In a perfect world, no one would listen to all the idiot right-wing pundits after they all predicted Romney victories last fall. The “centrist” wingers like Scarborough and Lane fucked up pretty badly, predicting narrow Romney wins, but George Will had Romney winning in a landslide. Good on Jay Carney for mocking him about this.
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Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Transcript or it didn’t happen. (I can’t watch videos at work.)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
along the lines of Molly Ivins’ observation about Cal Thomas being one of the finest minds of the fifteenth century, I think George Will is one of the keenest thinkers of the British Tory Party of the 18 let’s say 40s. I think the only erection he’s had since Lally Weymouth sent him back to his second wife (whom he started fucking IIRC while married to the first Mrs Will. I just like to keep that “out there”, as GWill’s colleague would say) is watching Downton Abbey while he pretends to be the Earl of Grantham in his head. If GWill is ever involved in a rentboy scandal, he will have been paying them to “dress” him and call him m’lord.
Shrillhouse
Twisting the knife…making sure it pierces as many organs as possible…
Omnes Omnibus
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): Paraphrased: “I respect George Will. And, despite the fact that he predicted a 321-217 Romney EC win and a Romney win in Minnesota (a state the Pres won by 7 points), I will continue to take him seriously.”
Then there was laughter.
Villago Delenda Est
Unlike Jay Carney, I have no respect for the vile Rethuglican shill that is George Will.
shortstop
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: You are a national treasure. Quit your job and other commitments and just comment here all day and night.
Omnes Omnibus
@Villago Delenda Est: To be fair, I really did not get the impression that Carney has much respect for Mr. Will.
MattF
I suppose that being wrong all the time about everything is an occupational hazard for a right-wing hack. And maybe there should be a kind of OSHA for hacks, putting up signs in WaPo editorial offices that say ‘stay away from climate change’ or ‘no more baseball’. But I don’t see that happening– fwiw, my own librul empathic instincts just don’t go there.
Villago Delenda Est
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yeah, it’s like the old “with all due respect, your Honor” line that you’re required to deliver before you dis the feebleminded git with a verbal roundhouse.
PeakVT
Nobody should take a climate change denier seriously. Or a liar.
Bulworth
Why was George Effin Will’s name brought up at the presser to begin with?
Turgidson
@MattF:
He can talk all he wants about baseball. At least then he’s not advocating for political and policy outcomes that ruin people’s lives on such a grand scale.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@shortstop: You make me blush. Believe me, the last thing I need to do is be less productive and comment here more. So I’m commenting here again. Oy.
shortstop
@Villago Delenda Est: Pssst…literalism alert! Carney doesn’t either.
Villago Delenda Est
@Turgidson:
He’s just making stupid talk about baseball, and we can mock him for that then.
They should rename the Mendoza Line the Will Line.
askew
@Omnes Omnibus:
The fact that he predicted Romney to win Minnesota should make him the laughingstock of the beltway. The last time MN voted for a GOP pres was 1968.
Frankensteinbeck
Well, Brutus WAS an honorable man.
David Hunt
I disagree Doug. In a perfect world, no one would have been listening to them before they said that…
shortstop
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I really don’t care about your “needs,” okay? Baby needs new laughs!
MikeJ
@Villago Delenda Est:
That would imply Will is correct about 1/5th of the time. I think that’s rather optimistic.
GregB
I hope George Will has a good security detail. After witnessing that Chicago style attack by that Obama thug he should be sleeping with one eye open.
No wonder Woodward was terrified.
shortstop
I remember Will predicting a landslide, but I’d somehow missed that it was predicated on ROMINNESOTA! Four months after the election, I’m still unwrapping the layers of deliciousness that go with the right’s mass self-delusion.
MikeJ
@Omnes Omnibus:
This came after George Will said that he would not be taking Carney seriously.
Hill Dweller
I’m all for mocking the Village hacks, but their both sides do it bullshit has way too much influence on the country. The newest polling shows people are now blaming the President/Dems just as much as they’re blaming Republicans for the sequester; and the President’s approval rating is dropping, which could adversely effect his other policy goals.
The beltway media’s refusal to call Republicans on their nihilism all but guarantees they’ll continue to do it.
Frankensteinbeck
@Bulworth:
Because the job of the White House Press Corps is to quote other people attacking Obama in the hopes that one of those attacks will stick and they can get on television.
the Conster
Mocking is the only effective tool against courtiers. Their self-regard is unable to be pierced with logic or facts, but a good pointing at and laughing has always been the way to penetrate their awareness.
Chyron HR
@shortstop:
Only minus 119 days until President-Elect Romney! VICTORY!
Mojotron
That was very interesting story. Do you know what else is interesting? My friend made $7,938 per week working part-time from home blogging about Malaysia.
shortstop
@Chyron HR: It’s killin’ me not to have him in the Oval Office. Buttered, cheese or caramel popcorn? We also have some plain in the back if you prefer — it’s no trouble for me to go get it.
shortstop
@Mojotron: Bwa!
Villago Delenda Est
@the Conster:
Mocking is not the only tool. Lobbing off their heads with a halberd also works.
Roger Moore
@Turgidson:
No, he’s only advocating policies that damage people’s lives on a smaller scale. Will is a minority owner of the Orioles and has taken a pro-management stand on all their labor issues. This despite saying earlier in his career that baseball was a rare case where thinking conservatives should favor labor over management, since the players were asking for free negotiation of salaries while owners wanted to adopt a communal (among themselves) approach. Naturally he proved his true conservative commitment to the almighty dollar above all else by abandoning his views the moment he joined management.
That and his baseball writing is lousy because his ideas about the game on the field are boringly conventional. Not to mention that he’s at least as pompous and insufferable writing about sport as he is writing about politics.
shortstop
@Roger Moore:
This cannot be said often enough. The man is intolerable regardless of the topic.
WereBear
@shortstop: Gee, I had a low opinion of him before, but this latest shows, starkly, what an entitled little anus he is.
Scott S.
George Will’s upcoming whine festival will be audible from several galaxies away.
askew
OT – I could really use some good news for Dems. It feels like we’ve been spinning our wheels since the election. I’d settle for some kind of Obama executive order or something.
What I’d like is a surprise Kennedy and Scalia retirement.
kd bart
Being a Beltway pundit means never having to admit you got something wrong. You just move on to the next topic.
Villago Delenda Est
@Scott S.:
Do we really need to give the several galaxies a valid justification to invade us? STOP GEORGE WILL’S WHINING NOW!
Yutsano
@Roger Moore: Well duh. Can’t let the talent which is the whole reason for his ownership get too uppity. Gotta keep those swarthy lads in their place after all, especially if they’re one of Those, if you know what I’m saying and I think you do.
Will I think at one time had a minor intelligent thought about baseball. I can’t determine if this is before or after he became the prototype for Sully.
Redshirt
He looks serious and respectable, and that’s enough for me!
Raven
@Hill Dweller: “The newest polling shows” whatever the fuck you want it to show.
mainmati
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think it would before the 1840s because that was after the 1832 Reform Act that brought slightly more democracy to Parliament and Lord Will won’t have any of that, right-ee-oh. Lord Will has specialized in stupid baseball metaphors and really awful political analysis while sounding oh so erudite for a long time. A bow-tied mountain of tiresome excrement he is.
Xecky Gilchrist
I’m content to ignore media pundits for their fascist Iraq War cheerleading, let alone their Romney adulation.
Culture of Truth
OH NO HE DIDN’T!!!
Yutsano
@mainmati: Bowties are cool. Will and Tucker are the exception to that rule.
catclub
@Hill Dweller: “and the President’s approval rating is dropping, which could adversely effect his other policy goals.”
Every year, in his first term, August was terrible, also 2008 was not good either. None the less, Obama just keeps on doing what he was doing and the rest of the year turned out better than August. Maybe this term it will be March.
Plus, a preemptive surrender, which is the only thing that would change even slightly, what the GOP house is doing, would not actually help his poll numbers. So he just keeps on doing what he was doing.
Trollhattan
Wow, between George effing Will and li’l Tucker, bowties be spinnin’ at the moment. Good for Carney–I suspect he’s wanted to say something like this for a long while, and somebody in the press corps sprang the trap for him.
There will be blood, i.e., Will will pen a scathing column about…oh, who cares?
Trollhattan
O/T, I’ll bet this is sending wingnut hair on fire from coast to coast.
http://www.sacbee.com/#storylink=cpy
Hill Dweller
@catclub: That’s sort of my point. The Dems’ proposal to end the sequester is far more popular with voters than the actual Democrats proposing it.
There is a disconnect between the policies and the people proposing them. I think that is largely the result of the MSM’s both sides do it bullshit.
Amir Khalid
@shortstop:
I am not familiar with this “baseballs” that you speak of. However, I do remember George Will’s accidental foray into rock criticism in 1984, when a mutual friend of Will’s and Max Weinberg’s got him tickets to see The E Street Band. Will was the guy who got mocked everywhere for calling the song Born in The USA “a grand, cheerful affirmation” of being American when it is of course nothing of the sort.
patroclus
I can remember a time – a long long time ago – when George Will was somewhat tethered to reality. Not so much anymore. In a sane world, he would have lost his job or, at the least, moved way down the pecking order of serious journalism. Unfortunately, once one achieves pundit status in America, one apparently can never lose the status, no matter what is said.
Cassidy
@Amir Khalid: Doesn’t count amongst those who matter. Republicans still play it at their rallies so it means what they say it means.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Hill Dweller: I know my obsession with Jon Stewart is probably as unhealthy as my continuing obsession with dead guys Broder and Russert, but last night he started out talking about how democratsandrepublicans can’t agree on something simple like stopping the sequester, segued toward a good point about how the media spent more time making nerd jokes about Obama’s mind-meld comment than about Boehner’s actually substantive and relevant assholery about taxation as theft, then spent three mintues making nerd jokes, then went back to “Congress is to blame”.
Booman had a post the other day, and it’s a point the left blogosphere makes often, but everybody from George Will to Jon Stewart to Andrew Sullivan have an outsize influence within the professional political class, especially among Democrats and “centrists”, keeping our political debate anchored further to the right. We saw this in the debates, when the only time climate change came up was in the town hall debate, and talk about the economny was weighted toward the “deficit’, rather than unemployment.
Trollhattan
@Amir Khalid:
My favorite column remains the George effing Will Denim Jihad.
What makes it moar perfecter is the DougJ bait at the end: a Burke cite.
Read the whole effing thing, while noting he waited until a couple months into Obama’s first term to publish it. I wonder why, the timing…?
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2009-04-16/opinions/36788304_1_denim-jeans-dress
Hill Dweller
The House wingnuts unveiled their version of the continuing resolution, which funds the government for the remainder of the fiscal year.
It defunds ACORN…
Linnaeus
There’s talk – although I don’t think it’s very serious at this point – about making Romney the new emergency financial manager/emergency manager for Detroit. Yeah, that’ll go over well.
Just One More Canuck
“I respect George Will – I will continue to take him seriously”
That sounds like a threat to me.
Trollhattan
@Hill Dweller:
RU serious? If that’s real, hilarity!
Hungry Joe
A few years ago Will wrote a dazzlingly chuckleheaded screed about the evils of denim.
This from a grown man who wears bow ties and a bad rug.
Damn — Trollhattan beat me to the denim.
Linnaeus
And George Will is a Tory motherfucker.
Omnes Omnibus
@askew:
Come on, what you really want is a sex scandal related murder-suicide pact involving Scalia and Thomas. Just admit it.
scav
@Hungry Joe:
and thinks of himself as inspiring and lovely.
MikeJ
@Omnes Omnibus: I don’t need any actual physical harm to befall them, but I don’t think they’d quit even if there was video of them taking cash for cases.
If basement cat quietly called them home to pet him for eternity I wouldn’t shed a tear, but I don’t wish to see them murdered.
Hill Dweller
@Trollhattan: It’s true.
Trollhattan
@Omnes Omnibus:
Well, if we have a choice….
I keep expecting Ginny to take out ol’ Clarence some night in his Barcalounger after yet another round of drunk dialing uncovers some especially juicy tale of misadventure. Gone Dong Silver.
Trollhattan
@Hill Dweller:
Dear lord, deliver us from idiots. Do they also fund a new Bin Laden desk at the CIA?
Mike in NC
Have you seen George Will in a tight pair of blue jeans? What an ass! I stand by the second sentence.
Turgidson
@Roger Moore:
Hey, no argument here. In my ideal scenario, George Will would never be heard from again on any topic, as he’d be alone on a rowboat drifting slowly toward Siberia.
But if we have to continute to tolerate him, I’d still rather he be a shitty baseball opinion writer than a shitty political hack. He’s more easily ignored and can do a lot less damage.
Turgidson
@Redshirt:
If by “serious and respectable” you mean he looks like someone with a “Kick Me” sign permanently taped to his back that you want to punch in the face on sight, then I totally agree with you.
Another Halocene Human
@Hungry Joe: Every morsel of that indignant column was like a finely spiced curry. Even now I can still taste it in my mouth.
Another Halocene Human
@Omnes Omnibus: I doubt it. Thomas aspires to be the cockroach of the SCOTUS. Even a nuclear strike won’t take him out.
Woodrowfan
I saw George Will in 1990 on a baseball panel. He predicted the As would beat the Reds in 5 games. His predictions have not gotten any better over the years..
Amir Khalid
@Trollhattan:
So denim jeans are the downfall of civilisation, are they? As a person who spends all his waking hours in old jeans and work boots, I’m amused by George Will. If I ever met him and had to hear out his ideas, I might have trouble keeping a straight face.
Woodrowfan
@Hill Dweller: well hell, Fox and Rush are telling them that ACORN helped President Obama steal the 2012 election, so it must still exist!
piratedan
@Villago Delenda Est: I was thinking raising their tax rates would be better because until I see evidence otherwise, I think Republicans are closely similar to cockroaches in that they don’t really need their heads to survive, so I don’t see your halberd solution as being as effective as you wish.
askew
@Omnes Omnibus:
It’s true. That is my ultimate fantasy and then Kennedy gets so disgusted by the circus that he throws up his hands and retires. And we end up with Supreme Court Justice Goodwin Liu.
Redshirt
I liked Will’s anti-denim jihad. Reminded me of this awesome time in NYC when I was walking in Brooklyn and this nicely dressed old man came up to me and started talking, leading directly into “Hitler put the Jews in denim” and why do I want to wear “holocaust outfits”?
Good question!
eemom
1. Stevie Nicks, lovely tune.
2. bit o’ trivia about Mr Will, card carrying member of the rightard “family values” hypocrite brigade: back in the late ’80s, when he dumped his first wife and kids (including Downs syndrome baby) while screwing Katharine Graham’s daughter,such wife literally threw all his shit out on the front lawn, with a note telling him to “take it somewhere else, buster.” Tee hee.
Trollhattan
@Amir Khalid:
On behalf of George effing Will and the rest of proper America, I apologize for exporting our decrepitude to your fine nation. Now, may I interest you in a KFC Double Down?
Roger Moore
@Yutsano:
Fezzes are cool.
Joel
@Hill Dweller: Keep in mind that false equivalence is the republican message. Call the outlets what they are – republicans.
Hungry Joe
@Another Halocene Human: Agree. Will’s attack on denim is of the greatest columns by anyone, ever. David Brooks, asinine as he is, can only dream of attaining this level of asininity — which I sure hope is a word, because now that I’ve typed it and looked at it, I plan on using it a lot.
Amir Khalid
@Trollhattan:
KFC had halal Double Downs here for a while, but not any more. So that’s one scourge from degenerate Western civilisation that we noble Asians have defeated.
Ruckus
@eemom:
Would have been more appropriate to throw everything into the local cesspool but the amount of effort probably would not have been worth it. However I’ll bet the sentiment was there.
Ruckus
@Hungry Joe:
Sort of like assholyness.
Both may not be in the oxford dictionary but it is still a useful word.
Update!
asininity is in the dictionary. Noun form of asinine.
Noun 1. asininity – the quality of being asinine; stupidity combined with stubbornness
TR
@eemom:
There’s a thinly veiled book about George Will called “The Columnist” that mocks the shit out of his pretentiousness in general and for the affair in particular. I highly recommend it.
ranchandsyrup
Ugh. Was at a work function in Orange County last night and I had to walk away from a conversation after someone started pining for another 9/11 so that people will appreciate the tenets of conservatism. He phrased it half-jokingly but it was disgusting.
shortstop
I had forgotten all about Will’s 2009 crusade against dungarees! Such luscious, luminous stuff. IIRC, this came just weeks after his column warning that Elvis Presley was going to get all the kids all sexually riled up with that pelvic motion of his, and days before Will’s screed against the communist eastern bloc.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@ranchandsyrup: While I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to hear that from any random conservative, from a radio caller on up to any number of Senators, what exactly is the logic? Is ignoring warnings about terrorism a “conservative tenet”? tax cuts prevent terrorism? I think the historical record contradicts that. Maybe we were too nice to the poors in the Clinton years, so 9/11 was God’s punishment for encouraging sloth and welfare hammockery?
FlipYrWhig
@ranchandsyrup: What teachings of conservatism were upheld on that day, pray tell? The part about every man for himself? The part about how the public sector is just a bunch of goldbricking moochers? The part about how God thinks you’re special?
Trollhattan
@Amir Khalid:
Darn you crafty non-poison eaters, another plot foiled! [Shakes greasy fist.]
p.s. Sorry about the whole tobacco thing.
artem1s
@Omnes Omnibus:
only if it involves Alito as a third and the trigger man.
handsmile
@ranchandsyrup:
Did the half-jokester volunteer himself or his loved ones to be inside one of the buildings or planes so attacked? Or does out-sourcing those deaths constitute one of the “tenets of conservatism” as well?
Omnes Omnibus
@artem1s: Don’t get greedy.
GregB
@ranchandsyrup:
I had a conservative associate longing for a Beslan style school massacre to get people back on board the fight against Islamo-fascism.
ranchandsyrup
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: @FlipYrWhig: I think he meant it in a BUSH SAVED US or Glennnnn Beck “Remember how awesome we all were to each other on 9/12?” way. When no one could question the leadership of Bush the younger and the GOP could operate with impunity. I walked away so I didn’t get the elaboration on his point. I did go directly to the bar, though. Fucking Orange County. I feel dirty when I’m up there.
MomSense
@Hill Dweller:
It re-re-redefunds Acorn! Wow, this is no fu@king way to run a superpower.
ranchandsyrup
@handsmile: Hell no. It’s Orange County, Jake. They make the airplanes fly straight up and then cut their engines so the 1% in Newport don’t have to be bothered. They’re immune from life’s hassles.
Roger Moore
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’ll settle for a car crash when the whole gang is on their way to CPAC.
MikeJ
@Roger Moore: Why not allow them to get there first, then CPAC sinkhole.
Petorado
Quick — someone get Bob Woodward’s take on these thinly veiled comments!
Good on Jay Carney for showing some swagger in front of the press. With the press corps covering national governance like it was the 5th at Santa Anita, they’re looking out for who’s the winner. Kicking sand in some faces is a good way to show who’s on top. The only way the press will cover Obama favorably is if he looks like he’s winning.
Roger Moore
@handsmile:
Well duh! The first tenet of Conservatism is IGMFY, and calling on somebody else to sacrifice so you can have something nice is a classic example.
JustRuss
Can’t find the clip, but no dissing of old Georgie is complete without a little Seinfeld:
Kramer: You know who’s good looking? George Will!
Elaine: And he’s so smart!
Kramer: Actually, I don’t find him all that bright.
njb
George Will knows as little about politics as he does about Global Warming and baseball.
John M. Burt
@askew: @Omnes Omnibus:
In order to spend more time together, don’t forget.
mainmati
@Trollhattan: and of course the French revolution is appropriate since denim is a corruption of de Nimes in reference to the French city where it was first made.
Gaynelle
Using your middle finger works when you are gripping a heavier knife or if you want to throw it additional. Some have become so skilled at throwing knives that they wish to test their skills. In 1909, he won the National Riding and Rodeo Championship.