Everyone is freaking out abuot Novak saying ‘Bullshit’ on the air, so I almost feel obligated to provide you with links to the videos. Crooks and Liars has it with a gathering of lefty commentary, and the Political Teen is on it from the right.
Bob Novak- uniter?
Personally, this rates somewhere between Janet Jackson’s nipple and shark attacks on my indifference-o-meter. Novak is probably in a downtown hotel bar swilling single malt scotch, smoking an expensive cigar, and telling old stories, but everyone seems to think this matters, so here is my post.
Steve
Nobody really cares that someone said “Bullshit” on TV. We just hate Bob Novak.
Mike
Speak for yourself, I was thinking the same about Carville, who’s act got tiresome somewhere around 1998.
Steve
The two are not mutually exclusive. But I was speaking only for the Left, since I don’t think the Right is exactly “freaking out.”
capelza
It’s not the saying “Bullshit” that I find so interesting, it’s the way he stormed off the set….:)
Nathan Lanier
Guys, think of the children watching inside politics. The children.
Glen
“It’s not the saying ‘Bullshit’ that I find so interesting, it’s the way he stormed off the stage.”
Agreed. He knew that he was going to be asked about the Plame affair; he’d had been notified in advance. So if we have Faux News, why not Faux Rage?
Transparent? As glass….
Stentor
If I ever see that guy in person, I’m going to call him a chickenshit, and a traitor to his face. Then I’m going to dare him to come push me down into the snow, like he did that old guy in New Hampshire last year during their primaries.
“Bring it on, Novakula”
John Cole
I dunno, looked to me like someone off stage behind and to the right told him to leave the stage. Who knows. Who cares?
albedo
The nickname “Novakula” makes me laugh.
CNN said he’s going to take a vacation.
MN Politics Guru
What did he expect, that he was going to be tossed softball questions? “Hey Bob, how about them Nationals?”
If you can’t stand the heat, don’t write columns that out undercover CIA agents.
Don Surber
Just like the Janet Jackson thing. I had it on, saw it and went back to playing on the Web.
I’ve seen Paul Sr. do even worse on “Orange County Choppers” But of course, that’s a better show
Faux Rage? Maybe. CNN is now getting beat by CNN Headline News
Is it just me or is Carville like a parody now of a man parodizing himself?
Don Surber
Oh and Glenn that “Faux News” thing is another reason libs blow it. They look at how words are spelled, not how they sound. Fox — short O. Faux — long O, no X
Just like when Kerry would say W stands for Wrong. No. Wrong begins with an R sound, not W
albedo
Well, that’s still “Foe News.” Not bad, and in any case, accurate.
I very much doubt that simple linguistics played that much of a role in the 2004 results. Or have you not ever heard George Bush speak extemporaneously?
Mike
“Nathan Lanier Says:
Guys, think of the children watching inside politics. The children.”
:))
Can’t believe no one gave you kudos for this, I thought it was hilarious.
But, then as my wife says, I’m easily amused.
But, it’s just not the children, think of anyone watching CNN how they’d be offended. Oh…what am I saying. No one WATCHES CNN…
Stormy70
I was going to say that exact thing. You sank my battleship! Bullshit is not a cuss word here in Texas, it’s a verb.
Bernard Yomtov
As Groucho would have it, Novak left in a huff because he couldn’t get a taxi.
rilkefan
I find it interesting because it is another datum, albeit a small one, that the Plame investigation is going badly for the admin generally and its unofficial components specifically.
Andrei
Fuck Bob Novak.
And mean that with all sincerity. I can’t wait to see what Jon Stweart does with this one. Should dedicate a whole show to this incident.
Mike
“rilkefan Says:
I find it interesting because it is another datum, albeit a small one, that the Plame investigation is going badly for the admin generally and its unofficial components specifically.”
I find it interesting that you find it interesting.
Now if Novak and Carville would have gotten into a wrestling match and furniture was broken. THAT would have been interesting.
Mike
“Andrei Says:
Fuck Bob Novak.
And mean that with all sincerity. I can’t wait to see what Jon Stweart does with this one. Should dedicate a whole show to this incident.”
I’d really rather not.
And it you do? Please don’t film it and put it on the Internet where anyone will ever see it.
rilkefan
Oh, I think there will be a wrestling match and broken furniture in the Oval Office when Rove is pried away from Bush – this is just the closest we’ll get to see that.
Andrei
That makes so little sense, both figuratively and grammatically.
Stormy70
Andrei, you have to quit bullshitting me all the time.
See, a verb. Maybe you have to grow up on a cattle ranch to understand, or be an attourney, or a politician. I could go on…
John S.
That’s what makes expletives so fun!
They can be a noun, a verb, an adjective…
Mike
“rilkefan Says:
Oh, I think there will be a wrestling match and broken furniture in the Oval Office when Rove is pried away from Bush – this is just the closest we’ll get to see that.”
That could happen, but I doubt it at this point.
I figure the odds are right around the same as Dennis Kucinich getting elected President of…anything.
Tractarian
Strange… if Novak wanted to keep the Plame affair in the news, I’m not sure he could have done much better.
John, you seem to have a well-functioning indifference-o-meter. Why not use it?
tBone
Around these parts we prefer the shortened version. For instance, I see something like this:
and my response is, “You have got to be shitting me.”
albedo
You know, I think it’s bullshit how Bob Novak bullshits with James Carville on some bullshit CNN show…
Stormy70
You’re such a bullshitter! Hee hee. (not focusing on Kayser being outed, since he will be voted back in next week, so I will be cheerful ;) )
Glen
Re: Faux
“Oh and Glenn that “Faux News” thing is another reason libs blow it….”
Don, it’s a visual pun, not a spoken one. It’s another reason why conservatives blow it. (John, with whom I’ve sparred off and on, would be an exception.)
By the way, I spell my name with one N, not two, like that other guy. I’ve lived with the mistake for 50-odd years, but if you’re out to demonstrate superior wit, you might want to pay attention.
Don Surber
albedo: “have you not ever heard George Bush speak extemporaneously?”
Yes, he is so inferior to that witty fellow who said ACTUALLY I voted FOR the $87 billion before I voted against it
Oh and GLEN, “visual pun” — LOL
What a concept. Concepts like that have made the Democratic Party what it is today: My former party
Don Surber
Back on topic, suspending Novak is the smartest thing CNN has done since it canned Eason Jordan
albedo
Yeah, he is, actually. Bush’s bizarre performance at the debates singlehandedly almost snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. If you think W isn’t singularly, jaw-droppingly, knee-slappingly awful at improvised speaking, well, you’re living on another planet.
Anyway, do you think anyone besides political net geeks have even seen the phrase “Faux News,” much less heard it uttered by anyone representing the Democratic party? Do you seriously think people don’t know how to spell the word “wrong?” And you left the democratic party because of verbal puns? As Chief Wiggum on “the Simpsons” might say, “Whaaaaaaaa?”
Doug
Yet another installment in the Chronicles of Bob Novak: Douchebag of Liberty.
Slartibartfast
Who’s this “Carville” fellow again, and what’d he do to the pasty entity called “Novak” that caused such a fuss?
tBone
Carville’s the one who looks like he came out on the losing end of an encounter with a Pygmy tribe. Or, possibly, Novakula has been feeding on him. Either way, grievous things have been done to the dude’s melon.
Glen
Though this has been fun, this will probably be my last excursion…
albedo: A friend once said that GHWB had an “adversarial relationship to the English language.” For the son, it’s mortal combat.
Don: “visual pun.” You can’t put those concepts together and get the meaning? Glad you left [sic].
jg
Bush didn’t lie about Iraq and WMD, he bullshitted.
Something like that Stormy?
Andrei
Actually, I think it’s either a present particple or more likely a gerund in that example. I was taught that the more correct use of “shit” as a verb is actually “shat.” So, the verb should actually be “bullshat” as in:
He bullshat all over the dinner conversation.
But obviously the joke was a bit too esoteric anyways to either be funny, useful or have a point. We return you back to your regularly scheduled verbal abuse of Bob “Douchebag of Liberty” Novak.
No bullshit.
demimondian
Actually, Steven Pinker wrote about that particular piece of overregularization in a paper with White in the mid-eighties, pointing out that shit/shat/shat (by analogy with sit/sat/sat) is only used jocularly. The “correct” form (acknowledging that there’s some question about what the correct form of an expletive is) is “shitted”.
— Demipedant
Sinequanon
Oh, for crying out loud……..WHAT BULLSHIT!
ppGaz
Novak is a very, very bad man. Why CNN kept him around this long, one can only wonder.
Did I mention? Novak is a very, very bad man.
croatoan
He was just quoting Colin Powell.
David
Well, CNN is used to the word “Bullsh*t”
Watch this video – Its hillarious…
CNN BULLSH*T COVERAGE OF KARL ROVE
Listen carefully when a female producer says “Bullsh*t” at the time when Lous Dobbs passes the microphone to the reporter….HILLARIOUS… at http://satire.myblogsite.com/blog
Stormy70
All for Tony Blair’s sake, I might add. I was for going into Iraq since 1998, so that won’t work on me. I would have loved Clinton for following through with his threats, but I don’t blame him for not doing it. It was a different world back then, but I didn’t like the fact that Saddam was vicious, and he was making us look weak in the Arab world by defying all the UN resolutions. Rwanda + ineffectual resolutions = no respect for the UN at all. I thought the WMD emphasis was wrong and we should have told the UN to kiss our ass. Just saying.
tBone
Damn, can’t believe no one thought to link to this yet:
On Bullshit
A handy little reference guide for dealing with politics and other bullshit-laden areas of life.
Alter Knocker
Awww Poor Little Bob Novak couldn’t take the heat from a small dig and took his dishes and dolls and stormed off the set. LOSER!
If he simply laughed off Carville’s comment and continued to talk he would have won the debate.
Jcricket
Maybe Novak was thinking “Gee, my career as a Washington insider journalist is probably over now, but perhaps I can get on Showtime with those Penn & Teller fellows.”
Seriously, I can’t stand the “shout-fest” type shows (even if I do generally agree with one side), but this was very funny. Reminds me of when Ann Coulter kept trying to assert that Canada had sent troops to Vietnam during that interview. Or when O’Reilly basically melted down in discussing his sexual harrassment scandal.
More to the point, It’s not like Novak’s never talked over someone else or had the same done to him. So my suspiscion is that Carville’s meta-comment about Novak needing to prove himself to the wingers (which was directed at Novak) somehow hit “closer to the bone” than we know. It’s like pouring salt on a wound.
Either that or Novakula hadn’t drank his fresh supply of blood for the day.
Stormy70
I don’t watch any political talk shows, period. They are idiotic. We can agree on this much, at least.
Defense Guy
The last good political talk show was politically incorrect when it was still on ABC. It stopped being good when Bill stopped being funny and started being angry.
M. Scott Eiland
The amazing thing is how *anyone* either replies to or refers to James Carville without using the word “bullshit.” I suspect that Ol’ Serpenthead’s picture is next to the word in some illustrated dictionaries.
Marc
Wow, that line never gets old. You do realize that every time you say that in a mocking tone, you reveal that you have no clue how the Senate operates?
Defense Guy
No, it just points out that you have no idea why a comment like this might be derided. I’ll clue you. Senators can change their votes, and that happened here. Attempting to claim that this somehow points to being both for and against something is like trying to have your cake and eat it too. It is laughable, which is why it was so effective.
Marc
Hey, thanks for clueing me. Next time, clue me all the way in, OK?
The line in its original context explained that Kerry voted for the $87 billion when it was structured in a way that didn’t increase the deficit, and against it when it was yet another Bush adventure in blank checks. The GOP did what it does best, took the quote out of context, and ridiculed it as meaning something other than what they well understood it to mean.
It was laughable, but only because it showed the GOP’s standard operating procedure these days — we can’t debate on the merits, so let’s just make shit up.
If Patrick Henry had been running in 2004, the GOP would’ve painted him as a flip-flopper too. “Which is it, Mr. Henry? Do you want liberty, or do you want death?”
Rome Again
We are fully aware of how the GOP tried to turn it into some simplified message that completely misconstrued the meaning of what was being said. It’s not hard to see how you think Kerry meant it, try to open your mind up long enough to see what was really meant by it. Marc does an awesome job of trying to explain it, do you get it or not?
Kerry was not trying to have his cake and eat it too, he was saying ‘I voted for it when it was a good bill, and voted against it when the specifics of that bill changed’. He was always for supporting the troops, but could not vote for supporting the troops under the requirements of the second bill. Your falling for the GOP’s message shows just how little your mind expands.
The GOP message was so effective because, unfortunately, most of our citizens have been dumbed down to the point where they cannot understand that bills change.
Question: why would he be voting on the exact same bill twice?
goonie bird
CNN thats the Communist News Network and Big Bad Wolf Blitzer and Bob Novack a complete idiot