardly surprising. Maybe now that they've been kicking some Faux News butt lately they'll rethink things.

Posted by Glenn | February 1, 2008 3:43 PM

I hear Ian McCain may have in his lifetime eaten colcannon or drunk a pint of Guinness.

Posted by phil | February 1, 2008 3:44 PM

It sure does seem to put the lie to the claim that the anti-immigrant propagandists aren't racist though, doesn't it?

Posted by Mark | February 1, 2008 3:49 PM

Besides, it's not like he likes immigrants, anyway. Just cheap labor.

Posted by chris | February 1, 2008 3:56 PM

at least you're not "Canadia.," people have hated them since 1609.

Posted by jay | February 1, 2008 3:58 PM

John/Juan, Obama/Osama... the language of racism is universal.

Posted by Nathan | February 1, 2008 4:00 PM

Analogizing people to Yglesias is indeed a diss, but not because of the Spanish name.

Sorry, somebody had to go for the obvious crack.

Posted by mq | February 1, 2008 4:02 PM

Mark hit the nail on the head there. He's Juan McCain because immigrants are dirty Mexicans and we hate those people. Right? More Anglos, please.

Posted by freddiemac | February 1, 2008 4:02 PM

Somewhere, Sen. Jean Kerri (D-Ma) is seething with anger.

Posted by Jamey | February 1, 2008 4:02 PM

As disgusting as this is, it's probably good for America.

In that, all the poop people who have been voting Republican against their own interests will realize the error of their ways and vote Democratic.

Sometimes you gotta get the racists out of the shadows to know who you're dealing with.

Just sick, disgusting people out there, I hope they all choke and die.

Posted by Jimmy James | February 1, 2008 4:02 PM

Jimmy James,

Sadly, I think this is the reason so many Republicans vote against their own interests. They are racist. Thus they trade their own populist leanings for a government that will try to keep things white. And it isn't just in the South.

Posted by freddiemac | February 1, 2008 4:05 PM

I saw some post titled "Juan McCain?" elsewhere, and I thought, "Just like Juan Williams to be toadying up to St. John. I wonder what he said about him..."

The truth, of course, is worse than I had imagined.

Posted by Pesto | February 1, 2008 4:07 PM

Matt Church seems like an odd reference

Posted by bend | February 1, 2008 4:09 PM

Matías Iglesias da en el clavo de nuevo.

Posted by El Cruzado | February 1, 2008 4:12 PM

This lays bare one of the most severe problems within the right-wing subculture: the fact that their attempts at wit and humor really suck.

Posted by Tyro | February 1, 2008 4:13 PM

Mateo Iglesias da en el clavo de nuevo.

Posted by El Cruzado | February 1, 2008 4:13 PM

Then again, ironically fawning over latin pop sensation "Henry Church" is all the rage in hipster Brooklyn...

Posted by Dave | February 1, 2008 4:22 PM

Your paternal line must be Catalan, right?

Posted by XY | February 1, 2008 4:23 PM

Well, technically John McCain is Latin American, since he was born at the old Gorgas Hospital in the then Panama Canal Zone.

And as any Panamanian (I'm one) can tell you, all babies born in the old Panama Canal Zone are Panamanian citizens by birth (this is the flip side of Panama having claimed all along that it was sovereign over the Canal Zone - that all babies born there are Panamanian as per Panamanian Ius Soli).

Oh, and Panamanian nationality can never be fully renounced (political rights due to any citizen, such as voting and serving in public office, can be relinquished though).

Posted by JRVJ | February 1, 2008 4:34 PM

Well, technically John McCain is Latin American, since he was born at the old Gorgas Hospital in the then Panama Canal Zone.

And as any Panamanian (I'm one) can tell you, all babies born in the old Panama Canal Zone are Panamanian citizens by birth (this is the flip side of Panama having claimed all along that it was sovereign over the Canal Zone - that all babies born there are Panamanian as per Panamanian Ius Soli).

Oh, and Panamanian nationality can never be fully renounced (political rights due to any citizen, such as voting and serving in public office, can be relinquished though).

Posted by JRVJ | February 1, 2008 4:35 PM

Gelnn Butt Beck! He's got some nerve!!!

Posted by Sam | February 1, 2008 4:38 PM

Glenn Butt Beck! He's got some nerve!!!

Posted by Sam | February 1, 2008 4:38 PM

Glenn Butt Beck! He's got some nerve!!!

Posted by Sam | February 1, 2008 4:39 PM

Your paternal line must be Catalan, right?

Gallego by way of Cuba.

Posted by Matthew Yglesias | February 1, 2008 4:39 PM

To their very modest credit, the folks at Redstate have disavowed the practice.

Posted by SDM | February 1, 2008 4:59 PM

If by some sad circumstance McCain becomes president we can only hope he remembers this stuff. You know if he wins he doesn't need these people politically anymore. He can kick them right in the teeth. The rabid right is right, he isn't one of them and is pretty bad at hiding it even when he has to like now. Perhaps fracturing his own party with the hopes of realigning it back to the center taking some Democrats with him.

That wouldn't actually be a good strategy for his campaign as a matter of fact. The fly in the ointment being Iraq and his militarism. It's looking like these people are not going to fall in line behind McCain which is the one reason I hope he gets the nomination. Mitt might make a better choice, I am dubious but McCain offers the possibility of stripping the right away from The Party. When he loses of course the right will probably be even more in control of the party however. Enough so to either drive them over a cliff of forment a coup. Their real hope.

Posted by rapier | February 1, 2008 5:03 PM

MattY continues to show that his thinking is at the ThinkProgress level. This post assumes, but doesn't explain, why MattY thinks it's inherently racist to "translate" someone's name. Couldn't that be done in a non-racist way? Does MattY have the intellectual honesty to examine that topic? (Hint: no).

Also, as I noted in a comment on the TP thread, MattCorley misled TP's readers into thinking that Beck's issue with the McCain advisor is his ethnic background, when in fact it's something else entirely.

Why didn't MattY catch that, since that's the much more important story?

When you look at this objectively, isn't MattY pretty much only good at throwing out the red meat occasionally and not so good at thinking things through in an honest, informed fashion?

Posted by TLB | February 1, 2008 5:06 PM

And as any Panamanian (I'm one) can tell you, all babies born in the old Panama Canal Zone are Panamanian citizens by birth

This is actually interesting, because there's absolutely no legal precedent for a president's citizenship being established on legislative grounds rather than constitutional ones. McCain is less of an edge-case than George Romney (born in Mexico to American parents) but it's the sort of thing that might be challenged just to get some case law.

You're considered a natural-born citizen if you were born in the Zone before 2000, with at least one US citizen parent, but that's a legislative determination, not a constitutional one, albeit one that essentially predates the fourteenth amendment.

Posted by pseudonymous in nc | February 1, 2008 5:09 PM

This sort of thing isn't at all in the good hearted nature of calling somebody by a French name.

Posted by Christopher Colaninno | February 1, 2008 5:10 PM

And Wacko Kelly arrives with his cut-and-paste macro.

Does Wacko Kelly have a set of blogwhore templates that only need the names added? Why isn't Wacko Kelly open about his sources of funding, just as he conceals his blogwhoring links? Why can't Wacko Kelly be honest about his true motivations?

Posted by pseudonymous in nc | February 1, 2008 5:13 PM

Can someone explain why TLB always uses a set of keywords of the sort you would use in a Wiki (e.g "MattCorley") ?

Posted by Tyro | February 1, 2008 5:31 PM

This post assumes, but doesn't explain, why MattY thinks it's inherently racist to "translate" someone's name. Couldn't that be done in a non-racist way? Does MattY have the intellectual honesty to examine that topic? (Hint: no).

Why doesn't Matt have the intellectual honesty to think of a non-sexually demeaning way to insult a woman by saying she's an easy lay?

Posted by jhupp | February 1, 2008 5:45 PM

TLB,

Are you saying that calling John McCain "Juan" was not intended as an insult? If it was meant to be insulting, why?

Posted by freddiemac | February 1, 2008 6:07 PM

Conservative radio is also saying that if the Republicans nominate John McCain, Texas is going to morph into Mexico and Oklahoma will be the new border state.

Posted by Lisa | February 1, 2008 7:05 PM

when talking to my spanish friends I refer to matt as "Mateo de sueter feo". They always know who I'm talking about:)

Posted by jvoe | February 1, 2008 7:33 PM

You ain't seen nothing yet. Wait until Glenn Beck starts in on "nigger Hussein's Jew-funded campaign."

Posted by Geck Blenn | February 1, 2008 7:44 PM

Matt: Pois somos irmanos. My father's family is also Gallego by way of Cuba. A noble stock, I'd like to think. Us and Fidel.

Posted by XY | February 1, 2008 8:11 PM

Matt Church seems like an odd reference

I believe yglesia means church in Espanol.

Posted by Pug | February 1, 2008 8:12 PM

Lisa: did you watch my "something else" link? Do you know all the meanings of the word "condominium"?

freddiemac says Are you saying that calling John McCain "Juan" was not intended as an insult?

Of course it was intended as an insult. But, the insult is not that being named "Juan" is inherently a bad thing. It's that McCain is in many ways more like a Mexican politician than an American one.

Posted by TLB | February 1, 2008 8:16 PM

This is actually interesting, because there's absolutely no legal precedent for a president's citizenship being established on legislative grounds rather than constitutional ones.

While there isn't any direct precedent, there is some fairly persuasive reason to beleive that's how the founders saw the matter:

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/article02/03.html#1

But McCain probably doesn't fall into the same catagory as, say, the child of a US citizen born in Mexico City. The Canal Zone was technically US territory at the time he was born there.

Posted by rea | February 1, 2008 8:17 PM

"It's that McCain is in many ways more like a Mexican politician than an American one."

As TLB calmly grabs the controls and launches this conversation into the outer stratosphere of insanity...

Meanwhile, on Planet Earth, I'm not aware of any Mexican politicians who support a 100-year US military occupation of Iraq.

Posted by LaFollette Progressive | February 1, 2008 9:00 PM

LOL - Galician linguistic chauvinism on this blog? Please, nunca mais.

Posted by Adrian | February 1, 2008 9:59 PM

glenn beck is a mormon and is launching this ridiculous attack on McCain in hopes it will help Mitt. Yes, desperate and sad.

Posted by djslippyb | February 1, 2008 10:23 PM

Interestingly, the company of Jorge Mas Canosa, the Cuban-Republican power broker, was called Church and Tower, having been so translated from (the last names) Iglesias y Torres in 1969.

Posted by Rigoberto | February 1, 2008 10:33 PM

The Canal Zone was technically US territory at the time he was born there.

Indeed, though it was a treaty territory. There's so little case law, and it's such a rare occurrence, that there may need to be a foreign-born citizen president before the question of naturalized citizens can be addressed.

As for WackoMacroNutjobParanoid's reticence to disclose his funding sources? Says it all, really.

Posted by pseudonymous in nc | February 1, 2008 10:38 PM

RedState just had to put up an admin post saying they'd ban people for this kind of thing; apparently a lot of their posters were doing it.

Posted by Derannimer | February 2, 2008 12:16 AM

Besides, it's not like he likes immigrants, anyway. Just cheap labor.

Pfft. Cheap labour is plentiful labour. Between people hiring 151 million American workers for high wages and them hiring 151 million Americans, 50 million Mexicans and 500 million Chinese for less money I think the latter is better. It feeds more people. And even with no labour regulations workers in the whole wide world will eventually end up getting paid as much as they do in Hong Kong. It's just the way capitalism evolves.

Posted by joey | February 2, 2008 3:22 AM

Ahh, The natural-born citizen question. It can best be explained in Australian actress terms:

Nicole Kidman, yes (born in Hawaii to Australian parents)

Cate Blanchett, yes (born in Australia to an American father)

Naomi Watts, shit out of luck

Natural born means you attained your citizenship automatically because of 1. you were born on US soil or 2. one of your parents was born here. So George Romney was a natural born citizen because his father was an American citizen when he was born in Mexico in 1907. Curiously, if he had a Mexican father and an American-born mother (instead of two American parents), he wouldn't be eligible. Until 1908, an American woman who lived abroad with a foreign husband lost her US citizenship. Since both George Romney and McCain were born to American parents, they're safely within the requirement.

A more interesting case would be, say, a Chinese infant adopted by US parents. An adopted minor child automatically takes US citizenship no matter where they're born. indeed his birth certificate is reissued with the adoptive parents' names. Since Courts very strictly treat adoptive and
biological children identically, my guess is a foreign born candidate who was adopted as a minor child by US parents would be considered a natural-born citizen.

Posted by beowulf | February 2, 2008 3:29 AM

1) surely you all can't have already forgotten how the right-wing media consistently referred to the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate as John *Francois* Kerry, presumably to attach the cheese eating surrender monkey subtext. The Weekly Standard was very good at this.

2) regarding international adoption: historically, a child internationally adopted by US Parents has been granted entry under an immigrant visa and initially provided legal status as a permanent resident alien, with the parents having the option of applying for administrative naturalization for the kid prior to their 18th birthday (after 18, they'd have to apply for citizenship on their own just like any other adult green card holder). This changed with the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 (and probably tweaked a bit with the Child Status Protection Act of 2002, but I'm too lazy to look it up), where nowadays even though it still requires an immigrant (alien) visa to grant the kid admission, the certificate of citizenship is processed automatically and legally the kid is considered to have been granted American citizenship due to parentage one micro-nano-pico-second after admission as an alien resident. The Act(s) were NOT made retroactive, however, so presumably the first possible test case for would be sometime in 2035 or -36.

Posted by jonathan | February 2, 2008 9:45 AM

"Until 1908, an American woman who lived abroad with a foreign husband lost her US citizenship."

Otherwise, Winston Churchill (whose mother was Amnerican) would have been a natural born US citizen. Too bad, would have been interesting. Maybe he would have run for president in 1952 or something, instead of becoming prime minister again.

Posted by Norway | February 2, 2008 1:43 PM

"Until 1908, an American woman who lived abroad with a foreign husband lost her US citizenship."

actually, I thought that was 1922. eh, what's 14 years

Posted by jonathan | February 2, 2008 2:20 PM

DISGUSTING.

Posted by Emilio | February 3, 2008 1:01 PM

"Juan" McCain is very accurate. McCain has done nothing but pander to the reconquista movement.

Posted by Scott | February 3, 2008 2:14 PM

Of course it was intended as an insult. But, the insult is not that being named "Juan" is inherently a bad thing. It's that McCain is in many ways more like a Mexican politician than an American one.

Really? has John McCain been caught on video stuffing $45,000USD in cash down his pockets?
(see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Bejarano)

or maybe cheating on the Berlin Marathon?
(see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Madrazo#Berlin_marathon_Scam)

or perhaps is just an uncultured lout who managed to get himself elected?
(see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicente_Fox_Quesada#Controversial_comments)

Believe me, you guys have wacky politicians, but they are better than some examples from south of the border (or maybe US Politicians hide their blunders better)

Posted by Alberto Abreu | February 5, 2008 2:56 PM

People call him "Juan McCain" because of his immigration policy. He wants to give amnesty to the millions of ILLEGAL immigrants in this country. I can't believe that no politician will stand up for US laws and get rid of these law breaking illegals. We shouldn't let people who aren't citizens of our country march around protesting and demanding rights equivalent to a US citizen. What we need is someone to secure our border, and crack down on illegals and especially the employers of those illegals.

Posted by Bob | February 6, 2008 11:06 AM