Billy Long's "They Took Me Out of Context" Excuse Goes Back to Dave Cantanese and a Crying Towel

Before Dave Cantanese left KY3 for the Politico, he wrote some sharp words in regards to now Congressman Billy Long.

But throughout his humorous and off-the-cuff repertoire, Long has a tendency to make some statements that could come back to haunt him. He mocked the plight of the uninsured ("Get out the crying towel") and claimed that 26 million people under 35 probably don't want health insurance anyway. Claiming that President Obama's healthcare plan might have taken his mother's life back in March of 2008 is also quite a strong charge. It's all done in the loving-aw-shucks Long way...those statements may rub some the wrong way.

As someone else who looks at what Billy Long says and analyzes it with his actions, myself and others have written sharp words criticizing what Congressman Billy Long says about issues, government, and other miscellaneous occasions. For the simple act of trying to hold a politician accountable, it is often met with the following words.

"He took me out of context." "He misquoted me."



See 4:45 in the video.

Well a couple quotes have come back to haunt Billy Long since the Joplin tornado. One of course is the "crying towel" quote that Cantanese wrote of and the other is a tweet in which Congressman Long mocked tornado drills.

Long made the World's Worst Person list through both of these quotes:



Wanna bet that if somebody in the local media had the balls to ask Billy Long about the tweet mocking tornado drills, Long would claim it was taken out of context?

I say this, because as I was looking up information about Billy Long's crying towel today, I found this interesting comment on the KY3 Political Notebook, which Long accuses Dave Cantanese of taking his controversial "crying towel" statement out of context.

Billy Long: Robert if you don't agree with me or my position I respect that but the quote you used was inaccurate and there is no context. During a speech I said "Now let's talk about the 47 million that are uninsured - get out your crying towel here" Note: I did not say "those without insurance can get out their crying towels" - I then said of the 47 million without health insurance 10.7 million are illegal aliens (the President is now using a figure of 36 million as he has dropped the illegals), 10 million earn in excess of $75,000 a year - thinking if they wanted insurance they could buy it, and 22 million are under 35 years old - most of whom think they're 10' tall - bullet proof and are going to live to be 112 - thinking most of them don't get insurance because they don't think they need it. We do need healthcare reform including Ins. Companies going back to covering pre-existing conditions. If my choice or words was poor I apoligize - but during a speech I was making a point that before we feel bad about not covering illegals, people making good money but choose not the buy insurance and those that don't feel they need coverage do to their age we need to know who makes up the bulk of our uninsured.

Obviously, there was a context as written by David Catanese (noted above), who Billy Long occasionally butters up to for good press including noted dinners together on Twitter. Catanese is not the only major news hound that has been seen with dinner with Billy Long. Before the controversial Eckersley commercial was released, Long was seen with some major local players at lunch. That's another story, only related because the press doesn't seem to want to hold Long accountable for his words.

It just seems when Long says something stupid and controversial he quickly pulls out his own political crying towel whining that he has been taken out of context. He did it to David Cantanese long before a group of bloggers figured out Congressman Long was full of caca.