Ted Nugent, the "Texas Wildman" rocker, is no longer a newspaper columnist. At least, not in Waco, Texas.

It all started when The Waco Tribune's new owners laid down an alternate set of rules for their editorial page. Number one, more conservative views will be expressed. Number two, no more being mean. (That's a paraphrase.)

Ted did not like this.

"So I get this spineless, soulless anti-American Email from Carlos Sanchez, new editor of Waco Tribune, listing new rules for my weekly Sunday feature telling me I cant [sic] criticize anyone, only recommend things, can’t have any negativity, only cute nicyness," he blasted on his Web site -- his online "Tedquarters," as he calls it.

That was all it took. At that point, The Waco Tribune decided to put Ted's column to bed.

In an editorial, Carlos Sanchez explained that direction had come from the publishers. Then he took at shot at the 'Nuge himself:

I must admit that Nugent’s rant angered me. Not so much because he was criticizing me — I get that all the time.

But because he didn’t have the courage to confront me directly.

In fact, his only communication with me was his expression of cooperation.

The irony of this disagreement with Nugent is that I have been one of his biggest defenders.
In a rampaging reply published by Texas Monthly ("my Teditorial," he called it), Nugent referenced Nazis and said that asking him to be respectful was akin to spitting on the memories of America's founders.

When the Nazis had the Americans surrounded in the town of Bastogne, they demanded American General McAuliffe surrender or they would level the city. General McAuliffe’s reply: Nuts!

The new editor of the Waco Trib recently told me that I could only write nice things about people, that I could not be critical. Basically, that I need to tone it down. I can not, nor will not, comply with this Romper Room request. My reply: Nuts!

[...]

America and Texas was born with a defiant streak. Those genes still flow through my veins. To request that I not criticize is to spit on the memory of those who gave birth to America. Again, I criticize where I believe criticism is due. That’s my civic job and your job as Americans. If the editor of this newspaper doesn’t like that, he will have to fire me. I will not surrender to his wrong demands.
Commenter number one, "Centex Liberal," replying to the "Teditorial," summarized this writer's thoughts quite amply:

When a writer starts out comparing his boss to the Nazis and himself to George Washington (and Jefferson, Franklin, and Paine!), hyperbole is the order of the day. [...] Sounds like the rantings of a slightly educated teenager."
A second commenter followed-up: "A slightly educated teenager with lots of guns."

Interestingly, Nugent also suggests in his piece that he has never personally criticized President Obama. (Although he did sarcastically ask Obama to appoint him as Drug Czar.)

Yet, during his 2007 "Love Grenade Shrapnel Tour," while holding what appeared to be two assault rifles, he jeered at a screaming crowd: "Obama, he's a piece of shit, and I told him to suck on my machine gun."

Yeah, that's not personal. Not one bit.

Then again, coming from a gentleman who once reportedly urinated on a nun -- and who lovingly declares that at his concerts, "you're heads will be ripped off and it will be me shitting down your neck… and you'll still love me" -- perhaps the lesson for the Tribune's editors is that old adage: You get what you pay for.

-- Stephen C. Webster