Is AWOL Story Source Will Turnipseed Related To "Iraqi Shield" Left-Wing Bush-Basher Tom Turnipseed?

Various | February 6, 2004 | Myself

[Hon]

William Turnipseed is the man who is solely responsible for the claim that Bush was AWOL during his National Guard service. Here is a thread on the subject.

Man Behind Bush AWOL Charge Is John Edwards Supporter

Will Turnipseed is also a contributor to the John Edwards campaign. He did his Guard duty in Montgomery Alabama and has now retired there.

It turns out that there is another prominent Turnipseed. He is the president of the South Carolina Trial lawyers association, Tom Turnipseed. (Edwards is largely bankrolled by trial lawyer groups.)

Tom Turnipseed is 68 years old (Will is 71). Tom was born in Montgomery Alabama.

Tom Turnipseed Bio

Tom Turnipseed is also a former Democrat Senator. He also ran against Strom Thurmond. He once was George Wallace's National Campaign Director. He is also a fomer DNC Party Executive.

Tom Turnipseed is now a ultra left wing Bush hating whackjob along the lines of Michael Moore.

Tom was going to be an "Human Shield" in Iraq,

Turnipseed to Spend Month in Iraq Promoting Peace

But he chickened out at the last moment.

Turnipseed delays departure for Iraq

Tom Turnipseed is a fan and sponsor of the radical left group ANSWER.

LIST OF INITIATORS AND ENDORSERS

Tom Turnipseed also has had a life-long history of mental illness. He is bi-polar and manic depressive. He has received shock therapy.

Crazy Is Cool

Is this the man who is really behind the AWOL story? Can we find out whether Tom Turnipseed and Will Turnipseed are related?

[Hon]

Is there anyway to establish whether there is a connection between these two men?

Here is a chance to make some news, instead of just commenting on it.

[Sally'sConcerns]

Is Tom Turnipseed really a Bush backer as your title indicates or is that an oops in the title?

[Hon]

That's a major OOPS. It should have read "Bush Basher." (The preview doesn't show the title.)

Maybe one of the moderators can fix it.

[Hon]

Man, that is prompt service. Thank you, mod.

[Robert A. Cook, PE]

Hmmmmmmmn.

[Always Right]

Has anyone seen these two in the same room at the same time? I hear William is a little batty too.

[Hon]

I should have also mentioned that Tom Turnipseed has several radio shows. He also appears on such programs as Radio Pacifica and Democracy Now!

He also works for Common Dreams and writes regularly for them and other ultra left web sites like Counterpunch.

Here is an example from there:

June 6, 2002

The Credibilty Crunch at the Top
A Crisis of Confidence
in U.S. Leadership
by Tom Turnipseed

http://www.counterpunch.org/turnip0606.html

Here is another example:

January 10, 2002

A Creeping Collapse in Credibility at the White House:
From ENRON Entanglements to UNOCAL Bringing the Taliban to Texas and Controlling Afghanistan
By Tom Turnipseed

http://www.counterpunch.org/tomenron.html

Perhaps you can detect a pattern.

[Notasoccermom]

Tom Turnipseed..." Born in Mobile, Alabama in 1936, Tom received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill where he met his wife Judy while she was a graduate student at UNC."

There is an Alabama connection. Turnipseed is not a common name. Ages of Will and Tom would suggest siblings.

[cav68]

Lived in South Carolina back i the mid 80's and can still remember the first commerical I saw regarding Tom Turnipseed. We had some friends from Virginia in town and when aired during an episode of Saturday Night Live everyone in the room asked was that really his name and I replied as far as I knew yes. Everyone thought it was of the good old commericals that were part of the line up on the show. They immediately asked did he have any other family such as Butter bean or Cabbage, I know it sounds a bit corny but my God think about it.

[Hon]

More of the same:

Another consistently courageous writer, Tom Turnipseed of Commondreams.Org, has this to say:

"No wonder Bush the younger is so adamant about United States' citizens not being under the International Criminal Court's jurisdiction. 'Poppy', Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, and Dubya could all end up in the dock if justice were done."

http://www.deonandan.com/bull4.html

If you do a search on Tom, you'll see he even bemoaned the death of Saddam's sons.

He's right. He is really crazy. If he is related to Will, he certainly wouldn't be above planting this story just to try to hurt Bush.

[mplsconservative]

arggghhh!! Darn, dial-up modem. I googled Turnipseed, William, Thomas Alabama and got a link to a Turnipseed geneaology page. Clicked on the page and locked up my computer. Perhaps one of you high-speed modem folks could check it out. I would if I could. Sorry.

[Hon]

More on this guy. He is a professional full time ultra leftwing activist:

Welcome to The Seed Show

In the past 25 years, Tom Turnipseed has hosted 3 different radio shows and a television show on WIS-TV. Tom, a former President of the SC Trial Lawyers Association, is a plaintiff's and civil rights attorney. Tom recently was co-counsel with Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center for the Macedonia Baptist Church, an African-American congregation in Clarendon County, which won a $37 million verdict against the Ku Klux Klan for burning their church. A former SC State Senator, Tom has been the Democratic nominee for SC Attorney General and Congress and has served as a member of the Executive Committee and Executive Council of the South Carolina Democratic Party.

http://www.seedshow.com/PressRelease.htm

[Hon]

August 14, 2003

On the Verge of a Great Defeat?
Blowback in Iraq
By TOM TURNIPSEED

The Bush/Cheney administration's military invasion of Iraq could become the greatest military defeat in United States' history.

http://www.counterpunch.org/turnipseed08142003.html

[Moose4]

I don't know if Will and Tom are related, but if they are, Will should've changed his name. I wouldn't claim Tom as a brother.

Tom ran for Attorney General down here several years ago and got slaughtered. He is that rarest of breeds, a gen-yoo-wine down-home Southern white boy who also happens to be, basically, Communist (oh, excuse me, "progressive"). And yes, he's slightly off his porch rocker, too. Every few months he'll write a letter to the editor, or even an op-ed, to The State, our local fishwrap, and moan and cry and wail about Bush and Iraq and Haliburton and the plight of the poor and such.

}:-)4

[Hon]

Any diggers out there?

[Hon]

Guess I should've used the word nipple in the title.

[NYCVirago]

Thanks for starting this thread! Hopefully, we can come up with information on whether there is a connection between the Turnipseeds.

[js1138]

http://genforum.genealogy.com/turnipseed/

[NYCVirago]

Would you mind taking a look at this thread, and perhaps pinging your ping lists to it? Thanks.

[Johnny_Cipher]

BGEN William R. Turnipseed was apparently a B52 pilot. See http://www.52g-52hpilots.org/generals.htm

Still trying to find a bio.

[mabelkitty]

Oooh!
Let's send this to Hannity!

[Johnny_Cipher]

Correction - that's BGEN William R. Turnipseed Jr.

[gridlock]

I think you're onto something, Hon.

Reminds me of that nice retired couple down in Florida that just happened to be following Newt Gingrich around with all of that cellular telephone intercept equipment and a tape recorder in their car.

[gridlock]

A Tom Turnipseed posted the following on the Turnipseed Geneaology Board on Sept 14, 2000:

Does anyone know of William Turnipseed and his wife Nancy Ann Carder? One of their children was my GGrandfather and I would like to know more of their children and William Turnipseed's ancestors

The email address of this Tom Turnipseed is misterslateusa@(isp omitted).net

Note that Tom Turnipseed is fond of writing letters to the editor at The Slate.

[Hon]

He IS related to him. I emailed him and just got back this reply:

From: "Tom Turnipseed"
To: "XXXXX XXXXXXXXX"
Subject: RE: Any Relation?
Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2004 12:39:55 -0500

He is my third cousin and I was thinking about getting in touch with him about President Bush's failure to report to the Alabama National Guard Unit he commanded. I am proud that he has spoken up about it, because it will become a big issue in the Presidential race as the war in Iraq causes more and more casualties of U.S. servicemen.

Tom Turnipseed
Turnipseed & Associates
Attorneys at Law
803-252-9000
tturnipseed@turnipseed.net
www.turnipseed.net
http://www.seedshow.com

-----Original Message-----
From: XXXXXX XXXXXXXX [mailto:XXXXXXXX@XXXX.XXXXX]
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2004 8:14 AM
To: tturnipseed@turnipseed.net
Subject: Any Relation?

Dear Mr. Turnipseed,

Are you by any chance related to retired general William Turnipseed of Montgomery Alabama?

Thank you,

XXXXX XXXXXXX
XXXXX@XXXXX.XXX

[Hon]

For the record I don't believe that he would just now be thinking about getting in touch with his "third cousin" since this was an even bigger issue four years ago.

I would bet anything that he was behind Will coming out with this story.

[gridlock]

Frankly, I don't believe the third cousin bit either. The Montgomery AL connection is just too big a coincidence. I think he is trying to throw you off. Keep diggin'.

[windchime]

"He IS related to him. I emailed him and just got back this reply:"


Ask and you shall receive. Did it surprise you when he wrote back? Would have surprised me.

Groups you mentioned have George Soros connections, including Radio Pacifica. You are on to something.

[mountaineer]

Good find. Too bad the Turnipseeds haven't considered using their time and talents for good.

[malakhi]

You might find this interesting.

Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy Ping.

[gridlock]

Both are connected to Montgomery because Tom was born there and Gen. William retired there.

Both are connected to South Carolina because Gen. William is throwing money to John Edwards and Tom is a SC political hack.

As James Bond once said, "Once is a coincidence, twice is enemy action".

[Coleus]

~

[gridlock]

A photo of Tom Turnipseed, in case anybody can turn up a photo of William...

[Judith Anne]

FReepers RULE! This is awesome information...thanks for the ping. ;-D

[Hon]

I just got off the phone with him. (BTW, he is a personal injury attorney.)

First he said that he hadn't talked to Will (who he calls "Sonny") for fifteen years. Later, he said that he had talked to him for more than an hour this morning.

I asked him if he called Will because of my email. First he said no, then later he said yes.

He talked very fast, very cornpone, and kept changing the subject.

He kept trying to convince me that Will is a "Bush man." When I pointed out that Will had given Edwards $500 according to the FEC records, he said that Will had told him I had the wrong man. Since I haven't been in touch at all with Will, I have no idea what he was talking about.

Tom did admit that he is a big Edwards supporter. (Big surprise there, huh?)

I asked him if he could give me Will's phone number. He said he didn't have it. In all, it was a surreal conversation.

[dead]

Your post about your conversation with him was hysterical. No it wasn't. What post? I didn't even read it. Yes I did. I'm not even logged in.

[Hon]

BTW, I asked him several times point blank if he had been behind Will coming out with this story. This would set him off on a Rooster J. Cogburn impersonation, the upshot of which was that he hadn't talked with him for fifteen years.

When I asked him how it was he hadn't thought to call him, since he surely had heard about Turnipseed being the source of this story FOUR years ago, I got more confusing corn mush.

Mostly he wanted to tell me about what a great guy Sonny's father Rufus was. Anything but answer the question directly.

[AppyPappy]

My strategy is always pretend to be a fan. People will spout foolishly if they think the person wants to hear them speak.

[AuH2ORepublican]

"Lived in South Carolina back i the mid 80's and can still remember the first commerical I saw regarding Tom Turnipseed"

---

I guess the guy kept running after every loss. He ran for governor of SC in 1978---Politics1.com includes his political button from that race as part of the decorations on its South Carolina page.

[hellinahandcart]

Amazing work, Hon. :D

[Alouette]

He is my third cousin

Well if his ma and pa are first cousins he could be his own third cousin, or would that be second cousin? Or, he has three cousins and Will is the third.

He must think you just fell off the turnip truck.

[Ann Archy]

NIPPLEGATE!!

[gridlock]

Another Tom Turnipseed Alabama connection.

Turns out Tom was a staffer on George Wallace's Presidential Campaign.

[TexasCajun]

Tom Turnipseed also has had a life-long history of mental illness. He is bi-polar and manic depressive. He has received shock therapy.

Just another typical sick 'Rat to stand next to Michael Moore and Al Franken.

What a party of losers!

[cmsgop]

You wanted answers, so you called him, LOL!!! I Love it, Get Gore on the phone next!! LMAO!

[ElkGroveDan]

Wills and many probate records are public record in most states. If Tom and Will are brothers, then Mom or Dad's will would likely reveal that fact.

Check with some Alabama genealogy folks who likely do this stuff all the time for the quickest way to turn-up some Turnipseed will and probabte records.

[Madame Dufarge]

This is one of the funniest things I've read in a long time.

Thanks for your perseverance.

[r9etb]

Turnipseed is not a common name.

It is, however, the last name of a kid in my daughter's class at school. There's also an "Oxenhandler" in that class.

[r9etb]

Probably just a big ol' coincidence, but here's an obituary for a William Turnipseed of Hot Springs, Arkansas

Now ... who do we know from Hot Springs...?