By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Charges of hypocrisy are flying in the wake of a decision by a University of Tennessee bookstore to stop selling breath mints mocking Obama after a Democratic lawmaker complained.
FoxNews.com is reporting that the mints are in a tin box featuring a blue and red image of the president and labeled with the words “This is change? Disappointmints.” Apparently a student was offended by the mints and called State Representative Joe Armstrong (D-Knoxville) to complain.
Armstrong then complained to the director of the bookstore, David Kent.
“I explained to him that I felt those mints were politically specific products that had no educational value,” Armstrong told The Knoxville News Sentinel. “If it was a book or something of that nature, fine, but that’s sort of a discretionary product they have there. It wasn’t viewpoint neutral. It was very specifically insulting to the president.”
Although he didn’t ask the bookstore to remove the mints, they decided to do so, a move that has outraged many, especially because the same bookstore carried mints mocking former president George W. Bush and no one made a fuss.
Some are even calling the removal of the mints a form of censorship.
“Let me make very clear, there is no candy exception to the First Amendment,” Glenn Reynolds, a constitutional law professor, told the newspaper. “Free speech is free speech. If you make fun of the president in a mint, it is just as much free speech as it is if you make fun of the president in a political cartoon.”
Naturally, Tennessee Republicans were quick to apply the label of “hypocrite” to their Democratic colleagues.
“It’s certainly a disappointment and an embarrassment that Democrats would choose to try and limit free speech on a college campus,” said Chris Devaney, chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party. “They can’t take criticism of their president. The bottom line is that Democrats were out of line.”
Almost all of the comments on the Sentinel site were against the decision by Kent to remove the mints. Ben_Drunk writes: “Almost as thin skinned as Obama! Should have named them thin mints, dang too late!”
RockyBears2009 writes: “Obamacare offends me….let’s see you take care of that one, David Kent.”
And for those who are eager to taste the Disappointmints, a commenter named Electra found a place that is selling them. “For those wondering about the “offensive” depiction of the President on the mints, found a place that sells them, and they include a picture of the box… http://www.richardsvarietystore.com/8…”
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