I guess we can add helping auto accident victims to Cory Booker’s vita:
He’s at it again.
Newark Mayor Cory Booker pulled up on Elizabeth Avenue after a pedestrian was struck by a car and helped the individual into an ambulance, city officials said.
When the deed was done, Booker began tweeting.
“God bless my residents. Pulled up on pedestrian/vehicle accident,” Booker tweeted around 12:30 p.m. today. “We got man stabilized & into ambulance. He’ll b OK. Thanx 2 all who helped”
I know many of you are thinking “Wow, this guy is unbelievable. Rescuing people from fires, helping accident victims, ewtc.”
My takeaway is a little bit different. Folks, if you see Cory Booker in the wild- RUN. Someone is about to be seriously injured.
El Cid
__
Especially if you see a Samuel Jackson-looking character either quickly hobbling away using a cane or on a motorized wheelchair. And if Cory Booker is the sole survivor of a train or plane crash, really watch out.
MikeJ
You need to read John Scalzi (of your blogroll)’s new book, Redshirts.
red dog
If I was in Newark or anywhere in New Jersey I would be running to somewhere different.
Violet
How is he always around when these accidents happen? It’s creepy.
David Hunt
The Jessica Fletcher of elected officials. I love it.
Keith G
My thoughts are more along the line of, “Gee, this guy really likes to promote his headline seeking ass.”
Cory Bro, give it a rest.
General Stuck
When Obama gives him a medal, nobody put out the Dr. Pepper.
Mino
Not gonna save his ass.
East Coasters might want to stay away from this, too
http://now.msn.com/now/0620-lone-star-tick-meat-allergy.aspx
The tick that makes you a vegetarian.
cathyx
Hmm, he’s first on the scene to rescue people. Sounds like possible Munchausen disease.
RossinDetroit
This has a name: Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy. You don’t want to be his proxy.
cathyx
@RossinDetroit: Ha! You’re too slow.
Maude
@RossinDetroit:
I think you’re right.
He could seriously injure someone playing Good Samaritan.
Then he tweets his bravery.
Mino
@cathyx: Or just learned behavior. Next he’ll be throwing people off bridges so he can catch them.
Maude
What a great post title.
FlipYrWhig
I think Cory B00ker may be Batman. It would explain his brave rescues, and also his sympathy for entrepreneurial industrialists.
Mino
@FlipYrWhig: Or hooked-up capitalists.
KG
I’m guessing he’s got a police scanner… I’m also guessing, based on him being a politician, that he likes attention. Ergo, the chance to get good press is what drives him.
Or maybe he really is just a good guy that helps people out. There’s got to be a few of those types left, right?
dlnelson
Happy Birthday John, my son is also born on this day. Have a great day. Oh, I think Cory rides around with a police scanner, and just “shows up”. Have a great night.
David Koch
Life is like a box of chocolates, you just never know when Bain and B00ker will ship your job to China.
JPL
SNL is probably already writing up a script. Good for him though.
Remember that the last name of the mayor sends you into moderation. No illegal ga.mb.li.ng on this site.
Violet
@David Hunt:
His always being around at the scene of an accident reminds me of John Leonard Orr, the arson investigator who was a serial arsonist.
Valdivia
Can’t give him a hard time for lending a hand. It doesn’t erase the idiocy of his Bain-supporting-comments but I can’t imagine him being in this to harm others. Now stroking his ego by tweeting about it? Seems like he loves doing that.
FlipYrWhig
@Mino: True, I forgot that he likes deal-makers a lot better than stuff-makers.
dmsilev
@David Hunt:
Greatest un-caught serial killer in history. Her M.O. of pretending to “solve” each case by framing some poor sap is sheer evil genius.
Hill Dweller
Maddow had a segment about ‘humblebrags’ last night. It’s where people feign humility while bragging about their accomplishments.
Booker’s tweet fits the description nicely.
El Cid
In fairness, it’s not suggesting he lifted the car off the crushed pedestrian and did an emergency transplant. Apparently the driver who hit the person pulled to the side and along with Booker and others were there doing something or other until an ambulance came.
Hell, most of us have done something like that. It’s the dashing into the burning building and carrying out the trapped person which most of us haven’t.
Jade Jordan
He showed us his true self “Bought and Owned by Wall Street” Don’t forget it. Publicity stunts notwithstanding.
Dan
If you follow Booker on twitter, he’s pretty consistently responsive to complaints, requests, etc. from residents regarding accidents, traffic problems, power outages and the like. There’s definitely an element of self-promotion to it, but I think that’s to be expected in a politician.
RossinDetroit
Anybody remember the film Mystery Men? The bored hero lets his arch rival the evil genius Casanova Frankenstein (a great Geoffrey Rush) out of prison so he’ll have more crime to fight.
Cory B. should be watched for delusions of grandeur.
Hey, wait. Maybe he’s in league with Chris Christie…
shortstop
@Keith G: That was my take as well. Someone else will tweet your fabulousness if you refrain from humblebragging yourself, Mayor.
David Koch
My Mama said, vulture capitalism is, as vulture capitalism does.
Keith
Nice man, terrible surrogate.
Rex Everything
Corey Booker showed up with fresh garments for me when I pooped myself :(
David Koch
And isn’t it ironic…don’t you think
A little too ironic…and, yeah, I really do think…
The last politician to throw away his career in one television interview was George Romney who said he had been brainwashed in Vietnam. And now B00ker throws away his career in one television interview defending Romney’s kid.
NCSteve
@Violet: It’s New Jersey. Stuff like this happens within a mile of wherever you are there every two seconds.
wobbly
Guy’s a huge improvement over Newark’s last mayor, Sharpe James.
(Look that up, people!)
Not perfect, just better.
And he apparently does not live in some mayoral McMansion or view the mean streets of his city from the backseat of a chauffeured limousine…
OK in my book, John. And your problem with him is????
kc
Do EMTs need, or even want, untrained people helping them load the ambulance? Maybe if the patient is as big as Chris Christie, sure, but otherwise?
WereBear
@MikeJ: I just got that and am looking so forward to it!
In fact, I became a fan thanks to the post referenced here:
Never too late
And it just goes to show a good deed… leads to more good deeds.
trollhattan
Now show us on the doll where Cory Booker set you on fire.
Heliopause
No you don’t, read the comments. You see, B00ker committed a political sin a bit ago and your Juicer comment brigade therefore have the long knives out regardless of what he says or does. If he jumped in the Passaic River to rescue a bagful of kittens they’d find a way to criticize him for it.
Valdivia
@trollhattan:
Juicers are just the most fantastically witty comentariat around.
Mino
@Heliopause: No. BJer would not criticize him for kitteh rescue.
What good are rapier wits if they are never flourished?
There might be Munchausan involved in the piling on, also, too.
Valdivia
OT: I really don’t think god loves me this much, but a girl can hope no?
Ryan being vetted for VP spot.
Mino
@Valdivia: I know Mittens wants to be a cypher, but isn’t he afraid Ryan would get all the good invites?
amk
One of these days, this compulsive do-gooder is gonna end up seriously hurting/killing someone
FlipYrWhig
@Valdivia: It makes a lot of sense for them — the next best thing to putting Scott Walker himself on the ballot. IMHO they think they can Wisconsin their way right into the White House.
Valdivia
@Mino:
I personally don’t see it because unlike Mittens the ‘base’ loves them some Romney as does the Village, and he would be another case of the bottom of the ticket stealing the top’s thunder. Maybe they are just name dropping to signal to the base they will be faithful to their crazy orthodoxy?
@FlipYrWhig: do you meant policy wise or that he would put Wisconsin in play? or both?
Violet
@Valdivia: Oh, please let this be true. And if Ryan is stupid enough to associate himself with Mittens, it won’t help him in 2016.
WereBear
@FlipYrWhig: WIN!
tofubo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSZVs82NBoM&feature=related
Baud
Saw the title and expected to be depressed about something he said. Pleasantly surprised.
cckids
@Valdivia: OhPleaseOhPleaseOhPleaseOhPleaseOhPleaseOhPleaseOhPleaseOhPleaseOhPleaseOhPleaseOhPleaseOhPleaseOhPleaseOhPleaseOhPleaseOhPlease.
K.Thx.Bye
FlipYrWhig
@Valdivia: Policy-wise. I think Republicans think that the Walker approach — cut spending, demonize public employees, and use any means necessary to get your way — is a winning formula everywhere in America. It has something for everyone in the Republican fold, except maybe for the Bible-thumpers, but they get in line when they’re called.
I seriously think that if not for the Madison protests Walker would have run for President this year, and he would have beaten the snot out of Romney. He’s a toad, but he’s a lot more interesting from a strategy perspective than Romney, who’s basically running on no qualification or accomplishment other than his personal fortune.
Litlebritdifrnt
As someone said upthread you have to follow him on twitter to see the whole picture. Someone will tweet him “traffic light is out on Elm/Tree street” (or something) he will tweet “On it” and shortly thereafter the person will say “Thanks, its fixed now”. The other day someone tweeted “trash has not been picked up yet” he tweeted “just called them and apparently today they are behind and will be there shortly” response “thanks they just came by”. I mean you really have to see in real time a “hands on” mayor and not someone sitting in his office or traveling around by limousine. I mean literally this stuff goes on all day and every day. People just LOVE being able to tweet him without going through the hassle of operators and “press 9 for more options”. There seems to be alot of pot holes in Newark though! Despite his gaff I love the guy.
ETA – never mind Murder She Wrote, he reminds me of that Alex DA woman in Walker Texas Ranger. I always said for the FSM’s sake never be near that woman when she was going to a function, the odds that you would be taken hostage are incredible.
lamh35
Forgot to say Happy Birthday John Cole.
Valdivia
@Violet:
I will keep hoping. Also: can you imagine those two together with their sleeked back hair, gah!
Valdivia
@FlipYrWhig:
I see now. It just seems a tad deluded to me that they think this is the way to go. But what do I know, since I am not amenable to anything they come up with.
amk
@Litlebritdifrnt: That’s the kind of executive powers he should be using instead of running into burning buildings and hampering the professionals in the process.
eldorado
ester, you’re a jinx
lacp
The cyborg and the grannie-starver? It’s a better pairing than Karloff and Lugosi!
And the good mayor of Newark can play EMT all he wants, but it won’t wash the Olin Foundation and the Manhattan Institute off him.
JPL
Why compare B00ker to female tecs? Cory does seem concerned about his citizens and for that I salute him even though he is a tad egotistical.
The President’s original statement did not go after the vultures, he went after the fact that their business was to make money, not jobs. Romney touted his ability to create jobs. B00ker wasn’t that far off except he forgot to mention the jobs part.
The Dangerman
@David Hunt:
No way I’m inviting that unlucky charm to my dinner party.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
so he drove by a car accident, pulled over and then took credit for what the paramedics did? Quit tweeting while you’re ahead, Mayor Lieberbooker.
El Cid
@Valdivia:
This is terribly frightening. There is simply no way that Obama and Democrats could win against that sort of powerful, beloved, honorable public servant.
He’s popular, the people love his policies, and neither Obama nor Biden possesses the brains and will to debate this policy analyst par excellence. The notion of finally reforming Medicare and Social Security will become immensely popular, a juggernaut issue controlling the entire election.
And if anyone doesn’t believe me when I say that, well, then, I’ll have to just say it again and louder until they believe that Democrats are truly, truly scared about the threat posed by the combo team of Romney and Ryan.
We’re really, really scared. Please don’t put Ryan on the ticket. There’s just no way he could be beaten.
FlipYrWhig
@Valdivia: From their perspective, it’s the hip new thing. And when Walker tried it, he beat the liberals soundly. Wasn’t it just a week ago when Romney said that Obama wants more fire fighters and teachers, but didn’t he learn the lesson from Wisconsin to cut government workers, etc.? I think this is going to be their big push.
Their line on Romney, qua Romney, is going to be that he’s the National Dad coming back to undo the damage Stepdad Obama did by spoiling the children, and the National Boss coming back to fire the people who just aren’t working hard enough. (That’s how to salvage the fact that Romney is a boring tight-ass.)
And their line on what to do with the national economy — which has less to do with Romney’s own background — is going to be to Wisconsinize it.
El Cid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: In fairness, he probably can’t just drive by one of these scenes anymore or just talk with witnesses out the window, no, now if he doesn’t stop and wait for the ambulance or whatever it’ll be all ‘OMG Cory Booker doesn’t care any more!’
chopper
of course he did.
slag
@lamh35: Seconded.
Happy bday, JC.
Valdivia
@FlipYrWhig:
you are now giving me nightmares of the first degree.
FlipYrWhig
@El Cid: I’m less sanguine about it than you are, because the media loves Paul Ryan and treats him as the grandmaster of “entitlement reform.” And they hate to crunch numbers to determine if he’s telling the truth.
lamh35
OT, but I posted a link in an earlier thread about Politico suspending one of their only on-air Black WH reporter for saying
.
So the PTB at Politico suspended ole dude because Politico (and please try not to laugh at this) is
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/06/politico-suspends-reporter-mitt-romney.php?ref=fpnewsfeed
So now there is some fire going around twitter that the reporter is either being dismissed or is no longer gonna be working for Politico and understandaby members of the NABJ (who have had issue with Politico over the lack of
diversity in their journalist) are pissed.
I’ve seen Mr Williams on MSNBC including on Hardball and I think he’s come off as very personable and knowledgeable about the subject and never comes off as “militant” or bias in anyway. Personally, I hope he leaves Politico and finds work a someplace better.
FlipYrWhig
@Valdivia: I hate thinking as a Republican. It’s like Frodo putting on the ring. I get afraid it’ll be impossible to take it back off.
slag
@lamh35: Simply stating the obvious is actually quite “fair and free of partisan bias”. That guy should get a raise, if that really is one of his responsibilities.
El Cid
@FlipYrWhig: Who is it that would be likely to be put on the ticket whom the major media hate? If it were Marco Rubio, they’d love him. He’d be the new awesome Latino Republican revolution. Chris Christie? They’d love him, it’s Governor Soprano finally willing to talk the plain truth to all those liberals who think these expensive social programs can continue forever.
And so on and so forth. There’s almost no conservative sewer rat you could throw into the campaign whom the punditariat couldn’t be made to love with a well-designed plan to invite them to nice places and let them hang around rich and famous people and act like you really, really want to let them interview you and to be on their shows.
They can love Ryan and worship him all they want — but Ryan actually has a commitment to destroying Medicare, excuse me, I mean, reforming it by relegating it to an index card representing a voucher to be stored in some coal bin somewhere.
Usually you prefer appealing but vague, inspirational with grandiose claims with nothing much to nail down.
Valdivia
@FlipYrWhig:
give the ring back! take it off! :)
Valdivia
@El Cid: I think Portman is too boring even for them to fall in love with.
FlipYrWhig
@El Cid: I think they can spin the Medicare thing in their favor by playing up intergenerational resentment. Current oldsters don’t get harmed by the changes, and they think they’ve earned a nice set of benefits, but they also think that younger people have had a free ride. So they won’t be too worked up about future generations not getting the benefits they have, because, see, we don’t deserve them.
I don’t think it’s going to _work_, but I think going “full retard” with Wisconsin/Ryan has an internal logic with more potential than most of the shit they’ll consider trying.
The Other Chuck
Yes, Booker is kind of egotistical and self-promoting, but he’s a politician, comes with the territory. He otherwise appears to be a do-gooder busybody without so much of the overweening self-righteousness that often comes with the territory, and if that’s his worst attribute, I’d still like to see him cloned and installed into every legislature around the nation.
FlipYrWhig
@Valdivia: Also true of Pawlenty.
amk
@El Cid: Bingo. Also.Too. The fact mittbot has signed on to ryan’s curse will be best bonus the obama team could get.
El Cid
@FlipYrWhig: Don’t get me wrong, though — I know what country I’m living in.
If the Republican Party were literally running a candidate promising to behead poor people and sell their skulls to pay for roads and electricity to be dismantled so that snake handling evangelists and child-raping priests could directly administer forcible breeding camps for white women, while passing an omnibus bill to repeal all taxes on anyone earning over $100,000 and repeal all pollution and safety regulation while mandating that any child studying too much science and math in school will have their eyes eaten for caviar by the nearest available billionaire, who would be flown in via the US Air Force’s latest trillion-dollar stealth hoverplane, about half my fellow Americans would vote for him.
El Cid
@Valdivia: Well, that’s a good point — but then, if you choose someone too dull, what does that add?
Or is the strategy then just to make Romney shine by comparison, the way even a beige moth sticks out against a plain white wall?
Hell, I bet it wouldn’t take but a few canape rounds to get even the non-Brooks-type pundits creating this myth of the awesomely fascinating rock-solid boringness of this monolithic yet resolute Republican statesman.
lamh35
@lamh35: Williams issued a statement:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/06/politico-reporter-suspended-for-comments-126989.html
amk
@El Cid: You win the longest sentence evah on innernetz award.
Davis X. Machina
@El Cid: How did you get the platform when the convention doesn’t start for a month?
Maude
@lamh35:
I bet he lands somewhere else. It’s a good statement and he doesn’t slam his current employer.
Seanly
Speaking of vita’s, Yahoo is reporting Paul Ryan submitted documents to the Romney campaign. An outsourcing ass and a granny starving ass – winning combo!
Oops, see that this has been discussed a bit already :)
SiubhanDuinne
@Violet:
He’s like the Jessica Fletcher of mayors.
BethanyAnne
Is the previous thread broken for commenting? or is it just another FYWP moment?
Gravenstone
@lamh35:
The irony in that statement just caused my monitor to explode.
GxB
@El Cid:
Well, yeah, that there is Ryan’s plan in so many words.
What I’d love to see is his butt out of congress even if it means a filthy lucrative lobbyist/pundit job – he’ll have that either way.
Doesn’t seem to matter though, we’re bound and determined to learn this one the hard way. If we even have the capacity to learn at all.
El Cid
@Davis X. Machina: At a yard sale someone accidentally sold me one of those right wing movement making machines — you know, where you feed it a leftist or liberal or feminist or ecological or multicultural dystopian novel intended to scare people away from that horrid and oppressive future, and the machine then outputs it as the instruction manual which conservatives will use to make that dystopia into an electoral platform.
cathyx
Tonight, I’m finding out that the more you drink a bad tasting wine, the less bad tasting it tastes.
Jay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
No, no, no. He isn’t Lieberman. He isn’t Zell Miller.
I was bothered by critics of the mayor who, in response to his giant MTP fail: a)Race – baited, and/or gay – baited him, or b)Suggested he was finished in Democratic politics without knowing much about his career.
Joe Lieberman is for the Iraq War. The mayor, knowing a high number of his residents – residents he has more daily interactions with, because of his position, than a guy like Lieberman – would be sent off to the meatgrinder, opposes it.
Joe Lieberman is for torture. The mayor is not.
The mayor supports gay marriage. Lieberman does not.
I don’t know if the mayor should’ve taken to Twitter after this latest thingamajig. I would’ve had a real problem if he was all “I’m AWESOME!!!!!!111111” But what he wrote is better than, say, reporting someone’s death. No one died. This is a good thing. Maybe the injured person had friends reading.
But back to the Lieberman comparison: B00ker could well end up in the Senate soon. Maybe not, because Mr. Lautenberg can be a tough opponent when he wants to be. But say B00ker winds up a Senator. Hm. A dovish Democrat who takes corporate money and occasionally loudly, sloppily praises the sources of that money. How, exactly, would he be different from any other current Senate Democrat?
To paraphrase Rick Pitino, Russ Feingold isn’t going to walk through that door, fans.
Keith G
@Heliopause:
Nah.
If he jumped in the Passaic River to rescue a bagful of kittens, he would drown as he attempted to live-tweet the event.
SiubhanDuinne
@David Hunt:
Sorry, missed this when I posted mine.
Jay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Finally, can someone point to a time when Desk Jock Joe Lieberman actually used a chunk of physical energy to help someone? The guy dodged the war he was old enough to be in, but he loves voting to send other people into them.
Litlebritdifrnt
Y’all are just too down on Booker for my liking. Like I said upthread, he is a hands on mayor who is BELOVED by the people of Newark. I would take the people of Newark over you guys in a knife fight any day. :) For example latest tweet
What is it with blockquote?
Patricia Kayden
Happy B-Day John. Welcome to the 43 years old club.
Hilarious post. But I must say that Booker sounds like a great mayor. Preferable to the one we have in D.C.
http://www.npr.org/2012/05/26/153782893/d-c-mayors-administration-mired-in-cloud-of-scandal
Maude
@Jay:
Yeah, fine, but the people of Newark aren’t doing well.
The NJ unemployment rate is about 9%.
The private monies cut out the people who live in Newark to have a part in making things better.
Newark is a beautiful city and it is such a shame that it has stayed in bad shape for so long.
The train station is gorgeous.
The mayor isn’t really helping Newark, he’s helping himself.
Newark used to be the shopping mecca of the tri-state area.
NJ has one of the richest counties in the US. The state is close to being split into two parts, rich and poor.
Christie is a buddy of the Newark mayor. That says it all.
beltane
@efgoldman: The Northeast does have way more than it’s share of colorful characters as mayors. When my grandmother and her sisters used to get together and reminisce the discussion would always turn to the question of who was mayor (of NYC) at the time the story took place. It was eerily similar to the way ancient Romans used to date events by the year of an emperor’s reign.
Heliopause
@The Other Chuck:
It really is hilarious to read commenters noting this trait in B00ker, as if it imparts any information. The next modest politician will be the first. Anybody who thinks, for instance, Obama is any different is delusional.
FlipYrWhig
@efgoldman:
True enough, but even once the voters saw full well with their own (delicious caviar) eyes what Walker was up to, they still didn’t give him the boot. To a Republican, that goes down as sweet, sweet vindication.
chopper
@Keith G:
pure win.
David Koch
@Jay: Oh christ.
I hate lieberman but he is for gay marriage.
Feingold is a fucking fraud. He voted against closing GITMO, voted against Dodd-Frank, refused to support the Public Option, voted against the assault weapons ban, supported the impeachment trial of Clinton, supported the filibuster, and voted for ….. wait for it…. John Roberts, Ashcroft, Rumsfeld and assorted bush fascists. With friends like that, who needs enemies.