I realize he’s trying to sound like a man of the people here, but this from Broder is telling:
When and if Roland Burris claims the Senate seat from Illinois formerly occupied by Barack Obama, it will represent the greatest climb-down by an incoming president since Sam Nunn turned Bill Clinton around on the issue of gays in the military at the start of Clinton’s first term.
Fortunately for Obama, the voters are much more concerned with the economy and Obama’s effort to fix it than they are with the infighting over the Illinois Senate seat.
Do the words “fortunately” and “the economy” (given the shape the economy is in) really belong in the same sentence? And isn’t it a bit unseemly to lament (as Broder seems to) that the country is so focused on real problems that it can’t be bothered to impeach Obama for a scandal to which he has no real connection?
From the beginning of BlagoGate, or whatever they’re calling it, my feeling has been that unless the dude wanted $700 billion for the seat, it just wasn’t that big of a story. Not now. Throw the guy in jail if he broke the law. But unlike one recent high-profile governmental felon I could name, his corruption isn’t tied up with an effort to sell an unnecessary war that’s caused thousands of deaths, destroyed the country’s prestige abroad, and cost the treasury as much as 3.5 trillion dollars. (It goes without saying that the same applies to Larry Craig, Mark Foley, and even Duke Cunningham.)
So it’s fine what we can all have our fun joking about Burris’s mausoleum, Blago’s poor-man’s-Elvis haircut, and the like, but there is absolutely nothing fortunate about facing the worst financial crisis since World War II. Unless you’re David Broder.
r€nato
It’s just not fair that good people are losing jobs left and right, and Joe the Plumber still has a job.
Comrade Stuck
Broder is just exhibiting the symptoms of the Inside the Beltway Parlor Game Syndrome. He’s saddened by the fact there are serious issues that will prevent the Blago caper from becoming another Monica Gate, whereupon the entire DC press corpse would have another epic orgy of stupid.
And what in God’s green earth does Obama need to climb down from? He has no control over whack-a-doodle Blago, nor the dufus Burris, nor the other dufus Reid. Jeevus in a donkey cart.
mapaghimagsik
I guess its more fun to be all saucy about the shenanigans of the senate selection rather than really *think* about what to do about the economy and what we decide to do about it (fuck the poor!) really says about the US’s governing body and a bit about what the people of the US really want.
Just Some Fuckhead
Shame on you for moving into John Cole’s obsession, DougJ.
cleek
fuck Broder and his employer’s dying business model
burnspbesq
Under what theory is this a climb-down by Obama?
Broder’s a fucking moron.
flounder
The assclowns in Washington that are so worked up about this are still lamenting that their good buddy Ted Stevens isn’t around to snap the towels with.
That is all you really need to process about this scandal. Next time you find your brain getting all mucked up in the weeds about this scandal, simply remind yourself that on Nov. 20th, 2008 a man just convicted of seven felonies walked onto the Senate floor and got a standing fucking ovation.
Oh, and yesterday the Senate leader said that the felon had suffered enough and shouldn’t go to jail.
Blago should have appointed himself and walked in there wearing a Ted Stevens mask.
TenguPhule
At this rate Broder may soon join the ranks of the common proles.
There will be a long line to welcome him with a kick to the nads.
Brick Oven Bill
Two thoughts because it is late:
1. Blago is smart re: Jury nullification.
2. The number is closer to $8 trillion.
Blago is very good. The system is unsustainable. Thus I study potatoes. And have a small field on public lands, where there are no restrictions on planting potatoes. They say you cannot drink, but they do not say you cannot plant potatoes. That is my story, and I will stick with it.
Potatoes were introduced to Europe 44 years after Columbus landed. They are a very efficient way to convert solar power to food. It was an improvement, and it spread. And then their vulnerability to disease led to one of my ancestors to get on a boat. I am proud that he no shit moved cattle to St. Louis.
I have met Ferraro and have not met Palin. I judge Palin to be smarter than Ferraro. Palin at least had fish guts on her gloves in a picture that was not a photo op. Her husband was not rich. Palin ran a small business.
Mnemosyne
Seriously?
No, seriously, deciding whether or not to seat a senator appointed by a disgraced but still perfectly legal governor is as important as civil rights for gays and lesbians?
Not that I didn’t know Broder was an ass, but … Jesus.
(Read the quote to my husband and he said, "Broder’s got to hurry up and die." This would be why I married him.)
Mark S.
What is a climb-down? Also, Clinton was two presidents ago. That isn’t a big data set. It’s like saying the 2008 Florida Gators are the greatest champions since the 2006 Florida Gators.
MikeJ
What is a climb-down?
As if you climbed up on something to make an announcement and then had to climb down.
The whole thing is a slap in the face. Wait, that’s no longer operative. I’ll walk it back.
Joshua Norton
Yeahbut… he isn’t exactly plumbing stuff anymore. Now he’s more like Sam the Hack.
jmt
Broder is to Journalism what gonorrhea is to bacteria.
Alan Black
How is this is climb-down? Since when did Obama actually have a say in Burris’ seating other than to express dissatisfaction at the fact of its happening?
Or have Broder et al become so used to seeing the President play fast and loose with the constitution these past eight years that its the status quo for them now?
Can someone please throw someone else under a bus? I miss those days…
demkat620
No John’s obsession is Cindy Sheehan. Blago’s just a side show.
blogreeder
Should you really have joking and the worst financial crisis in the same sentence? :)
I think you’re nit picking here. Isn’t Broder’s point that this mini-scandal with Burris is exposing in-fighting that could mar the appearance of a smooth transition? I think you’ve made that point yourself before. These cracks withing the democratic leadership should be fun to watch over the next few years. I’ll make some popcorn.
harlana pepper
No fucking shit. I was in the tobacco shop other day and a young black guy pointed to a picture of Obama and said, with certainty, that guy is gonna be dead soon. Anybody think he was worried about the Blago scandal? I’m so glad people like Broder can care so us poor schlubs who are trying to figure out how to make ends meet every month don’t have to, which is good for Obama, btw, that we are suffering so badly! Otherwise, he would be swept away in this tidal wave of a scandal and, oh my, that would cast a shadow on his inauguration. And, y’know, other than the fact that I just wish it would fucking get here, I might have to clutch some fake pearls or something.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Has Broder ever even heard of the fucking Constitution?
Oh for the days when three branches of government were President/Senate, Vice-President and the Judiciary!
Jackass.
And what the fuck does DADT have to do with shit? I guess he wanted a comparison that would upset the lieberuls. But I really wish I knew how to get a gig where all I have to do is string a certain number of words together for a nice fat check. Or at least an editor that is so fucking high all the time he’d let shit like that pass.
Also, the Apocalyptic Flaming Head of Sam the Non-Plumber in the PJTV ad is hilarious.
blogreeder
It does look like flames behind him. I couldn’t figure out what was strange about that ad.
harlana pepper
Oh, and fuck that about cracks in Dem leadership. Like we’re not used to this shit. It’s the only game in town. Do I like it? Fuck no. Helping to elect people seems to be the only thing progressives can do with the Dem party. After that, fuck us all to hell. While it would be nice if we got a tongue bath every now and then from our leadership like the repubes used to do with their base, that’s not gonna happen. But like it or not, this is what we have to work with and it’s still profoundly better than the indescribably destructive and brutal Bush years. Even if it lasts only a few years, I’ll take my crumbs and like it, cuz I got no choice.
J Royce
… but there is absolutely nothing fortunate about facing the worst financial crisis since World War II.
No, and there is absolutely nothing that Obama has to "climb-down" from, either.
I think, my friends, we may be stuck on stupid. The Villagers have the disease of an aristocratic attitude, which means they can justify everything done against The People.
America is a liberal nation born of dissent. How we convinced ourselves liberalism was our problem and authoritarianism was the answer is the result of a stunning propaganda coup by the New Right.
I would be less hopeful for our nation at this stage of decline if it weren’t for this newfangled intertubal pipeline thingy. Seriously. Oh, and cell phone cameras, that too.
harlana pepper
LOL. He needs flames or SOMETHING to enhance the low-life quality of that mug. Prolly his publicity agent had something to do with that, although changing his shirt now and then might be a good idea.
To be honest, I’m looking forward to watching some of CPAC since it will be after the convention and the epic defeat of the repubes will have settled in nicely and then in saunters Joe in his crappy t-shirt to share his campaign trail and "war stories" Now *that* will be popcorn time.
FMguru
To Broder, nothing is more unfortunate than having the stately business of the Village disrupted by a vulgar sideshow. An American President lied us into a war which has cost multiple trillions of dollars, thousands of American lives, tens of thousands of American wounded, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi dead, and millions of Iraqi dead, and it goes unmentioned in Broder’s world because to bring it up would be…unseemly – and it would discomfit some of Broder’s very closest friends.
Strangely, this didn’t apply to the time the previous president tried to weasel out of admitting that he had a fling with an intern – that was worth shutting down the whole government for a year and spending $70M to produce a detailed account of every sex act involved to be read into the official record.
blogreeder
War is hell, isn’t it? What do you know; war costs money and lives. Who’d have thunk?
Should you have written " …several iraqi dead, Tens of iraqi dead, hundreds of iraqi dead, thousands of iraqi dead, tens of thousand of iraqi dead, …." ? It would have been more complete.
kommrade reproductive vigor
No shit. I understand that PJTV wants to play up his "Joe Everyman of the RealAmerican(R) Heartland(TM)" image(C) (hence the stubbly mug and rumpled clothes), but don’t they have any other pictures of the dude? He looks like he peeking up Palin’s skirt. "Is that … Russia?"
Of course, to those of us who are actually familiar with the Joe Everymen of the RealAmerican(R) Heartland(TM), he looks really odd because we know a real JEotRH would insist on shaving and putting on his grown-up clothes for publicity shots.
dmsilev
And he’s pixelated to boot. Look at the transition between his shiny scalp and the flaming background. See those steps? Can’t Pajamas Media afford an anti-aliasing filter?
-dms
The Grand Panjandrum
@dmsilev:
I guess not. PJ Media must be paying Cole the big bucks because the remainder of the empire is rife with philistines and half-bright mouth breathers. (How’s my Broderian logic? Seems appropriate in this thread.)
debbie
Broder is as pathetic as it gets. DC is a zero sum status game for him and Obama doesn’t play it that way. The public likes Obama’s approach far more than the Rove-W. pissing match one, or at least are really sick of the BS posturing. But Broder is not and wants to score what’s happening according to that lens.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
I sneak in here when I’m at a client site sometimes, and get a little shock each time when their browsers actually let me see the PJ ads. I’m going to hug and kiss No Script a few extra times before I go to bed tonight.
rob
David Broder- always coming with the crazy.
J.
Best description of Blago’s hair, ever: "chinchilla brain cozy." I do love Stephen Colbert.
Svensker
@Brick Oven Bill:
Performance art? Drug flashback? Some rye ergot fungus on those potatoes? Huh ?
kay
@debbie:
And, the piece doesn’t make any sense. Broder writes that Obama is wet behind the ears, needs to learn a lesson, and that lesson is that Obama doesn’t know the DC players well enough to play the game, because he rose too fast.
But the governor and Burris aren’t DC players, and Obama knows both of them.
Blago isn’t about DC at all. It’s about state politics invading DC, and how Harry Reid (who isn’t wet behind the ears and knows all the players) couldn’t deal with that invasion.
I always get the feeling with Broder that he has the column calendered, and then just grabs whatever facts are handy, and shoves them into place on the form. This week was "Obama is wet behind the ears".
bayville
Word phrasing and context like that, is why the Villagers call that zombie "The Dean."
demimondian
@Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse: NoScript rocks, so very very much.
Donate to the guy who writes it.
DougJ
It’s the same thing as a reach-around, but you can use the phrase "reach-around" in the Washington Post.
DougJ
That may be his point but it certainly sounds like he’s saying it’s too bad things are so screwed up that we can’t spend all of our time discussing this mini-scandal.
Mnemosyne
My brother, who is a real-life, honest-to-God house painter in Illinois came out to California to be my other brother’s best man at his wedding. You know what he wore? A suit. Because that’s what you wear when you’re the best man at a wedding.
Of course, my brother doesn’t have a chip on his shoulder about being a "redneck," so he doesn’t think that putting on a suit is equivalent to having his balls cut off. He wore a tux to my wedding without a complaint.