I noted that the Imperial Valley Press cartoon about Iraq war veteran and GOP congressional candidate Nick Popaditch may have aimed to mock uninformed youth and missed the target terribly. (The paper has apologized.)

Local columnist Steve Larson doesn’t have that excuse. He writes:

SUMMER TIME AND THE NEWS IS REALLY SLOW. That means us news types have to scramble around looking for story to fill up our pages and our air time.What better topic than a story about an editorial cartoon that supposedly discredited a veteran because of an eyepatch he wears.
Since eyepatches make people look sexy and mysterious, we’re not sure what all the shouting is about.
Nick Popaditch is not exactly a household name even though he’s running for Congress.
As a result he needs a little help calling attention to himself. How about an eyepatch? How about making an issue out of a tasteless cartoon about a man with an eyepatch?
Well, if getting his name known better was the goal, he has done that. He at least got into my conscienceness.* [sic] Before an I.V. press editorial cartoon supposedly poked fun at his eyepatch, my only recognition of him was a small billboard posted on Fifth Street in Holtville. “Who’s that? I asked as I drove by it several times. Well, at least I know he is a war veteran who had an eye injury. And if he capitalizes on all this noise that’s being made about the cartoon, we may even find out more about his stance on the issues.

I cannot believe that he actually wrote, “Since eyepatches make people look sexy and mysterious, we’re not sure what all the shouting is about.”

By the way, this crap column starts with a pretty tired and inaccurate cliché. Sure, traditionally the summer is a slow news period, but we’ve got near-record unemployment (particularly in California), the Gulf oil spill stretching on and the effort to fix it, numerous severe state budget crises, the New Black Panthers controversy, Dick Cheney’s heart operation, the fight in Afghanistan getting bloodier, the departure of U.S. combat troops from Iraq approaching, and the national debt increasing more in one day than it did in all of 2007. But this guy’s bored.

It gets worse:

From his website, or at least one of them touting his candidacy: “For the record, Nick spent 16 years in the Marine Corps, led men in and out of combat, achieved the rank of Gunnery Sergeant, lost most of his eyesight for his country, and was awarded the Silver Star.”
So, what’s he going to do for me and the people of Imperial Valley?
A Congressman is supposed to take care of his district. This was probably a pretty good trick to get his name out in front of the public without any cost involved.
We’ll see if he uses it to his advantage. His website only offers negatives and military rhetoric.Well, it’s still only July. We’ll see where he is in October. Considering the uproar his followers created, we have to wonder what his stand is on the Bill of Rights. Maybe he’ll give us some answers.

* You meant “consciousness,” you incoherent, callous, blithering moron.