The awful Howard Fineman (via Matt Yglesias):
Among his other attributes, Jay Carney is a cool dancer. I know that because I saw him and his wife, Claire Shipman, getting down on the tented dance floor of a fancy Georgetown wedding years ago. Jay Carney, who went to Yale and was a foreign correspondent in Moscow, is — besides being smart, savvy, loyal and well-connected with the right sort — suave.
[…..]Obama came to the White House in the manner of Jimmy Carter, with whom he was, early on, mistakenly compared. But while Carter never expanded his circle beyond the “Georgians,” Obama has, with stunning swiftness, retooled his administration to play hardball in the D.C. League.
Drouse
One thing about Keith O. losing his job is that I see a lot less of Howard.
jwb
@efgoldman: All the kewl kidz are changing their handles ’cause a writer at the Atlantic referred to DougJ as “a writer at Balloon Juice.”
de stijl
I am a writer at Balloon Juice!
(Or, possibly, Spartacus.)
sherifffruitfly
It’s all about the cocktail parties, the bbq’s at republicans’ estates, and such bullshit to “journalists”.
A Writer At Balloon-Juice
@efgoldman:
I find little tidbits like this interesting. It’s the Bob Somerby in me.
sherifffruitfly
@jwb:
An “I Am Spartacus” thing? lols
Cat Lady
What the fuck does that even mean? And is it possible to be less self aware than that smarmy hack?
Tonybrown74
Wow …
The Village can fellate better than any gay man.
How is this not classified as pornography?
Chuck Butcher
It seems to me that the job entails putting a good face on what the WH wants said. That wouldn’t really require any journalistic ability beyond being liked by the “pit”.
Some of GWB’s Press Secretaries pissed me off more than others – not by lying but by their attitudes while doing it. Does somebody out there believe that the Press Scty is supposed to have a “truth based” adversarial relationship with the govt?
13th Generation
I want to like Fineman, but he may be the Village Idiot.
A Writer At Balloon-Juice
@efgoldman:
No, the tidbit being that Fineman thought this was worthy of report and that he had this crazy theory about “the Georgians”.
joe from Lowell
@efgoldman: Remember when Chuck Todd was a polling numbers guy? He was great!
Now, he’s just another guy who pushes the Village conventional wisdom.
Sad.
@Chuck Butcher:
I used to appreciate the panicky, deer-in-the-headlights look Scott McClellan used to get when he lied. It was like he had a conscience.
It’s no surprise he came out with that book.
Comrade Baron Elmo
Didn’t Fineman once win some competition that Matt Taibbi drew up to determine who was the biggest hack journalist in America? He might have been the runner-up.
Actually, I haven’t seen ol’ Howard on the idiot box in ages. Does he still have that ridiculous dye job?
BGinCHI
I almost made a Fineman joke about the Egypt stuff, but I just couldn’t stomach it.
He’ll be perfect when Hollywood Squares comes back with all journalists.
Chuck Butcher
One of the things I’ve liked about Gibbs is his ability to keep a pretty friendly tone in the face of bullshit. His version of combativeness has been snark.
Chuck Butcher
@joe from Lowell:
Judging from what excerpts I’ve read and what he said in some interviews that conscience was pretty well dead and buried at the time. I agree about the “deer in the headlights” look, but that might only mean that he wasn’t very good at lying. Ari mad me foam at the mouth and as for Snow … dead now.
Drive By Wisdom
No amount of window dressing from Yale will return dignity to this White House.
Chuck Butcher
Why WP (FYWP) cannot handle IE8 70% of the time is beyond me. It is a bit difficult to read this when the text sprawls all over the place.
BGinCHI
Paul Lynde = Jonathan Capehart
J.W. Hamner
I have been known to “get down” as the kids said 20 years ago… I can haz a job in the White House?
me
Does Fineman want to dance with Carney because he envies Gregory?
Cat Lady
Andrea Mitchell = Ruth Buzzi
Megyn Kelly = Charo
BruceFromOhio
Fixt for clarity, Howard, no charge.
And I liked the writer at Balloon Juice better when he was Arkon DougJ.
J.W. Hamner
@joe from Lowell:
OT: But since you’re here, I started takinng a grad class at Umass-Lowell… is there any way to get back to the commuter rail at 9pm other than walking or a cab? And is anybody going to shovel the sidewalks along Dutton Street or am I always going to have to cross the Merrimack by going through downtown Lowell?
Svensker
The right sort?
Suave?
Excuse me while I go suavely puke. Only the right sort of puke, of course.
JWL
If memory serves, Ford’s first press secretary was a another reporter from a Detroit newspaper named Jerry Warren. He remains my favorite flack for the simple reason he only lasted about 6 weeks, choosing to resign in protest if the Nixon pardon. While that wasn’t very suave of him, rumor has it he was could dance like Fred Astaire.
Keith G
@joe from Lowell:
Yes! Thanks for the laugh.
agrippa
What, if anything, does Jimmy Carter have to do with Brack Obama? They are as different as chalk and cheese.
de stijl
@joe from Lowell:
I know that WH Press Secretaries are professional shills, but Ari Fleischer’s chitinous eye gleam while telling the most egregious whoppers was instructive. He enjoyed it. He got off on it. Had there not been a podium to obscure the view, he would have been arrested for public indecency.
JPL
Obama came to the White House in the manner of Jimmy Carter, with whom he was, early on, mistakenly compared.
wtf. They both campaigned but so did those before them. Besides that I cannot think of one other comparison except they are both intelligent. Jimmy was a governor, Pres. Obama was a Senator. If he is talking about the President’s cabinet, there still is not a comparison. Even Rahm was a seasoned politician.
I’m glad that Carney can dance btw because that’s an important qualification for something.
de stijl
@Svensker:
Rico
Suave
joe from Lowell
@J.W. Hamner: You could look into the LRTA buses. The LRTA bus hub is at the MBTA station, and I know they go to the North Campus.
I don’t know about the schedule, though.
joe from Lowell
@J.W. Hamner: PS – if you want to walk from the North Campus to the train station, instead of walking down Merrimack and then turning down Dutton, go two blocks right on Pawtucket and walk down Fletcher Street through the neighborhood. It cuts the corner, and comes out at that Thorndike/Dutton curve.
Lincolnshire Poacher
Sounds like a missing piece from that show episode where Jon Stewart compiled of “serious” journalists asking those “serious” questions on CNBC about Merrill Lynch or Bear Sterns or GM.
The one where GM had a Kid Rock concert and everyone was dancing. Someone “seriously” asked then CEO Rick Wagoner “Check out your vice chairman’s moves in this clip …”
After all these are “serious” times and those “serious” questions must be raised.
morzer
Sounds like Howard Fineman has a serious case of blowjob lips that need to be put to use.
sharl
@Comrade Baron Elmo:
That was Wimblehack (“There Can Be Only One!”) – complete with elimination pairings and everythang!
It looks like Elisabeth Bumiller emerged victorious on that one (I’ve used up my alloted links – look for Nov.23 post, “Wimblehack: The Sad End”).
BR
You know, I’ve never understood the contempt the media has for Carter.
He was the last president to really level with the American people about the serious issues we face. Particularly on energy – we’re far more screwed on energy now than when Carter was president, and we wouldn’t be if we had listened to him.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
In other words, he’s not like Jimmy Carter at all. He knows what he has to do to get things done in DC. My kids tend to receive sarcastic replies when they make idiot comments like that.
Violet
This is all the Village cares about, isn’t it? What a bunch of toadies.
joe from Lowell
@BR: Jimmy Carter’s got what America needs right here.
hilts
@Cat Lady:
That’s a cruel insult to Charo.
Arundel
The description of Carney and wife cutting a rug at a swanky Village party reminds me of something. The scene in Mad Men, where Pete and Trudy wow the (other) rich snobs by doing the Charleston at Roger’s infamous “blackface” party. Harry Crane and his wife look on from the sidelines, feeling like outsiders at this millionaire’s party, but Pete and Trudy really belong.
Redshift
@JPL: He’s claiming they both came from non-Washington backgrounds and filled their administrations with people they had a relationship with or who actually had relevant expertise (like Chu), instead of Washington operators who would make the Village comfortable and make sure they didn’t rock the boat too much.
That’s what “being like Carter” means to the Village. I have no idea if it’s at all true of Obama, because I can’t be bothered to look up a Village scorecard of his administration, but I suspect his administration is no more “outsider”-ish than a typical Republican. Republicans, of course, can appoint whoever they want and they instantly become the “right sort.”
Batocchio
I just threw up in my mouth, a little bit.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
that’s actually kind of creepy. Is that supposed to be ‘humanizing’, or something? I just don’t get it when they throw stuff like this in to a story.
David Broder= George Gobel
ppcli
@BR:
Question posed:
“You know, I’ve never understood the contempt the media has for Carter.”
Question Answered:
“He was the last president to really level with the American people about the serious issues we face.”
Seriously – leveling with the American people may be a decent and morally proper thing to do, but politically it is a losing move. And there is nothing the village has more contempt for than political losers.
The quote from Fineman encapsulates the attitude perfectly. Carter just hung out with his “Georgians” instead of hanging with the cool kids. OK, true, Carter’s failure to engage effectively with congressional levers of power limited what he was able to accomplish, and that was a leadership flaw. But that doesn’t explain the contempt. The contempt is pure “cool clique” disdain – “The White House parties *didn’t have alcohol*. “He told us to wear sweaters and turn down the thermostat” “And he certainly didn’t go to *Yale* or Harvard … though I’m sure Georgia Tech and the Naval Academy are fine schools (snicker)”
The failure to always do the politically smart thing is one of the reasons for the contempt – what this crowd values above all is an understanding of how to play the game.
Carter was just too much of a serious person to get enshrined as a Serious Person.
hilts
Surprise! John McCain will be one of Candy Crowley’s guests on tomorrow’s edition of State of the Union, because when there’s an international crisis who’s a better guest to offer a serious, sober, thoughtful assessment of what it means
Cat Lady
@hilts:
Candy Crowley = Jo Anne Worley
Joe Scar + Mika = Wayland Flowers and Madame.
hilts
@Cat Lady:
Bingo
Jessica Yellin = Vanna White
goatchowder
Decline and fall of the American Empire, exhibit 512.
Benjamin Cisco
Michael Steele = Nipsey Russell
maus
the beltway is one huge, well-paid circlejerk
HOW ARE HIS BBQs? AMERICA NEEDS TO KNOW
Villago Delenda Est
Feinman’s head would best be displayed on a pike.
Just sayin’.
Cat Lady
@efgoldman:
Cliff Arquette = Jack Germond
J.W. Hamner
@joe from Lowell:
The buses stop running around 7 from what I can tell, but thanks for the walking advice. (note: not being facetious)
usmarcorp70
@JWL
J. F. terHorst, a reporter who in August 1974 was appointed White House press secretary by his old friend, President Gerald R. Ford, but who resigned less than a month later when Ford granted former President Richard M. Nixon an unconditional pardon in connection with the Watergate scandal…WOW a press secretary with a conscience, go figure?
Kyle
well-connected with the right sort
That should disqualify him right there. That’s like trolling a dating site and the person’s description includes “owns 20 cats”.
If the Villagers are impressed with his forelock-tugging and cocktail party banter, he belongs nowhere closer to DC than Nome, Alaska.
Benjamin Cisco (mobile)
@efgoldman: Point taken, but I hold that the Villagers are more celebrities than journalists now anyway, and as politicians go, Steele provides as much (in his case unintentional) comedy as Nipsey ever did…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@efgoldman:
I like Jack Germond a lot, and I believe he is still alive. But having read both of his books, I don’t think he sees his friends and colleagues–including Broder–as part of the problem.
joe from Lowell
@efgoldman: All the cabs I’ve seen are those Chevrolet Caprices that you sometimes saw the police use.
brantl
@efgoldman: Broder was good? That must have been one hell of a long time ago…..