Phony wingnut poll promoter gets testy when called out

[meegbear]

(Image courtesy Tom Tomorrow.)

Nate Silver interviewed John Ziegler, the wingnut who commissioned that falsehood-based poll purporting to demonstrate that Obama voters were stooopid.

Silver's questions, as you can see, are perfectly normal and reasonable, but Ziegler completely loses it. By the end, he's doing a Cheney.

It starts to go downhill when Silver, who know a wee bit about polling, asks a perfectly reasonable question:

NS: Why would you commission a survey question with no correct response?
JZ: The purpose of the question, you pinhead, was we wanted to determine the Tina Fey Effect.

In short order, Ziegler starts attacking Silver over the phone:

NS: Where the interviews conducted by telephone or online?
JZ: How can you ask a question like that and pretend that you have any clue what you're writing about! That's unbelievable that someone could write what you did! That is unbelievable that you wouldn't know that it's a telephone or an online poll and that you went on my summaries of the questions before the questions were even released!

NS: We’ve heard reports from our readers that very similar questions had been asked in an online format. There was no online component at all?
JZ: That is correct, which you would have known if you had looked at the information. Before you called this a push poll -- you don't seem to know the definition of a push poll. How do you have this website?

NS: What did Zogby charge you -- what did you pay for this survey?
JZ: I'm not going to tell you that, I'm not a fucking idiot.

By the end, Ziegler is simply hostile -- not to mention thoroughly convinced that his bullshit don't stink:

NS: Who paid for it?
JZ: You think I'm going to tell you that? When you've already shown yourself to be the enemy?

NS: Was it paid for by the RNC?
JZ: . In your world, the question that I would ask you is what question is there any ambiguity as to what the answer is?

NS: Well, that Obama 'launched his career' at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground --
JZ: That happens to be one of the questions that Obama supporters did the best on! They did better on that question than on any other Obama-related answers! And here you’re telling me that it’s not true?

NS: What do you mean by "launched his career"?
JZ: The first campaign as told by the person whose position he took in the State Senate, as told by her admission, his first campaign event was in the home of Bill Ayers and his wife. Unless you live in the Obama kool-aid world! That is astonishing to me that you would not accept that! And by the way, when you're given four responses to that question, what else was the response going to be? Sarah Palin?

NS: Well, her husband was a member of a secessionist party.
JZ: You are such a hack! That's a very good analogy.

... NS: Would you consider yourself well-informed?
JZ: I’d consider myself extremely well-informed.

NS: Who are the two senators from South Dakota?
JZ: Thune and, uh, Johnson.

NS: Very good. South Carolina?
JZ: Go fuck yourself. I'm done with this interview if you're going to ask me stupid questions like that. Obviously I know who Lindsay Graham is.

NS: Well, since you’re running a website calling people misinformed, I’d like to see if -- there are certain things you’ve said that I would consider misinformed.
JZ: Misinformed? You're a piece of work! You are never going to have the guts to post a representative transcript on your website! I thought you actually ran a legitimate website!

NS: Thank you, have a good day.
JZ: Go fuck yourself.

Can anyone tell me why anyone should take John Ziegler seriously?

http://crooksandliars.com/node/24152

[Warpy]

1. We need to take him seriously because of who he represents

and not who he is.

[Idealism]

2. Professional integrity at its finest

You, sir, are a fraud!

[Lex]

3. A real professional that guy is, huh?

Very telling. So glad Nate posted it--it makes the guy look like exactly what he is.

[The Great Escape]

4. Isn't He The Scumbag...

who made on air comments in Louisville about an ex girlfriend's (and on air personality)genital grooming habits?

[lib_wit_it]

5. Absolutely typical of the RW. Foul-tempered, illogical cretins. I left a few comments by submitting

fake email addresses, such as [e-mail] , to the "Sign up for our mailing list >>" form (on the http://www.howobamagotelected.com/ site), since I don't have time at the moment to write a proper email.

I know. Immature. But if I can annoy them even a little it was worth the few seconds it took to submit 3 or 4 "comments"!