I guess it was only a a matter of time before one of the Bush administration alumni unleashed their inner sociopath in a manner somewhat less acceptable than, say, a torture memo. Former Bush counsel John Michael Farren, 57, of 388 Wahackme Road (oh, cruel irony) went a little apeshit when his wife served him with divorce papers:
Farren, who worked for presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, was arraigned in state Superior Court in Norwalk Thursday, where he was ordered held in lieu of $2 million bond. He appeared in court wearing slippers under his leg irons and a dark-blue, police-issued jumpsuit with a large bandage stuck to the right side of his neck. Because New Canaan police heard him say he wants to kill himself, he was placed on a suicide watch.
He had abrasions on his neck that appear to have been made by a braided leather belt he was wearing when he was found by police, a police report said.
His wife, 43, sustained a broken jaw, facial fractures, lacerations to the back of her head and after being beaten into unconsciousness was taken to Norwalk Hospital, a police report of the incident said.
[...]
In a taped interview at the hospital as she was surrounded by bloodied bed sheets and hunks of pulled-out hair, Farren’s wife told police she escaped the house after hitting the panic alarm and then driving to a nearby home on Weed Street with her two daughters, a 4-month-old and a 7-year-old, after Farren tried to pull her into a bathroom with a kitchen knife, a police report said.
She said the dispute began when Farren wanted to talk to her about divorce papers she delivered to him on Monday. He wanted them to get back together, but she told police that she could not stay with him because of his explosive temper, the report said.
[...]
Farren worked as a deputy counsel for George W. Bush from 2007 until he left office; in this role, he took on a number of issues, including dismissal of several U.S. attorneys and the disappearance of White House e-mail communications.
It is entirely likely that Farren will be defended by John Yoo who will explain that beating a woman unconscious with a flashlight is an entirely legitimate response during a time of war… on marriage.



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Yawn.
Dog bites man.
Republican beats wife.
Why is this news?
Where did you say you got this report?
It’s only a matter of time before they find his cache of wetsuits and dildos.
see what happens when you marry republican?
you know, 8 years ago, this much suffering by others didn’t make me laugh. I don’t know if I like myself anymore but I do know I wanna water board the whole fucking family, okay the 4 month old gets a pass, there are some things only Republicans can do.
“wearing slippers under his leg irons and a dark-blue, police-issued jumpsuit with a large bandage stuck to the right side of his neck” — that’s the classy haute couture we wanted all the Bush Bandits to be sporting right about now. Instead, half of them continue to pull down paychecks funded by our tax dollars, while the other half are raking it in advising the administration how *not* to change anything from the previous command performance.
And srsly, if you’re running away from your knife wielding ex-husband of a maniacal lawyer on Wahackme Road and end up on Weed Street, you’re either having a terrible no good really f*cked up day, or you’re on the set of a David Lynch movie…
Sometimes you have to destroy the marriage to save it. It’s a war thing, you wouldn’t understand.
let’s check our numbers here…. 57 y.o. husband. 43 y.o. wife. married 1997. so he was 45 at time of marriage, and she was 31. sounds like a trophy wife to me. a ‘high value’ wife.
doesn’t he have to send her to Gitmo before he can beat her? Republican Family Values and all that?
It’s a good thing he didn’t have a model for a wife and cheated on her. That’d get him some REALLY bad press and Fox ex-journalists trying to convert him so he could be forgiven.
The neo-old-school media will cover this like it’s a speeding ticket.
I hear that Bush’s nickname for Farren was “Slugger.”
Actually Mary Farren is kind of a big legal deal herself:
He sounds like a “Promise Keeper”……
From Wiki :
“The National Organization for Women, an American feminist organization, has expressed the view that the Promise Keepers are a threat to women’s rights. NOW alleges that the group encourages inequality within marriages and teaches a doctrine of male superiority.[2]
According to Amy Schindler, “the discourse of masculinity found within conservative religious movements, such as the Promise Keepers and the Victorian era movement ‘muscular Christianity,’ is inherently political. Any masculinity project aimed at restoring or reclaiming a ‘traditional’ male role for privileged white, heterosexual males has a political impact within the tapestry of class, race, and gender power.[3]”
If the Puritans get their Theocracy, this kind of shit will be common and legal…even praised.
Also….more “Promise Keepers”:
“FACT: As feminists, we have long urged men to take responsibility in the home, as the Promise Keepers claim to do. However, when they say “taking responsibility” they mean taking control. Promise Keepers openly call for wives to “submit” to their husbands.
Promise Keepers do not encourage a relationship of equals in a marriage. Rather, they call for men to “take” their role as the leader in the family. Promise Keeper Tony Evans stated “I am not suggesting that you ask for your role back, I am urging you to take it back. There can be no compromise here.”
A young woman at a recent “Chosen Women” Rally, a female counterpart to the all-male Promise Keepers, stated “Our job is to submit to our teachers and our Professors…even if we know they are wrong. It is then in God’s hands.” PK expects women to submit not only in our homes but also in the secular world of the classroom and workplace.”
http://www.now.org/issues/right/promise/mythfact.html
It’s pretty clear that this is one of those commonsense conservatives, since it’s obvious that he possesses none.
Damn, I had Dick Cheny in MY office pool. Of course his ticker would give out before he got TOO postal.
“Early Thursday afternoon, state prosecutors argued to increase the bond to $3 million — an amount characterized as “ridiculous” by Farren’s attorney, Eugene Riccio.” (from the article)
I’m not sure what Riccio considers ridiculous about protecting the lives of a wife/mother and two little kids. It’s hard to be funny about this.
Farren belongs to the same party which wails that housing Gitmo detainees in stateside maximum security prisons poses an unacceptable risk to us all. I’d bet the ranch that not one of those detainees will harm any American as much as Farren has harmed his wife.
I would also be willing to bet the title to our “good” car that Farren’s defense will involve his having PTSD from his years of fightin’ terrorism while a member of the Bush team.
Morning revisionist news: “”"What [Obama] should be doing is following the right things Bush did. One of the right things he did was treat this as a war on terror. We had no domestic attacks under Bush. We’ve had one under Obama,”" Giuliani said.
Fuck you, Rudy. Just. Fuck. You.
That’s right Rudy — except that whole anthrax thing. And 9/11. Oh, and the shoe bomber on that other plane… So apart from being wrong, stupid and ugly, you’re absolutely right, Rudy. Well, don’t want to keep you waiting — isn’t there a personal assistant you need to screw around with this morning?
When did this get to be the new meme? First Dana Perino, now Rudy. Even the 20 percenters have to be scratching their heads over that one.
I just watched the clip with Stephanopoulus (sp), WHO LET IT SLIDE. Fuck you too, George.
3letterjon FTW!
It’s hard to believe that 9iu11ani would forget about 9/11.
Oooh, good guess. I had “John Boehner” strangling with his “tanning thong”.
Well, better luck next time. Which should be in 3..2..1…
Have pity.
Jeeze.
It’s not that easy at all for an upstanding Republican lawyer fellow to role model for his young daughters. . . . it’s so difficult to find that just right educational blend that works between talking to them, and actually demonstrating using their mother as an example.
Patriarchal sick fuck.
Tee-hee… Domestic abuse sure is some funny stuff, huh?
This monster beats his wife’s face in with a flashlight with a newborn in the house and you make jokes. Classy.
THE WOMAN WAS BEATEN UNCONSCIOUS. HOW IS THIS EVEN REMOTELY HUMOROUS OR IRONIC?
I have a hard time reconciling the blogger that so lovingly and dotingly references his wonderful wife and daughter, with the asshole who thought this would be good fodder for a breezy, partisan post.
Callow and ignorant is no way to go through life.
Cute “Clue” reference in the title, though. Get one.
Psycopaths like this guy ran our country for eight years. Their warmongering caused the deaths of uncounted thousands of innocent people. Mothers have died, sons have died, children have died, innocent men have been tortured.
If you don’t learn to laugh in the face of evil, you’ll never stop crying.
The cob up your ass is holding on line 2.
I don’t see TBogg’s sarcasm as “making a joke.” More like black humor.
Still, as one who was for many years involved in counseling and representng abused women, this is classic.
People constantly ask, “why didn’t she leave him sooner?” Perfect example of the fact that a woman’s life is most in danger at the moment she tries to leave. She had filed for divorce. (because of his “explosive temper.” duh. )
Second, a perfect example of the fact that contrary to the belief of many folks with no experience of family violence, this doesn’t happen only to poor women without education or independent income.
Sad, but not rare.
That it would be a smug, likely “Christian” Repub, Bush admin person? Not a surprise.
I just hope it shakes up the steretypes of abuse held by so many people.
In other news, concern troll is still concerned, very concerned.
If “John Michael” had simply stuck with blowing guys down the Greyhound Station mens room like a regular straight republiKKKan married male, none of this would have happened. Greyhound has fifteen full service terminals in Connecticut, including one in Canaan, which is near enough to New Canaan. Connecticut is a shitty little state, anyway – drive from one end to the other in an hour, tops. So I don’t blame The Hound – they’ve done their bit for republiKKKan marital concord:
http://www.greyhound.com/home/TicketCenter/en/locations.asp?state=ct
Now “John Michael” is perhaps going inside to be the battered wife of a large, unpleasant man with sorry social skills and pent up class resentments, with a large penis to boot. Possibly a hair puller in the bargain. So maybe it’s all good. “John Michael” is a relatively youthful looking guy for 57:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/01/08/2010-01-08_former_bush_white_house_a
Watch the Goopers blame the flashlight for being so hard…
OT but for anyone that wants to put American workers back to work here is a web site that has clothing made in the USA. Jeans, polo shirts, sweatshirts for both men and women. Put American back to work. Buy American. http://www.allamericanclothing.com/SFNT.html
I love the snark, but this story is terribly sad.