I could read crazy right-wing blogs all day and I don’t mind prolonged exposure to Kaplan editorials or At Packers, but I honestly can’t listen to more than 30 seconds of Cokie Roberts without wanting to slit my wrists (via Steve M.):
… the fact is, George Bush ran on bringing harmony to Washington, and thought he could work across the aisle as he had in Texas, but the 2000 election left everybody with — so angry that he was unable to do that.
I don’t know if it’s his “manly characteristic” or what, but it’s a crush that will never die.
numbskull
“… the fact is, ”
Translation: This fits some narrative spinning around in my head, so it must be factual.
Is this like “truthiness”?
Tom Traubert
I heard this this morning also as I was driving to work; nearly drove right off the road.
danimal
I get more homicidal than suicidal when exposed to Cokie, but the general principle holds. Just say no to Cokie.
eemom
to anyone who’s ever heard Mr. Cokie sit in for Diane Rehm, the crush part is at least somewhat understandable.
Mark S.
Oh for fuck’s sake, Bush got a hell of a lot more cooperation than Obama has gotten.
By the way, why doesn’t anyone ever talk about repealing No Child Left Behind? I have only ever heard one person defend it, and that was because this person’s husband had a job through it. Everyone else, liberal, conservative, and in between, hates the fucking thing.
Mary Jane Leach
If you regard her commentary as comic relief, it helps.
JGabriel
DougJ:
Sarah Palin has that affect on me.
.
jinxtigr
When you click on the link ‘manly characteristic’, it says Not Found :)
comrade scott's agenda of rage
The blatherings of that poster child for Village Idiocy shouldn’t surprise anybody. Why? She has no discernible politics other than attachment to her class, no reporting and most often no clue. She’s the perfect font of Beltway conventional wisdom uncomplicated by any collision with messy reality.
She’s the Windup Conventional Wisdom Doll.
Keith G
Jeeesus, Doug. I woke up this AM and flipped on the radio. And that is what I heard. I switched over to a Chick Corea on iTunes.
If I were British, I could get away with stating that she is obviously a fucking ignorant twat. Since I am not, the best I can do is just wish she would go away.
DougJ
@JGabriel:
Again, I could watch her all day, doesn’t bother me. I don’t see the appeal, but she doesn’t make me want to kill myself.
chrismealy
It’s people like Cokie Roberts that makes me give money to Act Blue thermometers instead of to NPR. Okay, it’s really just Cokie Roberts.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@chrismealy:
I stopped giving money to NPR years ago. Cokie’s just the tip of the iceberg when it came to influencing that decision. Other hacks like Juan Williams and of course the newer breed of them like Liarson and Inskreep reinforce the soundness of my decision to never give them anything other than my passing attention on the radio.
Giving money to homeless, drug addicts is a better use of dollars when compared to giving a dime to NPR.
DougJ
@jinxtigr:
Thanks for letting me know, I fixed it.
licensed to kill time
Once Bush discovered all the W’s were missing from the White House keyboards he thought it was impossible to spell hawrmony anymore. That was the problem, Cokie.
Chris
Christ, I hope NPR doesn’t pay Cokie Roberts to spout shit like this. Fuck a pledge drive if they do.
El Cid
Careful, or she’ll write another book on how her mother inspired her.
LanceThruster
There’s also a horse that whinnies at the mention of Cokie’s name just like for Frau Blücher in “Young Frankenstein”.
daveNYC
Just because it was broken doesn’t mean it was wrong.
ulee
Cokie’s autobiography title:Bland like Me
beltane
I never listen to Cokie; she is too exotic for my tastes. I have loathed that woman ever since Bush II’s inauguration when she got all breathless about “the mystique of the Bush family”.
Citizen Alan
I still can’t get over her suggestion that Obama was out of line for vacationing in Hawaii because “real Americans” couldn’t relate to someplace that “exotic.” Setting aside the fact that (a) it’s his home state and (b) it’s where his elderly ailing grandmother lived, Hawaii is also the third most popular tourist destination for Americans (behind only the Grand Canyon and Disneyland). I think Chris Matthews’ moronic “orange juice” comment is Cokie’s sole rival for “Most Vapid Pundit Comment of 2008.”
SiubhanDuinne
@Numbskull #1:
Some other Truthiness Alerts:
“I’m going to be honest with you . . . . ”
and Newt’s favorite: “Frankly, . . . “
catclub
@beltane:
“the mystique of the Bush family”.
I think that includes bankers for the Third Reich, with great efforts to keep that part mysterious.
ricky
She has more names than all of Sarah Palin’s children combined: Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne “Cokie” Boggs Roberts. Give her the pity she has earned.
Midwest Meg
I always switch the dial when Cokie comes on. I used to give alot of money to public radio, but the Cokester cured me Of course, Juan Williams, Mara Liason and Neal Conan also played a role in reducing my contribution levels. And David Brooks. And the meglomaniac Scott Simon. But for sheer, unadulterated Village idiocy, Cokie is the queen.
Dr.BDH
And to think there are people at some blogs who think Bob Somerby is pompous and shrill. Somerby deserves a Pulitzer for his eviseration of Cokie on numerous occassions. Yet, she cannot be killed, or even wounded…
Dr.BDH
…and I think that should be “the mistake of the Bush family,” no?
jrg
When Bush used to start every other sentence with “There are some who say…”, and would end it with a ridiculous straw man, who the f*ck did Cokie think Bush was talking about?
Omnes Omnibus
@Dr.BDH: You mean W?
Omnes Omnibus
@Dr.BDH: You mean W?
thomas Levenson
Cokie is old Washington, and they protect their own; she serves a function for NPR: she reassures the town that however much the “Public” in the initial might worry them, everything’s cool; the fix is in.
thomas Levenson
Cokie is old Washington, and they protect their own. Besides, she serves a function for NPR: she reassures the town that however much the “Public” in the name might worry them, everything’s cool. On NPR you’ll get the full range of opinion from M to N.
thomas Levenson
So, trigger finger much? Apologies for the double tap on the comment.
beltane
@Dr.BDH: Funny, that’s exactly what my mother said as we watched the whole sorry spectacle.
beltane
@thomas Levenson: Cokie Roberts is the Sally Quinn of the airwaves. Stuck up old rich ladies who have way more influence than their talents merit. It’s not what you know, it’s who your parents were.
Mark S.
@thomas Levenson:
She certainly doesn’t do much for the 99.9999999% of us who didn’t have a Senator for a daddy and lived a life of pure privilege.
BenJammin' Cisco
@Citizen Alan:
What was REALLY astounding about that (other than the fact that someone could say something that spectacularly stupid without, oh I don’t know, the ceiling caving in on her or something) was how effortless it was. She made that idiotic remark as casually as if she was commenting on the weather. The force, the sheer density of that pure, undiluted dumbassery burned. It was as if millions of brain cells cried out in terror, and were silenced. I will NEVER forget that moment.
kindness
It is sad. I really like KQED out here in San Francisco, but with Mara & co parroting Republican bullshit on a daily basis I no longer give them money. I would rather give them money but won’t until they at least try for somewhere in the middle.
I won’t hold my breath. They are all hoping Republicans take everything in the ’10 elections.
Jewish Steel
Let’s not forget that NPR refuses, along with much of the rest of the gutless MSM, to call water boarding torture.
Bastards.
themann1086
“… the fact is”
holy crap, Cokie Roberts is Gary Ruppert!
Omnes Omnibus
@thomas Levenson: It has been happening to me all day. I blame FYWP.
numbskull
A problem with not giving to NPR/PBS/etc. is that it’s an additional win for the Republicans. It only hurts the local stations, and it makes everyone in the system more dependent on the likes of Mobil, Archer-Midland-Daniels, and similar players.
It’s never ending.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@kindness:
I give to KALW* instead. At least they tell me what my kid is going to be eating for lunch every day.
*Local public radio station licensed to the San Francisco school system.
Tom Levenson
@Omnes Omnibus: Always the default option.
Tom Levenson
@Mark S.: @beltane: Amen and amen.
Scott Supak
I had to light Cokie once. Off camera she was talking shit about Clinton (president at the time). We had an awful nose shadow problem with her. Awful woman. Right up there with Barbara Walters in the mean-to-people-around-her department.
Nylund
One thing I wish the media had made clear is that the position of Governor in Texas is largely ceremonial.
Texas hated the idea of an authoritarian executive branch and distrusted centralized government and thus gave relatively few powers and responsibilities to the position of governor in the state constitution as compared to other states. Whereas other governors make a lot of key appointments, in Texas, many of those positions are by elections and the executive branch is so fragmented that they all basically do their own things individually without much oversight or coordination by the Governor. Its really much more of a speech making and ribbon cutting position than anything else.
The Lt. Governor, on the other hand, heads the State Senate and plays a large role in legislation and the budget and thus yields a lot of power.
Kay Shawn
Ugh, hate Cokie! She crawls out of bed Mondays and burps that nonsense into the mic whilst still in her “discreet nightie,” as she told Bob Edwards once. Interestingly, after she gets dressed she makes no more sense.
Mark S.
@Kay Shawn:
Gee, thanks for putting that image in my head.
timb
I heard that live and shut the radio off in annoyance. All I could remember is that people like Limbaugh think she’s a boogeyman. Truth is, she’s a moron who believes that since 2 sides consider her a moron she must really be a Deacon in the Church of the Savvy. In the end, she’s just a moron
Jinchi
The Texas Democratic party controlled the state before he won the governorship, and effectively ceased to exist by the time Bush left office. Strange that their desire to work across the aisle with Bush didn’t pay off for them.