The Village is happy
The awful Howard Fineman (via Matt Yglesias):
Among his other attributes, Jay Carney is a cool dancer. I know that because I saw him and his wife, Claire Shipman, getting down on the tented dance floor of a fancy Georgetown wedding years ago. Jay Carney, who went to Yale and was a foreign correspondent in Moscow, is—besides being smart, savvy, loyal and well-connected with the right sort—suave.
[.....]
Obama came to the White House in the manner of Jimmy Carter, with whom he was, early on, mistakenly compared. But while Carter never expanded his circle beyond the “Georgians,” Obama has, with stunning swiftness, retooled his administration to play hardball in the D.C. League.
January 29, 2011 5:16 pm
Posted in: Black Jimmy Carter, General Stupidity
72 Comments
72 Responses
efgoldman - January 29, 2011 | 5:19 pm · Link
What? Does this have any relevance to anything?
Also – Did I miss the downstream introduction of the anonymous “A Writer At Balloon-Juice”? What gives with that? Is it somebody besides me who hates cats and doesn’t want to be burned in virtual effigy?
Drouse - January 29, 2011 | 5:20 pm · Link
One thing about Keith O. losing his job is that I see a lot less of Howard.
jwb - January 29, 2011 | 5:22 pm · Link
@efgoldman: All the kewl kidz are changing their handles ‘cause a writer at the Atlantic referred to DougJ as “a writer at Balloon Juice.”
de stijl - January 29, 2011 | 5:24 pm · Link
I am a writer at Balloon Juice!
(Or, possibly, Spartacus.)
efgoldman - January 29, 2011 | 5:24 pm · Link
@Drouse:
The killer is, Howard and Joe Klein and many more of the Villagers used to be really good reporters and columnists. As they’ve aged and the village became more insular, they’ve turned into a cross between Broder (who also was good, before most of you were born)and old-time, travel-with-the-team so don’t offend anybody sportswriters. I used to look forward, for instance, to these guys on shows like Washington Week. “Used to” being
decades ago.
@jwb:
ETA: Being neither kewl nor a kid, I’m keeping my same handle.
sherifffruitfly - January 29, 2011 | 5:25 pm · Link
It’s all about the cocktail parties, the bbq’s at republicans’ estates, and such bullshit to “journalists”.
A Writer At Balloon-Juice - January 29, 2011 | 5:26 pm · Link
@efgoldman:
I find little tidbits like this interesting. It’s the Bob Somerby in me.
sherifffruitfly - January 29, 2011 | 5:26 pm · Link
@jwb:
An “I Am Spartacus” thing? lols
Cat Lady - January 29, 2011 | 5:30 pm · Link
What the fuck does that even mean? And is it possible to be less self aware than that smarmy hack?
Tonybrown74 - January 29, 2011 | 5:30 pm · Link
Wow …
The Village can fellate better than any gay man.
How is this not classified as pornography?
Chuck Butcher - January 29, 2011 | 5:30 pm · Link
It seems to me that the job entails putting a good face on what the WH wants said. That wouldn’t really require any journalistic ability beyond being liked by the “pit”.
Some of GWB’s Press Secretaries pissed me off more than others – not by lying but by their attitudes while doing it. Does somebody out there believe that the Press Scty is supposed to have a “truth based” adversarial relationship with the govt?
efgoldman - January 29, 2011 | 5:30 pm · Link
@A Writer At Balloon-Juice:
I don’t read Somerby except as an occasional click over. So I have to ask: Do you find the tidbit itself interesting (that Carney is a good dancer), or that a Villager like Fineman wrote about it. Or both.
13th Generation - January 29, 2011 | 5:32 pm · Link
I want to like Fineman, but he may be the Village Idiot.
A Writer At Balloon-Juice - January 29, 2011 | 5:32 pm · Link
@efgoldman:
No, the tidbit being that Fineman thought this was worthy of report and that he had this crazy theory about “the Georgians”.
efgoldman - January 29, 2011 | 5:33 pm · Link
@Chuck Butcher:
Until Nixon’s weasel, Ron Ziegler, the relationship wasn’t adversarial. Even afterwards, Gerry Ford appointed a working reporter (Ron Nessen).
joe from Lowell - January 29, 2011 | 5:33 pm · Link
@efgoldman: Remember when Chuck Todd was a polling numbers guy? He was great!
Now, he’s just another guy who pushes the Village conventional wisdom.
Sad.
@Chuck Butcher:
I used to appreciate the panicky, deer-in-the-headlights look Scott McClellan used to get when he lied. It was like he had a conscience.
It’s no surprise he came out with that book.
Comrade Baron Elmo - January 29, 2011 | 5:34 pm · Link
Didn’t Fineman once win some competition that Matt Taibbi drew up to determine who was the biggest hack journalist in America? He might have been the runner-up.
Actually, I haven’t seen ol’ Howard on the idiot box in ages. Does he still have that ridiculous dye job?
BGinCHI - January 29, 2011 | 5:36 pm · Link
I almost made a Fineman joke about the Egypt stuff, but I just couldn’t stomach it.
He’ll be perfect when Hollywood Squares comes back with all journalists.
Chuck Butcher - January 29, 2011 | 5:36 pm · Link
One of the things I’ve liked about Gibbs is his ability to keep a pretty friendly tone in the face of bullshit. His version of combativeness has been snark.
Chuck Butcher - January 29, 2011 | 5:39 pm · Link
@joe from Lowell:
Judging from what excerpts I’ve read and what he said in some interviews that conscience was pretty well dead and buried at the time. I agree about the “deer in the headlights” look, but that might only mean that he wasn’t very good at lying. Ari mad me foam at the mouth and as for Snow … dead now.
efgoldman - January 29, 2011 | 5:41 pm · Link
@BGinCHI:
Wish I’d said that! A most excellent snarkasticness.
Fineman would be a straight man; who would take the Charley Weaver and especially, Paul Lynde parts?
ETA: I think Palin (technically a commentator now) would have to go in the Phyllis Diller square, doncha’ know?
Drive By Wisdom - January 29, 2011 | 5:42 pm · Link
No amount of window dressing from Yale will return dignity to this White House.
Chuck Butcher - January 29, 2011 | 5:43 pm · Link
Why WP (FYWP) cannot handle IE8 70% of the time is beyond me. It is a bit difficult to read this when the text sprawls all over the place.
BGinCHI - January 29, 2011 | 5:43 pm · Link
Paul Lynde = Jonathan Capehart
J.W. Hamner - January 29, 2011 | 5:45 pm · Link
I have been known to “get down” as the kids said 20 years ago… I can haz a job in the White House?
me - January 29, 2011 | 5:47 pm · Link
Does Fineman want to dance with Carney because he envies Gregory?
Cat Lady - January 29, 2011 | 5:48 pm · Link
Andrea Mitchell = Ruth Buzzi
Megyn Kelly = Charo
BruceFromOhio - January 29, 2011 | 5:52 pm · Link
Fixt for clarity, Howard, no charge.
And I liked the writer at Balloon Juice better when he was Arkon DougJ.
J.W. Hamner - January 29, 2011 | 5:53 pm · Link
@joe from Lowell:
OT: But since you’re here, I started takinng a grad class at Umass-Lowell… is there any way to get back to the commuter rail at 9pm other than walking or a cab? And is anybody going to shovel the sidewalks along Dutton Street or am I always going to have to cross the Merrimack by going through downtown Lowell?
Svensker - January 29, 2011 | 5:54 pm · Link
The right sort?
Suave?
Excuse me while I go suavely puke. Only the right sort of puke, of course.
JWL - January 29, 2011 | 6:00 pm · Link
If memory serves, Ford’s first press secretary was a another reporter from a Detroit newspaper named Jerry Warren. He remains my favorite flack for the simple reason he only lasted about 6 weeks, choosing to resign in protest if the Nixon pardon. While that wasn’t very suave of him, rumor has it he was could dance like Fred Astaire.
Keith G - January 29, 2011 | 6:01 pm · Link
@joe from Lowell:
Yes! Thanks for the laugh.
agrippa - January 29, 2011 | 6:01 pm · Link
What, if anything, does Jimmy Carter have to do with Brack Obama? They are as different as chalk and cheese.
efgoldman - January 29, 2011 | 6:02 pm · Link
@Cat Lady:
Oh, yes. Perfect.
de stijl - January 29, 2011 | 6:04 pm · Link
@joe from Lowell:
I know that WH Press Secretaries are professional shills, but Ari Fleischer’s chitinous eye gleam while telling the most egregious whoppers was instructive. He enjoyed it. He got off on it. Had there not been a podium to obscure the view, he would have been arrested for public indecency.
efgoldman - January 29, 2011 | 6:05 pm · Link
@agrippa:
Wait. Aren’t they both Dems who came from nowhere to succeed scandal-plagued GOBP administrations?
QED!
What a maroon. Howard, not you.
JPL - January 29, 2011 | 6:06 pm · Link
Obama came to the White House in the manner of Jimmy Carter, with whom he was, early on, mistakenly compared.
wtf. They both campaigned but so did those before them. Besides that I cannot think of one other comparison except they are both intelligent. Jimmy was a governor, Pres. Obama was a Senator. If he is talking about the President’s cabinet, there still is not a comparison. Even Rahm was a seasoned politician.
I’m glad that Carney can dance btw because that’s an important qualification for something.
de stijl - January 29, 2011 | 6:06 pm · Link
@Svensker:
Rico
Suave
joe from Lowell - January 29, 2011 | 6:09 pm · Link
@J.W. Hamner: You could look into the LRTA buses. The LRTA bus hub is at the MBTA station, and I know they go to the North Campus.
I don’t know about the schedule, though.
joe from Lowell - January 29, 2011 | 6:13 pm · Link
@J.W. Hamner: PS - if you want to walk from the North Campus to the train station, instead of walking down Merrimack and then turning down Dutton, go two blocks right on Pawtucket and walk down Fletcher Street through the neighborhood. It cuts the corner, and comes out at that Thorndike/Dutton curve.
Lincolnshire Poacher - January 29, 2011 | 6:13 pm · Link
Sounds like a missing piece from that show episode where Jon Stewart compiled of “serious” journalists asking those “serious” questions on CNBC about Merrill Lynch or Bear Sterns or GM.
The one where GM had a Kid Rock concert and everyone was dancing. Someone “seriously” asked then CEO Rick Wagoner “Check out your vice chairman’s moves in this clip …”
After all these are “serious” times and those “serious” questions must be raised.
morzer - January 29, 2011 | 6:18 pm · Link
Sounds like Howard Fineman has a serious case of blowjob lips that need to be put to use.
sharl - January 29, 2011 | 6:22 pm · Link
@Comrade Baron Elmo:
That was Wimblehack (“There Can Be Only One!”) – complete with elimination pairings and everythang!
It looks like Elisabeth Bumiller emerged victorious on that one (I’ve used up my alloted links – look for Nov.23 post, “Wimblehack: The Sad End”).
BR - January 29, 2011 | 6:28 pm · Link
You know, I’ve never understood the contempt the media has for Carter.
He was the last president to really level with the American people about the serious issues we face. Particularly on energy – we’re far more screwed on energy now than when Carter was president, and we wouldn’t be if we had listened to him.
Belafon (formerly anonevent) - January 29, 2011 | 6:29 pm · Link
In other words, he’s not like Jimmy Carter at all. He knows what he has to do to get things done in DC. My kids tend to receive sarcastic replies when they make idiot comments like that.
Violet - January 29, 2011 | 6:33 pm · Link
This is all the Village cares about, isn’t it? What a bunch of toadies.
joe from Lowell - January 29, 2011 | 6:36 pm · Link
@BR: Jimmy Carter’s got what America needs right here.
hilts - January 29, 2011 | 6:37 pm · Link
@Cat Lady:
That’s a cruel insult to Charo.
Arundel - January 29, 2011 | 6:41 pm · Link
The description of Carney and wife cutting a rug at a swanky Village party reminds me of something. The scene in Mad Men, where Pete and Trudy wow the (other) rich snobs by doing the Charleston at Roger’s infamous “blackface” party. Harry Crane and his wife look on from the sidelines, feeling like outsiders at this millionaire’s party, but Pete and Trudy really belong.
Redshift - January 29, 2011 | 6:42 pm · Link
@JPL: He’s claiming they both came from non-Washington backgrounds and filled their administrations with people they had a relationship with or who actually had relevant expertise (like Chu), instead of Washington operators who would make the Village comfortable and make sure they didn’t rock the boat too much.
That’s what “being like Carter” means to the Village. I have no idea if it’s at all true of Obama, because I can’t be bothered to look up a Village scorecard of his administration, but I suspect his administration is no more “outsider”-ish than a typical Republican. Republicans, of course, can appoint whoever they want and they instantly become the “right sort.”
Batocchio - January 29, 2011 | 6:48 pm · Link
I just threw up in my mouth, a little bit.
Jim, Foolish Literalist - January 29, 2011 | 6:49 pm · Link
that’s actually kind of creepy. Is that supposed to be ‘humanizing’, or something? I just don’t get it when they throw stuff like this in to a story.
David Broder= George Gobel
ppcli - January 29, 2011 | 6:54 pm · Link
@BR:
Question posed:
“You know, I’ve never understood the contempt the media has for Carter.”
Question Answered:
“He was the last president to really level with the American people about the serious issues we face.”
Seriously – leveling with the American people may be a decent and morally proper thing to do, but politically it is a losing move. And there is nothing the village has more contempt for than political losers.
The quote from Fineman encapsulates the attitude perfectly. Carter just hung out with his “Georgians” instead of hanging with the cool kids. OK, true, Carter’s failure to engage effectively with congressional levers of power limited what he was able to accomplish, and that was a leadership flaw. But that doesn’t explain the contempt. The contempt is pure “cool clique” disdain – “The White House parties didn’t have alcohol. “He told us to wear sweaters and turn down the thermostat” “And he certainly didn’t go to Yale or Harvard … though I’m sure Georgia Tech and the Naval Academy are fine schools (snicker)”
The failure to always do the politically smart thing is one of the reasons for the contempt – what this crowd values above all is an understanding of how to play the game.
Carter was just too much of a serious person to get enshrined as a Serious Person.
hilts - January 29, 2011 | 6:55 pm · Link
Surprise! John McCain will be one of Candy Crowley’s guests on tomorrow’s edition of State of the Union, because when there’s an international crisis who’s a better guest to offer a serious, sober, thoughtful assessment of what it means
Cat Lady - January 29, 2011 | 7:05 pm · Link
@hilts:
Candy Crowley = Jo Anne Worley
Joe Scar + Mika = Wayland Flowers and Madame.
hilts - January 29, 2011 | 7:37 pm · Link
@Cat Lady:
Bingo
Jessica Yellin = Vanna White
goatchowder - January 29, 2011 | 7:53 pm · Link
Decline and fall of the American Empire, exhibit 512.
efgoldman - January 29, 2011 | 7:55 pm · Link
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
@Cat Lady:
I still can’t figure out who does Cliff Arquette/Charley Weaver.
I was going to say Broder, but Jim beat me to it with Broder=George Gobel, which is an excellent choice.
Benjamin Cisco - January 29, 2011 | 7:56 pm · Link
Michael Steele = Nipsey Russell
efgoldman - January 29, 2011 | 8:11 pm · Link
@Benjamin Cisco:
That’s cheating. Steele isn’t a villager journo.
If you can do that, I can do
Michelle Bachmann = Carol Wayne
maus - January 29, 2011 | 8:11 pm · Link
the beltway is one huge, well-paid circlejerk
HOW ARE HIS BBQs? AMERICA NEEDS TO KNOW
Villago Delenda Est - January 29, 2011 | 8:18 pm · Link
Feinman’s head would best be displayed on a pike.
Just sayin’.
Cat Lady - January 29, 2011 | 8:24 pm · Link
@efgoldman:
Cliff Arquette = Jack Germond
J.W. Hamner - January 29, 2011 | 8:25 pm · Link
@joe from Lowell:
The buses stop running around 7 from what I can tell, but thanks for the walking advice. (note: not being facetious)
usmarcorp70 - January 29, 2011 | 8:30 pm · Link
@JWL
J. F. terHorst, a reporter who in August 1974 was appointed White House press secretary by his old friend, President Gerald R. Ford, but who resigned less than a month later when Ford granted former President Richard M. Nixon an unconditional pardon in connection with the Watergate scandal…WOW a press secretary with a conscience, go figure?
Kyle - January 29, 2011 | 8:37 pm · Link
well-connected with the right sort
That should disqualify him right there. That’s like trolling a dating site and the person’s description includes “owns 20 cats”.
If the Villagers are impressed with his forelock-tugging and cocktail party banter, he belongs nowhere closer to DC than Nome, Alaska.
Benjamin Cisco (mobile) - January 29, 2011 | 9:06 pm · Link
@efgoldman: Point taken, but I hold that the Villagers are more celebrities than journalists now anyway, and as politicians go, Steele provides as much (in his case unintentional) comedy as Nipsey ever did…
efgoldman - January 29, 2011 | 9:15 pm · Link
@Benjamin Cisco (mobile):
Yes, true.
And to be fair, no celebrity ever ended up in square because he/she was really good or funny or A-list. Nipsy really wasn’t that funny.
@Cat Lady:
I forgot about Jack. Is he still alive? If he is, I’m guessing that he’s as appalled about what DC “journalism” has become as we are.
@J.W. Hamner:
@joe from Lowell:
Last time I took the train to Lowell (late 90s) the cab comppany – and there appeared to be only one – ran light green and black classic 70s Dodge Darts and Plymouth Valiants with slant-6 engines. A driver told me the owner tried to buy every one he could find in New England. Is it still true?
efgoldman - January 29, 2011 | 9:16 pm · Link
@efgoldman:
Now how the HELL did that get into moderation?
Jim, Foolish Literalist - January 29, 2011 | 9:40 pm · Link
@efgoldman:
I like Jack Germond a lot, and I believe he is still alive. But having read both of his books, I don’t think he sees his friends and colleagues—including Broder—as part of the problem.
joe from Lowell - January 29, 2011 | 10:27 pm · Link
@efgoldman: All the cabs I’ve seen are those Chevrolet Caprices that you sometimes saw the police use.
brantl - January 30, 2011 | 2:11 pm · Link
@efgoldman: Broder was good? That must have been one hell of a long time ago…..