First, though, Woodward needed to establish order, because some actual human interaction had broken out between Gingrich and MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell over who had said what about the Clinton tax hikes back in 1993.
MR. GINGRICH: When we balanced the — when we balanced the budget, we balanced the budget with a tax cut not a tax — four consecutive balanced budgets with a tax cut, not a tax increase.
MR. O'DONNELL: A tiny tax cut compared to the biggest tax increase in history which is what Bill Clinton did. You didn't dismantle it.
(Cross talk)
MR. BOB WOODWARD: ...to re-litigate the 1990s.
Yes, because it takes a guy who steadily turns out gigantic doorstops full of establishment stenography to remind us that historical parallels are basically worthless because history basically ends and then starts again, like it's got carbureator trouble, and nothing in the past ever teaches us anything worth knowing now. Besides, there is the terror of The Cliff to confront.
And never more than when I try to watch a single one of the Sundays, let alone all of them, Jesus save me. I haven't made more than ten minutes in decades.
That's about what I managed this week with This Week, with a panel that included Paul Krugman and Mary Matlin, the political equivalent of a comedy panel including Louis C.K. and a drunken Greta van Susteren. Matlin responded to something Krugman said with "Are you an economist or a polemicist?" and, apparently because she'd been practicing it all week, used it six more times, a couple of times out loud before the rest were muttered under her breath.
I lasted until Stephanopoulos threatened to return to talk about the Court and gay marriage with the same bunch.
Here is what I learned. Maybe "learned" is overdoing it:
The last Presidential Press Secretary worth a shit was Bill Moyers.
Consider that Mary Matlin, David Gergen, James Carville, Stephanopoulos, Pat Buchanan, Bay Buchanan, Peggy Noonan, Diane Sawyer, and Dana Perino (!) once worked for U.S. Presidents.
Am I leaving out someone who could turn either list to gold?
If Krugman's on, I watch George Vowel-a-lot-alous's show.
ReplyDeleteHe really gets under George Will's skin.
I keep waiting for the good Doctor, with his small smile and that twinkle in his eye when he makes Will's pointless point look like the idiotic recitation of some moronic meme that it always is, for Will's bowtie to start spinning, lifting him off the ABC set like Mary Poppins in a business suit.
And THAT is the ONLY reason to watch any of the Sunday bloviation fests!!!
Unless you have a crush on one of the Repulicans who consider grazing in network Green Rooms to be a basic human right.
Hey Riley,
ReplyDeleteAre you part of the blankety blank liberal media that ultimately doomed Richard Mourdock? It couldn't possibly be because he's crazy, could it be?
I can't watch those shows because they are **** ( fill in the blank). However, I like these summaries.
ReplyDeletehttp://moonshinepatriot.blogspot.com/
Dee Dee Myers was okay, wasn't she?And she was the inspiration for C.J. Cregg, which is a plus.
ReplyDelete