Over at Huffington Post I came across a jaw dropper on their front page and here it is with my notations:
Lanny Davis is a “Top Democrat”? Really?
Seriously, WTF. If this is true we are doomed. Lanny is a DC whore who will dance to any tune played by any piper who will pay Lanny’s fee. Jack Abramoff used to use Lanny to place stories in ‘respectable’ newspapers back in the day. The guy is an example of all that is wrong with Washington DC–left, right and center.
If he is a “Top Democrat” we are doomed.
Fortunately he is not. He is only a “Democrat” let alone a “Top Democrat” in the fevered imaginations of media whores everywhere. His main stock-in-trade is ginning up and/or commenting on freshly invented “Clinton Wars”, especially if the imagined spat is between a mythical “Camp Clinton” and real Democrats and/or real progressives.
This meme is irresistible to fools the media. “Clinton Wars” are catnip for cable teevee and lazy online eyeball collectors and so Lanny will always get a hype bump and a little scratch. That’s fine. Lanny and the rest of the pundit celebrities should be able to fleece the gullible–it is how they make their grifter living after all, but please, let’s not pretend that any of these wankers are “top” anything. They are bottom feeders, one and all.
And yes, please treat this small rant about a small man as an open thread.
Cheers
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I saw this, too. I laughed, also about Lanny Dee being a “Top Democrat”. I suspect when Lanny calls Bill Clinton, the reaction is similar to Don Corleone’s when he finds out Luca Brazzi wants an audience: “Is this necessary?”
El Cid
Lanny Davis is a fucking piece of living shit who will pimp any god-damned Central American coup-master who hires his worthless ass.
Zifnab
OT: Jon Stewart says we’re all supposed to show up in Washington D.C. and be reasonable on 10.30.10
ThinkBlue
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2009/08/18/davis/
Ouch.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@El Cid: or Joe Lieberman
Martin
Well, since Rove got tagged as a Democrat as of Tuesday, sure, I guess Lanny would be one too.
sherifffruitfly
Time for a blogger ethics panel?
Davis X. Machina
Forget it, Jake. It’s
ChinatownHuffpo.Rick Massimo
The problem is, the media whores who buy Lanny Davis as a “top Democrat” put it out to the general public. And as Digby puts it, if people like Lanny Davis were what you thought liberals and top Democrats were, you’d hate liberals and top Democrats too.
blahblahgurgleblegblah
Isn’t that hair nicely coiffed? And that strangely vampirish unsmile plastered upon there like a Rorschach inkblot. He looks great to me! He so makes me want to vote Democratic again.
Villago Delenda Est
Lanny Davis is as much a candidate for a tumbrel ride when The Revolution gets here as either of the Koch brothers.
He’s slime.
jl
Now it says:
Lanny Davis Attacks Maddow For Clinton Criticism: ‘Worst Element Of Our Party’
First Posted: 09-16-10 02:16 PM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/16/lanny-davis-attacks-maddo_n_719684.html
That seems more accurate to me.
Following the links in the story, this seems to be a follow up to a HuffPo story about Clinton targeting Maddow on a ‘best Republican President we ever had’ comment on Clinton.
Davis gives a cool and calm analysis: Maddow is the left equivalent to the Tea People.
The current headline that the oil eating bacteria in the Gulf spill at the gaw not the oil seems more important.
But then, Cole complaining about his Rosie dumping over the trash bin seems more important, too.
freelancer
Well, we can’t have a “Republicans circular firing squad” process story without some bullshit MSM false-balance equivalent story out there so that the nontroversies clash and annihilate themselves giving off only sweet, sweet ratings and pageviews, can we?
Allison W.
@Zifnab:
OR you can go to Stephen’s and keep fear alive
http://www.keepfearalive.com/
Three-nineteen
@Zifnab: Did you see Bill Clinton “accidentally” call Newt’s 1994 legislative plan “Contract on America”?
Allison W.
@Three-nineteen:
He most likely got it from here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4IQ_kj9eDM&feature=player_embedded
Martin
If Colbert/Stewart can get a turnout on 10/30, the shirts and signs are going to be a million degrees of awesome.
There’s also a rumor going around that TDS will film in DC for the 10/2 event and that Obama will be a guest.
Comrade Luke
Looks like that whole Draw Mohammed Day didn’t work out too well.
Mike in NC
Add James Carville and George Stephanopolous to that list of grifters.
Loneoak
This got buried at the end of the thread about Jacob Isom, so I thought I use the open thread to bring it back up:
Draft lexicon entry:
Dude, You Have No Koran: Refers to an event on September 11, 2010, when hero skateboarder Jacob Isom brazenly swiped a Koran from racist preacher Davis Grisham, who was about to burn the book in an Amarillo, TX park. Isom said to Grisham “Dude, you have no Koran!” and fled on his skateboard, preventing the book burning. The phrase is now used to mark when a wingnut is foiled in their attempt to do or say something bigoted and vile.
Emma
@jl: Excuse me, if you’d ever watched Rachel, you would know that she is nothing of the sort. She is rational, calm, and curious. Also super smart and geeky. All good things, and not in the least tea baggerish.
Seebach
So what if O’Donnell gets in legal trouble? Anyone familiar with Delaware Law? Is it possible to replace her on the ballot?
Emma
@Martin: I think it’s going to be a fundraiser for /against autism.
Yutsano
Dengre u haz mad tagging skills brah.
And why is it whenever I see Lanny Davis I think of Walter Mondale?
MaryJane
@Emma: I also misunderstood the comment at first. That was Davis’s take on Rachel, not jl’s.
Amanda in the South Bay
Why do I have the horrible feeling that, despite my personal belief that the Dems really aren’t going to get creamed that badly on the national level, Meg motherfucking Whitman is going to be the next governor of California? Just what we need, a rich fucking Republican from fucking Atherton as our next governor. Why are prominent CA Dems so incompetent and mediocre?
Good bye High Speed Rail, it was nice to think we’d have you in the future, but not, alas.
Moses2317
Here’s a message to disgruntled progressives. Let me know what you think.
Odie Hugh Manatee
If you took all of the “top Democrats” and stuffed them in the bottom of an outhouse, I am sure that Lanny would be one of the turds floating on top just because he’s that buoyant.
So in that sense I would say that Huff-N-Puff got it right.
Martin
@Amanda in the South Bay: What makes you think so? Brown just started campaigning a week ago and he’s doing okay in the polls. His latest ad is pretty solid.
General Stuck
I been saying this for awhile, and it looks like it’s working. Dems won’t be able to get much traction in 012 with this strategy, but can and seemingly are only two years out from the Bush/GOP control of the previous 8 years.
I expect dems to start soon a blitz of ads with this simple message and for likely voter polls to shift even more toward the D;s. They will still lose seats, but the scourge of intelligent mice brain teabaggers will also help, once they crawl out from their hidey holes and open their mouths in debates and such, and limit dem losses.
Amanda in the South Bay
@Martin:
Sorta the general sense of apathy I get here in SV…people are either too poor or too preoccupied with making money and living the Valley Yuppie lifestyle.
TBH I was just looking at the Merc’s (I know, bad idea) website, and they had an article about the Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce endorsing Fiorina, making it out to be a BFD. OMGees, the Chamber of Commerce endorsing a Republican, how do I get my journalism degree and write for the Mercury News?
It sorta set me off, and I think Jerry Brown is just…past his prime, and I’m sure many people think his prime wasn’t that great either. He should be retired hosting a weekly show on KPFA in Berkeley or something, not running for gov.
bleh, enough cynicism for tonight, off to bed.
Amanda in the South Bay
@Amanda in the South Bay:
Also, I’m a pretty big supporter of high speed rail in CA, much opposition comes from rich people in Palo Alto/Menlo Park/Atherton, Whitman is from Atherton, she’s rich and a Republican, and…well, the media sure is gunning for a GOP landslide this year. Its just depressing, cause its a really important project, and oh BTW Caltrain, the commuter rail between SJ and SF, is really hurting for funds, and Whitman and her cronies (i.e. rich bastards in PAMPA) really don’t like Caltrain either.
I just wish when people (of whatever political stripe) say how the SF Bay Area is uber liberal, they’d take stuff like this into consideration.
different church-lady
I believe this is an indicator that HuffPo has achieved epistemic closure. Good on ya, Arrianna!
Mnemosyne
@Amanda in the South Bay:
I really blame the proposition process. It sounds great to have direct democracy, but (a) most people are idiots and (b) it allows industry to write their own laws and bypass the legislature to get them passed. Their hands have been tied by so many expensive propositions (no property tax increases, budget requires a 2/3rds majority, mandatory education funding, three strikes, term limits) that I think most legislators don’t even bother legislating anymore.
Allan
On Jerry Brown, he definitely needs to kick up the campaign a notch.
On the other hand, as long as he’s Attorney General he gets in front of the TV cameras for free, fighting corruption and looking out for the little guy.
PG&E has also handed him fertile ground to work as AG in the coming weeks.
Allan
Oh and on topic, fuck Arianna Huffington.
eastriver
Allan, I’ll hold her while you fuck her. And we’ll get somebody else to take pictures. Then we’ll make one of those retarded “Top Ten Ways To Ream Arianna” slide shows, where you have to click through ten sets of ads.
That’ll show that english-challenged PuffHo.
She’s like one of the Gabor sisters. Minus the glamour and wit.
Quiddity
You all should check out this Wikipedia page (from 2008) on Lanny Davis.
Lancelot Link
I wonder if Lanny is Politico’s “Big-Time Democrat”, too?
Karen
@Zifnab
I hope I can go, I like the idea of non violent or hateful people getting together to show that not everyone is off the deep end. I wonder how many people will show up.
Cain
@Lancelot Link:
But is he part of the professional left?
cain
MikeJ
@Karen: But of course Stewart said, hey there are crazies on the left, there are crazies on the right, both sides are just as bad, and he didn’t point out that the republicans have elected officials that are as crazy as anybody at a rally and the Dems have some guy with a sign.
There are a lot of bad things you can say about the Democratic party, but it isn’t run by conspiracy theorists. The crazy people run the GOP.
LanceThruster
@Davis X. Machina: Fanned & Faved!
LanceThruster
They know what Lanny is. And it is not gullibility that has them positioning him as a “top Democrat.” It is that Lanny provides the needed memes whenever the call is sounded, and to pretend that he is a credible voice perpetuates the illusion for those spoon fed by the bottom feeders.
Unfortunately, the answer that I can’t argue with is the feeling that we are doomed. Emotional buttons are easily pushed, and critical thinking is far too scarce. The most frightening revelation from “Mein Kampf”, was the observation not to worry about the intellectuals as a focus of propaganda, because there are not enough of them.
Pat
That was my reaction too…WTF? The HP is getting a little too “foxy” with their headlines for my taste! I’ve noticed that I’ve been visiting there less and less. They were good for the ’08 election, but I’ve noticed a decline in substance since then.
SiubhanDuinne
@Moses2317 #27:
I have found your essays in “Winning Progressive” reassuring and very well crafted. They are both soothing (in that they walk me back from occasional bouts of despair) and energizing (in that they inspire me to activism). This one in particular not only lays out what Obama and sound Dems in the Congress have actually achieved in less than two years — and it’s quite an impressive litany! — but also what a long and patient road progressivism must travel.
(Your “Moses” handle is well-chosen!)
I keep your site bookmarked. It’s a good pick-me-up, and offers a wealth of points to use in exchanges with those “disgruntled progressives” we all come across. I’ll do my best to get your arguments out.
Woodrow "asim" Jarvis Hill
@Pat: The key here is that HuffPo doesn’t make money off of Politics, not most of the time. They make money off the images of half-nekkid women and tabloid-esqe writings that feature elsewhere on the site; that’s what draws in readers, of a sort, and thus ad revenue.
And so, the political coverage there leans more and more to ginning up that kind of breathless, crisis-driven writing. It’s a case where accuracy is leaned heavily on, in favor of fear-mongering and us-vs-them responses. That it slants left doesn’t forgive this style of writing, and I’ve come to avoid HuffPo as much as I do Fox News.
Linda Featheringill
@Quiddity:
I had to look up the guy to see who-the-heck he is and was directed to Wiki.
Among the other goodies I found:
That explains a lot.
debbie
Interesting bit on NPR this morning about sources for Tea Party funding. So much for purity.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129926390
Kryptik
The real telling point is not whether he’s called a Top Dem in headlines. It’s whether he’s considered a Top Dem in the Dem leadership circles. If he is, then we were truly fucked before we began.
terraformer
I seriously detest that fucker. I remember on CSPAN’s Washington Journal when he was on and someone called in who was a bit more informed than your typical caller, and who proceeded to question Davis’ ranting and had some facts in hand that clearly challenged and embarrassed Lanny.
Clearly flummoxed at being challenged, Lanny then tore into the caller with non-sequiturs and obfuscations, ending with “I know what I’m talking about and you simply do not.” What an asshole, indeed emblematic of all that is wrong in Washington.
Moses2317
@SiubhanDuinne: Thanks, I really appreciate it. Especially after the beating I’ve been taking in the comments over at Daily Kos when I cross-posted my “disgruntled progressives” post.
Raenelle
Word by word the media dictionary is being revealed: “top Democrat” means a Democrat I know, or a perhaps even a Democrat of whom I’ve heard. “Top” is a synonym for “serious.” Both are antonyms of “dirty fucking hippies.”
WaterGirl
@eastriver:
I completely agree with the anti-Arianna Huffington sentiment.
But I have a big problem with your first sentence. It’s called rape and it happens to a lot of women. Just not funny.
I know it’s a blog and anyone can say what they like, but I hope you’ll think about it and make a different choice next time.
asiangrrlMN
@WaterGirl: I agree with you, WG. Not cool at all.
@Yutsano: Take that back! #Shakes fist at Yutsy# Davis is not a tenth of the man Mondale is.
Dr. Squid
@Comrade Luke: No, but Sunday is Talk Like A Pirate Day. Arrrrrrr…
Lanny Davis can eat a bag of dicks and send the leftovers to his BFF Bill Kristol.
Joshua
I think the first time I heard Lanny Davis’ name was when he was when Bush picked him to be on some horse shit panel meant to “assure” Americans about one of Bush’s nazi laws. Greenwald rightly mocked him by asking about the “Lanny Davis Approval” exception in the Constitution. Fuck that guy. He’s like a poor man’s Dick Morris, except he’s actually worse, because he can trot around the Village with the air of centrist respectability. At least Morris is upfront about how full of shit he is.
DPirate
Ok then, they are talking about the Platonic Ideal of Top Democrat. Seriously, it sounds reasonable to me, if your description of this Lanny guy is right.
LanceThruster
@Dr. Squid:
Suck a Bag of Dicks- Louis CK
”I don’t have a policy against doing it…It’s just that I have never seen a dick I’ve wanted to suck.”
Ruckus
Lanny Davis is
athe whore’s whore