In 1999 and 2000, as the Washington press corps worked out their unbridled disdain for Bill Clinton on then Vice-President Al Gore, the proudly vapid Paris Hilton demimonde of the Potomac-- aka Maureen Dowd, aka MoDo-- penned a series of columns featuring imaginary conversations between Gore and his own bald spot. "Everything these days is making me a little crazy," the Grey Lady's gay old lady imagined Gore saying. Then she made up a quote by John Kerry that everybody probably still thinks Kerry said ("Who among us...?").
Now, a long 7 years later, as most liberal pundits still sit on their dainty thumbs in hopes of a paid guest spot on Chris Matthews, The New York Times continues to pull crap like this on its home page (as of 9:06 a.m. on March 21):
Star in New Role, Gore Revisits Old Stage
By MARK LEIBOVICH and PATRICK HEALY
Al Gore's return to Capitol Hill on Wednesday is akin to a recovering alcoholic returning to a neighborhood bar.
Get that? Dudes just likened America's leading vote-getter in the 2000 presidential election-- the one guy who was right about *both* Iraq wars AND global warming when empty-headed vessels like MoDo girlfren Michiko Kakutani were still memorizing scripts-- first to an actor (a phony!), then to a "recovering alcoholic." Meanwhile, an actual recovering alcoholic (some of my favorite people are recovering alcoholics!) continues to lead us into national embarrassment in Iraq and at home. And I thought the *blogosphere* was supposed to be petty and hate-filled.
Now just try to imagine the Times (or the Washington Post, or the Jack Welch Network) making a similarly disparaging analogy about virile Republican saints John McCain or Rudy Giuliani. We'll be waiting, Brooksy.
NP: The Clientele: God Save the Clientele (more via HypeMachine)
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2 comments:
You're smart, right? That's you're schtick. So of course you understand the analogy. Gore returning to Washington is like a recovering alcoholic returning to a bar because Gore's been out of Washington politcs for awhile, clearly loves it and now is returning. He gets the same feeling of stress/excitement/fear that I imagine said recovering alcoholic has when they re-enter that bar. Just because one half of an analogy is negative it doesn't necessarily transfer that negativity to the other half. So a perfect analagy really. Don't be so defensive, plus the guy is a little bit of a stooge and yes a phony (who isn't in politics?)
...That's a pretty good shtick!
I understand why the analogy works, but I'm just saying it's yet another relatively unflattering one; by contrast, most major journos recite McCain's own SLOGANS for him ("Straight Talk," "maverick"). In isolation, this story is no big deal, but that's only because most people aren't aware of the broader pattern that has ruined our discourse since 1999, if not earlier.
Can't recommend it enough, every damn day: www.dailyhowler.com.
Now being smart can be *your* shtick!
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