Notorious characters whose spectacular crimes dash their siblings’ career aspirations are nothing new. Just ask Chef Jaffrey Dahmer, rejected by every steakhouse in Milwaukee. Or pilot Brohammad Atta, banned from cockpits worldwide. Or fund manager Bennie Madoff, sadly unable to attract a single investor.
Politico reports that we can add another pathetic name to that roster of siblings whose ambitions were tanked by their fuckup brothers:
Of course, world-historical failure GWB doesn’t acknowledge that his massive fuckups are an albatross around Jebbie’s neck — he attributes it to the specter of “enough Bushes,” which is a species of humble-brag if you unpack it. Still, the inadvertent sabotage to Jeb’s career might turn out to be the only righteous piece of collateral damage GWB ever caused.
Open thread.
Calouste
Unfortunately George’s career aspirations weren’t stymied by Neil’s fuckups with Silverado S&L.
Jebediah, RBG
Anyone else see the Replacements last night?
OzarkHillbilly
Heh.
BGinCHI
Pardon the interruption so that we can laugh at this asshole:
My novel has outsold his book….
Tree With Water
Jeb also fits the bill of the proverbial army commander, as perceived by his insightful enemy: ‘Yes, he brought a fine army with him. Luckily, he also brought himself”. RIP, Terry Schiavo.
SatanicPanic
Is the Atlantic trolling DougJ? How NPR Tote Bags Became a Thing
Calouste
@BGinCHI: Would be interesting to know what the initial print run was for that book. If Harper expected it to sell like they thought when they gave the advance, it should have been at least 100,000. If it was legal bribery, it probably would be a lot less.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I guess it was inevitable, given the short memories of the American people and the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of the Beltway media, that Bush and his team of inept of dishonst clowns would undergo some degree of rehabilitation, but as cynical as I am, I still can’t quite grok that not only is Jeb Bush a viable presidential candidate, but he and Li’l Marco and even Walker and Christie to some extent are explicitly running on a neocon platform.
Aleta
BC, your writing always takes my breath in one way or another —- lately the hilarity just keeps on ensuing …….
Turgidson
Ah, while we’ve had to listen to BushCo apologists explain how Iraq and various other Bush-created atrocities were examples of Republicans being “wrong, for the right reasons” while of course, libtards and DFHs were, at best, right for the wrong reasons, we have W flipping it and saying something, for once, that is factually accurate, but for the wrong reasons. Obviously W is a liability for Jeb because he was such a titanic fuckup. But since he made it through his term without ever admitting to a single mistake made in his eight year reign of error, he wasn’t likely to start now.
Sad that this, such as it is, qualifies as a refreshing bit of candor for the Bush Crime Syndicate.
Amir Khalid
Betty, I have a sneaking suspicion that you made up the name Brohammad Atta.
Archon
GWB doesn’t seem like the most self-aware guy to ever sit in the Oval office, still it doesn’t take a lot of introspection to figure out why he haven’t been invited to the last two Republican conventions.
Bush knows he’s very unpopular, he might think it unfair, but he knows.
Roger Moore
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
They may have neocon foreign policy as part of their platform, but it’s not the main thing they’re selling. Their basic platform is based on racist domestic policy. The racist foreign policy is just along for the ride.
gogol's wife
I was talking today to a local woman, very intelligent but not terribly tuned into political news. I mentioned that Hillary was running, and she seemed to know about that. Then I said, “So I guess it will be her against Jeb Bush.” She said, “WHA-A-A-A-T?” I said, you know, George W. Bush’s brother. She said, “Isn’t he just like a total imbecile, even stupider than his brother?” I said, “No, he’s smarter, it’s just that name ‘Jeb’ that makes you think so. But that isn’t really his name anyway.” At any rate, she was shocked and horrified to hear there was a danger of another President Bush.
srv
You people vastly underestimate what contributions the Bush Family has left to bestow on this world.
scav
@BGinCHI: While I certainly wish to congratulate you (and do so), I will admit to worrying that’s not exactly the bar of comparison I should be using. Too low, in multiple senses of the word?
JustRuss
@gogol’s wife: I don’t get the “Jeb is the smart one” meme. While he doesn’t have the same deer-in-the-headlights stare W sports sometimes, he has his own riff on it. It’s true that he doesn’t mangle individual words in the special way that W does, but he does seem to have a problem stringing them together coherently when he’s not on script. I concede that smarter-than-W is a low bar, but I’m not sure Jeb clears it.
chopper
@Amir Khalid:
he was just like mohammed atta, only much more fratty.
sharl
A good and timely post, Ms. Cracker. Dubya’s pathetic behavior and performance while in the White House also seriously damaged the business sector where I once had a promising career.
….Sharl S. Sharlson,
…….former Sales Manager, Mid-Atlantic Region
…..Tasty Crunchy Pretzels, LLC
schrodinger's cat
Isn’t it sad that Jeb is one of the less clownish inhabitants of the GOP Clown bus.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@JustRuss: somebody was riffing somewhere the other day that Marco can’t take a punch. I get the same vibe about Jeb. And in teh clip I saw of his remarks to the NRA, he reminded me of his father trying to pretend to like pork rinds and the Oak Ridge Boys
and speaking of clips: It wasn’t till TDSWJS showed it that I saw Marco cracking himself up with his “like it’s 1999” line. What a fucking tool.
BGinCHI
@scav: A big 6 figure advance would sure take the sting away….
Cacti
@JustRuss:
Jeb is less accomplished in his adult life than George W.
Just let that sink in for a moment.
opiejeanne
I have been a bit out of the loop recently, dealing with my husband’s injured back/pinchednerve/you’re68andnot Superman/don’tpickthatupbyyourself, physical therapy, doctor’s visits, running herd on him and the cat so that neither injures him further.
Anyway, did someone on the right say something shitty about Hilary’s father yesterday or the day before? I got a hint of something like that from a friend who is already in meltdown over the upcoming election, but he’s not answering my question.
Bobby Thomson
@JustRuss: when Jeb first ran for governor he had the entitled frat boy douche thing even worse than Junior.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@opiejeanne: his headstone in Scranton was knocked over, I haven’t heard more than that, if it’s been confirmed it was deliberate or if they know who did it
Mike J
@opiejeanne: Desecrated his tombstone.
opiejeanne
@BGinCHI: What’s the name of your book? I’ve read books by other writers who post here and I’d like to read yours.
Hillary Rettig
Could we invite this guy here as a guest blogger or something:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/04/watch-terrified-tea-party-patriot-realizes-he-could-lose-obamacare-if-gop-wins-in-2016/
Amir Khalid
@opiejeanne:
Someone knocked over the headstone on Hugh Rodham‘s grave. Nobody knows who did it.
Trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
¡Heb! spoke at the NRA convention? That alone should automatically disqualify someone from public office. Any office. He might as well join the ISIS board of directors.
Still pondering the last “Justified” episode, which I finally saw last night. Great series ending or greatest series ending? Am so going to miss that show.
Botsplainer
A good debate moderator would ask him about his relationship with Randall Terry while hanging Terry quotes around his neck like lead bling.
gene108
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Neocon foreign policy = Republican foreign policy.
There is no difference now.
Maybe a generation ago there may have been a difference, but Bush, Jr. staffed his Cabinet full of Neo-Cons. Now every foreign policy wonk in the GOP is a neo-con, and the senior ones did time in the Bush & Co. Neo-Con Factory, in Washington, DC from 2001 – 2009.
opiejeanne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Thanks. That was it. My friend mentioned that his grave had been desecrated.
Botsplainer
@Trollhattan:
Loved that ending – it was perfect.
According to what I read, the actors had a great deal of influence on the development of the storyline over the years.
We intend to start over this year on it, it was so good.
Shell
Looks like Lindsey Graham is having his usual unique brand of chest-thumping/pants-wetting over recent events.
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a34404/huckleberry-gets-his-gun/
Splitting Image
Don’t forget that one of the reasons George W. was as big a cock-up as he was is that he hired a raft of Jeb’s cronies from the “Project For the New American Century”, of which Jeb was a member, not George W.
Jeb currently has most of these same cronies on staff as foreign policy advisors, and I have a shiny new quatloo for anyone who can guess what they will be advising should Jeb get elected.
Trollhattan
@Botsplainer:
Am in a similar boat, having joined the fun with season #2. I need to circle back to catch #1, which will doubtless have me watching the entire run and catching a million “a-ha” moments. They seemed to tie a twine bow on nearly everything, which is quite a feat considering the cumulative complexity.
ranchandsyrup
BUSH KEPT US SAFE!
NO I DO NOT KNOW WHAT SPECIOUS REASONING IS OR WHY I AM YELLING.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Trollhattan: @Botsplainer: I had a couple of issues with the set-up for the final confrontation, but that show has earned some suspension of disbelief. Mags Bennett and Arlo Givens alone would have earned it for them.
bemused
@Cacti:
GW was able to exude an air of redneck charisma or at least enough to look like someone republicans thought “understood” them. Jeb doesn’t have that “talent”.
Brachiator
@Turgidson:
Where is this nonsense coming from? Does anyone seriously believe it?
No one connects Jeb to George’s administration. At least, no one sane. Jeb was never an adviser or cabinet member. He certainly wasn’t responsible for Bush foreign policy.
And if anyone wants to play the family connection card, then it obviously is a way of lining up an indirect dig against Hillary, who was, you know, married to a president with a load of baggage.
Must be a slow news week.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Jeb has a lot of problems and his brother isn’t even close to the worst one.
A staggering lack of charisma and a wife so crazy she cannot be brought out in public are the two big ones I see at the moment.
However, Money will pave over all these problems and he will be the GOP nominee. Then we will have the most boring, and likely the lowest turnout, presidential election in history.
bemused
@Splitting Image:
I immediately thought of PNAC when I read that Rubio’s campaign theme is New American Century. Coincidence?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@CONGRATULATIONS!: ???
His wife? The only thing I remember is some kerfluffle involving customs. I think she bought some jewelry in the Carribean and didn’t declare it or something? What’s the story?
Betty Cracker
@Trollhattan: I tried to watch it because several people around here were highly complimentary of it, but I just couldn’t get into “Justified.” It struck me as a more nuanced, smarter version of “Dirty Harry” — an improvement, to be sure, but not my thing.
That said, naturally I have no clue how the series ending stacks up against others. But for my money, it would be hard to top the last 10 minutes of “Six Feet Under” for a series finale.
Trollhattan
@Brachiator:
So much arrant miscalculation in one brief post. It’s like concentrated detergent, only made of fail.
Mary G
Where has mistermix been? Did I miss a post about him quitting or taking time off?
jake the antisoshul soshulist
I am trying to figure out who is who. If you assume that Neil is Fredo, is Jeb Sonny or Micheal? But then, W has aspects of Fredo. Imperfect analogies are imperfect
.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: unfortunately you had to wallow through a couple of bad seasons to get to that SFU finale, IMHO. They even managed to make Rachel Griffiths’ character boring.
I really like the Breaking Bad finale, too.
boatboy_srq
@Brachiator: BC and I should probably collaborate on how the converse (JEB was an asset to Shrub) is true. Shrub was not summarily drummed out of office in ’04 in no small part due to JEB’s sidestepping FEMA Shrubbery during the ’04 hurricane season. FL took on the brunt of the recovery itself, and while it accepted FEMA assistance kept control of that assistance instead of letting FEMA
run amokmanage the relief and recovery operations. Had that not happened, we’d be talking about Charlie/Frances/Ivan/Jeannie in the same manner we now talk about Katrina, and the ’04 election would have been a No Confidence vote instead of a Swiftboat outing.Betty Cracker
@Brachiator: Wrong for two reasons: 1) Jeb Bush’s advisors are the same damn people his brother relied on in his disastrous administration, and 2) even if #1 weren’t the case, shockingly, voters don’t always careful analyze policy differences and influences but rather vote with gut feelings, such as “I’ll vote for GWB because John Kerry is too French!”
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Agreed about the shaky SFU seasons AND the Breaking Bad finale, which was also great.
Trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
Hard to compare the two but I have great regard for both. Each ending honored those main characters who had survived the entire story arc while mocking our expectations with something wholly better and more satisfying.
Of the two shows, I wonder which had the bigger body count?
Having watched all of SFU in sequence and most of Justified, I do think the latter had the more consistent run. For me, SFU flagged somewhat from what is was the first couple seasons, which were simply phenomenal. And they never had Mags Bennett.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
But we don’t know if this is actually popular. Granted, they love it but that’s all but meaningless. They also love cutting Social Security and privatizing Medicare.
I’m a little surprised, myself- it seems like a gift. Can we get that lucky?
Bostondreams
New Star Wars Teaser just made me squee. At work. Again and again.
Brachiator
@JustRuss:
Well, for one thing, Jeb graduated Phi Beta Kappa. How ’bout you?
Now, I absolutely detest Jeb, but it is just dopey to ignore his assets or his appeal to his constituents. This is how we got his asswipe brother as president. And as a wise man once said, ‘Fool me once, shame on … shame on you. Fool me… You can’t get fooled again!'”
sharl
@Botsplainer:
A great idea, though the debate moderator’s employer – likely a big media company that is part of a bigger corporate conglomerate – will probably see to it that such frank questioning never happens.
However, if a debate moderator does this noble and professional deed, they should also bring up Terri Schiavo. Lots of folks who’ve had to deal with a dying loved one will easily relate to the hell Michael Schiavo went through. What he did to Schiavo should be thrown in JEB!‘s face at every opportunity.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
What do we have so far, from them? Invade Iran and make people work until they’re 69 before they collect their tiny Social Security retirement stipend?
There are so many of them. I could see a bunch of bad ideas, even, but just two bad ideas?
BGinCHI
@opiejeanne: When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed. Available on Amazon and anywhere else fine books are sold.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay: a gift except for events, dear friends, events! There was a spike in support for a re-invasion of Iraq after one of the ISIS porn videos. I suspect it’s gone back down, but I think ISIS panic cost the Dems at least two Senate seats, CO and NC. I’m afraid it wouldn’t take much to scare people into voting for ‘tough’ if it were close to the election.
My memory’s a little vague on this, but Bin Laden released a video not long before the ’04 election, and there was an internet story (so FWIW) that some reporters were watching it and one said something like, “I guess he wants Bush to win”, and all the reporters agreed, though nobody would say such a thing in VSP settings. The neo-cons and AQ/ISIS want a hot war, and I suspect the latter know how to exploit that coincidence of wants.
On social security and Medicare, I do wonder if Christie hasn’t done Dems a big favor by blundering in to this issue. I think he’s toast, but he may have forced this issue into the Republican primary debates, which might well give Hillary some great commercials.
sharl
@Mary G: I’ve been wondering myself where mistermix is. I kinda-sorta thought I remembered him saying that real life demands would be impacting his activity here, but a quick scan of his most recent posts – the last one on March 13 – doesn’t reveal that kind of statement.
So, dunno…
WereBear
@Betty Cracker: I love it, but I can only binge watch 2 episodes without taking a break.
The criminals remind me too much of high school :)
Cervantes
@Calouste:
200,000 copies.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I mis-remembered. It wasn’t reporters, from Ron Suskind’s The One Percent Doctrine:
Eric U.
@ranchandsyrup: my boss always said that “Bush kept us safe”, even though he’s probably a communist at heart (Bengali), and would never vote for a republican. My answer was always, how about 9/11 and anthrax? “well, besides that”
gene108
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
IF the media decides to get people pissing in their pants scared, then the only RESPONSIBLE THING TO DO is to adopt the Neo-Con strategy.
When I’m scared, I bomb someone…anyone…before they bomb me…
This seems to be our default setting right now.
There’s nothing Republicans can do that will hurt them, and I include slaughtering babies on live television to appease “Job Creators”.
@Bostondreams:
I want to believe Ep. VII will live up to my dreams, but after Ep. I-III, I am very cautious in my hopes.
Amir Khalid
@gene108:
Well, they’ve gotten it away from George Lucas, which has to be a hopeful sign.
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
BFD. The neo-con goon squad is a conservative rat pack and permanent shadow cabinet that gloms onto all the Republican contenders. This is NOT the same thing as saying that Jeb himself was connected to the Bush administration. Hell, in the popular imagination, Dick Cheney was co-president for foreign policy.
The public does not see Obama as an extension of Bill Clinton, even though a number of Clintonites ended up working for or advising Obama.
And if you are going to try to play that “voters are dumb” game, then the obvious retort is that they are going to vote for Hillary because they loved Bill.
Jeb has his problems, but this “crap by association” is not one of them. Balloon Juicers should be too smart to fall for this kind of okey doke.
schrodinger's cat
@Brachiator: We got W because of the Florida recount, courtesy Jeb Bush. If Bush was not the governor, may be all the votes would have been counted in the first place.
Frankensteinbeck
@BGinCHI:
I treasure the memory of booting Bill O’Reilly’s Jesus book off the #1 children’s book slot on Amazon.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
To Republicans, which includes the traditional news media, George Bush was right about everything and his only sin was to be made fun of publicly. In this post-apocalyptic black president world, little things like George’s wrongness being undeniable no longer matter. His correct positions on crushing poor/black people, invading any country that looks at us funny, saying God gives him his orders, and cowboy swagger must be brought back.
Turgidson
@Brachiator:
Jeb is connecting himself to W’s administration himself by lining up his old gang of braindead neocon thugs as his foreign policy team. And advocating for another round of tax cuts for the rich. And so on. GWB’s approval rating has recovered because for once in his life he did the smart thing and shut the fuck up after he left office. Not because people have decided he was a good president after all.
Sure, Bill and Hillary have baggage. They also have Bill’s record of 8 years of almost nonstop peace and prosperity, which, conveniently for HRC’s campaign, was followed up by 8 years of nonstop fail. Bill’s administration’s weaknesses are in areas the Republicans won’t attack because they were leading the charge – welfare reform, Glass-Steagal repeal, Telecom Act, etc.
To whatever extent this race takes into account the records of Clintons vs. Bushes (and knowing the Village, this will be an element of the race because they’re lazy dipshits), that’s such an epic fail for the GOP it almost defies comprehension. And the GOP’s efforts to paint Obama as some sort of failed president will go even worse this time than it did in 2012, unless there’s a serious economic stumble or conflagration next summer.
But that’s just like, my opinion, man.
Hal
Completely off topic, but the new Star Wars trailer has made me giddy all over again. Now if only the movie is as good.
BGinCHI
@Frankensteinbeck: That is an honor on top of an honor.
Betty Cracker
@Brachiator: If every Republican chooses the same goons to run foreign policy (and I think that’s true to a large extent but even MORE so in BushCo), it’s a legitimate connection that voters who bother to inform themselves before voting should weigh. Ditto domestic policy.
And yes, to the extent Obama chose Clinton retreads to run some aspects of his administration, it was a connection that was the topic of discussion among people who realized that — right here, in fact (Summers, Emmanuel, et al), and the same will be true of HRC.
Whether you personally think it’s legitimate or not, obviously the close respective familial relationships between the Bushes and the Clintons will be a factor to many voters. Some will welcome the “Clinton Restoration” while others will dread it. Some will refuse to vote for Jeb because his brother was a giant fuckup, while approximately 27% will see it as a vindication. It’s just delusional to deny that it will be a factor.
gene108
@Turgidson:
Hell Bush, Jr. wanted to appoint one of the higher up Iran-Contra flunkies to a senior position in his Administration. Only when some protests of letting a criminal into the Administration became loud enough was the flunkie dropped.
Botsplainer
@Trollhattan:
Mags and Arlo chewed up the scenery every time they appeared. It’s as if they were born to play those characters.
As to the show overall, though, the star wasn’t Raylan. It was Boyd, the villain who did really shitty things to people who didn’t always deserve it, but who you rooted for anyway because you knew what he was deep down AND you wanted to see him succeed. Reality though, was that even if he’d gotten away with Markham’s 10 mil, it wouldn’t have been enough – there would always be new schemes. As Raylan said somewhere around Episode 1, Season 1, the thing that drives Boyd is stealing things and blowing shit up.
Chris
@JustRuss:
Generalizing for a moment from the Bushes to the entire Republican candidate field. My problem with Republican candidates has never been about whether they’re “smart,” so much as how proudly ignorant and intellectually incurious they are and how much they wear it as a badge of pride. It’s not even that they’re incapable of learning things, just completely uninterested in doing so.
I don’t really care, for example, that Herman Cain can’t name the President of Uzbekistan. I care a great deal that he considers it a meaningless factoid that his “nothing longer than three pages!” mind thinks it’s appropriate to cite as an example of something that only eggheads, nerds and gotcha journalists would ever care about.
In that respect, pretty much the entire party is on the same plane for me. The anti-intellectual streak in their base demands it.
Brachiator
@boatboy_srq:
You don’t seriously think that Bush really came close to being drummed out of office, do you? Really? Wow.
While your backgrounder to the hurricane fiasco would no doubt make for some very interesting reading, and be very insightful, I have a feeling that the political analysis would not be up to snuff.
germy shoemangler
@Hal: Trailers can break your heart. Sometimes they’re so much better than the final film.
Batman v. Superman trailer is coming out, at least a teaser. The first teaser was Batman summoning the Man of Steel with his bat signal (?) and the two of them glaring at each other with glowing eyes.
Wonder Woman makes an appearance in this new one, I believe. And Aquaman is being played by Jason Momoa.
...now I try to be amused
@sharl:
Yes. Abusing the power of the state to side with the in-laws from Hell is something that’s close to home for almost everyone.
schrodinger's cat
@Chris: Don’t forget their loud and proud anti-science stance as well. They are the no nothings of our era.
ETA: It is OK not to know something but they are ignorant and proud of it.
BGinCHI
@Betty Cracker: The dirtiest secret in national politics is that voting for the Prez is the least of what you get. With an administration you get a raft of people who are going to manage all of our lives way more than the person at the top.
schrodinger's cat
@Chris: Don’t forget their loud and proud anti-science stance as well. They are the no nothings of our era.
ETA: It is OK not to know something but they are ignorant and proud of it.
Botsplainer
@germy shoemangler:
http://www.tickld.com/x/the-difference-between-dc-and-marvel-this-is-priceless
Chris
@schrodinger’s cat:
Exactly. That’s pretty much my beef with their entire party. At the end of the day, all of us are ignorant of most things (the universe is so constructed that human beings can never even come close to learning everything, even if we’re limited to things we already know). There’s no shame in that. Refusing to listen to people who’ve made it their life’s work to study a certain task, though (be it climate science or biology or Middle Eastern politics), that really does make you a horse’s ass.
Chris
@Bostondreams:
Much as I think good franchises should be left in peace, and though I kind of miss the old expanded universe these movies are sweeping aside… The sight of Han Solo alone guarantees that I’ll go see it.
Hopefully, will enjoy it more than I did Crystal Skull.
germy shoemangler
@Botsplainer: very good!
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
It’s obviously not scientific, but I have a working class and middle class practice and the overwhelming consensus among my people is they are really nervous and anxious about their economic future.
I think one could run a presidential campaign on “I won’t take anything more away from you” and win.
Are they insane? They really want to discuss cutting Social Security with people who think they have no security, at all?
raven
@Kay: Sure they do, as long as they keep making the scared people believe that someone is taking what it theirs.
germy shoemangler
@Chris: Chewie hasn’t aged a day.
Amir Khalid
Speaking of movies, Dakota Johnson’s grandmother made a memorable animal-themed one many years ago. No, not Birds — Roar. I just watched the trailer and found myself wondering, WTF was Tippi Hedren thinking?
Chris
@germy shoemangler:
Well, he was 200 years old in the OT :)
gene108
@Chris:
Bush, Jr. got stumped on a similar question, in 2000, about the head of an another country. It was a bit of news, but I think the interviewer did not follow it up with a shrewd follow up to actually figure out how clueless George, Jr. was/is.
I think that sort of thing was one reason he tapped Cheney to be his V.P. with foreign policy experience.
Botsplainer
@germy shoemangler:
I just like how it very nearly tracked your post word for word. Batman/Superman fight, Wonder Woman cameo.
Have you been to Superdickery?
http://www.superdickery.com/
The original site was more easily navigated, but the base theme was that Superman is a dick, Batman mentally ill, and that the relationship between Bruce Wayne and his ward, Dick Grayson was, well, um….
germy shoemangler
@Amir Khalid: I just watched the trailer and found myself wondering, WTF was Tippi Hedren thinking?
I remember seeing interviews where she said Hitch sabotaged her career because she wouldn’t give herself to him. She believed she never had the career she was hoping for because roles weren’t available.
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
The half of one percent of voters who think that they have informed themselves by considering this won’t mean a thing in the elections. And sadly, most voters do not care and will never care about which neo-con fools are advising any candidate. They may get distracted by the shiny medals of whatever generals and admirals pop up to slobber over a candidate, but that’s about it.
You are shifting the terms of the discussion, but that’s cool. That familial relationships will be a factor in the election is true, but trivial. But this is still a long, long way from any idea that any voters will see Jeb and George as twin turds or that the Bush administration will be some kind of albatross dropped onto Jeb. Nobody sees a “close connection” between the two. Well, nobody sober or who is not absorbed with the fantasies of the Beltway.
This might apply to maybe 6 voters, but three of these people will be on drugs, and the rest will be off their medication.
But this is one of those things that we don’t have to speculate about. We will soon see how it plays out.
Trollhattan
@schrodinger’s cat:
Wait until ¡Heb! and Teddy Cruz are in the same place at the same time, with their best-eddycashuns-money-can-buy, and then just watch the room’s cumulative IQ plunge. It will frighten the children.
germy shoemangler
@Botsplainer: It has been argued that Batman could use his vast fortune to address the root causes of crime in Gotham City, but others say Wayne Enterprises does so. The deeper we dig into costumed crusaders, the more bizarre the whole thing becomes.
Trollhattan
CA Dems decide to make their convention not as boring as usual.
Betty Cracker
@Brachiator:
Says you. I say you’re truly, deeply and obviously wrong. But as you say, time will tell.
socraticsilence
@Brachiator:
Um…seriously? I’m missing sarcasm here right? Because Jeb has many of W’s foreign policy team on board, he even brought in freaking Wolfowitz.
Trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
This one’s a bit thick. Just sayin’.
Bush’s very mention draws shudders six+ years hence, and surely will come November 2016. An albatross fashioned of depleted uranium.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
MSNBC is announcing that Harry Reid is going to force a vote on Loretta Lynch. Anybody know how? I do have a soft spot for that wily old codger
Turgidson
@Brachiator:
Why do you say this? Honest question.
They’re brothers. W was president within the memories of all eligible voters and a lot of shit, almost all bad, happened. It will factor into some voters’ decisions. Maybe not an election-swinging number, but some. What makes you think otherwise?
I agree that Jeb hiring a bunch of neocon fools for foreign policy advice doesn’t matter right now, particularly given that all the GOPers other than Rand are doing the same, but it’ll make it easier for opposing candidates or the media to make that connection down the road, and harder for Jeb to say, in effect, “George W. Bush? Never heard of him. Let’s talk about real issues.”
Bush was hung around McCain’s neck in 2008. Gore ran largely away from Clinton to avoid this in 2000. Every losing Democratic candidate since 2008 goes to bed blaming Obama for the loss. And you’re saying a candidate’s own ex-president brother won’t be tied to him? Based on what? I’m genuinely curious.
Brachiator
@Hal:
Oh, hell yes. The only weak bit for me was apparently putting Han back into his old clothes. This was too much like deliberate fan wank.
But the rest of it? Oh, man. Brought a tear to my eye. And I liked that we saw more of the new cast, because I do not want a dry hump nostalgia fest.
ranchandsyrup
@Eric U.: i have ppl that say that 9/11 is all Clinton’s boo boo still.
hoodie
I’ve always thought that GWB was the smarter one, Jeb is just the dutiful one that mom liked more. W struck me more as being an intellectually lazy asshole who cultivated an anti-intellectual aura, but really not all that dumb. Jeb comes across with the self-importance of people who have been told they’re smart when they’re actually kind of stupid but have never been tested to the point of revealing their lack of talent. That will be a bigger liability for him than W. Hillary is a helluva lot smarter, and he may not even get that far because some of the guys he’s running against are smarter and will tear him to shreds unless PTBs can step in and shield him.
J R in WV
@Betty Cracker:
I’m agreeing with Betty.
Brothers, same failed father, same evil mother, best difference is the George’s wife seems attractive and well mannered. J.E.B. seems crazed compared to George W. His wife must be a piece of work!
Brachiator
@Turgidson:
Because Jeb wasn’t in the cabinet, wasn’t an adviser. It is not like JFK and RFK. “They were brothers.” And so? Hell, Hillary and Bill obviously have a closer connection. Bill even ran as “you vote for me, you’re getting Hillary.” Does this worry or bother you?
Yeah, it’s a “factor.” This means nothing, and attempts to quantify it just make people look stupid.
The neocon goon squad are the official amen corner of the Republican party. They were around before Bush looking for influence, and even though they should have been dragged out into the open and hanged, they will be around peddling the same BS forever. But voters don’t care. They don’t even care when some of these clowns, like John Bolton, get government jobs.
Also, keep in mind that the Republicans have never admitted to their foreign policy disasters, and many voters refuse to think too deeply on this. It comes down to simple nonsense about boots on the ground vs bringing the troops home. And the GOP tack will be “Obama and Clinton are weak or naive. Benghazi. Our enemies don’t fear us. Netanyahu. Obama loves Muslims. Benghhazi. Hillary is a woman. Oil. Our allies don’t trust us. Dick Cheney.” It will not be “neocon stooges sunk us into a disaster and destabilized the Middle East.”
The Iron Circle was Bush and Cheney. And even here, the GOP faithful still love Cheney. This might even end up being good for Jeb. But all Republicans will have to take the neocon pledge. It is not a special burden nor does it create a special connection for Jeb.
It might be interesting to see if any other putative GOP contender comes up with an alternate slate of advisers who are not neocons. But I don’t see this happening, not even with Rand Paul.
Bottom line. The GOP, all of it, are married to the neocons. It is not anything that especially links Jeb and George. Except in the mind of some Balloon Juicers.
Every example you cite is about a POLITICAL connection. You have answered your own question about the pointlessness of insisting on a special familial connection. Congratulations.
Spike
Loved Justified, even though I never got used to the dusty hills of California pretending to be the hollers of my ancestral homeland.
WaterGirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Steve Benen had an article on this today, but it’s long on Harry Reid bravado and short on details.
Brachiator
@hoodie:
Not quite. And feel free to disagree with me, as everyone is doing.
Jeb was smart. Jeb is smart. Jeb is the Phi Beta Kappa guy who not only speaks Spanish fluently, but who taught Spanish. Dubya is the doofus who barely speaks a recognizable version of English.
But George was the older brother, and he had that special approval that a first born son often gets. I noted to friends at the time that Bush would do well in the presidential debates against Gore and would not be intimidated by Gore’s intellect or grasp of the issues, because to Dubya, Gore was just like Jeb. Smarter, but younger, and hence weaker. Dubya did not have Texas cowboy swagger. He had the confidence of the crown prince who is secure of his position in the hierarchy.
Shakti
@Brachiator:
Call me nuts then. Jeb Bush was governor of Florida when they had the recount shenanigans, and I’m just not going to believe that Jeb was neutral and did nothing when his brother was running for president.
To me he’s responsible for Bush being in office as much as the Supreme Court justices who owe their appointments to his father. Jeb was instrumental in getting the guy that let 9/11 happen into office. I will NEVER forgive it or forget it.
I did voter protection during the 2012 early voting and election day. I consider it a personal fucking victory in spite of the voter obstruction and stupid id rules, that douchebag Romney was not able to get Florida’s electoral college votes.
Anyone that shrieks about Hillary and nepotism and doesn’t mention Jeb is stupid beyond belief. What little I know of Jeb the person apart from his brother is enough to make me not vote for him (Schiavo).
geg6
@Brachiator:
You do realize that being Phi Beta Kappa is no guarantee of brilliance. Hell, I’m Phi Beta Kappa and I don’t claim I’m all that smart about anything other than knowing how to do well in an academic setting.
And I don’t know anyone, Democrat, Republican or Independent, who doesn’t link Jeb! to Shrub. No one. Nada.
Tom Q
@Brachiator: I think you’re wrong as wrong can be, and I’m just amazed you’re so cocksure of yourself about it.
George W. Bush left office the most unpopular president since the dawn of polling — 28%. That’s ten points under what George McGovern got in ’72. You truly think, 8 years later, voters are going to hear the name “Bush” and not go “aaargh!!!”. Maybe you think Herbert Hoover’s brother running in 1940 wouldn’t have given anyone pause?
And your analogy to Hillary is equally weird. Bill Clinton offers as wide a contrast as possible: leaving office the MOST popular president in modern polling history. If voters have any family association — and the numbers suggest they do — it’s wildly in Hillary’s favor, as in “Give me some more of that”.
This isn’t to say any election is in the bank. The state of the economy about 15 months from now will play a great role in how 2016 turns out. But the idea that JEB’s association with an incredibly unpopular president (one who, by the way, was initially foisted on the public as a family legacy) will be a totally neutral factor seems bizarre to me, and your insistence anyone who disagrees is some sort of political naif seems misplaced.
Brachiator
@Shakti: I never said that Jeb was neutral. I presume that he helped his brother get elected. If this makes you link the two, more power to you.
Will voters tie Jeb to Dubya’s policies? Nope. Jeb was not in the Bush White House.
Will voters tie Hillary to Bill’s policies? Probably to some extent. She was in the White House and exploited those ties when she ran in 2008. Will this make a big difference? I don’t know, nor do I think it fair if people make that connection.
And note that I absolutely detest Bush much more over the Schiavo mess than because of any help that he gave towards his brother’s election.
But that’s just me. Your mileage may vary.
Brachiator
@Tom Q:
I think that this is a special Balloon Juicer fantasy that is good for amen blogging. I don’t think it represents political reality.
And you know what? We will easily see whether or not I am wrong. But this is just inside baseball political trivia for now. Idle chatter before the election season really begins.
Voters would be equally stupid equating Hillary with Bill as they would be in equating Jeb with Dubya. First Lady is not a constitutional office.
I said that the Bush name will be a factor. BFD. Any attempt to quantify it is a waste of time. The insistence that there is some automatic close association between Jeb and the Bush Administration is wishful thinking.
Brachiator
@geg6:
I said that the notion that Jeb must be an idiot like his brother is a dumb idea. We can dispute the value of Phi Beta Kappa all day long, but I will bet that most people respect it and even political Balloon Juicers did not know this about Bush.
But as you note, you don’t claim to be all that smart about anything other than knowing how to do well in an academic setting.
Turgidson
@Brachiator:
And there’s no POLITICAL connection between two brothers, who are sons of a president, governors of large states, and one brother was a president? All hailing from the same party and espousing mostly identical ideologies? No political connection there? How?
Thanks? But no, I didn’t answer my own question at all. Neither did you, but thanks for the response nevertheless.
hoodie
@Brachiator: Phi Beta Kappa means jack in politics. George is far smarter politically than Jeb. Your Gore analogy is apt. For such a smart guy, Gore sure was a political idiot, ran away from a popular president because of a meaningless affair and made Joe Lieberman his running mate to compound that error. George is just intellectually lazy because, as you point out, he’s to the manor born and doesn’t feel any need to prove he’s smart. Obama is a guy who is intellectually active and politically adept, which is why he’s a singular talent. So is Bill Clinton. I think Hillary probably is too – I hope. Anyway, I agree that the effect of W on Jeb’s chances is likely marginal, because he has bigger problems than that.
boatboy_srq
@Brachiator: Consider that the abysmal “Heckuva job” FEMA pulled in New Orleans in 2005 would instead have been done in 2004 – in Fort Myers, Orlando, Jacksonville and Pensacola. And all that ineptitude would have been visible three months before the election. But instead, FL owned that relief/recovery effort, and all the damage stayed out of the national news once the storms passed. To me, that’s JEB buying Shrub another four years. I got to drive through the FEMA trailer parks in Port Charlotte, Punta Gorda and Fort Myers for the next three years and see people living in the exact same conditions that Katrina evacuees were in at the same time – while the Katrina process was still in the national news and the Charlie process was conspicuously absent. Katrina coverage contributed to the ’06 results; imagine what a whole state’s worth of that kind of publicity would have done to ’04.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@hoodie: the question about the different kinds of intelligence interests me, especially applied to politics. Bill Clinton is certainly the best at interpersonal interaction, intuiting what people mean and what they need to hear– the best case the woman in that ’92 town hall debate who asked about the “deficit” and meant “crappy economy”. He also apparently has, or had, and encyclopedic knowledge of local politics. I think Hillary and Obama are very similar in a lot of regards, I think they both see far and see wide, maybe more of a strength of Obama’s
Cervantes
@Brachiator:
Per a recent poll in New Hampshire:
This is only New Hampshire, of course, and only at the moment — and it’s only Republicans.
Shakti
@Brachiator:
I never said that Jeb was neutral. I presume that he helped his brother get elected. If this makes you link the two, more power to you.
Will voters tie Jeb to Dubya’s policies? Nope. Jeb was not in the Bush White House.
People have collectively agreed to forget how the election went down. I realize that I’m exceptional because I never liked the man and went from that to hating his guts.
However, Dubya was so stinky that he was absent from the last two nominating conventions and the nominees were not seen anywhere near him. That’s bad for a supposedly popular two term president. Reagan spoke at the nominating convention; Bush elder was a one termer and spoke at the next convention.
Carter and Clinton are highly visible and have spoken at several nominating conventions. They are so active in the public eye.
Party nomination conventions are for the diehards (most people say they are independent now). If your two term president isn’t around, it doesn’t speak well for how popular they are with the “base”.
Matt McIrvin
@Brachiator:
No, because Bill Clinton is incredibly popular. Al Gore may have seen him as damaged goods in 2000, but that was already a mistake. These days, there’s a nostalgic halo surrounding the man. Lefties and people with lingering resentments over the 2008 primary may not see it that way, but Hillary Clinton would be wise to play up the connection.
Matt McIrvin
@Shakti: My worry is not that people won’t link Jeb to George W., it’s that something will happen that actually turns the connection into a positive. We’ve seen suggestions of that during the various flare-ups of panic over ISIS. Have a scary enough foreign adversary releasing bloody videos and threats, or an actual big terrorist attack, and the neocon invade-everybody program could actually become popular again, regardless of how Iraq turned out. These foreign attack threats affect people on a deep, pre-rational level.
opiejeanne
@BGinCHI: A friend just quoted that entire Whitman poem at me a couple of days ago. You named your book after the poem, and you’re Bradley Greenburg?
I will pick it up.