Even the liberal Mark Shields misses George W. Bush.
SHIELDS: We have a president of real intellectual horse power who is cool, detached and analytical and if anything you can watch the emotional side of him emerge in this whole process. … There’s an emotional aspect, the comforter in chief as well as the commander in chief. Both roles. And I think it makes me nostalgic for those days when we had a manly man in the White House who could say, “Let’s kick some tail and ask questions afterwards” you know? That’s what we really need instead of any reflection.
(via)
Update. I watched it again and I’m pretty sure he’s being sarcastic. If I’d known he was from Weymouth, I would have guessed this right off.
Tom Hilton
Your title pretty much sums up my reaction. Jeezus.
cleek
Where is my Marlboro man
Where is his shiny gun
Where is my lonely ranger
Where have all the cowboys gone
GregB
The Village is filled with warped, spoiled children who need a big daddy to hold them and tell them everything will be OK.
-G
licensed to kill time
Oh for fuck’s sake. That is just so……oh for fuck’s sake. Speechless I am.
kathy
have we learned nothing? words fail.
Ash
@cleek: LMAO, I never thought I’d actually see someone quote that freaking song.
joes527
MARK!
MARK!!!
HAVE YOUR MEDS CHECKED. THEY SEEM TO BE OUT OF ADJUSTMENT!
(I can comfort my self that Shields has David Brooks to keep him honest …. (aw shit!))
dmsilev
Dear Lord Almighty. You just want to reach through the screen and grab him and shake him and scream “we *had* that and it was a fucking disaster!”.
And then add that nowadays, there are drugs and other medical procedures available to fix Small Penis Syndrome.
-dms
Napoleon
It is just jaw dropping that anyone, let alone someone not intimately connected with the unhinged right, could even think let alone say something like that after the complete disaster that has been our foreign policy since Bush was elected, when it appears most of his decisions were made in that manner.
GReynoldsCT00
fucking moran….
scav
ah yes, killing other people as emotional comforter. twisted.
Max
It’s hysterical how all of these middle-aged, doughy, white guys are all shoot now, ask questions later.
All the actual military people favor Obama’s approach.
I’m convinced it’s related to penis size inadequacies.
Max
It’s hysterical how all of these middle-aged, doughy, white guys are all shoot now, ask questions later.
All the actual military people favor Obama’s approach.
I’m convinced it’s related to p-enis size inadequacies.
soonergrunt
Having read the first 10 posters to this thread, I really have nothing left to add.
maya
“Manly man” ?!? Does anybody on the football team realize that Bush was a C-H-E-E-R L-E-A-D-E-R ?
Zifnab
Yeah! Shoot first and ask questions later! It’s never failed before.
/facedesk
Isn’t it supposed to be the 20-year-old college radical chanting the take no prisoners rhetoric? Shields has one foot in the grave. He’s supposed to be the wise and prudent one.
Punditry by freak’n twelve year olds. I feel like I’m watching Yosemite Sam about to shoot himself in the foot. I CAN HAZ SEER-E-US PUNDITZ PLZ?
David
What we really need? A manly man?
Wow, what we really need is exactly what we are getting, which is to say: ready, aim, fire.
Not fire then aim.
What a dipstick.
Let’s get the draft going for all of these wars so that we can all be manly men. We’ll all know how bogus that whole concept is, then.
General Winfield Stuck
Saw that. How soon they forget. Ugh/// bring em in dead or alive. Shield is getting senile, him and Broder ought to vacation together, like forever on a desert isle.
[email protected]cleek:
Paula Cole ain’t a bit manly, no siree.
Kevin Phillips Bong
Dear Mark,
As one of the blunt instruments at the end of your sharp thinking, let me request that you attempt self-copulation.
arguingwithsignposts
Wasn’t it Broder who got this whole meme started Saturday? Make a decision, even if it’s the wrong one.
Yeah, because either way, the pundits win.
MikeJ
Mark Shields isn’t going to get shipped to Afghanistan and have his balls blown off. Easy to put off the asking of questions when it’s not your testicles on the line.
beltane
This just goes to show the power of David Broder. He writes something stupid, and all the stupid pundits repeat it like the mechanical parrots they are.
Pasquinade
He’s longing for the days of Commander Codpiece?
handy
Lulz
Say I thought Mark Shields was one of those reliably librul types. I guess all when you’re working in a Company Town, it pays to work for the Company.
New Yorker
That worked really well in Iraq.
Enough with the beating around the bush. It’s time to compare Obama and Bush’s penis size to see which one should be president.
General Winfield Stuck
Do you want to see some really scary libtard concern trolling.
Mike Stark on Liberal Elites (cough_
Armando
I think Shields was being sarcastic.
Tonal Crow
Those who would trade Liberty for a daddy figure deserve what they get.
NutellaonToast
I need a manly man whose strong, steady arms protect me from the cruel cruel work. I need him to hold me tight and never let go.
No, I’m not gay? What? Why do you ask?
maus
“Liberals” in the media are never actually liberal. You should know this by now, they’re at best “centrist”.
Delia
You know why the US is slipping from its spot as the Number One Manifest Destiny Extra Special Nation of All Time?
Cuz we don’t have enough Manly Men who do all their thinking with their private parts and go charging into places where we don’t belong. That’s why. And even fat old liberals seem to believe it when you dig down deep enough. Unbelievable.
David in NY
People who watched the whole show thought this was sarcasm, and I think from Shields’ manner, that was what he was doing. But if there was no immediate referent for it (such as Broder’s idiot remark mentioned by arguingwithsignposts), then he just didn’t carry it off very well. I’d have to see more of the previous parts of the discussion, I think.
Shell
Jesus, just what is he nostalgic for? Having a petulant child in the White House?
I, for one, am truly glad we have some grownups at the helm.
Shields, just WTF are you jonesing for? Shoot and ask questions later. Kill them all and let God sort it out. Go ballistic and try to pick up the wreckage after. Or better yet, leave it for somebody else to clean up.
Yup. That’s policy fer you!
WereBear
@General Winfield Stuck: Oh, yes, this sounds nice…
And as soon as the wingnuts start doing it…
larick
I agree with Armando. Shields was being sarcastic and mocking about the days of W.
General Winfield Stuck
@Armando:
I first thought this was the Newshour clip from last Friday, but just now watched this one for first time, and I think you’re right. Fairly obviously being snarky.
handy
Uhh, yeah. I’m sorry, what’s the problem here?
joes527
@Armando:
That would make more sense. He was actually making a reasonable point about intellect and compassion before he made the abrupt right into nostalgia for the good old days.
But either his delivery, or the fact that the vid is clipped right at the end of his sentence (or both) sure make it sound as if he is asserting that he misses the decider.
SteveinSC
Mark Shields as the NewsHour house liberal never was much (a pansy, like Alan Colmes.) Now he is just a senile villager. I guess since he never had the balls to take on BoBo, he dreams of President Codpiece, believing there were some in that flight suit.
Joshua Norton
The only way I want Barry to be more “Bush-like” is in dealing with the repiggies. This mushy middle/bipartisan/corporatist crap isn’t getting us anywhere.
MK
@David:
Considering that Cheney personified this approach so completely, you would think that people would be reticent about following this philosophy.
Then again, maybe people don’t want to draw too much attention to themselves by protesting loudly, lest they get shot in the face.
marcopolo
to me the way shield’s comments developed was just strange…to start with what i thought was praise for obama’s intellect and thoughtfulness then move to what seemed to “not” be disparagement of his emotional side and then wind up with the wistful desire for a marlboro man in the white house…any chance shields was being sarcastic at the end just without putting enough of his tongue in his cheek? not trying to defend shields but there was also that odd accent he affected when doing the manly man kicking some tail schtick…
scav
if true, epic non-verbal & verbal communication fail – or deliberately poor editing?
General Winfield Stuck
@WereBear:
Got a chuckle out of that one. Tried to leave a comment to say wtf?, but it didn’t publish.
licensed to kill time
Ok, I didn’t actually watch the clip first (NoScript) so now that I have, I think he was being snarky. My bad. Talk about ready, fire, aim!
handy
@marcopolo:
that’s the problem, if it was sarcasm it was too hard to tell. The guy was all over the place.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
I certainly hope it was sarcasm. I was beginning to think that growing up with all those cowboy TV shows and movies warped the fragile little minds of an entire Boomer generation.
Kevin Phillips Bong
If sarcasm, then apologies. Although it would be nice to see most of the media attempt self-copulation.
Comrade Kevin
sings pirate songs in the shower!
General Winfield Stuck
@handy:
His pitch was certainly off target it seemed. But his facial expressions said spoofing imo
Pangloss
Sarcasm, not delivered very well. Somebody else on the set even laughed at it.
harlana pepper
@Armando: y’know, I hope you are right – I never watch these boobs so I wouldn’t know
Was it Brooks or Broder who wrote something similar to this in the last few days? It certainly feels like deja vu.
bayville
C’mon guys, Shields had his tongue planted in his cheek. He’s needlin’ some of his colleagues in the Village.
arguingwithsignposts
After listening to the video, (complete with the very important part that is marked as ellipses in the blockquote), it’s probable that Shields was being sarcastic. But he should not quit his day job for a spot on the Daily Show, that’s for sure.
David in NY
Did one of the other panelist’s say something that Shields was mocking? In comments either at Atrios or Drum’s site (both of which also picked this up), somebody who had watched the show said they thought Shields was trying to get under Krauthammer’s (or Brooks’s) skin.
ellaesther
@ Armando larick joes527 and marcopolo:
Yes! I agree! Sarcastic!
Wow. I was about to come riding in here, guns ablazin’, and then, upon reading your comments, I watched the clip and went: Huh! Sarcastic! Yes!
DougJ, I believe you might maybe should give it another listen. He was talking quite sincerely about how Obama has revealed himself as someone who is both an intellectual Commander in Chief and an emotional Comforter in Chief, and then he cracked wise. He didn’t do it with very much gumption, but Shields was cracking wise.
mvr
I think that was perhaps overly deadpan sarcasm. Perhaps what was after the edit provides more cues?
joes527
@joes527: I am pre-disposed to think poorly of Shields. He routinely lets Bobo say all sorts of crazy shit and either doesn’t object, or even agrees.
I don’t know if he is just trying to keep a civil tone or what, but I often end the News Hour more pissed at Shields than I am at Brooks.
Watching the clip a few more times … yeah I see where he broke into sarcasm, and his whole statement makes more sense.
DougJ
Yeah, it’s sarcasm. Sorry about that.
WereBear
@DougJ: S’okay, DougJ, he obviously doesn’t do it very well.
ellaesther
Yay! People who can admit honest error! See why I love this dyspeptic, curmudgeonly, and off color community so?
General Winfield Stuck
@DougJ:
Too bad it ain’t April 1st/
SteveinSC
Fuck! I sent the same post I left here to NPR
“Mark Shields as the NewsHour house liberal never was much (a pansy, like Alan Colmes.) Now he is just a senile villager. I guess since he never had the balls to take on BoBo, he dreams of President Codpiece, believing there were some in that flight suit.”
Fuck! You’re the ones that ought to dither a bit. I relied on you guys! “I read these morons so you don’t have to” My Ass! And I promise, I don’t really need any help from you guys for me to make a fool of myself.
cleek
yeah, i didn’t see the sarcasm.
and after re-watching… well, maybe. awesomely dry, if it was.
i’d like to see a second more of on the end of the clip to see if Shields gives it away with a laugh or something.
General Winfield Stuck
@SteveinSC:
OOpS
ellaesther
@SteveinSC: Here’s what you do: You shock the hell out of them by sending them an “Oops, my bad” email — just like our friend DougJ corrected his post here. You’ll make internet history! Go on man! Be brave!
Kiril
Wow. Shields even breaks into a little sarcastic voice when he’s making his statement. I watched it once and it was obvious. But shit he sure got it in the gut from BJ comenters. Fair enough, I don’t always watch the clips either. But click over to Think Progress. Even the people pointing out it was sarcasm then get pounded. I sometimes forget there is a reason I don’t read comments over there.
arguingwithsignposts
Well, DougJ was following Broder’s advice – make a decision, even if it’s the wrong one.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
I don’t expect the blogger’s to be perfect, but maybe there should be a rule that says a person cannot reply to a blog entry about a video unless you have seen the video, or 5 posts from people who have seen it have been posted. All the posts at the top of this where people started screaming, and then we find out it’s sarcasm, made this one seem a lot like GOS.
Kiril
BTW, Jay Newton-Small on Hardball right now. Preparing to raaaaage…
handy
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
I blame Think Progress.
SteveinSC
Oops! oops! is that all? I showered righteous indignation on them and hit an innocent man.
Jesus Christ, and I had to give them my e-mail address! I can just imagine the letter they’ll send. It’s all your fault.
arguingwithsignposts
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
To be fair, I usually rely on the transcripts instead of watching the video for these types of statements, unless it’s John Stewart or Steven Colbert.
ellaesther
@handy: “Think Progress”? Are you kidding me? This is clearly Obama’s fault!
If not ACORN’s!
Demo Woman
I can see the Drudge headline, Mark Shields, liberal dem, thinks that President Obama is a pansy.
Shawn in ShowMe
Mark Shields makes me nostalgic for those days when we had a manly journalist who challenged the notion that we can round up suspected Communists and ask questions later. Someone who could say, “let’s not sacrifice our most cherished principles out of fear ” you know? That’s what we really need instead of warmongering sycophants like Mark Shields.
DougJ
I don’t expect the blogger’s to be perfect, but maybe there should be a rule that says a person cannot reply to a blog entry about a video unless you have seen the video, or 5 posts from people who have seen it have been posted. All the posts at the top of this where people started screaming, and then we find out it’s sarcasm, made this one seem a lot like GOS.
If this start happening regularly, I’ll institute such a rule.
But my own fuck up aside, at least we all now agree it was sarcasm, unlike at Think Progress.
General Winfield Stuck
@DougJ:
I hope you don’t get gunshy and not post any more tonight. Sure you fucked up royal, but it happens, and sometimes twice or thrice in a row. Course I wouldn’t know about that myself. (cough) but Cole is off the grid and I’m in the mood to deliver Hot Air, sooo//////back in the saddle dude, we ain’t gonna change the world with sorrys/
DougJ
I hope you don’t get gunshy and not post any more tonight.
Actually, I’m kind of proud that we caught it and TP didn’t. I like to admit that I’m wrong.
dr. bloor
They really burned the house down at Think Progress, too, before the obvious dawned on them.
There’s nothing so useful a tool for teasing out the critical thinkers from the hyperreactive zealots (on both sides of the spectrum) as something like this. For anyone who has heard Shields over the years or recently, who then stopped to ask themselves about how/why he might have come to state this, “snark” should have been the first and only thing on the list. Actually watching the show and getting some context would have been helpful, too.
Haven’t enjoyed anything this much since Harry Hutton had them bleeding from their eyeballs over at Great Orange Satan.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
Um, living in the midst of a vast red sea of these asshats, lemme tell everybody something:
They *are* white trash. They *are* stoopid racists. And *yes*, they resent being looked down upon.
Guess what? They’re not reachable. They never were.
General Winfield Stuck
@DougJ:
So do I. but no more than 3 times in a twenty four hour period. If that happens, I just blame it on Cole, or Obama and call it a day.
AngusTheGodOfMeat
Shields can be very sarcastic. What he doesn’t do is pimp it enough to eliminate any uncertainty, overshoot the ambiguity. He is too subtle and often his sarcasm just goes unnoticed, which is the worst thing that can happen with sarcasm.
Take it from me, when you are going to be sarcastic, you have rub the audience’s nose in it and get them upset, otherwise you are wasting your time. You have to make somebody mad.
Another way to say this, if you aren’t pissing somebody off at least once a day, you aren’t doing this right.
Chad N Freude
@DougJ: This happens here all the time, not just in the context of video clips. Commenters speculate (or rant) vigorously without doing ten seconds of fact-checking via teh Google, Wikipedia, whatever. The James Woods thread is a case in point. It took me just a few seconds to find his bio and an interview that addressed almost all of the “I don’t know but I think …” speculations, many of which were refuted by the references.
Davis X. Machina
Weymouth, home of my youth — Southie, with trees.
Shawn in ShowMe
Bah, if you can’t shoot your friends in the face, then who can you shoot? ;-)
comrade scott's agenda of rage
At first, I thought you were talking about Democrats in general. Then it dawned on me…
Now I’m confused.
kay
Why are they so hot to get a decision on Afghanistan, anyway?
I have never seen such cranky, chomping at the bit impatience to send someone else to war. How does it make a bit of difference, personally, to any of these people anyway?
Are the cable news commentators going to cancel holiday plans and head out to the field? Do they need to line up childcare, or purchase equipment, or finally draft that will they’ve been putting off? Lose ten pounds, run windsprints?
Do any of these people lives change one iota if there are 40k additional troops in Afghanistan?
It’s as if they have some actual role in this war.
jl
Shields clearly was being sarcastic, but rather ineffectively so.
But many of the Villagers have said it, and will say it, and they are not sarcastic.
Broder thinks we should ‘just do something’ in Afghanistan, the quicker the better, and thinking it through is a mistake if it delays a real boffo decisive decidereering decision by a deciderer in chief.
Broder was not being sarcastic. He was being as dump stump and vicious as a pompous entitled Villager who will not know one damn living person caught up in the consequent mess.
Sensible people, helpless serfs watching the teevee, are on a hair trigger wrt dumbass statements. Can’t say I blame them.
jl
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage: I, for one, do not regularly generalize and say the teabaggers are racist white trash.
First off, real white trash would never get to the demonstration. They would pass by a bar or score some meth on the way, and put their time to a (relatively) better use.
Second off, I generalize and call them all dupes.
Third off, I have never accused them of teabagging. But I wonder do wonder sometimes.
So, there.
kay
And I wish they’d stop turning me into an infant. I reject that role.
I never found George W Bush comforting. Not once. Reckless people make me nervous.
I felt as if I had to watch him every minute. It was exhausting.
Keith G
Dear freeking god, I love the regulars here and would like to think of myself as one with training wheels, but don’t you know Shields? Christ on a saltine, the man is nearly the bluest pundit on TV (not sayin a whole lot) and he has rubbed Shrub’s nose in it at almost every turn.
Reading the first 20 or so comments here was like watching wildebeests at a croc-filled river.
Bill Brock - Chicago
Rather obvious sarcasm (bad Texas accent and all), and a sharp contrast to his earlier, sincere words.
goblue72
a) This is Mark Shields. If he says something like that, you should just assume its sarcasm, unless the context and facts appear otherwise.
b) He’s from Weymouth – inner ring Boston suburb. Sarcasm is the primary means of communication in that part of the world. I don’t think its possible to even order a beer in Boston without being sarcastic.
c) He served in the Marine Corps. He learned how to tie his combat boots on at Parris Island as an enlisted man – he wouldn’t flippantly suggest throwing grunts into a quagmire.
Before you trash a man and his reputation, you might want to take a deep breath, count to 10, and then think about it some more.
inkadu
@goblue72:
Shields didn’t love his country enough to work for his dad’s election campaign instead of enlisting. I don’t trust the guy.
anon
Anyone here who thinks Shields was being serious based on a severely edited down clip and ignoring his past, is a total hack and jackass.
If you dumbasses want to know about mob mentality, just look at yourself.
I’d hope you were too dumb to breathe, I do suggest each of you take a 72 hour timeout in posting comments to Internet boards and use it to reconsider what you might do as part of a mob.
Disgusting.
Typical.
General Winfield Stuck
@Keith G:
This is true. but on the news hours friday, he did say that while Obama should take his time, says the debate about troop levels is not “confidence inspiring”. And he keeps using the term “comforter in chief” instead of CiC. But I should have actually watched the video before commenting and your point is taken about him being pretty blue as compared to other dem pundits.
General Winfield Stuck
@anon:
Typical? a mistake. And one owned up to immediately. If you have more to back up that it is “typical”, then maybe you should not do the mob mentality thing. Not many mistakes happen from the front pagers here. Unlike many other libtard blogs who regularly talk out their ass and a matter of course. And never repent. GFY wanker.
PTirebiter
@AngusTheGodOfMeat: True enough, but only if you’re talking to someone that doesn’t know you or your reputation. Given the people Shields always appears with, an unambiguous delivery would read like condescension. He interacts with the host or his fellow guests, not the folks who might see a :60 second clip.
debbie
As Shields himself would say, “No doubt about it.”
Watching him almost every week on Newshour, I can attest that Shields is as a rule both sarcastic and subtle. I think it’s a nice change from all the screamers.
Ruckus
@DougJ:
I like to say I wrong a lot as well – most of the time it is the easiest course, frequently it has the added benefit of me finally being correct about a subject.
Keith G
@anon: Typical of what?
Though in all likelihood you are long gone, I would like to know what you mean. After Armando’s comment, folks took a second look and those who thought better of their initial statement, so noted. An error was made, admitted and rectified.
Willingness to reevaluate is what’s typical here, but I do not think that’s what you meant.
Pity.
SenyorDave
I live in the DC area and occasionally catch this show, although its tough to stomach more than 15 seconds of Krauthammer. There’s no question that Shields is being sarcastic, the two concepts don’t even make sense together. He just deadpanned it so much it sounds like he means it, but he quite obviously loathed W.
anon
Typical of what?
Typical of mobs.
ThinkProgress posts this clip and cuts it down to precisely the size needed to show Shields as a jerk seeking a manly man, and doesn’t even realize that even in that phrase, he’s being sarcastic.
TP gets over a hundred responses saying, yeah, Shields is some sort of doughy angry white guy war monger conservative, even thought that has NEVER been his background.
Atrios picks it up and broadcasts it as part of Atrios’ TWO MINUTE HATE OF THE DAY. Mark Shields Wanker.
DougJ gets the memo and repeats it. Doesn’t bother to think, hey, isn’t Mark Shields the good guy? Just lets Atrios and TP overrule him.
And it goes on and on until finally Armando says, he’s being sarcastic.
Now I know Armando is the smartest man alive, but did it really take Armando for you assholes to see and recognize sarcasm?
Yes it did, because you were all going with the meme.
You dumbfucks would eagerly join any mob, and then when that’s pointed out to you, you go all, “no, our actions were reasonable!”
geg6
Fuck anon. The reason I love this blog is that people here admit to mistakes, especially front pagers. I’ve read a lot of blogs over the last 9 years and, believe me, this is a rare and refreshing thing. Yes, Shields is True Blue, but it’s not always easy to see his snark and impossible when you’re only reading the transcript. So misperceptions will happen when you have a shtick like his.
anon
Willingness to reevaluate is what’s typical here
Perhaps you’re not so open minded and enlightened as you think…. You took TP’s word for it, and didn’t bother to ask for the entire clip, or seek it out. You took TP’s word for it, and didn’t let your historical experience of Mark Shields inform you.
Mob mentality.
gwangung
@anon: Well, that’s part of being human. What’s part of being a better human is to change your behavior when you’re being stupid.
And, son, speak for yourself. Not all of us reacted the same way. Though you ARE treating everyone here as…a mob.
General Winfield Stuck
@anon:
You still didn’t make a case for typical dumbass. That means you have to come up with other examples of this happening, but you can’t, cause it doesn’t happen very often. Most of us were just too lazy to watch the video, and I”m guessing that included dougj. That’s bad enough, but a simple mistake of omission, not commission./ And though Shields is a pretty solid blue, he isn’t an angel, and if you read this blog often enough, a lot of us aren’t that blue either, fairly moderate and don’t necessarily go along with the tide that we just pull up stakes and leave Afghan. completely. I know I don’t. So we could just as easily criticize Shields for being too blue, and maybe you as well. This ain’t a homogenous blog by any stretch. Put up or shut up with the typical shit.
DougJ
Doesn’t bother to think, hey, isn’t Mark Shields the good guy?
I don’t like Mark Shields. I don’t think of him as “the good guy”.
General Winfield Stuck
My historical experience with Shields is that he is fully capable of saying some dumb shit and has, just like the rest of us.
wanker.
DougJ
Just to explain, if you’re someone who could sit next to David Brooks for give years and not strangle him with your bare hands, then I could very easily imagine you saying “I want a manly man back in the White House.”
I was wrong and I admit it. But to ask me to think “Mark Shields would never say something like that” is asking too much.
gwangung
@anon: By the way, keep saying stupid things and keep poking people in the eye, and you will see some REAL mob mentality at work…
catatonia
I saw Shields once in a Safeway in Silver Spring, around 12 midnight on a Friday (this was back in the late 90s), swaying in front of the dairy products, and then finally picking up something and throwing it into his little basket. Something a bit woebegone about the whole mise-en-scene . He looked like he’d just spent 18 hours on the set of Inside Washington listening to Charles Krauthammer discuss the merits of Leon Kass and the Likud Party. A more rumpled suit you could not engender by wearing it on a nonstop flight to Timbuktu in the landing-gear housing. I’m inclined to think well of someone joylessly shopping for cottage cheese at such an hour. Then again, I was there probably looking for something even more unexceptional, like canned black olives. And I wasn’t fresh off the set of a Villager circle-jerk, so what did that make me? I’m always thinking I see melancholy when it’s usually just monotony. So f**k Shields after all.
dr. bloor
@DougJ:
You don’t like him because he hasn’t strangled Brooks yet?
Toldya
Obvious from the first glance that Shields was speaking sarcastically. DougJ loses maybe ten points in the communal book. He should take this idiot episode in stride and resolve to do better.
LD50
No, we’re saying we know better than Palin, because we DO.
General Winfield Stuck
@Toldya:
Gracias Padre Toldya. Now that you have provided absolution and blessing for Dougj, please suck on this.
Steph
Um….yeah, obviously he was being sarcastic.
If you missed that, you might need some sleep or something.
LD50
@anon:
Wow. You’re so much of a better person than all of us. We’re SO sorry. Will you stick around to help tell us how much we all suck in the years to come? You’ve already benefitted us SO MUCH.
Would you forgive us if we all just sucked your dick?
Maus
Oh no, not the ANTI-WAR MOB, they might negotiate someone to death!
I didn’t watch the clip to gain the full context because I was at work.
What’s YOUR point? Sure, people need to stop and think sometimes, but really we should be over-vigilant of that sort of implied idiocy on television, not for the benefit or detraction of the hosts, but so their corporate masters give us actual news in lieu of shitty opinion pieces.
General Winfield Stuck
@Steph:
He didn’t watch it first. And neither did I. Not good at all, but not what you are saying either.
HRA
Some of us have seen Mark Shields react in the past admirably against his opponents while for some of us this clip and other recent appearances have not impressed you.
During all the times I saw him react on CNN on the Capitol Gang, I would wait for his mild toned takedown and revel in the obvious frustration of his opponent who usually was Bob Novak.
Yes, the very moment he began the switch in this video I knew where it was going and what he was doing. I was so Mark Shields.
Steph
@General Winfield Stuck
Got you. The Think Progress people should publish a retraction. Morans.
HRA
Correction: It was so Mark Shields.
SteveinSC
Hey, look, I’m not pissed, just bemused. I’ve watched Shields over the years, shit, I even met him here in Columbia back in 2001. On TV, NewsHour or Crossfire (I believe it was) I just thought he was too easy-going and namby-pamby. I was looking for blood and only got pablum vis-a-vis Brooks. It’s not surprising that if he were sarcastic, it might be easily missed. And, well, you know, a site that has an archive, “I read these morons so you don’t have to”, is ripe for an occasional chain-pulling. Moreover, I don’t give a fuck what NPR e-mails back to me. All in good fun, dear bloggers.
anon
So ThinkProgress finally did retract. But not when:
a) their readers told them they were wrong
b) other blogs told them they were wrong
The waited until Shields contacted them.
ThinkProgress really holds anyone not ThinkProgress in contempt. I hate saying that because I really respect it’s founders. But that’s what they’ve turned into it.
Mindless idiots pushing an agenda.