I just slipped this question into a WaPo chat — can’t tell if the guy knows I’m kidding or not:
Cape Cod, Mass.: Does al Qaeda represent the same kind of existential threat to our way of life that the Salahis do? Imagine if the Salahis had been packing suitcase nukes or if they knew kung fu? We could have been looking at something far worse than 9/11, don’t you think?
Ed O’Keefe: The Secret Service at least has said that they take all threats — no matter who they come from or how they happen — equally seriously. And any mistake is detrimental to the agency’s mission and VERY embarrassing.
There’s also an ENTIRE CHAT devoted to the Salahis on WaPo at noon. I’m objectively pro-reporter-chat so I don’t mean that as a criticism.
But the last few weeks of SalahiGate coverage has been giving me flashbacks to Socksgate, Travelgate, and all the other very important scandals of the early ’90s. Maybe I’m overreacting.
Update. He took this one too:
Re: Brit Hume: Have you seen any polling data on how the public would feel about waterboarding Tiger Woods? It seems to me it’s the only way to find out what he really did and didn’t do.
Thanks — I’ll be impressed if you take this one.
Ed O’Keefe: Nothing on waterboarding, but I think it’s noteworthy that several national polls — Post/ABC and Gallup — did poll Americans on their opinions of the Woods scandal. It’s like the polls had a BIG impact on AT&T and others that have dropped Woods as a spokesperson.
Imagine if national polls did this all the time! Would CBS cancel Charlie Sheen’s “Two and a Half Men”?
Update. I realize this is self-indulgent of me, but one more question I got into the second chat:
How big a scandal?: On a scale of 1 to 10 of Washington scandals, with 10 being the most important (say, Travelgate or Lewinskygate) and 1 the least important (say, torture, politicization of the DOJ, and all the bogus intel leading up to the Iraq war), where does Salahigate fall? I’m thinking about an 8.
Amy Argetsinger: Hmmmm…
Update. One more:
Baltmore, Md.: How come these kinds of made-up scandals afflict Democratic presidents so much more than Republicans? It’s really difficult for me to see how this is any worse than the saga of Jeff Gannon?
Why the weird double standard?
Amy Argetsinger: A guy of dubious credentials getting into the press corps is a story — and it WAS a story, just not as big a story as the Salahis, which I’d argue is both in proportion to their proximity to the president (the Salahis got a whole lot closer)… and also reflective of the fact that the Salahi story has a visceral appeal to a lot of readers. The Gannon thing is a little inside-baseball (most beyond-the-Beltway Americans don’t really know or care who gets to be in the press corps), while the idea of crashing a state dinner — which is supposed to be both exclusive and secure — has a significance easier to comprehend.
I’m pretty sure a lot of the other questions are from you guys, but I’m not sure, so let me know in the comments.
Church Lady
Why did you give your location as Cape Cod, rather than Rochester?
bayville
If it’s Ed O’Keefe, you can bet he had no clue you were writing with your tongue planted in your cheek.
DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio
I’d say something snarknasty, but then I would be overreacting.
cleek
the Villiage is just pissed because it turns out that all the time they’ve spent sucking dick to get invited to those parties was wasted: you can just walk right in!
they sold their souls for access and face-time, and they got ripped-off.
Sasha
Nope. I’ve been noticing an uptick in “scandals” as well, from Salahi, to ACORN, to Nepalitano. Curiously, these “scandals” never afflict Republican administrations.
DougJ
Why did you give your location as Cape Cod, rather than Rochester?
Visiting the folks right now.
DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio
Play this while you peruse the thread.
It helps. Really.
If you’re fond of sand dunes and salty air,
Quaint little villages here and there,
You’re sure to fall in love with
Old Cape Cod.
If you like the taste of a lobster stew,
Served by a window with an ocean view,
You’re sure to fall in love with
Old Cape Cod.
Winding roads that seem to beckon you
Miles of green beneath the skies of blue,
Church bells chiming on a Sunday morn
Remind you of the town where you were born.
If you spend an evening, you’ll want to stay,
Watching the moonlight on Cape Cod Bay,
You’re sure to fall in love with
Old Cape Cod.
Violet
@cleek:
That’s it exactly. They feel these interlopers have undermined their status. It won’t be tolerated!
I thought the party crashers story kind of vanished once the Tiger Woods scandal broke. I don’t think anyone would be discussing it now if it weren’t for the Third Partycrasher.
PeakVT
@Sasha: Republican scandals tend to involve the press corps. For instance, starting an unnecessary war under false pretenses was immensely helped by stenographers like Miller. Democratic “scandals” are limited to Democratic politicians, which makes them a lot more fun for the press.
FPN
You left Cape Cod for Rochester?! ;-)
Zifnab
@Sasha:
Haha, are you kidding? The Republicans are too busy involving themselves in actual corruption, bribery, and freaky sex. Although, in all fairness, Ensign and Sanford and Vitter all got their turns getting paddled through the media gauntlet. And the “Bush slept with Condi!” rumor has been pernicious in the tabloids.
But the ACORN scandal was a product of whole cloth, straight out of FOX News and it’s affiliates. The Nepalitano flap was the product of an actual attempted terrorist attack and a bit of wording taking vastly out of context (again, magnified by FOX and affiliates). And the Salahi scandal is more an insider DC scandal that bruised a lot of Washington egos. I don’t think anyone is seriously looking at the Salahis as a negative reflection on the current administration.
Really, the problem is FOX. It megaphones every flaw it can find on the left and whitewashes every problem suffered by the right. The Republican Party has a full-time 24 hour media engine tilted entirely in its own favor. The rest of the media is mealy and fickle, but FOX News always swings true for the Republican Party.
KCinDC
Maybe in a few weeks after the latest Salahi brouhaha dies down there’ll be a Party Crasher No. 4 uncovered to start it up yet again.
Of course you’d think they’d be busy enough with getting out the Republican message that the Undiebomber is as bad as 9/11 and Katrina combined and could have been easily prevented by putting half a million more people on the “no fly” list.
JGabriel
DougJ@Top:
This is silly: there are no Islamic terrorists who know Kung Fu.
Everyone knows that there’s an ancient, many millenia long, enmity between Ninja and Hashahshin, like that between werewolves and vampires. Therefore, the Ninja will never teach Mooslim terrorists the deadly martial art of Kung Fu!
.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@cleek:
The Village has a long memory when it comes to social etiquette. They’re still pissed about the trailer trash riot that was Andrew Jackson’s inaugural.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@DougJ
Too subtle. Next time substitute feng shui for kung fu, see if that gets a reaction.
Maude
Primo question, DougJ.
Thanks for the laugh.
Mike Kay
hahahahhahahhahhahahhahahahhaahhahhahahaha
hahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahhahahahhahaah
ahahahhahahahahahhahahahhahaahhahahahahhahah
well, done!
Bravo!
Crashman06
DougJ, your WAPO chat questions should be considered guerilla art or something. Bravo.
Brachiator
Or were practiced in the secret arts of shoe throwing.
geg6
@Crashman06:
This.
TR
Could you post this question for me to the Salahi chat:
“What does it feel like to have spent so much time, money and training into becoming a journalist, and then having to talk about this bullshit all day long?”
Thanks.
JGabriel
cleek:
Not only that, but the Salahis talked Obama into supporting a new tax write-off for door charges at bars and parties. It’s pretty nifty, actually — you don’t even have to show the IRS the receipts, just the ink stamps on the back of your hand.
The Villagers, as you can imagine, are super jealous.
.
Mark
I was watching the closed-captioned news while I was on the treadmill at the gym last night. A woman was interviewed about heightened security. The captions said “A security guard took me aside and opened all of my luggage and went through everything. I felt a lot safer.”
Was she serious? No system has yet been devised to communicate seriousness vs sarcasm to the deaf.
Also, why do I torture myself by even looking at what David Brooks has to say? Today was painful.
DougJ
I’ll ask it.
JGabriel
Mark:
That’s a matter between you and your therapist.
.
bayville
Ed O’Keefe- The human “Kick Me” sign.
washingtonpost.com: Time for accountability at the White House
geg6
OMG, Doug. Just caught your update. Seriously, is Ed O’Keefe the stupidest idiot ever?
No, don’t answer that. Just rhetorical.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
Ed’s not as obnoxiously Villager as oh, Perry Bacon Bits or Lois Romano or the next generation of Village Idiots (Shalaigh Murray and Anne Kornblut) but Ed is fairly clueless.
Izit it just me or did he have a higher proportion of wingnuts than usual in today’s “chat”?
Mike Kay
god, I remember how crazy curt weldon used to go on every wacked out cable show and rant how a simple business man’s briefcase could be turned into the Enola Gay.
http://cns.miis.edu/stories/images/suit.jpg
I thank the lord ninjas can’t turn gymbags with dirty sock into nerve gas.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
I left out Paul Kane as one of the Villagers, The Next Generation (of clueless asshats).
Again, the (com)Post can go down the drain, I won’t bemoan it’s passing and would applaud the Bacons, Romanos, Murrays, Kornbluts and Kanes taking massive pay cuts in the process.
DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio
@Mark:
Along a similar line of ennui, a visit to Hardball yesterday revealed Matthews setting up 2010 as The Year of the Midterm Election. Already his “panel” was handicapping individual districts and making gain-loss predictions for the parties. Ten months before the election and with no clue what will be the “stuff” surrounding the actual election.
Republicans, they said, are energized, and Dems, they said, are demoralized. Huge gains for the GOP but probably not enough to win back the majority.
They have to set the stage for the ten-month Midterm Elections Rating Season, which began yesterday.
My favorite blurb was the one about the effect of the Healthcare Reform measure. Even though it is a victory for Dems, the “people” will see it as the result of an ugly process, which means no benefit to Obama politically.
These folks are nothing if not subtle.
flounder
That is worth a backatcha.
JGabriel
Ed O’Keefe via bayville:
From Robespierre to Ed O’Keefe. How far we’ve fallen.
.
Stooleo
I long for the day when we as a nation quit pissing our pants whenever we see our own shadow.
Also this was a good post at LG&M.
Alex S.
Well Done, Doug!
@cleek:
I think so, too. In fact, I can imagine that Obama or someone close to him let the Salahis in because he knew they were just Washington celebrities and he knew there was no danger. But he can’t admit that he doesn’t care about these crpytic Washington Rules because he’d suddenly have the whole beltway against him (more than he already has).
Mike Kay
@DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio:
These are the SAME people who said Hillary and Rudy were “inevitable” though out 2007.
They also predicted that the GOP would WIN seats in 2006 because …. wait for it… 9/11.
Comrade Dread
I really can’t criticize him for taking such questions seriously anymore. When a large percentage of the country is off in Beckian induced trips through the looking glass, he’s bound to insult a fair share of his paper’s dwindling subscribers if he said: “You’re being f***ing stupid. Stop it.”
DecidedFenceSitter
I can’t believe he answered that question with a straight “face”.
[Write and then delete, write and then delete]
…
I’m still flabbergasted at the thought that someone would need to get small nuke into the room with the president to do the necessary damage.
Ash Can
Since he didn’t actually address your points or answer your question, I’m guessing he wasn’t sure.
Not at all. The Beltway peanut gallery continually demonstrates that it’s just too damned close to the process to make comprehensive and objective (and thus value-adding) assessments. They’re not commenting on policy-makers and the results of their work, they’re commenting on someone who was nice to them the other day and bought them lunch at their favorite restaurant, or with whom they had a delightful conversation about music and classic cars last week at a reception at the British Embassy, or who hasn’t returned their phone call from yesterday and therefore must be snubbing them. The upshot is that they can’t help but see the person first and the person’s work second. This is actually not a bad way to go about life in general. However, in the case of their chosen profession, it cripples their ability to do their work.
It’s been a couple of decades since I was in DC and participating, if only on the fringes, in the political social scene there, but I can’t imagine it’s changed all that much. It was petty and incestuous then, and it can only have worsened under the previous misadministration. Now into this environment comes an administration that, at least as far as I can see, is focused more on the work involved in the offices they hold than on the social activities and contacts (and attendant protocols) that come with the jobs. The Villagers dismiss the newcomers as artless rubes because they’re not getting the attention and respect from them that they’ve grown accustomed to. They whine about it in print (whether overtly or between the lines), and the unsuspecting masses reading their drivel mistake their simple butthurt for informed insight. It’s maddening.
(ETA: Sorry for using one of “those” words to send this whole shebang into the moderation sin bin, but when it’s the right word to use, it’s the right word and that’s that.)
JPK
Excellent question, DougJ. Thank you.
Tiparillo
Who posted the “How big a scandal” question? LMAO
Just saw the update – well done!
JenJen
Question #3 FTW, DougJ.
Punchy
What is “travelgate”?
VoiceOfUnreason
Standing ovation for #3
dmsilev
OK, fess up, which one of you folks asked this:
-dms
DougJ
What is “travelgate”?
Google it. It’s so dumb it hurts my mind to explain it.
Svensker
Win. Ha ha ha. Idiots.
Ash Can
Oh, crap, your second update is killing me dead. “Hmmm…” Oh God, that’s priceless. Fucking pathetic, but priceless.
bayville
Hmmmm….Fuckin’ hilarious.
0whole1
Wait, what? Waterboarding Tiger Woods? What the hell? I mean…what?
Did you make that up? That can’t be right, can it?
Tell you what, Brit Hume needs to accept Jesus into his heart or something or other, he throws “waterboarding” around like it’s a turn on the slip-and-slide.
DougJ
Did you make that up?
Yes, I asked the question.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
The Zen master delivers a koan:
And the student responds with:
Too bad you can’t whack them with a stick over the internet. So close to achieving satori at that very moment, and yet so far.
0whole1
@DougJ:
> Yes, I asked the question.
Ah, ok. Sorry — I saw “Brit Hume” and “waterboarding Tiger Woods” and lost all capacity to understand the written word.
Origuy
The next time you call in, tell them your name is Lazlo Toth.
A selection of his work.
Remember November
Kung Fu can’t stop a bullet. These clowns have to get off the Hollywood manufactered Invasion USA Chuck Norris side-kick for freedom bandwagon.
Napoleon
Amy Argetsinger?? Does anyone happen to know (particularly DougJ who is from the Finger Lakes region of NY state) if she is related to Cameron Argetsinger who was from my home town of Youngstown, Ohio and was an acquatance of my fathers (Cameron’s dad was the chief counsel of the biggest steel manufacuture in town, my grandfather worked in that mill). She isn’t his daughter, but she may be a grand kid (an internet search did me no good).
This is who Cameron was.
Bret
You mean like close enough to kiss Jeff Gannon’s head?
Or giving him a hug?
From here.
blahblahblah
OK Doug, that was awesome.
Midnight Marauder
Then why do they hate you all so very much, Amy?
CalD
So by that logic, I or anyone else could just walk right into a WH press briefing, no credentials required… ?
John Dillinger
I raise my hand proudly that it was I, and I got a whole three paragraph response. The comparison of the Salahis to Bin Laden is priceless. I hope this women never gets assigned to a beat that matters. Thanks for the heads up on this Doug.
Mister Colorful Analogy
OK, that’s it. It’s time that I fully and openly confess that I hearts me this blog, the front-pagers, and most of the commentors (I’m not looking at you, BOB). I mean really, DougJ is the Zen Master of spoof trolling, but the fact that other commentors are joining the fun on the WaPo Chats is sheer perfection.
Crashman06 @ 18 perfectly states how I feel:
Well-said! Carry on, comrades. I shall try to get back to work now, having spent my lunchtime laughing so hard I thought I would injure myself.
MrCA
Mike G
There was a whole string of such people visiting the White House many times in the Bush years — they were in his cabinet.
Mister Colorful Analogy
@Mister Colorful Analogy:
Hmm. One clarification: DougJ is the ZM of spoof trolling, but that’s not what he’s doing on the chats. Pedantic, perhaps, but that’s how I roll.
Seriously, I really don’t know what to call it…the questions are bitingly satirical and gut-bustingly funny, but they’re serious questions nonetheless. Is there an Internet Tradition that describes what he’s doing?
MrCA
David
Doesn’t that describe a reasonable percentage of Congress? Of course, they get invited, so it’s okay.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Mike G:
Mike G found the rough cut diamond, I just polished it up a little bit.
Ed Drone
@Zifnab:
It occurs to me that one reason the Rethugs are leaning so far over to the crazy end of right-whingerism is that Fox drives the bus. Fox sets the tone, and moderate Republicans get driven out of the party (or make a sharp right turn, whichever). Fox sets the tone and the talking points are all far-right-loon, but Rethugs repeat them ad nauseum. Fox sets the tone and sensible, fact-based discussion is shouted down.
Fox sets the tone. We complain that the polity is no longer polite, but we fail to realize that this is a true danger to our system. The Republican Party is no longer a “big tent” party, no longer a “reality-based” party, no longer a responsible party, and the country is diminished because Fox sets the tone.
Fox sets the tone. All else is echo.
Ed
Ed Drone
It seems to me it’s the only way to find out
whatwho he really did and didn’t do.Fixed
Don’t thank me. It’s my job.
Ed
steve
C’mon Bush had scandals, like Harriet Miers. Oh, wait, he was attacked from the right on that one, that’s why it was a scandal. Never mind.
JSD
I love the 3rd question about Lewinskigate being a 10 and DOJ scandal being a 1. That was fricking awesome. I wish she’d replied substantively instead of with “Hmmmmm”
Tsulagi
#3 question is pretty funny. You would hope she’d be able to see the obvious spoof, but then it seems Mister Ed in #1 didn’t with suitcase nukes and kung fu.
In the company of “10s” you could have added Nipplegate. While the platform was certainly not big, the pointy end seemed to thrust forward to that level of scandalgate. Congressional hearings and investigations within 24 hours on wardrobe malfunction threats to America, FCC action, and more. Doesn’t get any more serious than that.
JPK
Wow, just saw the updates. Great, great work, DougJ!
Bob In Pacifica
As I recall, part of the Gannon problem was that he not only was a fake reporter lobbing softballs at news soirees, but he also showed up on the White House log as not leaving until the next day. The Bush spokesfolks said it was just bad bookkeeping by whatever Secret Service agent was monitoring the sign-in sheet, which either means that security at the White House really sucked or Gannon was in “close proximity” to the President or someone else who spends the night in the White House. If we’re in the realm of Beltway gossip then the Gannon sleepovers were very much underreported. But let’s face it, the Republican Party, which garners votes by being anti-gay, have lots of people in the closet. I imagine a lot of their cheerleaders in the media want to keep any of that on the downlow.
Tim in SF
DougJ,
I always enjoy your blog posts covering these chats. However, I have found a new level of enjoyment with you slipping in questions like those above. LMAO! Great job!
It’s too bad you are not allowed follow-up questions.
Vlad
So the Gannon thing wasn’t a story because the White House dinner was supposed to be exclusive, while they’ll let any old whore be a reporter these days?
Yeesh.
Mumphrey
This is the American press now? God help us. I think we’re done here as a country. It was a great ride and all, but I think we’re on the way out. I’m going to talk to my wife tonight about moving to Honduras. I think that’s a country with more of a future than the U.S. has now.
asiangrrlMN
@John Dillinger: Her response was weird to me. She got very defensive about it and then, yeah, threw in OBL. She’s like a mean girl who lashes out when someone points out that her behavior is inappropriate.
And, DougJ, you are the master of…hm…I agree with Mr. CA that it’s not spoof trolling…I will agree with guerilla art. Your questions were a wonderful combo of snark and searing condemnation. Bravo!
Zach
When you Google travelgate, be sure to compare what you see to the degree of backlash (from the media, congress, and the law) following the US Attorney firings.
DougJ
Thanks, everybody, for the kind words.
Corner Stone
@DougJ: One day history will recognize your genius.
DougJ
One day history will recognize your genius.
Back atcha.
Lex
Greatest. WaPo. Chat. Question. Ever.