Remember James Watt? Post how crazy he was, here:

I remember two things about him. First was the quote he made about how once the last tree was chopped down, Jesus Christ was to return to earth.

Which was a little weird coming from the Secretary of the Interior.

The second thing was something about him putting having the Beach Boys kicked off the bill for some publically-funded concert, because he thought all rock 'n' roll was demonic. Was it Reagan's second term bash?

They were replaced at the concert by - wait for it - Wayne Newton. Newton was booed at the concert, IIRC, which is a very appropriate reaction to his brand of tonal horseshit as far as I'm concerned.

Beach Boys? Demonic? Give me a break.

The Beach Boys were invited to the White House subsequently. Mike Love couldn't have been happier - he's a Repub - and he was hugging up on Nancy. But Brian Wilson was less than pleased; he felt that the Beach Boys should not be so blatantly partisan.

For the record, I recall reading a message from Brian on his website in December '00 stating that he had faxed the Supreme Court to voice his objections to their ruling in Bush v. Gore. So maybe he's a Dem after all...

I wandered off topic, I know, but I couldn't help it.

Since his head was shaped exactly like a lightbulb.

<img src="" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

...I managed to unearth this never-before-seen photo of Watt wearing Napoleon's hat. Not only is that, in itself, an indication of insanity, but look how small his head is! If that doesn't scream "nutjob", nothing does.











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Remember his "a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple" remark about his staff?

I forgot about that.

I feel sorry for the younger DUers who weren't privvy to his media gaffes... he was so crazy it was (nearly) funny.

And was he the guy who said ketchup was a vegetable, or was that someone else? Seems like the sort of thing he'd say.

so they could get away with budget cuts

was John Block, Reagan's Secretary of Agriculture.

Amazing that I remember that, but haven't the faintest idea of who currently heads the Agriculture Department.

The jackass got on, in pressed, creased and starched jeans, new western shirt and never worn hat. Stood there in the aisle for way too long just smiling at everyone, like he was hoping for a standing ovation or something. The down to earth Montanans on the plane were not impressed and too polite to tell him what they REALLY thought. Lots of throat clearing and wiggling in seats. It was fun to watch the idiot stand there, hat and carry-on in hand waiting and waiting, big silly grin gradually fading from his face...

Finally some old guy asked, are you gonna sit down so we can go?

It was great.

What a total ASS he was.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000797041

On edit: James Watt was a miserable fuck in any case.

And yes, he was a COMPLETE asshole. I was a reporter way back in the early/mid 80s, and he came to speak at our local university (Texas A&M). There was a press conference scheduled immediately preceding the speech, so we had all the local and Houson media squeezed into a tiny conference room.

For those of you who've never been at a press conference before, especially in tight quarters, it's a bit of an ordeal getting mics and lines strung up, doing white balances for all the cameras, etc. Once these things are done, there's a veritable spaghetti-like mass of cords stretching between the table where Watt was to sit, and the peanut gallery where we reporters were crammed in. Now, keep in mind--Watt was by NO means a novice at this type of thing.

Mr. Asshole walks into the conference room, glances down at the mass of cords, VERY smarmily walks towards us reporters with his hand extended, loops his foot under all the cords and gives it a good yank as he lifts his leg, knocking out all the mics and cameras. In a voice dripping with sarcastic insincerity, says, "oh...I'm so sorry!"

It took us almost 20 minutes to set back up, leaving less than 10 minutes for the actual press conference when everything was ready. This was at a time when Watt was taking extreme heat for various drilling plans, and his little "misstep" eliminated any real time or opportunity for us to ask him hard questions. It's one of the nastiest bits of behavior I ever witnessed at a press conference.