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Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

I was promised a recession.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Let’s finish the job.

He really is that stupid.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Republicans in disarray!

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

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You are here: Home / Facts Are Foreign Things To Bobo

Facts Are Foreign Things To Bobo

by John Cole|  March 16, 201012:44 pm| 74 Comments

This post is in: Our Failed Media Experiment

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Ezra Klein is shrill:

Jon Chait did a very funny job taking apart David Brooks’s column on reconciliation. I want to do a serious job on it. The factual statements Brooks uses in his argument are wrong. Not arguable, or questionable, or suspicious. Wrong. And since everything else flows from those wrong facts, the rest of the column can’t be taken seriously.

“Reconciliation has been used with increasing frequency,” writes Brooks. “That was bad enough. But at least for the Bush tax cuts or the prescription drug bill, there was significant bipartisan support.” The outcome of letting reconciliation go from rare and bipartisan to common and partisan is that we will go from a Senate where “people are usually pretty decent to one another” to a Senate that “bleaches out normal behavior and the normal instincts of human sympathy.”

Chilling stuff, huh?

But none of Brooks’s evidence is true. Literally none of it.

I think we should cut Bobo some slack- he may have been a little tired after eating too much at the Applebee’s salad bar.

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Reader Interactions

74Comments

  1. 1.

    Robertdsc-iphone

    March 16, 2010 at 12:50 pm

    Child Typist kicking ass & taking names!

  2. 2.

    JenJen

    March 16, 2010 at 12:52 pm

    Brooks isn’t wrong in the sense that “I disagree with him.” He’s wrong in the sense that the column requires a correction.

    Oh, my.

  3. 3.

    Lolis

    March 16, 2010 at 12:52 pm

    I loved Ezra for this. I am going to DC in May. I want a date with Ezra. Can anyone hook me up?

  4. 4.

    freelancer

    March 16, 2010 at 12:53 pm

    Hiatt will not let this stand.

  5. 5.

    Morbo

    March 16, 2010 at 12:54 pm

    Ah, but the point remains; over the last decade reconciliation has been used to blow up the budget by $925 billion! And of course the party which held majority in Congress for each of those votes (except for one that decreased the deficit by $750 million) was the %hack, cough, wheeze!% Excuse me, the %hack, cough, wheeze!% Party.

  6. 6.

    Kryptik

    March 16, 2010 at 12:54 pm

    @freelancer:

    Yep. I give it a week before Ezra’s writing his goodbye post and his spot is given to the Freepers.

  7. 7.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    March 16, 2010 at 12:55 pm

    Chait’s comment that it’s a template for a David Brooks column is almost exactly the same thing I had to say in my comment attached to the Brooks column early this morning when it appeared.

    It really was the perfect Brooks column: Start with some meandering pseudo-sociology delivered as a turgid overwritten essay of the worst kind, then jacknife right into a Fox News talking point as the conclusion.

  8. 8.

    Eric U.

    March 16, 2010 at 12:56 pm

    there was a short period of time where the Democratic offensive pointing out that nothing was happening due to the republicans was actually getting press and changing public opinion. It’s clear that tools like Brooks cannot allow that to happen.

  9. 9.

    Catsy

    March 16, 2010 at 12:57 pm

    Brooks isn’t wrong in the sense that “I disagree with him.” He’s wrong in the sense that the column requires a correction.

    Oh, SNAP!

  10. 10.

    Ash Can

    March 16, 2010 at 12:57 pm

    Has Bobo called the WaPo and asked them to shut down the comments for this piece too?

  11. 11.

    Violet

    March 16, 2010 at 12:59 pm

    @JenJen:

    Brooks isn’t wrong in the sense that “I disagree with him.” He’s wrong in the sense that the column requires a correction.

    Yeah, this is awesome.

    Shorter David Brooks: Facts are for the little people.

  12. 12.

    cleek

    March 16, 2010 at 12:59 pm

    when pundits fight, everybody wins!

  13. 13.

    JenJen

    March 16, 2010 at 1:01 pm

    Just saw this over at ThinkProgress, re: today’s teabagger anti-health care reform rally on the Hill:

    Holding up the health care bill, Rep. Gohmert shouts, ‘I brought an abortion to show you today.’

    Oy.

  14. 14.

    aimai

    March 16, 2010 at 1:01 pm

    Chait and Taibbi both have good pieces too. It boils down to this: wrong, wrong, wrong and still, Mr. wrongheaded, you are wrong.

    aimai

  15. 15.

    The Grand Panjandrum

    March 16, 2010 at 1:02 pm

    Lehrer has got to get Ezra on the News Hour opposite Brooks. I might actually watch the news again.

  16. 16.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    March 16, 2010 at 1:02 pm

    Chait’s post might almost make me take up TNR Digital again. I wonder if we could get them to allow us to contribute directly to specific writers?

  17. 17.

    El Cid

    March 16, 2010 at 1:03 pm

    Facks are too often partisan, and might make Lindsey Graham weep.

    Also, since when did Bobo Prime or any other right wing / Beltway minion ever lose a dime of pay for letting loose streams of demonstrably wrong claims?

  18. 18.

    Nellcote

    March 16, 2010 at 1:04 pm

    I wonder if getting a gig with Newsweak has emboldened The Ezra wrt writings at the WaPoo. At any rate, YAY! for him.

  19. 19.

    matt

    March 16, 2010 at 1:05 pm

    I can’t process how he can say that those bills had “significant bipartisan support”. How can that be true if you had to use reconciliation? This is a contradiction in terms.

  20. 20.

    El Cid

    March 16, 2010 at 1:06 pm

    This Soviet Obama aggression against a lunatic mob furious that a black Democrat is President an innocent peoples’ struggle for democracy will not stand!

    Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) urged a smaller-than-expected crowd of Tea Party protesters on Tuesday to launch a Velvet Revolution-style uprising against the federal government, saying the parallels are striking between America’s current government and Eastern European communist rule.
    …
    Speaking to the Huffington Post shortly after his speech, King declared that a peaceful uprising, a la the successful overthrowing of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia on the streets of Prague in 1989 “would be fine with me.”

    Though inspired by a different time and place, I’m sure we’ll soon see one peaceful TeaTard attempting to face down a tank.

  21. 21.

    El Cid

    March 16, 2010 at 1:07 pm

    @matt: Well, Bobo himself gets to define “significant” however he wants. So, if there were only two, or one, Democratic votes, or even if one Democrat talked kindly at one time or other about the bill, it could be “significant”. At least, to Bobo, emotionally.

  22. 22.

    gwangung

    March 16, 2010 at 1:11 pm

    By Bobo’s measure, both the stimulus and health care reform (in the House), had significant bipartisan support.

  23. 23.

    El Cid

    March 16, 2010 at 1:12 pm

    Uh oh. Potomac Spring is apparently being violently crushed by Soviet tanks and troops villainously mocked by sneering Democratic overlords:

    Tea Partiers planned to “flood the halls of Congress” to protest health care legislation, a plan that prompted Democratic leaders to instruct their members to respond with politeness and Twinkies.
    …
    The 10 a.m. Washignton, D.C. rally, though, wasn’t quite on the scale of some earlier events. The communications director for the Democratic National Committee, Brad Woodhouse, emails that his count is 300 attendees.
    …
    “I’ve been to birthday parties that drew more people,” he emails. “More people attended my wedding than went to the tea party kill the bill rally on the hill.

    Ba-dump-bump. He’ll be here all week, veal, etc.

  24. 24.

    Bob K

    March 16, 2010 at 1:12 pm

    I was glad to hear “smaller than expected crowd of tea party protesters” but things just went down hill from there. And I thought Shelly Bachmann had the crazy congress critter act down pat. I was waiting for a semi to roll up and this maniac to start handing out AK-47s

    Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) urged a smaller-than-expected crowd of Tea Party protesters on Tuesday to launch a Velvet Revolution-style uprising against the federal government, saying the parallels are striking between America’s current government and Eastern European communist rule.

    Speaking to the Huffington Post shortly after his speech, King declared that a peaceful uprising, a la the successful overthrowing of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia on the streets of Prague in 1989 “would be fine with me.”

    “Fill this city up, fill this city, jam this place full so that they can’t get in, they can’t get out and they will have to capitulate to the will of the American people,” he said.

    “So this is just like Prague under communist rule?” the Huffington Post asked.

    “Oh yeah, it is very, very close,” King replied. “It is the nationalization of our liberty and the federal government taking our liberty over. So there are a lot of similarities there.”

    Earlier, King implored the crowd to bring the nation’s capital to a sort of paralysis. Warning, erroneously, that the health care bill would fund abortion and fund care for 6.1 million illegal immigrants, he demanded that concerned citizens “continue to rise up.”

    “I look back 20 years ago in the square in Prague… when tens of thousands showed up there and they shook their keys peacefully and they took over their country and they achieved their freedom back again,” he said. “If you can keep coming to this city, fill up the congressional offices across the country but jam this city. If you can get on your cell phones, and get on your Blackberries and your email, and ask people to keep coming to this town. Storm this city, fill up Washington D.C., jam this capital so they can’t move. And if tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of you show up, we will win. We will defeat this bill and you will have your liberty back.”

  25. 25.

    Ming

    March 16, 2010 at 1:13 pm

    Is it my imagination, or has Ezra been on a roll lately?

    @El Cid: um, okay, so what exactly counts as treason in this country? apparently when citizens objected to a particular policy aim (the Iraq war) without any hint of wanting to take down the government, that was treason. and this? I guess it falls under the IOKIYAR/Teabagger. Jesus F. Christ.

  26. 26.

    ricky

    March 16, 2010 at 1:14 pm

    @The Grand Panjandrum:

    “Lehrer has got to get Ezra on the News Hour opposite Brooks. I might actually watch the news again.”

    Lehrer will have to do so over the dead rerun body of Lawerence Welk. PBS stations think fans of Brooks’s flabby joweled conterpart are its donor demographic.

  27. 27.

    The Grand Panjandrum

    March 16, 2010 at 1:14 pm

    Brooks’ points are Kristol clear. Leave him alone, Ezra!

  28. 28.

    BR

    March 16, 2010 at 1:15 pm

    Regarding the recent nonsense about how the house “is trying to pass health care reform without a vote”, this is how to deal with it:

    What they need to be doing is saying, “The Republicans are lying about this. There is going to be a vote. It’ll be on C-SPAN if you want to tune in. Their claims are as always a thin tissue of lies intended to fool the fools. I’m sure there aren’t many fools out there who are taken in by this.”

    http://lovable-liberal.blogspot.com/2010/03/leaving-stupid-their-outrage.html

  29. 29.

    El Cid

    March 16, 2010 at 1:17 pm

    @Ming:

    um, okay, so what exactly counts as treason in this country?

    Basically, any sort of act committed by an other-than-right-winger.

    It’s in the Constitution. Look it up.

  30. 30.

    demo woman

    March 16, 2010 at 1:17 pm

    Ezra’s sexy when he’s mad.

  31. 31.

    geg6

    March 16, 2010 at 1:19 pm

    OT, but tangentially related…

    As I mentioned in another thread, I used my lunch hour to go to a rally for HCR at Jason Altmire’s local office at noon. We had about a hundred or so people there (AFL-CIO affiliated union members, SEIU members, and miscellaneous MoveOn and OFA members like me). I had hoped that a bunch of Tea Baggers would show up so we could mock them. Unfortunately, only one crazy old lady showed up in her crappy truck with an anti-HCR sign on it, honking her horn and screaming garbage at us. Then she was stupid enough to stop and yell out her window at a bunch of carpenters, steelworkers, pipe fitters, iron workers and such about what commie dupes they were and how Obama was going to kill us all. And wouldn’t stop when told to move along. So there we had a crazed old woman screaming crazy shit with her truck surrounded by about 2 or 3 dozen large, strong, pissed-off men. Happily, after telling her to shut up or give up her Medicare and Social Security checks if she’s so worried about sockialism (she didn’t seem to understand the connection…seriously), she was allowed to drive away unmolested except for aurally.

    And a quick check online shows that the Pgh. Post-Gazette caught our little inbroglio with the crazy woman:

    http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10075/1043246-455.stm

    That makes it sound nicer than it was.

  32. 32.

    kansi

    March 16, 2010 at 1:19 pm

    Brooks isn’t wrong in the sense that “I disagree with him.” He’s wrong in the sense that the column requires a correction.

    Did anyone see Rachel last night with JD Hayworth? She challenged his “You could marry your horse” nonsense and his statement that the MA Supremes used “the establishment of intimacy” standard in defining marriage. She repeatedly told him that phrase was nowhere to be found in the ruling, and he just kept smiling and saying, “I guess we disagree.” Must be an epidemic of drop-dead wrongness in the Republican Party.

  33. 33.

    scav

    March 16, 2010 at 1:20 pm

    mmmm. it will be a grand day in IA when one can shout “le roi est mort!” and then just skip the 2nd half.

  34. 34.

    geg6

    March 16, 2010 at 1:21 pm

    Dammit. Got so excited to report my HCR rally experience that I used the s-word and am now in moderation. Oh, well. Pretty decent crowd for small town Western PA.

  35. 35.

    joes527

    March 16, 2010 at 1:21 pm

    This is a feature, not a bug.

    Bobo has directly addressed this before when called on his bullshit.

    He is not bound by mere facts. He is focusing on the essence of things, not their outward appearance.

    Folks who get all wrapped up in “factual accuracy” are missing the bigger picture that Bobo is delivering *revealed wisdom* to the unwashed.

    Ezra is obviously too dumb to get this.

    Oh. and *SNAP*

  36. 36.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    March 16, 2010 at 1:21 pm

    @ricky: When you think that he was Robert Kennedy’s campaign manager, it boggles.

    Though not that much.

    I remember when he was calling Move On “not even Democrats”. I always wished he would actually stand up against the idiocy of Brooks (or Starbursts, or etc. Though Gergen wasn’t actually that bad) more strongly once in a while, but that was the first time I wanted to just punch the TV.

  37. 37.

    carlos the dwarf

    March 16, 2010 at 1:21 pm

    Why doesn’t Ezra Klein have a column in the Times?

    /youthful naivete

  38. 38.

    JenJen

    March 16, 2010 at 1:22 pm

    @Bob K:

    “And if tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of you show up, we will win. We will defeat this bill and you will have your liberty back.”

    Well, if that’s true, then shouldn’t they have gotten their liberty back when 1.2 to 2 million of them showed up in DC for the 9/12/09 March? ;-)

    I, for one, am happy the oppression is not so harsh that I can’t see Malkin’s site or listen to Glenn Beck. YET. First, they came for Christmas, and we said nothing…

  39. 39.

    IndieTarheel

    March 16, 2010 at 1:23 pm

    Wow. There’s an ton of WIN in that Ezra post.
    __
    Hey, Dem Congresscritters – you paying attention to this? THIS IS HOW YOU DO IT.

  40. 40.

    El Cid

    March 16, 2010 at 1:24 pm

    Hey — right wingers are fed up with all these rich, elitist leukemia patients flaunting their wealth of hoity toity elitist cancerous cells in their faces and trying to ram human empathy down their throats.

    There really are no dark depths that fringe haters online won’t go in the name of bashing health care reform. And specifically, in the name of ridiculing Americans who face traumatic, life-changing medical emergencies and the mountainous bills that often follow.
    …
    The latest pathetic example comes from (surprise!) Gateway Pundit who attacks a cancer patient (i.e. a “prop”) who made news when President Obama started publicly discussing the woman’s plight.
    …
    …Gateway Pundit mocks the leukemia patient (read that phrase a few times for a chill up the spine) because he claims her medical costs will be covered. Implication: She a faker!…
    …
    …[Jay Tea adds] Ms. Canfield reminds me of Graeme Frost, the little boy who became the Democrats’ pet poster boy for expanding the S-CHIP program. They trotted him down to DC to give their response to President Bush’s weekly address. Little Graeme pluckily read the speech prepared by the Democrats talking about how S-CHIP had helped save his life and his family after a horrific car crash.
    …
    Details of that didn’t quite ring true to some people, so those people started asking questions. Chief among them was Michelle Malkin, who discovered that the Frost family had considerable assets and resources — but had chosen to invest them in other areas than health insurance.
    …
    In both cases here, the “victims” weren’t victimized by “the system.” They were “victimized” by their own choices, and “the system” that Obama so desparately wants to change actually worked quite well for them. The Frost family put other priorities ahead of health insurance for their family, and Ms. Canfield — when she could no longer afford her private coverage — did not avail herself of available state-provided charity care until she was terribly ill — and then her hospital put its resources behind getting her state benefits while simultaneously giving her the care she needed — NOT waiting for guarantees of payment first.
    …
    What these people want — and what Obama is trying to secure for them — is freedom from responsibility. Freedom from worrying.Freedom from anxiety.
    …
    Well, guess what? There’s no guarantee of that in life. Life comes with exactly one guarantee — that it will end. We all — rich, poor, white, black, man, woman, powerful, powerless — all get one permanent, lasting death. That’s it. That’s all we’re promised. Everything else is catch as catch can.

    Freedom’s just another word for no hair left to lose.

    If only the Democrats weren’t so partisan in trying to destroy the Constitution by voting for legislation, right wing pundits wouldn’t be forced to expose cancer sufferers for the irresponsible greedheads they are.

  41. 41.

    Short Bus Bully

    March 16, 2010 at 1:25 pm

    Damn, what a take down!

    If I wasn’t in fear of a cloud of cheetos dust permanently obscuring my vision I would applaud vigorously.

  42. 42.

    geg6

    March 16, 2010 at 1:29 pm

    @demo woman:

    Ezra’s sexy when he’s mad.

    Fix’d.

  43. 43.

    Bob

    March 16, 2010 at 1:30 pm

    Bobo should stick with what he does best – reading obscure articles, parroting them, telling us how relevant they are before they return to the mildew of some shelf.

  44. 44.

    D.N. Nation

    March 16, 2010 at 1:31 pm

    Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) urged a smaller-than-expected crowd of Tea Party protesters on Tuesday to launch a Velvet Revolution-style uprising against the federal government, saying the parallels are striking between America’s current government and Eastern European communist rule.
    …
    Speaking to the Huffington Post shortly after his speech, King declared that a peaceful uprising, a la the successful overthrowing of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia on the streets of Prague in 1989 “would be fine with me.”

    I know this sort of historical pig-ignorance and nonsense has sadly become commonplace, but…

    Remember the wingnut salad days of 2002-2006, when Americans who opposed the Bush Administration were supposed to shut up, and we’d be treated to daily cable news scoldings of various Democratic legislators who made but a peep over it? Compare that to now. Astonishing.

  45. 45.

    The Main Gauche of Mild Reason

    March 16, 2010 at 1:32 pm

    Am I the only one a little surprised by the Yglesias/Klein inversion? First Yglesias becomes “Big Media Matt” after getting a big job at the Atlantic, while Ezra still works for TAP. Then he leaves the Atlantic, and Ezra suddenly gets a gig at WaPo/Newsweek, has interviews with Diane Sawyer, gains the ire of Joe Lieberman, etc etc etc.

    It makes one wonder if there was a Blair/Brown style restaurant meeting (or maybe just a JournoList one) where they decided Ezra should be the front man.

  46. 46.

    D.N. Nation

    March 16, 2010 at 1:32 pm

    @El Cid:

    Gateway Pundit is a white supremacist. Why the wingnutosphere hasn’t washed their hands of him is beyon…oh, who am I kidding.

  47. 47.

    pablo

    March 16, 2010 at 1:34 pm

    Poor, poor Bobo. He doesn’t remember being served his salad at Applebys. Memory clouded by the extensive wine list, I’m sure….

  48. 48.

    El Cid

    March 16, 2010 at 1:35 pm

    @D.N. Nation: What, are you some sort of commie leukemian sympathizer?

  49. 49.

    GReynoldsCT00

    March 16, 2010 at 1:39 pm

    @demo woman:

    and when he’s not…

  50. 50.

    D.N. Nation

    March 16, 2010 at 1:40 pm

    @El Cid:

    Who finds some of the people Jim Hoft links to fairly reprehensible? Why yes.

  51. 51.

    Randy P

    March 16, 2010 at 1:43 pm

    @El Cid:
    Yeah, I remember those “considerable assets”. The claim was that since they didn’t sell their house and live on the streets, they were obviously not really in need of money to pay the medical bills.

  52. 52.

    daryljfontaine

    March 16, 2010 at 1:44 pm

    Speaking to the Huffington Post shortly after his speech, King declared that a peaceful uprising, a la the successful overthrowing of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia on the streets of Prague in 1989 “would be fine with me.”

    Watching with casual disinterest on a television monitor (CSPAN?) as someone chained up most of the prominent GOP lawmakers with intricate industrial puzzles in a leaky school basement SAW-style “would be fine with me.”

    D

  53. 53.

    El Cid

    March 16, 2010 at 1:45 pm

    @Randy P: Maybe they meant the Mom could have made extra cash streetwalking.

  54. 54.

    Comrade Kevin

    March 16, 2010 at 1:48 pm

    So, what is this “Gateway Pundit” the gateway to? Stormfront?

  55. 55.

    Ming

    March 16, 2010 at 1:49 pm

    What, are you some sort of commie leukemian sympathizer?

    stands to reason — isn’t Leukemia near Czechoslovakia?

  56. 56.

    aimai

    March 16, 2010 at 1:53 pm

    Where were you all when Potomac Spring was crushed?!

    …Sobs Angrily

    But seriously, doesn’t Potomac Spring sound like a really hideously named soap?

    aimai

  57. 57.

    El Cid

    March 16, 2010 at 1:59 pm

    @Ming: It took quite a while after World War IV to round up all the Leukemian separatists.

    @aimai:

    But seriously, doesn’t Potomac Spring sound like a really hideously named soap?

    I actually had no idea about this.

  58. 58.

    Jim Once

    March 16, 2010 at 2:02 pm

    @scav:

    Word.

  59. 59.

    geg6

    March 16, 2010 at 2:03 pm

    @aimai:

    But seriously, doesn’t Potomac Spring sound like a really hideously named soap?

    Ughhhhh. I’m imagining Old Spice and hair pommade with a faint but lingering fart smell. You know. That old man smell. Kinda like what I imagine the Senate chamber smells like.

  60. 60.

    Cat Lady

    March 16, 2010 at 2:03 pm

    The average commenter here has more pride in the quality of their statements than Bobo, and is subject to more scrutiny than the Times gives their highest profile columnist. What explains this? He’s not stupid, and he has access to the facts as we all do. The only answer is he’s intentionally lying and the Times is either intentionally or unintentionally letting him lie, under the guise of “it’s just opinion”. Just like the WaPo does with its stable of lying liars.

    The Village needs to be burned down to the motherfucking ground.

  61. 61.

    Ash Can

    March 16, 2010 at 2:03 pm

    And if tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of you show up, we will win.

    “And our plan would have worked, too, if it hadn’t been for you meddling voters and your mangy democracy.”

  62. 62.

    ericblair

    March 16, 2010 at 2:05 pm

    @aimai: But seriously, doesn’t Potomac Spring sound like a really hideously named soap?

    The soap would smell like muddy river water sitting in your basement for a week.

  63. 63.

    El Cid

    March 16, 2010 at 2:08 pm

    @Cat Lady: Just imagine if your average pundit and, for that matter, journalist, had to pass the argument and source verification required for, say, an undergraduate thesis research paper. Dozens, nay, hundreds of them would fail out. And we’d probably be better off replacing them with undergraduate thesis writers.

  64. 64.

    El Cid

    March 16, 2010 at 2:10 pm

    @Ash Can:

    And if tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of you show up, we will win.

    ‘And if we could simply get 200 million of you to donate $1,000 to our cause, we’d be much, much better off, I mean, closer to victory.’

  65. 65.

    licensed to kill time

    March 16, 2010 at 2:12 pm

    @geg6: Not the whiff of Aqua Velva and a little bit of cigar smoke?

  66. 66.

    R-Jud

    March 16, 2010 at 2:12 pm

    @geg6:

    Ughhhhh. I’m imagining Old Spice and hair pommade with a faint but lingering fart smell. You know. That old man smell. Kinda like what I imagine the Senate chamber smells like.

    Oh, I read that as meaning an entirely different kind of soap. I was imagining a beltway Dynasty, with Michelle Bachman and Sarah Palin as warring matriarchs. You know, shoulderpads, bumpits, and intrigue. Also.

  67. 67.

    Llelldorin

    March 16, 2010 at 2:33 pm

    @Cat Lady:

    There’s a difference between stupid and lazy.

    Bobo has gotten lazy (if he ever wasn’t). He’s become very used to being treated as an expert on politics, and it’s gone to his head to the point that he treats himself as a source. At this point he believes that his musings are true and important by dint of being his musings. He knows that he isn’t going to get called on it in any serious way, so it’s now self-reinforcing.

  68. 68.

    asiangrrlMN

    March 16, 2010 at 2:34 pm

    Yes, but he sounds erudite and is oh-so-genteel. Isn’t that really all that matters?

  69. 69.

    aimai

    March 16, 2010 at 2:45 pm

    El Cid! I’m afraid to click on any of the links at that site after reading this:

    Our monkeys are working overtime in our hot and dimly lit shanties to entertain you. Make them feel good about themselves by checking out their fun stuff.

    Good catch.

    aimai

    And why has no one thought up a riff on the original?

    Television advertisements for the product have usually been set in an Irish village or a forest. The product had one of the most famous slogans of the past few decades with a showering woman uttering the phrase “Manly, yes, but I like it too” to describe its crossover appeal to both women and men.__
    Other oft-used slogans included “Fresh and clean as a whistle” (in which a wolf whistle was heard after “fresh” and before “clean as a whistle”, “All the freshness of Ireland Bottled” and “The Irish Never Quit” and most recently “Smell like you’re worth exploring.

  70. 70.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 16, 2010 at 2:51 pm

    @R-Jud: I’m almost afraid to ask, but what are bumpits? Surely they can’t be . . . Naaah.

  71. 71.

    licensed to kill time

    March 16, 2010 at 3:19 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    They’re those things you put under your hair to make that odd little bump at the crown. Makes you look all 60’s-ish, early Liverpool Mod. Or weirdly Mormon-lady hair. But I know what you were thinking, ha!

  72. 72.

    ricky

    March 16, 2010 at 3:22 pm

    @Ming:

    isn’t Leukemia near Czechoslovakia?

    It is one of those Beneleuks countries where they make the much discussed soap.

  73. 73.

    Cacti

    March 16, 2010 at 4:07 pm

    @geg6:

    Happily, after telling her to shut up or give up her Medicare and Social Security checks if she’s so worried about sockialism (she didn’t seem to understand the connection…seriously), she was allowed to drive away unmolested except for aurally.

    Keep your government hands off my Medicare!!1!

  74. 74.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 16, 2010 at 6:15 pm

    @Licensed to Kill Time: Thanks, I finally figured it out. But yes indeed, I was thinking of something like armpits only a bit lower (esp since I think R-Jud is a Brit and would more routinely use “bum” in that sense).

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