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You are here: Home / When I Say Jump, You Ask “How High,” Damnit

When I Say Jump, You Ask “How High,” Damnit

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Both sides. Liberal media. Oooga Boooga:

Sen. Ted Cruz has been speaking on the Senate floor for almost 19 hours, as of this post. The talk is not technically a filibuster — he can’t actually block the Senate from going about its business — but symbolically, it’s more or less the same thing. The point is to show one’s opposition to something through a demonstration of physical will.

Which is why you can forgive conservatives for being upset with the mainstream media’s coverage of the Cruz affair. When a Democrat like Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis filibusters against abortion restrictions, she is elevated to hero status, her tennis shoes become totems. When Cruz grandstands against Obamacare, he is a laughingstock in the eyes of many journalists on Twitter, an “embarrassment” in the eyes of The New York Times editorial board.

“Gee I wonder why NYT and WaPo and everyone else gave ecstatic coverage to Wendy Davis but not to Ted Cruz. I just can’t make sense of it!” John Podhoretz, the conservative columnist, tweeted on Wednesday morning.

The conservatives yell “BOO,” and the media flinches. No discussion of the differing circumstances. No discussion that Davis was trying to stop a law being passed under shady circumstances while Cruz is trying to backdoor invalidate a law passed by both houses, signed by the President, and deemed constitutional by the Supreme Court. Nope, none of that. Fuck you Dylan Byers.

Take it away, Mr. Pierce.

Reader Interactions

103Comments

  1. 1.

    Suzanne

    Which is why you can forgive conservatives for being upset with the mainstream media’s coverage of the Cruz affair.

    I think the dramatic reading of “Green Eggs and Ham” had something to do with it.

  2. 2.

    trollhattan

    Every time I read “Tiger Beat on the Potomac” I can’t help but laugh. Charlie Pierce needs to be in charge of Da Media.

  4. 4.

    Ash Can

    “…I just can’t make sense of it!” John Podhoretz, the conservative columnist, tweeted on Wednesday morning.

    Of course you can’t, dear, bless your heart.

  5. 5.

    TG Chicago

    No discussion of the differing circumstances. No discussion that Davis was trying to stop a law being passed under shady circumstances while Cruz is trying to backdoor invalidate a law passed by both houses, signed by the President, and deemed constitutional by the Supreme Court.

    And you’re not allowed to remember that the media DID give positive press to Rand Paul when he filibustered a few months ago.

    Maybe it’s because Cruz is flogging a strategy even half his own party realizes is stupid.

    ETA: just noticed this from Politico:

    These portrayals may be accurate or inaccuarate (sic)….But that’s not the point

    Of course not! Why would we expect Politico to say that accuracy or lack thereof would be the point of anything?

  6. 6.

    g

    You can’t make sense of it, Podhoretz? Really? Well, you’re in good company – Ted Cruz couldn’t make sense of “Green Eggs and Ham.”

  8. 8.

    hitchhiker

    Was he allowed to stop talking for any reason? Touch his desk? Speak off the subject?

    I just can’t make sense of it either. Except what I can’t make sense of is why anybody paid attention to him, not why everybody didn’t.

  9. 9.

    eemom

    Take it away, Mr. Pierce.

    omg, it’s true…..you are all the same, and you ARE all DougJ.

    Run for yer lives……

  10. 10.

    amk

    The librul media covered the Wendy Davis filibuster??? Nobody tells me anything anymore.

    #FuckingLiars of gopolitico.

  11. 11.

    Marc

    The talk is not technically a filibuster — he can’t actually block the Senate from going about its business — but symbolically, it’s more or less the same thing. The point is to show one’s opposition to something through a demonstration of physical will.

    No, the point of a filibuster is to block the Senate from going about its business, and to keep legislation from passing. Cruz’s grandstanding had no hope of accomplishing that.

    So typical of the political media – they reduce everything to symbolism, narrative, optics because it’s a hell of a lot easier than learning the slightest thing about any of the issues or institutions they cover.

    Then again, this is Dylan Byers, the idiot who tried to pick a fight with Nate Silver before the election. Facts aren’t really his strong point.

  12. 12.

    TheMightyTrowel

    OT rant: writing about myself is HARD. I’ve been nominated for a teaching award and now I have to put together a portfolio to support my nomination. SIGH.

  13. 13.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    Podhoretz can’t make sense of it because the notion that Rafael Cruz might be just another self-serving Republican grifter is inconceivable to him – as is the fact that even the emessem is growing weary of the asshole parade.

  15. 15.

    Redshift

    @g: My favorite comment on the “Green Eggs and Ham” thing (via Colbert) was brown-haired-guy-who’s-not-Steve-Doocy declaring, without embarrassment, “I’ve never gotten all the way through it.” Not “I’ve never read it,” or avoiding the topic altogether, but “I’ve started reading this children’s book, but it was too hard for me.”

    The SNL version of him as a buffoon who’s too dumb to avoid injuring himself has run smack up against Poe’s Law.

  16. 16.

    RaflW

    Those useless f*cknobs at OTB were creaming over this earlier today. Top story on their site.

    America really have the most useless bunch of conservative whiners imaginable, but it does see to (for some, anyway) “shift the narrative.”

    Bring on the meteor, please.

  17. 17.

    Chris

    The conservatives yell “BOO,” and the media flinches. No discussion of the differing circumstances. No discussion that Davis was trying to stop a law being passed under shady circumstances while Cruz is trying to backdoor invalidate a law passed by both houses, signed by the President, and deemed constitutional by the Supreme Court. Nope, none of that. Fuck you Dylan Byers.

    Well, that, and did Davis actually get conspicuously more attention from the media than Cruz is getting now?

    ETA: pretty sure I remember that the media couldn’t STFU about Rand Paul’s shenanigans back when he was doing it, also too.

  19. 19.

    RaflW

    @hitchhiker:
    Speak off the subject?

    No shit.

    But that’s all besides the point anyway. Cruz got ink, he got his words reported. That he chose such moronic topics to blather on, well it is his own fucking fault. I’d think a damn fancy Harvard lawyer would know that.

  23. 23.

    pattonbt

    Simple difference, there was no drama in Cruz’s play where there was in Davis’. There was an actual ticking clock in Davis’s play and if she faltered before that clock struck the magic hour, she failed. And she had actual restrictions on what she could / could not do. Drama. Realtime drama.

    Cruz’s ego play had no drama – it was a sanctioned tantrum with nothing riding on it.

    The media saw each play in proportion to it’s real life drama, nothing else.

  27. 27.

    jl

    Any fool with ears can tell that Wendy Davis’ rendition of Green Eggs and Ham during her real filibuster with real stakes was worse than Cru’s rendition of Green Eggs and Ham.

    And Cruz had the handicap of doing it during a pre-arranged PR stunt fake filibuster with no challenges to him holding the floor.

    If that’s not liberal bias I don” know what is.

  33. 33.

    TG Chicago

    @RaflW:

    Those useless f*cknobs at OTB were creaming over this earlier today. Top story on their site.

    I just checked out the story, and Mataconis was actually pretty fair about it. He never mentioned Rand Paul, and he uncritically bought into the idea that Cruz got better press than Davis. But he pointed out the legit differences between Davis and Cruz in real effect. It was far from awful.

    I think “useless f*cknobs…creaming” is a bit strong in this case.

  35. 35.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @TheMightyTrowel:

    Congratulations on the nom! Have you considered starting with a plain list? You can prune that, then create an outline, and finally write to the items in the outline. Just a thought.

  36. 36.

    scav

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate: And when can we hope to hear some words of comfort and strength for the nurture of our stomping soles? Is it too much to dare they will appear soon to lace our purpose to our joy? Let us bow, and implore that it knot be long.

  38. 38.

    srv

    You know Angry John, there will come a time, when Angry Gramps McGramps keels over, that you will turn on the Sundays and Rand and Cruz are the new staples.

    The Village has nowhere to go but down.

  39. 39.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @scav:

    Verily I speak unto thee; though thy soles be holy, and thy tongues be tattered, hosannas of joy like unto the stamping of myriads of Doc Martens accompany each divine kick. Let the cries of stricken conservatives rise in number until they exceed the cries of all the gulls along all the seashores of the earth and let the joy therefrom strengthen thy righteous legs.

    Let us bow our heads and find within ourselves again the strength, accuracy, and swiftness of foot infuses our holy mission.

    Amen.

  40. 40.

    Joshua Norton

    Gee I wonder why NYT and WaPo and everyone else gave ecstatic coverage to Wendy Davis but not to Ted Cruz.

    Maybe it’s because Wendy Davis did something original and Cruz was just pulling an obvious “me too” knock-off thinking he’d attract the same glory.

    And was he ever wrong!!!

  41. 41.

    Villago Delenda Est

    “Gee I wonder why NYT and WaPo and everyone else gave ecstatic coverage to Wendy Davis but not to Ted Cruz. I just can’t make sense of it!” John Podhoretz, the conservative columnist, tweeted on Wednesday morning.

    Proof there is no God: this vile snot hasn’t been hit by a thunderbolt for this bullshit.

  49. 49.

    Yatsuno

    @Suzanne: Are those…DECORATIVE VEGETABLES???

    @TheMightyTrowel: I’m right there with you. I get to spend half the day at work tomorrow writing about how much I don’t suck. At least I get to do it for a decent manager now instead of the disaster I ordered my union to get me away from.

  51. 51.

    fuckwit

    @Marc: It’s not just the media, it’s the Rethug politicians themselves, who are completely immune to content or reality, and are living in fantasy land of images and narratve. See, they see no difference between Wendy Davis and Ted Cruz, because all they care about is the optics, not the actual policy or goals or FUCKING REALITY. It’s lost on them that Davis was trying to stop a stealth bill from fundamentalists that would have made birth control unavailable to women in Texas, and that she really was the last desperate stand to prevent a disaster from happening. Meanwhile Cruz was doing a fake filibuster urging his colleagues to… take away medical care from women, including birth control, but also to eliminate affordable medical coverage for men and women across the country via stealth by crippling a law that has been in effect for years now. So who are the oppressors and who are the oppressed? Davis was fighting for the oppressed; Cruz was grandstanding on behalf of the oppressors. Really people, reality is HARD I guess, but these differences are so screamingly obvious that nobody but a sociopath who cares only about style and not substance would not be able to notice… oh, wait, nevermind.

  52. 52.

    fuckwit

    @Villago Delenda Est: Why does he have a job when so many people are out of work? Why is he getting paid stupid-ass insane salary for his fucking verbal vomit, when there are so many people poor and suffering?

  53. 53.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    Cruz is portrayed in the media as “aimless and self-destructive” (NYT ed board), elitist (GQ) and likely guided more by presidential aspirations than principles (CNN). Josh Marshall, the editor and publisher of Talking Points Memo, had no qualms about coming right out and calling Cruz, his former Princeton colleague, an “arrogant jerk” – and worse.

    It’s funny because I read that Josh Marshall piece, and what he actually wrote was a long story about how he couldn’t remember anything at all about Cruz from Princeton. So he contacted everyone he could find who knew Cruz back then, and was rather astonished that the responses were not only similar but often verbatim, with “asshole” being the most common word.

    The NYT characterization of “aimless” might just have something to do with the fact that Cruz was neither accomplishing anything for the country nor even trying to, whereas Davis was actually trying to block a bill by filibustering it.

    Of course, the false equivalence game requires nothing more than a conservative pitching “and what else floats?” insinuations and a Beltway journamalist as stupid as a Monty Python Villager.

  54. 54.

    Mart

    Davis was trying to stall and make her constituents aware of a law being jammed through the system to unfairly restrict access to a legal medical procedure. Cruz was grandstanding for an unprecedented and unconstitutional defunding of an established health care expansion law. He is threatening to seriously harm the nation if the majority in Congress does not comply with his minority wishes.

    Same diff.

  55. 55.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Bill E Pilgrim:

    Beltway journamalist as stupid as a Monty Python Villager.

    Oh, please. A Monty Python Villager can construct something close to a logical argument (albeit their assumptions are utter rot), which no Villager can even hope to do.

  57. 57.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    @Mart: Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow spent more than half of their shows on MSNBC this evening going on, and on, and on about Cruz and his fake filibuster, and what it meant. Amusingly, Hayes said, at the top of his show, that it amounted to nothing, but that didn’t stop him from charging ahead.

  58. 58.

    JustRuss

    @Bill E Pilgrim:

    Of course, the false equivalence game requires nothing more than a conservative pitching “and what else floats?” insinuations and a Beltway journamalist as stupid as a Monty Python Villager.

    I am, sadly, all out of internets, but the next one I get is heading your way.

  60. 60.

    piratedan

    @The prophet Nostradumbass: well in a party known for it’s willful stupidity, Cruz’s 21 hour control of the Senate floor is one of the more incredibly futile gestures ever made by a person who supposedly holds Presidential aspirations. To not document just how incredibly inept, self-serving and obtuse this entire exercise has been would have been criminal in and of itself and to watch the cloture vote end up being unanimous post this gratuitous exercise of verbal masturbation should put paid to anyone with any sense of objectivity that these guys shouldn’t be running a dog show much less a country.

  61. 61.

    Yatsuno

    @piratedan: How shrill and partisan of you good sir. Dare I say, uncivil. You will never get an invite to Sally’s soirees by pursuing such a line of thinking.

  62. 62.

    BruinKid

    Hey, can anyone make sense of what’s going on here? It looks like a close friend of Adam Kokesh is trying to explain who the colorful cast of characters are that could have stolen the money from his legal defense fund.

  64. 64.

    piratedan

    @Yatsuno: well I do say sir that you are uncivil yourself for making mention of such things in a room filled with those mixed gender types, as such they’ll just have to find someone else to work the door and offer rough hands to trundle Ms. McMegan into the trunk of the next available limo, felt lined, naturally. If you must know, strident conversation is encouraged at Mr. Sullivan’s affairs, it gets the blood up, as they say and a case of high spirits do a wonder for one’s personal constitution, as you may well know. If you take further umbridge at my tone, you may contact my second at my social club, you must know it, they don’t allow your sort unless you’re making a delivery. Good day sir, good day to you indeed!

  67. 67.

    piratedan

    @Yatsuno: I dare say, my good man, that rumour has it that you have, at least once and that vegetables were involved, not that I would go around repeating such a craven slur in polite company.

  68. 68.

    Debbie(aussie)

    Is there anyone; like Stewart of Colbrt that could handle th germ eggs and hah NAND tvrn join oligochaete I ewoclx thim jp

  70. 70.

    Another Holocene Human

    I knew they would go there. I bet it makes freepers feel smug. Not the same situation at all. *Yawn*

    Get a new tactic, dumbasses.

  72. 72.

    Linda

    No, the media does not automatically flinch. Politico flinches, because that’s their job. But everybody is not falling into line and hitting the fainting couch. The conservative media is pissed, because it’s an illustration that nobody automatically jumps anymore. They are just not the bullies of the yard that they used to be. And they are stamping their tiny feet about it.

  76. 76.

    PurpleGirl

    When Cruz grandstands against Obamacare, he is a laughingstock in the eyes of many journalists on Twitter, an “embarrassment” in the eyes of The New York Times editorial board.

    It’s real simple: The Republicans in the House have had 30-odd, close to 40 votes to end or repeal Obamacare. None of them look very effective. So, Cruz is going to start doing this in the Senate. It’s a joke.

  78. 78.

    Patricia Kayden

    @raven: You must have a strong stomach. I stopped watching The Joe and Shut Up Mika Show quite some time ago. What has Obama done/not done now according to the brilliant Joe Scarborough?

  81. 81.

    WereBear

    @Redshift: @g: My favorite comment on the “Green Eggs and Ham” thing (via Colbert) was brown-haired-guy-who’s-not-Steve-Doocy declaring, without embarrassment, “I’ve never gotten all the way through it.” Not “I’ve never read it,” or avoiding the topic altogether, but “I’ve started reading this children’s book, but it was too hard for me.”

    I guess it was said without irony?

    That’s the most convincing argument on what has happened to the meritocracy in this country I’ve ever heard.

  83. 83.

    raven

    Listening to Evan Thomas comparing Ike and Obama’s approach. I’m reading a book about WWII in North Africa and Ike didn’t know whether to shit or go blind it was such a cluster fuck.

  84. 84.

    tybee

    @raven:

    i’m reading a biography of Earnest J. King and his view on Torch was similar.
    King used the threat of withholding shipping and amphibious craft to get the british off their butts and do something.

  86. 86.

    Kay

    That’s not even what happened.

    Media totally ignored Davis until her giant support group in the statehouse and on Twitter insisted they cover it. That was the whole complaint, that they weren’t covering it.

    Her fan club there in Texas were pointing to how many people were following it on Twitter to demand national media pay attention.

    He has it all wrong. Obviously, he wasn’t following it.

  87. 87.

    sherparick

    I hate it when you link to Tiger Beat on the Potomac. It came to me that Dylan was just trolling for hits.

  89. 89.

    Keith G

    The conservatives yell “BOO,” and the media flinches.

    Cole trolls.

    Politico is one media outlet, more whorish than most, but still only one outlet. Other places I have visited were explicit in pointing out the farcical nature of Cruz’s performance art project – and a few accurately addressed the Cruz/Davis comparison.

    Pearls, fainting couches, and smelling salts may all be safely put away.

  90. 90.

    Keith G

    @raven: My Dad was in a unit of Army engineers. That group Went from Africa to Sicily, then Italy, then England, and then Normandy. His stories never followed the plot of most popular movies of the day. Confusion and breakdown were a constant factor. I think an uncanny ability to “make do” by many at the lower ranks was so important in those early days.

    I really wish he had been a writer.

  91. 91.

    Elizabelle

    @G Martin:

    Hello there. Thoroughly enjoyed reading General Stuck’s take on the current insanity, and his photos, and miss him here. Hope all is well with you and with Charley.

    My condolences on the loss of your wonderful brother.

  92. 92.

    g

    If Mr. Podhoretz can’t makes sense out of the distinction between a real filibuster and a grandstanding stunt, he should hang up his pundit gloves.

  93. 93.

    YellowJournalism

    Basically: Wendy Davis started a sit-in for her cause. Ted Cruz wore a special color ribbon on his tuxedo.

  95. 95.

    RaflW

    @TG Chicago:
    And to extend my comment: My tone was wrong, but my exasperation was real. That Cole, Mataconis, Johnathan Bernstein and Ezra Klein, among others, felt the need to even discuss how much and how nicely the media discussed Ted Cruz makes my head asplode.

  96. 96.

    chopper

    Because Cruz was merely grandstanding in an attempt to shut down the whole fucking government over helping poor people get healthcare.

    Jesus, Cruz even ended up voting with everyone else to end debate. Fucker couldn’t even scrape up enough balls to cough up a protest vote.

    He’s no Wendy Davis.

  97. 97.

    Jay C

    And also: what “ecstatic coverage” of Wendy Davis’s Texas filibuster are they referring to? Daily Kos, maybe: but outside of the portside blogosphere, I don’t recall much “mainstream” media coverage: except after-the-fact, and then mainly in the context of Texas’s “stealth” attack on reproductive rights. Moreover, IIRC, Sen. Davis came up with the idea for her filibuster pretty much at the last minute: she didn’t (unlike Ottawa Ted) spend a couple of weeks blathering away about it to anyone who’d listen, and trying to drum up media interest.

    And BTW, wasn’t the Senate vote for cloture 100-0 (including even Cruz)? That’s a weird one: all hundred Senators aren’t even usually present, still less voting unanimously….

  98. 98.

    eemom

    @G Martin:

    Hi, Sister of General Stuck. Very glad to see you.

    Your brother was a great guy and a good friend to me, and many others, on this blog. I miss him a lot.

    Hope we will see you again!

  101. 101.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @G Martin: We miss the General very much. That was a terribly sad day. Please join our conversations now and then, and let us know how that sweet Charlie is doing.

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