Wearing my talk radio hat, I was lucky enough to shake hands with Ted Kennedy a few years ago, just before he got sick. (No pictures, alas.) Digesting the media obituaries regarding the late, great Senior Senator from Massachusetts, I am consistently amazed at the editorial choices which were made while covering the great man’s life:
How many personal demons would you possess if you’d suffered the family tragedies that he did, all while under the gaze of the public eye, much of which was directed at himbecause of those tragedies?
How easy is it for people to take one tragedy out of a man’s life — now, almost forty years gone — and demonize that person for it? I’m looking at you, Christian conservatives, who seemingly would never forgive Kennedy for anything — but was it for his actions, or just leverage for their hating his politics? Must be politics, because their memories and lack of forgiveness regarding similar acts do seem party-sensitive.
Amidst all the thousands of hours of wasting television “news” coverage of OJ, the Buttafucos, John and Kate and all such similarly inane crap, why did we never know Kennedy was such good friends with Republicans, like Orrin Hatch? All sorts of talking heads know enough to speak glowingly of it, but why wasn’t that personal behavior covered over the years decades that our politics have become so polarized? Why couldn’t that be role modeling for kids to observe on TV, instead of types like the Gosselins and the Hiltons?
Finally, Joe Scarborough keeps suggesting this one particular 1990 GQ takeout story on Kennedy as being a turning point in his life. Perhaps, but, Joe, was that the only magazine article you’ve ever read?
And, now, what a wonderful (totally memorized) coda to a great life:
The Today Show’s opening this morning teased a piece about “the topless model hosting Michelle Obama around Italy,” as if the two are BFFs. And then, at 7:49 — after holding the perverted voyeuristic interested audience for all four quarter-hours — they finally got around to the piece.
The host for the current G8 summit is Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi who, for a number of reasons ranging from pathetic to entertaining, is in the midst of a divorce. So, he needed a hostess for all the wives, or as our U.K. friends call them, WAGs, and picked former Italian showgirl Mara Carfagna, who he appointed to be the country’s equal opportunities minister, to show the WAGs around.
The young lady apparently has modeled in various states of undress. Whoop-de-doo. Others in the political discourse, whether intentional or accidental, have done the same. As long as she does her job well, y’know?
But, ooooh, the word “topless” on morning television. How racy.
Look, dude, I don’t care if you hooked up with a llama when you were in Argentina, as long as you are competent in your position and you aren’t a raging hypocrite about it.
When you once upon a time said this about a fellow sinner:
You then should check out this piece about this extremely interesting graphic that indicates Red Staters “sin” (as they would define it) more than Blue Staters.
Is it payback because not passing the bill will be payback to Midwestern blue states?
As the Big Detroit Three go whip up their viability plan report for Congress on what they’ll do over their Christmas break if they get a check, I imagine they’d like to review the viability and change plans all those banks and insurance companies wrote up in order to get the American taxpayers to pony up about $300 billion (so far) for them. (A special shout-out to AIG, now at $150 billion.) And to see what givebacks theirwhite collar employees would have to make.
Oh, wait. They didn’t need a plan or employee givebacks.
While some Dems aren’t innocent of pandering, this is yet another case of rampaging, race- and class-fueled hypocrisy quarterbacked by an old southern white guy from the GOP.
There is a special place in hell for Sen. Shelby, but as a Republican senator from red state Alabama, he’ll be in something close to it January 21, 2009.
When Mitt Romney was trying to wrest the 2008 Michigan Republican primary from John McCain, the native Michigander criticized Gramps for saying that lost jobs were never returning, and made all sorts of warm, comforting noises about he wanted to bring Michigan back.
Apparently, what he really meant was: Screw you domestic automakers and, by extension, my fellow Detroiters who I’ve left behind high and dry.
Former Gov. Romney is clearly a smart guy, and, the way things turned out, he probably would’ve helped McCain more than Moose Mom in the general election.
Intelligence without a rational core belief system beyond malignant self-interest, however, is worthless. I think that’s why his Mormonism first became an issue in his political career this campaign; people were looking for an answer to explain his constant policy whipsawing and craven opportunism and became so desperate for answers that they sought God’sElohim’s intervention.
The answer, as it turns out? At least for his hometown, Romney’s heart is two sizes too small.
