Bill Bennett makes Brit Hume look the Grand Inquisitor, during an exit interview with Dick Cheney:
Q You got a kind of backhanded compliment from President-Elect Obama, who, according to the news reports, said in regard to your advice — your advice was find out exactly what it is we’re doing and why we’re doing it, whether or not its worked before you start making decisions based on campaign rhetoric — for Obama, by contrast, because a number of critics, according to this article, said what Cheney said was pretty good advice. He does seem to be backing off some from some of the more excessive campaign rhetoric, and seems to be approaching somewhat more thoughtfully in line with your recommendation.
[….]Q I want to get into that in a second. But again, before I lose the opportunity, in front of 3.5 million people, I want to say — I want to thank you for making tough decisions, taking a lot of heat for keeping us safe. We have been safe. And I know — I have some sense, I don’t know — what that took. I just want to thank you.
[….][….]
Q It’s a different world, isn’t it, campaign rhetoric and the kinds of briefings that Barack Obama is getting now about the way the world actually works?Q Right, the perfect example.
Maybe if I read The Book Of Virtues I’d understand the value of an exit suck-off.
Update: Sometimes it’s hard to believe he was the inspiration for the Janis Joplin song “Me and Bobby McGee”.
Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist
your advice was find out exactly what it is we’re doing and why we’re doing it, whether or not its worked before you start making decisions based on campaign rhetoric—for Obama, by contrast, because a number of critics, according to this article, said what Cheney said was pretty good advice.
That’s easy for you to say.
Now WTF does it mean?
WyldPirate
For most of the Rethuglicans, suck offs are one of the few things they excel at.
Well, that and fucking up the country along with overwhelming incompetence, that is.
Comrade Stuck
Republican chit-chat in the soup line.
Keith
He’s making JTP look like Walter Cronkite.
Zuzu's Petals
Hard to believe this is someone who once dated Janis Joplin.
DougJ
Some say the song “Me and Bobby McGee” was actually about Bill Bennett. “B-B” for Bobbie.
ricky
One, you never know how many of Bill’s markers Dick holds.
Two, if anyone ever defames Janis like that again I hope all your children are spawn of Palin.
D0n Camillo
I hope Cheney bought Bill flowers and offered to pay for his dry cleaning. That thorough a blowjob is liable to leave a mess.
littlesky
I thought Kris Kristoffersen wrote Me & Bobbie McGee.
gogiggs
Kris Kristofferson wrote "Me and Bobby McGee". Janis just sang it. I could be wrong, but I seriously doubt Kris Kristofferson was thinking of Bill Bennett when he wrote it.
DougJ
Nope, Janis wrote it when they were traveling around together with the RFK campaign in 1968 (remember Bennett started out Democrat). “Busted flat in Baton Rouge” refers to doing badly in the Louisiana primary. “One day up near Salinas, I let him slip away” refers to their eventual break-up.
srv
Functioning, not so much.
DougJ, his brothers book says they went on one date.
Jay Severin Has A Small Pen1s
Wikipedia says Kristoferson wrote it and it was performed first by Roger Miller.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me_and_Bobby_McGee
Let me go check what Conservapedia says.
Tim Fuller
I’ve got a new poll over at my website. The first one I did on Why God Abandoned Sarah Palin was extremely well received. I hope you enjoy this little trip back down memory lane as well….
Flashback to the Sixties
http://thetimchannel.com/?p=342
Enjoy.
JGabriel
DougJ @ Top:
But it’s always easy to believe Bennett would make up shit like that and lie about it.
.
Notorious P.A.T.
How fucking STUPID do you have to be to think ANYONE needs advice from Dick Cheney? Unless you want to shoot an old man in the face, of course.
yet another jeff
@DougJ: Some might…I guess those that don’t know that Kris Kristofferson wrote the song.
DrDave
Did Bennett conduct this interview while on his knees? Did his dress get stained?
yet another jeff
But, I might be willing to go with the theme if Conservapedia has a wingnutty enough entry….
Zifnab
@Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist: I don’t know if he was speaking English.
AnotherBruce
It’s a different world, isn’t it, campaign rhetoric and the kinds of briefings that Barack Obama is getting now about the way the world actually works?
Yeah, and the way the world actually works is that we’ll pay for the Iraq war with oil revenues from Iraq. The Iraqis will greet us as liberators and strew flowers in our path. We’ll stop Saddam from threatening us with his drones and we’ll take out his weapons of mass destruction before the smoking gun becomes a mushroom cloud. And we don’t torture.
There is no doubt that these guys have an interesting definition of the "the way the world actually works."
Comrade Stuck
Kristofferson wrote it and at time he was slumming around with Joplin, he was consuming two fifths a day. I’m sure he and Janis were a lovely couple.
Ronnie Pudding
No, no, no, it was ex-Cowboy coach Jimmy Johnson who wrote me and Bobby McGee, about William Bennett, whom he was involved with at the time. Johnson later introduced Bennett to Janis at a Port Arthur High School reunion.
Dreggas
I find this somewhat amusing and perhaps prophetic
Zifnab
@Dreggas:
Limbaugh knows who he’s in bed with. And the fact that he eats like a slob somehow totally doesn’t surprise me.
Dreggas
@Zifnab:
I read it more as W. and LimpDick sitting together having a shitty little lunch with no one else around to celebrate LimpDick’s birthday while the "influential" people (granted how influential they are is debatable) are dining with the PE. It just shows how sad W. and LimpDick are.
Zifnab
Also worth noting the fun insight from TBOGG in the Glorious Weblog Awards Battle of 2009:
You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!
DougJ
Uh, guys, you know I’m kidding about “Me and Bobby McGee”, right?
Zifnab
@Dreggas: I don’t know. If anything, it speaks to how little influence Bush has got, now that he’s reduced to wiping shmudz off ElRushboy’s chin. Getting an ex-President, even a shitty ex-President, to wait on you while you have a birthday lunch at the White House doesn’t exactly scream "irrelevant" to me.
On the contrary, the fact that Kristol and Brooks are attending Obama when they should be rally around the base after a glorious 8 years in office seems to suggest that the only two power players at this little shindig are Obama and Limbaugh.
gbear
Wasn’t it Robert Johnson who wrote "Me and Bobby McGee"?
Comrade Stuck
@DougJ:
Of course not. It’s perfectly plausible that Bennett was hanging with Janis and Kris, smoking dope and dropping acid. I was doing those things at the time and could have been with them, or thought I was. Everything was relative in those days. And– Out of State.
sbjules
Of course Kris Kristoffersen wrote it. Janis Joplin recorded it in 1971right before she died. It had been a hit for others before, Roger Miller for one. I don’t think Janis had anything to do with the composition at all.
DougJ
@Comrade Stuck
It’s hard for me to imagine a woman trading all her tomorrows for one single yesterday holding Bill Bennett’s body next to hers.
DougJ
Much less for Kris Kristofferson to do so.
harlana pepper
Wonder what happened on their date?
TheAssInTheHatOnMyCat(Formerly Comrade Tax Analyst)
…or ANYONE trading ONE FUCKING LUNCH-BREAK to be in the same fucking CITY as Bill Fucking Bennett.
JEE-EE-EE-SUSS!!!
Comrade Stuck
@DougJ:
But he’ll be carrying his Harpoon and Dirty Red Bandanna. Makes all the difference.
DougJ
@Comrade Stuck
More likely a pack of Camels and some poker chips.
TheAssInTheHatOnMyCat(Formerly Comrade Tax Analyst)
What, you mean it wasn’t, "A Cartoon and a Dirty Red Banana"?
I coulda sworn that was the wordz.
Comrade Stuck
@DougJ:
More likely a pack of Camels and some poker chips.
Captain Boumeur
To put this in perspective, Janis Joplin in 1986 wasn’t noticeably less dumpy than Bill Bennet is today, not that there’s anything wrong with that. She could sing marginally better than Kris Kristofferson, though.
Goseph Gerbils
@DougJ:
I dunno. Maybe if she was sure she could hold her breath for ten seconds longer than he could.
glub
glub
glub
Laura W
@TheAssInTheHatOnMyCat(Formerly Comrade Tax Analyst):
With those windshield wipers turnpentine….
Seriously. I thought it was turnpentine.
Long time ago, when I was very young.
Not now.
Comrade Stuck
Or, that was now, this is then.
When out of moderation
gwangung
@Goseph Gerbils:
FTW.
DougJ
Winshield wipers flappin’ time, I was holdin’ Bobby’s hand in mine…..
Is it just me or does that make people tear up a little?
What a great song, even if overplayed. Rivaled only by Al Green’s cover of “For the Good Times”. Kris wrote a lot of great songs and everyone of them makes you want to shoot yourself. In a good way, of course.
wb
I think it’s probably just you, Doug.
On the subject of Janis and cover tunes: Summertime
Just sayin’…
patrick
I saw a video biography of Kris Krostofferson where he talked about the "Bobby McGee" song. He said he wrote it and the first time he heard Joplin’s redcording of it she had already passed away, and he sat down and cried. He also mentioned that she had changed a few of the words (probably to suit the gender change of the narrator).
Anyhow, unless Kristofferson was lying his ass off, he wrote the song.
srv
@Ronnie Pudding:
No, it was Jerry Jones and Nolan Ryan. I used to work for a guy who went to HS with all of them. Crazy.
Gus
Line of the day.
AhabTRuler
Nope. John Prine has got that one locked up.
"There’s a hole in daddy’s arm where all the money goes…"
"It took me years, to get those Souvenirs, and I don’t know how they slipped away from me…"
"We lost Davey in the Korean War, still don’t know what for…"
Man, that is some good, depressing music.
Laura W
@AhabTRuler:
There’s flies in the kitchen I can hear em there buzzing
And I ain’t done nothing since I woke up today.
How the hell can a person go to work in the morning
And come home in the evening and have nothing to say.
Raitt and Prine
DougJ
Prine wrote that song, Laura W. Bonnie just sings it.
Well, I like John Prine and I like Kris, but neither one of them can hold a candle to Townes Van Zandt when it comes to writing depressing music. I can’t even listen to Nothing and Tecumseh Valley is almost as depressing.
mvr
@DougJ: Some say . . .
But the rumor I heard was that he exaggerates his influence.
He’s also the last person I’d want to tell me about virtues with his widely noted self-control issues.
AhabTRuler
@DougJ: Yeah, but the live version of them doing it together at the Steve Goodman memorial concert is incredible.
When John opens up with "I am an old women…"
Edit: The one that Laura W linked to.
Comrade Stuck
Leonard Cohen gets my vote for odd and beautiful lyrics that can be depressing, or not. Depending on your mood.
I’d been trying for years to decode my favorite Hallelujah and finally gave up to just enjoy it.
Laura W
@DougJ: I am aware of all Bonnie Raitt traditions, Doug J. I hooked it to a post praising Prine.
My link was to them singing it together. (wasn’t it? I thought it was. Maybe not.)
OriGuy
@srv: No, "Crazy" was written by Willie Nelson.
As for songs that make you cry, "Penny Evans" by Steve Goodman gets my vote. Every time.
DougJ
You know, I like some Leonard Cohen, but I just can’t dig that song. A little over the top, no?
Ever seen McCabe and Mrs. Miller, speaking of LC? Great use of his music. Great movie.
Jim
This is so belated – I shouldn’t even be responding to this. Of course, Kris K. wrote this. And John Prine and Leonard Cohen are two of the finest songwriters who ever lived – except for maybe Mary Gauthier. But I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to read comments from people who even know who these people are. Thank you, BJ folk.
Just Some Fuckhead
Oh, it’s not that rare to hear this sorta talk if you play bingo or volunteer at the nursing home.
Jim
Guess I should put this here, in case you’re wanting to discuss the whole question of whether Kris K. or Janis wrote the song:
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=485
Comrade Stuck
@DougJ:
I really mostly like the KD Lang version, Over the top, if you mean Grand Gestures, yes. I love GJ, whether there in song or movies, or a Blago presser. But eh!
I’ve seen Mcabe and MS Miller but it’s been so long ago I forgot. but i love any movie Julie Christie is in and Altman films are always intriguing if nothing else.
AhabTRuler
Hey you, get off my lawn!
Comrade Stuck
@Jim:
Don’t pay any attention, It’s Just Some Fuckhead jabbering.
demimondian
@Comrade Stuck: As may be, it’s nice to find a new data source. Thanks, Jim.
Jim
And of course, we all sit around at the nursing home listening to Bob Dylan. God forbid any of us should listen to and appreciate good music made before we were born.
Comrade Stuck
@Jim:
Good music is timeless, unfortunately we’re not. Well said! What you said that is.:)
Bob In Pacifica
Is that a harpoon in your pocket or are you glad to see my roulette wheel?
demimondian
@Comrade Stuck: And Bob Dylan’s vocal productions were neither good nor music. Great song writer (although, to my mind inferior to Cohen and Ochs); terrible performer.
trollhattan
It’s common knowledge Stephen Foster wrote "Me and Bobbie McGee" in response to the horrors of Antietam. And the next time Bill Bennett lectures me on morality I’m…ah what’s the use, only death or paralysis will shut his yap.
demimondian
@trollhattan: Actually, me and Bobbie McGee is a resetting of a traditional Celtic death lament with slightly updated lyrics.
TheHatOnMyCat
I’ll thank you not to denigrate my lifestyle.
Jim
@demimondian
Couldn’t agree more – listen to Bob because I think I should, but always come back to Leonard, Prine, Ochs, Gauthier, Van Zandt . . and . . . better stop. This is a conversation I always have to pull up on.
Comrade Stuck
@demimondian:
Well, let’s face it, Dylan couldn’t sing his way out of a paper sack, but he was a pioneer on level with the Beatles, imho. And he was prolific in his works that focused exclusively on Americana. But for sheer poetry combined with song, Cohen is the master, I think. And who is ochs? OK, I remember I aint Marchin Anymore. so long ago. and also don’t forget Tim Buckley, one of my favorites too.
TheHatOnMyCat
Babe, Paul Bunyan’s sidekick?
Famous bovines in literature for a hundred, Alex.
DougJ
You’ve lived on west coast waayyyy too long.
Next you’ll be telling me I have to barbecue in a water-laden environment.
Comrade Stuck
@TheHatOnMyCat:
Sorry, you forget to put it in the form of a question, not to mention loose spelling.
demimondian
@Comrade Stuck: Phil Ochs was a singer-songwriter of the same era a Dylan. More openly socialist and political, but just not as good a poet. I recommend _Here’s to the State of Mississippi_, here. His _I’m gonna say it now_ is snark that would be completely at home here.
And his elegiac _When I’m gone_ is a heartrendingly sad song, particularly in light of the man’s eventual suicide.
Just Some Fuckhead
Hey, maybe later we can talk about sickness and death, short hair on men, all-you-can-eat buffets and big cars.
TheHatOnMyCat
Finally, some topics I care about.
THANK.YOU.
Just Some Fuckhead
@TheHatOnMyCat: Hehe.
Jim
Comrade Stuck
@Jim:
And wear it as a badge of Honor.
TheHatOnMyCat
Come on, it’s olde English.
Just Some Fuckhead
No need to be shy, we all suck in our own special way, most especially Stuck. And John can’t make the damn blockquote tag work right so he certainly has no room to scold anyone.
Breathe.
Breathe.
There, no pressure.
TheHatOnMyCat
No worries, Jim. This site has more poster-gotchas than you can shake a stick at. We all get bitten by them on a regular basis. Any post that gets seen by others, is a triumph, a slap in the face of the web designers.
Just hang in there and keep at it.
demimondian
@DougJ: Hey, look, I’m sorry that I have good taste, and live in an environment where I can actually enjoy it. (It’s four miles to the _The Herbfarm_, which scored an astonishing 29 out of 30 on the last Zagat survey.)
And why is my previous comment still in moderation?
Comrade Stuck
@TheHatOnMyCat:
My aftershave is spelled corectively. Just ignore THOMC and Jsf Jim. They’re our resident Bohemian Rif-Raf and obviously uncultured. Humph!
Jim
Just Some Fuckhead –
Thanks. That helped me. Really. I think I need to send my doctor here to help get my blood pressure under control. Which isn’t happening, I have to say. Today he used the phrase "malignant hypertension."
TheHatOnMyCat – here ya go.
demimondian
@Jim: That sucks. Seriously, dude.
The hematologist has given up on explaining my blood counts, so we’re back to watchful waiting. As long as I don’t kick off…well, I guess that’s gonna have to do.
Zuzu's Petals
Ne-ver mind.
Jim
Exactly what I was told. He wanted to put me in the ICU, but I’m feeling fine, and no organ damage. Plus, I would be so embarrassed to be in the ICU. And, really, that’s all I want to say about it. I’m also embarrassed that I brought it up here.
I wanted to say to Origuy – Steve Goodman? Yes. Absolutely. Saw him perform with John Prine about a year before he died. What a gift.
Zuzu's Petals
@Jim:
Wow, that is too bad. Really too bad.
Our gain, I suppose. But man.
Comrade Stuck
@Jim:
Up until 2006, my blood pressure was also uncontrollable. I was taking 3 different BP meds and it was still high. It started going down when I started blogging regularly which initially consisted mostly of raging rants about republicans. Maybe it was coincidence, but whatever, I’m no where near as volcanic as I was then. I had only just lurked around liberal blogs and it wasn’t until I started commenting and writing in my own blog that I started to feel better. I don’t plan to quit anytime soon.
srv
@Jim: You aren’t loved until he’s threatened to ban you.
Jim
Zuzu’s Petals
Yeah, it makes you wonder about so many things. Last I heard, he was living in a studio apartment in a seedy part of Los Angeles, with no car, etc. I presume the tour made things better – but that business manager? Man.
BTW – I just want to say, it’s supposed to be minus 24 degrees here tomorrow morning, which is why I can sit up late and annoy everyone here. School is cancelled for the second day in a row, and I’m a high school teacher. I know, I know – everyone here with children is suffering, but I can’t help but live in the moment.
Jim
Comrade Stuck
I said to my husband just what you suggested – I’m convinced the reason I have this illness is because of what we’ve experienced over the last eight years. I teach English, but a simple response to a student that, in fact, I did not vote for George Bush – and never would – led to a cautionary discussion with my principal. So minor, in the context of what this nation has endured. I’m just so happy that I’ve lived to see Obama made President.
FWIW – despite my name here, I’m a woman. The name is in honor of my father, who died last year, and loathed George Bush.
Tom Ames
I think that Leonard Cohen wrote "Chelsea Hotel" about Bill Bennett and Dick Cheney.
Clifford the BRD
I like the way Dylan sings and I don’t really like cover versions of his stuff – usually sounds too sweetened up.
Speaking of voices that some folks hate and great songwriters, how about Tom Waits?
harlana pepper
Eh, sounds like we live/work in similar environments. JEEEBUS!
Gravenstone
@srv:
What? That means John loves BOB? I mean he actually banned the little fucker (who somehow persists in hanging around). The horror…
Nothing Left Toulouse
Musicological scholars recently uncovered the following verse from a fourteenth-century monastic manuscript:
Libertie isse aucher werde for Nothing Left Toulouse
Naethingge, naethingge be it noughte free
Feelinge goode waes easie, Lorde, whanne he sange the Plainchante
Feelinge goode waes goode enow for mee
Goode enow for mee and Bill "Fucking" Bennett
grendelkhan
I know it’s only January, but… ladies and germs, I give you the winner of The 2009 Fluffy for "most disgusting, worshipful defense of powerful wingnut".
DougJ
I’ve loved him since back in the day, but I just discovered one of his more recent songs, “Cold Water” from Mule Variations. It may be his best song.
forked tongue
The Leonard hasn’t ended his tour yet. He’ll be playing NYC in February.
And yeah, Dylan a terrible singer, right. Only the most expressive voice in the history of vernacular music.
Ed Drone
You want depressing songs? They should start issuing Richard Thompson CDs with their own razor blades.
Ed
Morfydd
I caught the Leonard Cohen tour on Halloween. It was beautiful. I didn’t know the backstory, which is awful, but selfishly I’m glad I got the chance to see him. He took as much pleasure in showing off his remarkable co-performers as in performing himself. I have only warm memories of the show.
Dorothy Collins
Bill Bennett is one of those old Moral Majority holdouts from the 1980s. I can’t stand to hear this opportunistic MF speak, nor reading anything that he writes. He is what has been wrong with us since the days of Ronald Reagan. He should talk about basketball, something he REALLY knows.
By the way, "Me and Bobby McGee" was originally written and performed by Kris Kristofferson. Sorry to dispel the myth about Janis.
Dorothy Collins
By the bye, Big Band and swing music is great!!!