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Young GOP Donor: 'I Believe In A Purpose Driven Life ... If Life's Purpose Is Backgammon And Tennis'
John Roby Penn IV (right), with Michael Saylor of MicroStrategy, at an event in Washington, D.C.
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"My ancestors, actually, weren't on the Mayflower. They sent the servants over first to get the cottage ready."
Haw haw haw haw haw! That's from the Facebook page of J. Roby Penn IV, the 29-year-old oil-and-gas heir who serves as the mid-Atlantic director of the RNC's Young Eagles program.
Also: "I believe in a purpose driven life... if life's purpose is backgammon and tennis."
And: "If you don't have an oil well, get one."
The Young Eagles, as you know, have helped throw the RNC into crisis after their trip to one of LA's top bondage-themed nightclubs. But given the man-of-leisure persona cultivated by Penn, maybe it's not so surprising that the group is used to being entertained in style.
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Walter Mitty
April 6, 2010 12:59 PM
Really? The guy on the right in only 29yo? I would have guessed early 40's...
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EH
April 6, 2010 1:40 PM in reply to Walter Mitty
Inbreeding among the swells gets you a weak chin and MPB.
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jjdjjd
April 6, 2010 7:42 PM in reply to EH
you guys have the nerve to make fun of republicans when there are still kennedy's out there? just in my life a kennedy has killed one person with a golf club and another was left to drown. rape? the kennedy's got that one covered too. how about causing a depression? yeah, old man kennedy sold short. put his money into liquor, which was against the law. is there any crime they haven't committed? probably not. so go easy on the buffoons in this article, lest you give the kennedy's something to aspire to. if only the kennedy's were this harmless.
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EH
April 6, 2010 9:12 PM in reply to jjdjjd
They apparently don't have this where you live, but it's called "being (or staying) on topic."
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jjdjjd
April 7, 2010 3:47 AM in reply to EH
the truth hurts.
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bill57
April 7, 2010 9:56 AM in reply to jjdjjd
I'll take the Kennedy’s...you have to take the Bush's. HAHAHA!
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jjdjjd
April 7, 2010 11:38 AM in reply to bill57
i don't like the bush's either. why do you idiots think if you dislike one party you must like the other? one can dislike both.
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bill57
April 10, 2010 12:07 PM in reply to jjdjjd
I love it. It's getting harder and harder to find a teabagger who chose and voted for Good old "AWOL" Bush. Here is a good word for you to learn...responsibility...learn it...own it. Teabaggers and their ilk put Bush in power and through gross incompetence destroyed our country. America made a choice to correct the conservative f*ck ups by electing President Obama. Now you teabaggers need to just shut up and let the grown ups repair America...once again...
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LarsThorwald
April 6, 2010 2:37 PM in reply to Walter Mitty
They were careless people, Tom and Daisy--they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money of their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.
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DebT
April 7, 2010 10:04 AM in reply to LarsThorwald
Nice reference! Makes me want to dust off Gatsby and give it another glance.
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Citoyen92
April 6, 2010 1:00 PM
Another face of the party:
http://www.politico.com/click/stories/1004/off_the_clock_with_fritz_brogan.html
(he looks 40, not 25!)
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twirling fartknocker
April 6, 2010 2:21 PM in reply to Citoyen92
wow, money is not doing a thing for these guys' health.
when they are really 40, I won't be the least bit surprised if they look like this, a self-caricature of cigar-smoking fat greedy pigs
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Thisby
April 6, 2010 7:20 PM in reply to twirling fartknocker
Oh - I thought that was going to be Rush Limbaugh.
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orsay
April 7, 2010 8:08 AM in reply to twirling fartknocker
You read my mind.. They NOT only are APPALLING, they look APPALLING.
Pompous bastards!!
THIS is what the Tea Baggers are fighting for?????
These pompous creeps wouldn't shake a hand of any of those poor, ignorant yokels, running around at the tea baggers rallys, ranting and railing about how the government is TAKING AWAY THESE RICH PASTARDS $$$$$$!!
A bunch of dumba$$'s!
You can't make this crazy sh.. up!
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orsay
April 7, 2010 8:09 AM in reply to orsay
Excuse typo.. meant BASTARDS!!
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Citoyen92
April 6, 2010 1:04 PM
Better bio here:
http://thepenntrusts.org/jrpiv.aspx
He's a polo player. I wonder if he knows Tareq and Michaele Salahi?
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IMNOTBITTER
April 6, 2010 3:01 PM in reply to Citoyen92
This guy is a typical fast talking huckster. No sincerety in anything he says to this woman. You know behind clsoed doors and with a bit of alcahol in his fat gut this is the kind of person who will let his inner demons out. He is one unhappy fat kid. Would not trust this guy as far as I could throw him.
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Citoyen92
April 6, 2010 3:42 PM in reply to IMNOTBITTER
That's quite sad, really.
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twirling fartknocker
April 6, 2010 4:03 PM in reply to Citoyen92
good stuff:
He's a military man, too, apparently.
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eb123
April 7, 2010 7:45 AM in reply to twirling fartknocker
That CV is painful to read. All this guy has going for him is the money of his parents. He starts in one school and always finishes in another. Humm... do I read trouble? He attended Presbyterian College- Clinton, but he graduated from Texas Christian University. He began attending preparatory school... I wonder what his actual duties as chairman of The Penn Trusts, Ltd. are. Roby here, you'll be the chairman but don't touch anything, understood???.
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commie atheist
April 6, 2010 4:26 PM in reply to Citoyen92
One thing they have in common with the teabaggers: For all their money, these assholes can't spell...
ARTS INSTIUTIONS & ORGANIZATIONS
http://thepenntrusts.org/thepennfoundation.aspx
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septictank
April 6, 2010 1:05 PM
So... RNC High Command has been infiltrated by Billionaires for Bush?
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Kevin Sutton
April 6, 2010 1:07 PM
Young white men having parties on the GOP's dime? Is it too late to get in on this action?
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zonk
April 6, 2010 2:33 PM in reply to Kevin Sutton
Seriously.
We have still have the secret ballot in this country, so if all it takes is a bit of the old Talented Mr Ripley to score paid trips to strip clubs, luxury boxes at ballgames, weekends (only!) of playing soldier... hell, sign me up. Apparently, you don't even your feet held to the fire to actually pay up.
Who do I contact?
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Phoebe Fay
April 6, 2010 1:08 PM
Yup. Definitely looks like one of the "real Americans" the Republicans love so much.
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EH
April 6, 2010 1:47 PM in reply to Phoebe Fay
it's poetic that the picture is of him and Saylor. MicroStrategy was one of the most spectacular dotcom flameouts of the early 2000's boom.
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/15/business/microstrategy-chairman-accused-of-fraud-by-sec.html?pagewanted=1
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verite
April 6, 2010 2:17 PM in reply to EH
That is too perfect! From the link: "Saylor... agreed to pay $8.3 million to shareholders and a $350,000 penalty to the S.E.C." Just palling around with another republican crook!
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cambridgeMR
April 6, 2010 1:15 PM
Douchebag is too kind a term...
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Brownbagger
April 6, 2010 1:17 PM
How's that ass-y, hole-y thing workin' for ya?
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bidalah
April 6, 2010 1:46 PM in reply to Brownbagger
Best one-liner I've heard in a long time. LOL!
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Brownbagger
April 6, 2010 2:31 PM in reply to bidalah
Thanks. Just writes itself.
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punkdavid
April 6, 2010 2:15 PM in reply to Brownbagger
Unfortunately, it's working out just fine for him.
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Brownbagger
April 6, 2010 2:30 PM in reply to punkdavid
Who would you rather be? Him or you?
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minnesconsin
April 6, 2010 6:24 PM in reply to Brownbagger
Me. With his money. ;-)
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tiowally
April 6, 2010 1:26 PM
I'm surprised John Roby Penn IV can't afford a proper clown tie. This guy would get laughed out of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College for sure, if not all of Sarasota.
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georgecs
April 6, 2010 1:51 PM
Ah, another member of the Lucky Vagina Club. Popped out of one with money and that translates into an accomplishment for this useless twit.
He needs to read his history. Clowns like this were precisely the reason the peasantry dragged the aristocracy off to the gallows.
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cambridgeMR
April 6, 2010 2:17 PM in reply to georgecs
It's really funny how right-wing libertarians tend to come from fortunate backgrounds.
When your parents' bank account is all the social insurance you've ever needed, the social insurance provided by the government sure does seem wasteful.
I once worked as a doorman for a building filled with these douchebags. There was one guy there who fits the J. Roby Penn IV description. He spoke with a faux British accent. He dressed like a little boy, even though he was reaching 60 himself. He studied classics at Yale, and has spent all the time since his graduation mooching off of his parents. He had never worked a job in his life.
Naturally, he was a die-hard Republican who liked to complain about black people taking his hard earned money so they could lounge around on welfare.
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NBarnes
April 6, 2010 3:01 PM in reply to georgecs
If he had a sense of historical perspective, he'd hardly be the person he is, now would he?
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Matt Jones
April 6, 2010 2:01 PM
This dude's a walking advertisement for increasing the estate tax.
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bluestatedon
April 6, 2010 2:09 PM
J. Roby Penn IV sounds like a name from The Great Gatsby. With people like him helping to "run" things, the future of the GOP is assured.
And calling him a useless twit is an insult to useless twits everywhere.
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georgecs
April 6, 2010 2:18 PM in reply to bluestatedon
As always Monty Python has the last word. At least in England they know the upper classes are filled with useless twits who got there by sheer dumb luck, instead of worshiping any moron with money like we do in this country...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSqkdcT25ss
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madmatt
April 6, 2010 2:10 PM
That complexion looked better on edward james olmos.
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ariseatex
April 6, 2010 2:16 PM in reply to madmatt
You dare compare the great Admiral Adama to this asshole? Starbuck's on her way to shoot you out of the sky for this slight.
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Lucieann
April 6, 2010 2:16 PM
That spoiled-brat needs a good spanking!!
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ariseatex
April 6, 2010 2:24 PM in reply to Lucieann
Judging by the $2000 Voyeur expense by the Young Eagles, I'm guessing he'd probably enjoy it.
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stefsstuff
April 6, 2010 2:17 PM
He doesn't appear to be wearing all that money and arrogance well. 29? HA!, Yeah, right!
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brianm0122
April 6, 2010 2:19 PM
Why is it these dickheads like bow-ties so much? I mean they scream "Look at me, I am a douchebag!! And I have a bow-tie to prove it!!'
These were the types of people that made people move to the new world..
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Ironcomments
April 6, 2010 2:20 PM
Tea-baggers meet your corporate masters. These are the guys telling you that you don't deserve health-care,shouldn't care about the environment, destroy the labor unions, etc., because it is good for America. These are the people the Limbaughs, Becks and Hannity are shilling for in reality not the populist "god bless america and toby keith crap" that the mass morons of Fox news viewers so desperately cling to meme.
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EastWest
April 6, 2010 2:29 PM
He joined the wrong club. The Hair Club For Men is looking for a new poster child.
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Nandemosan
April 6, 2010 2:40 PM in reply to EastWest
What's so striking about this is these guys aren't really representative of the GOP as it is today. They may be the overlords or the party, but cliche trust-funders like these guys and the post-WWII country club Rethugs really make up just a small percentage of the morons who, election after election, vote against their own interests in supporting this party.
I guess for the tea baggers and Joe the Plumber types who support the GOP that it must be an aspirational thing: if I vote for the Rethugs long enough, I'll be rich one day, too!
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gastrognome
April 6, 2010 4:25 PM in reply to Nandemosan
You're right. But I think the Country Club Republicans have lost control. The inmates are running the asylum. They've baited the hard right base for their own cynical purposes and now they're at risk of losing their party. Look at McCain. Isn't he the classic Country Club republican? Certainly the kind of republican my Midwestern, country-club going grandparents would have approved of.
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destor23
April 6, 2010 2:35 PM
That guy's 29? I know money can't buy happiness but how about a gym membership and a hair stylist?
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ariseatex
April 6, 2010 2:38 PM in reply to destor23
Going to the gym would require work. That four-letter word is foreign to him.
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destor23
April 6, 2010 2:38 PM in reply to ariseatex
At least a tanning salon then! Before the tax kicks in...
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NickBTW
April 6, 2010 2:50 PM
Soooo ... I assume the Dems will now leverage this, craft the strategy around portraying republicans as out of touch elitists and start running tv ads for November elections, right?
Create talking point and have them ready for Sunday morning talk shows, no?
(As you can see I'm really into the Science Fiction genre.)
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sean
April 6, 2010 2:51 PM
These two look as though they'd need help masterbating...
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Noam Sane
April 6, 2010 3:23 PM
Upper Class Twit of the Year!
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nowhereman
April 6, 2010 4:05 PM
Twit indeed. But hey, DNC, y'all better make darn sure you don't have similar skeletons hangin' around. You just know the Repubs have their daggers drawn and are sharpening them even now...
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gastrognome
April 6, 2010 4:18 PM
Upper Class Twit of the Year
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCyr1ugzxXM
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DICKERSON3870
April 6, 2010 7:03 PM
RE: "I believe in a purpose driven life... if life's purpose is backgammon and tennis." - John Roby Penn IV
MY COMMENT: WASPS can be so humor challenged! Andy Kaufman he is not. We miss you Andy!
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eb123
April 7, 2010 7:35 AM
This guy is an excellent example of what the Republican base is. And by the way, those are not jokes, that's how these people feel and think.
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dumdedumdum
April 7, 2010 8:42 AM
wow, Roby Penn. Back when I was working in restaurants in Fort Worth, I used to cook his dad's dinner from time to time. He was just a tyke. Here's the family and the foundation. http://thepenntrusts.org/jrpiv.aspx
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