Politico and Halperin tell me that the Rick Perry Era begins this weekend, right after the Tweety/Chuck Todd wankfest that is the the Ames Straw Poll, so pretty soon we don’t have Michele Bachmann to kick around anymore. The crazy eyes Newsweek cover was probably over the top, but look what the liberal press did to Bill Clinton in April, 1992.
Not to get all Bob Somerby on y’all but, even now, looking back, I can’t get over how weird the liberal media was about Clinton and Gore.
Little Boots
it’s dougie. I love dougie.
Comrade Mary
Best damn band named after a sex toy EVER.
And this is also relevant to my interests.
Little Boots
and this was before tina brown.
what a world, what a world!
themanintheguyfawkesmask
Where is this “liberal media” of which you speak, good sir?
El Cid
It was Time for Republicans to take over, because it was finally Time once and for all to get beyond all those anti-Americans who interrupted the Reagan Revolution, so as to to bring back the best of the 1890s, 1920s, and 1950s as required. All that nasty Democratic / liberal / just-not-rightwing-enough dominance for so much of the 20th Century. It was payback time.
Crusty Dem
Please. To go “all Bob Somersby” would require you to write different versions of the same post for ~12 years straight. I’d rather be the Time Cube guy. If I were to actually meet him, I’d tell him I really enjoyed his early writing and then go full-metal-Shatner-attacking-trekkies-on-SNL.
He would spend the next week writing 8 se
Crusty Dem
Please. To go “all Bob Somersby” would require you to write different versions of the same post for ~12 years straight. I’d rather be the Time Cube guy. If I were to actually meet him, I’d tell him I really enjoyed his early writing and then go full-metal-Shatner-attacking-trekkies-on-SNL.
He would spend the next week writing 8 separate 5,000 word posts detailing every mistake I’ve ever made, including not asking Olivia to the senior prom.
El Cid
@Crusty Dem: I tried. I really tried. Maybe it was because I lived through that era fully conscious, involved with and learning about and debating politics, and all tying back to the billion dollar media complex dedicated to lying for power, recalling that people were making the same points during that time, but, yeah, I’d read the Time Cube Guy instead too.
Odie Hugh Manatee
OT: Meteor Blades is leaving the GOS and BTD/Armando is the new featured writer there. Oh fuck is this going to be a fun slow-motion train wreck to watch.
Crusty Dem
Dammit, a stupid double-post will just add another 1,000 words to his
Manifesto. SOMERSBY!!!!
Little Boots
the thing, always, is the same question: do you have enough to offer that one magazine cover cannot destroy you? if not, then piss off!
Little Boots
balloon juicers, you do not sleep. it’s a rule, or something.
where the hell are you?
piratedan
@Odie Hugh Manatee: that’s a shame, I liked MB’s work over there.
hamletta
@Odie Hugh Manatee: I thought Meteor Blades was taking a leave of absence. That’s what tonight’s open thread said.
I was surprised to see Armando as a co-host on GOSRadio. I guess he and Markos kissed and made up.
And yeah, I’m old enough to have seen the RepublicanCrazy come out when Clinton was in office. You young’uns who think the Tea Party came about solely through racial animus are wrong.
Clinton was the first Democrat to occupy the White House since Ronaldus Magnus. That was 12 long years for the press and the rat-fuckers to assume it was theirs to keep.
They stopped at nothing to de-legitimize him, including shaking down every whore from Little Rock to Tulsa in search of dirt.
The accusations about Ayers and Kenya are pretty mild compared to the accusations about cocaine-running into Mena, AR.
And let’s not even mention the “Clinton Body Count” video, endorsed by Jerry Falwell.
Read The Hunting Of the President, by Gene Lyons and Joe Conason. It was fucking insane.
Little Boots
see? you do not sleep. and that includes you El Cid. where the hell are you?
Jenny
Clinton sure had a chubby face.
hamletta
@Little Boots: Dear heart, once again, this is not Eschaton. Chill the fuck out.
Little Boots
@hamletta:
no, it’s better, at least some nights. but I will try to chill, as you say, out.
AxelFoley
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
[grabs a bucket of popcorn]
Little Boots
I still want El Cid. is that wrong?
Little Boots
not enough insomniacs in this world. that’s the problem. just me and doug.
KG
This is kind of interesting…
The LAT has a story on its front page about the banks trying to convince investors that they aren’t about to collapse again like they almost did in 2008.
Of course, I’m not entirely sure how the fundamentals are different this time.
Little Boots
nobody knows what the hell they’re doing. that is the most disturbing part of all this. everyone is exposed as an idiot.
Larime the Gimp
@Little Boots: It’s only 10:30 here, that makes me an insomniac?
Also, I have to admit the title of this post reminds me of Titus Pullo on Rome telling the brothel mistress, “She better fuck like Helen of Troy with her ass on fire, or I’ll know why!”
I miss that show.
James E. Powell
The corporate press/media before Clinton was elected had not yet become the right-wing propaganda machine it became during the Clinton’s administration. But it was composed of people and management who had come into their positions during the Reagan years. Their formative experiences had all been geared toward promoting Reagan’s image as the greatest president ever, as good as Lincoln and maybe better! They were also convinced that Bush I’s triumphant war was proof that the hippies were wrong about Viet Nam and that it was 1960 again, but this time we were not going to elect anyone like a Kennedy, no way! Clinton, an obvious and admitted political descendant of Kennedy, was the Beltway’s idea of Satan, and oh my, that wife of his!
They hated him from the beginning and all the more when he won. His presence in the White House was offensive to them because he was not one of them.
Little Boots
@Larime the Gimp:
no, I’m just getting bitter.
and I like your quote.
Yutsano
@James E. Powell:
And now the President is near. Is it any wonder the Village can’t fucking stand him?
Little Boots
@Yutsano:
he should stop giving a shit about that. that would surely help.
Davis X. Machina
@KG: This time, it’s a whole bunch of governments all standing around wondering if the other guy’s paper is any good. Last time it was the banks.
I don’t think this process can go any higher up the food chain.
Little Boots
I mean, he is the president. that is pretty impressive right there. could he, maybe stop giving a shit what Dick Gregory thinks, cause the rest of us have.
Joel
Ishtar was my idea.
Little Boots
@Joel:
how did I know that?
Linkmeister
Did y’all see the comparison Joan Walsh did at Salon of the Bachmann cover and the one of Howard Dean and his yell?
Little Boots
@Linkmeister:
I thought of that the second this “controversy” started. good for her.
Linkmeister
@Little Boots: David Gregory, I think you mean. Dick Gregory’s still alive, which surprised me, but he’s not been politically loud in quite a while.
Suffern ACE
@Yutsano: MoDo just can’t stand the way he chews his food.
Little Boots
@Linkmeister:
yup. thanks. embarrasing. but yeah, david.
Jenny
@Davis X. Machina: It’s not that bad this time. With the banks, there was so much leverage involved, it addition to crashing the stock market, they frighteningly seized the credit and money markets. Right now, the latter markets are tranquil.
Click on this chart for the TED Spread and then click on the 5Y tab and note the difference in volatility btwn today’s market and September 08.
Little Boots
cool link though.
AxelFoley
@Suffern ACE:
She wishes he would chew on her. That’s her problem.
Jenny
@James E. Powell:
It was more than that. After all, Al Gore grew up in Washington, he was the scion of a political family, and he had spent 15 years in elected office before becoming Vice President and the DC elite still hated him. So it was a lot more than just being an uncouth out-of-towner.
Yutsano
@AxelFoley:
I’m now ill.
Little Boots
doug sometimes shows up here. not tonight too bad. I’m wondering where that title comes from.
Comrade Kevin
@Little Boots: It appears to be from a song by Steely Dan.
Mike
@hamletta: Oh, yeah… The GOP literally spent months in congress investigating Clinton’s Christmas Card list… yes, the Christmas Card list. Apparently, some people were left off or something–I don’t remember what the “outrage” was back then. Newbies might find that hard to believe, but it’s true. Truly amazing stuff.
And remember how the GOP had a cow when Clinton actually tried to take out Osama Bin Laden? How dare he “wag the dog” like that and try to distract the public from the very important blowjob story.
Suffern ACE
@Jenny: Al Gore had the audacity to work hard and be smart. I wish I could find the Post profile of Gore that I read in 1993 shortly after inaguration. It was full of nothing but praise about his work ethic and whatnot. If I remember right it contained an anecdote about how he spent hours learning how to shoot free throws while lying on his back…I guess so that he could win at H-O-R-S-E. Anyway, he’s the smart guy who works hard is obviously not the story about him they were reciting in 2000 and they managed to turn his virtues into something that they could beat him with. In a rare fit of counter-cultural hippiedom running though the Village, hard work and smarts made him an untrustworthy stuffed suit.
His biggest betrayal was not outright jumping on board calling for Clinton’s resignation and they hated him for that.
ppcli
@Little Boots: Steely Dan = Aja
Stillwater
@Little Boots: Doug sometimes shows up here
None of these fuckers hangs around in threads anymore. Grrrrr. I remember the days when Cole was posting the majority of the comments in a thread. And Doug gave a shit about what we all think.
What’s happened to this blog? Twitter?
Christ!
ppcli
@hamletta:
@Mike:
It’s important to bear this in mind and not attribute too much of the anti-Obama push to racism. Sure, the attack dogs of the right will use racial dogwhistles (“Kenyan anticolonialism”, etc.) when they can get away with it, but they will go after any Democratic president in the same way they did Clinton and they are doing with Obama. It will happen again and again until the non-loony parts of society realize that and figure out what to do about it.
Suffern ACE
@Mike: I believe they were searching for anyone who might have burned a flag or a bra or Detroit at some point to prove what they all knew to be true about them.
Also, they were concerned that young men in WH were wearing earring to work, although no one that disrespectful or effeminate apparently could be found, they knew they could be if they looked hard enough.
Jenny
@Suffern ACE: That’s true. I forgot about that. They projected and redirected their hatred of Clinton on to Gore. You would often hear how they wanted to beat Gore to deny Clinton a proxy 3rd term.
burnspbesq
Umm, excuse me, Senator McCaskill, are you familiar with the adage “don’t bite the hand that feeds you?”
http://www.samefacts.com/2011/08/economics/senator-mccaskill-opposes-ui-benefit-extension/
Yutsano
@burnspbesq: Is it just me or is anyone else getting the feeling the Senate will have the exact same Dem/Rep split but with lots of different folks?
Suffern ACE
@Jenny: In certain ways, they have been a little NICER to the Obamas. At least they haven’t made a concerted effort to make everyone hate the fact that the Obamas are still married. Maybe Bill’s affairs and Hilary’s “radical man-hating feminism” were unique. If Blumenthal’s memoirs were correct, rumors of hillary’s “lesbian affair” with the family vet were going around the DC serious set. Not being spread by the hard right, but by Sally Quinn.
I don’t think they find the Obamas nearly so sexually “freaky.”
Odie Hugh Manatee
@hamletta:
MB said:
Of course, the way that people leave and return there (and I’m proud to say I left and have never touched my account again), they ought to have a revolving door. Quite the contrast though, MB’s diary has over 1,147 recs and the diary where Kos announces Armando joining has 173.
Pie Wars II anyone?
Jenny
@burnspbesq:
Check out this clip.
http://www.kmov.com/news/local/Senator-McCaskill-opposes-extending-unemployment-benefits-127339513.html
She says in multiple statements that she misspoke and “supports unemployment benefits but opposes some proposals that would expand benefits beyond the current 99 week package.”
But watch the clip, it’s sad. According to the reporter, McCaskil was touring a manufacturing plant in St. Charles and the workers were complaining about the deficit. You would hope that people in business would have basic knowledge of macro economics. But sadly no.
Elizabelle
I dunno.
I still think this was one of my favorite Time magazine political covers.
http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19960819,00.html
Jenny
@Suffern ACE: Sally Quinn is a joke. She was a secretary and she got a job as a writer after fucking the boss (Ben Bradlee) who was married.
Well, Sally did have “perfect” boobs.
Check out this telling article from 1973
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,907745,00.html#ixzz1UdQwSa3w
asiangrrlMN
@AxelFoley: You still around? I owe you some sugah.
@Yutsano: Well, it’s the truth. She’s a mean girl with a crush on a guy she can’t have. Not pretty. How are you?
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: Sigh. You and your knocking boots I swear.
I’m awake but not for much longer. Appointment before work in the morning.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: I used the carrot approach to get AF on the Twitter Machine. I am a woman of my word!
And, appointment? ::arches eyebrow inquisitively::
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: Nothing serious, just a doc follow-up. Hip related.
And I go sleepy time naow.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Night, Yutsy. Sleep well.
hamletta
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Oh, I didn’t see that, since I just get the FP on my feed reader. I hope he and his family are OK. He’s a good man.
@Jenny: Oh, Lord, yes. I’m from DC, and I wish I could remember the details of my mom and her best friend’s conversations about Sally Quinn.
In my mind it’s kinda like Peanuts with the grown-ups talking, not like sad trombones, but like hissing cats.
John Puma
@Jenny: Chubby face, indeed, but it was that undisciplined cigar that got the radical religious reich to the polling places to get George “nothin’ burger” Bush close enough to steal the 2000 election.
priscianusjr
@James E. Powell:
Thymezone
Aha! For years I have been asking you for data to support the idea that “the media” have any actual measurable effect on election outcomes … and here it is! The proof!
I knew you could do it, Doug. I take back every rotten thing I have said about this unsupportable idea for lo these many years. You win, I lose!! To the victor!! Etc!!
Everything is resolved, in the fullness of time. Even this!!
nancydarling
I still remember Sally Quinn on some tv program lamenting Clinton’s waywardness. This is almost a verbatim quote, “We all have robust sex lives”. Then she went on to say he should have found some discreet divorcee to fool around with. She also said the people in the D.C. village were like a tribe and the Clintons never tried to become part of it. They should have come bearing “beads” (she actually said BEADS!) as gifts to all of them. It took a long time for me to clean up the barf in front of the tv that day.
gnomedad
Bubba feels your pain, Michelle.
gnomedad
@James E. Powell:
Excellent analysis. Also, too, with Reagan, the meme “Permanent Republican Majority” became branded into their brains. I think they tried to pretend Clinton was an anomaly and breathed a sigh of relief that with Dubya, things were back to “normal”. No wonder the Kenyan has driven them into hysterics.
rea
I’ve never understood that,”prays like a Roman” line. Was she sacrificing animals and examining their entrails for omens?
El Cid
@Little Boots: Sorry. I slept. It happens. 1 am ain’t yet all night.
CJWhite
I loves me some Bob Somerby. I have no idea why, though.
Mike in NC
I moved to the DC area in 1990 and quickly noticed how the Village was wired for Republican rule. A popular bumper sticker was a variation of the Clinton/Gore campaign design that read “Commie/Bore”. Those were the days.
Paul in KY
When ‘Time’ does it, it’s OK
Paul in KY
@Jenny: They hated VP Gore because he wasn’t a schmoozer (didn’t hardly have any big parties) & he wouldn’t have some of the big villagers over to chat so they could then write columns & get ‘scoops’.
In hindsight, he probably should have done a bit of schmoozing.
Peter
It’s not sexist to use a photo of someone where they have the crazy eyes when they actually do have the crazy eyes. Hell, that photo of Bachmann is generous, she usually looks much more deranged than that.
Frankensteinbeck
@Paul in KY:
Clinton was just plain Not Our Kind. Gore was boring and smart. To the village, these are all cardinal sins. If I ever needed confirmation that Benen was right, it would be an exchange at the beginning of the press conference about the birth certificate where Obama told a reporter that if he’d called the conference about national security, they wouldn’t have covered it.
Paul in KY
@Frankensteinbeck: Agree on Clinton. Wasn’t commenting on him, though. I stand by my theses. VP Gore was also considered boring & smart, but it was his perceived stiffing of them in the access dept that (IMO) caused them to work tirelessly for his demise.
Cris (without an H)
Maybe that’s what they really meant when they called Clinton the “first Black president.” He was an honorary target of racial resentment.
AxelFoley
@asiangrrlMN:
Yeah, that’s right!