Saturday, November 15, 2008
Hillary at State - and Bill in the Senate?
Hillary at State? So all the news sources seem to be saying. The latest I've seen is that she has been offered the position and has asked for a little time to think it over.
Last night in a conversation I had at the South Orange "Harvest Ball" fundraiser, someone suggested an interesting and provocative scenario: Hillary Clinton resigns her senate seat to become Secretary of State, and then NY Governor David Patterson names Bill Clinton to serve out the remainder of Hillary's term.
Weird, eh? Unprecedented. But not in a bad way. I guess this could depend, at least in part, on how much the President-elect trusts the Clintons now that the election is past.
Last night in a conversation I had at the South Orange "Harvest Ball" fundraiser, someone suggested an interesting and provocative scenario: Hillary Clinton resigns her senate seat to become Secretary of State, and then NY Governor David Patterson names Bill Clinton to serve out the remainder of Hillary's term.
Weird, eh? Unprecedented. But not in a bad way. I guess this could depend, at least in part, on how much the President-elect trusts the Clintons now that the election is past.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
What California taketh away ...
Connecticut giveth in return...
New York Times
Same-sex marriage comes to Connecticut!
So when does this happen in my home state of New Jersey? Come on, Trenton, get off your asses and get this done!
New York Times
Same-sex marriage comes to Connecticut!
So when does this happen in my home state of New Jersey? Come on, Trenton, get off your asses and get this done!
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Rachel and the Wonkette
Rachel Maddow is the best thing going on MSNBC - she's funny, goofy, cute, amazingly endearing, and very, very smart. She was, for too long, the best thing on Air America Radio, and certainly the best of their home-grown talent.
But what's up with her frequent MSNBC guest Ana Marie Cox? More specifically, why is she a guest at all? Cox was often entertaining at Wonkette as a kind of Gen-X Maureen Dowd - her shtick is a Dowd-like funny (and often mean-spirited) snarkiness, but she seems utterly devoid of Dowd's (too-rarely displayed) gift for the trenchant observation. Cox has not been an especially good reporter, and as an analyst she's neither very deep nor very insightful.
So Rachel, please - find someone else for whatever role it is you think Ana Marie Cox is filling.
But what's up with her frequent MSNBC guest Ana Marie Cox? More specifically, why is she a guest at all? Cox was often entertaining at Wonkette as a kind of Gen-X Maureen Dowd - her shtick is a Dowd-like funny (and often mean-spirited) snarkiness, but she seems utterly devoid of Dowd's (too-rarely displayed) gift for the trenchant observation. Cox has not been an especially good reporter, and as an analyst she's neither very deep nor very insightful.
So Rachel, please - find someone else for whatever role it is you think Ana Marie Cox is filling.
Sunday, November 09, 2008
The old John McCain?
In this period of election postmortems, there's a lot (too much!) chatter about what happened to the "old" John McCain - the one everyone respected. To this I can only say "Get a clue, people!" That John McCain never existed - he was a creation of savvy marketing and a sympathetic press-corps.
Senator McCain was always the same creepy guy we saw this time around - the difference between then and now is that this year, he was THE candidate instead of 2000's the OTHER candidate, so the press was forced to look at him with a more critical eye. When they did (as in Tim Dickinson's damning Rolling Stone article), he responded both by withdrawing from them and by becoming bellicose. Without the day-to-day mutual wanking McCain and the press had enjoyed, reporters started to be able to see the character flaws and mean-spiritedness that had always been there.
Senator McCain was always the same creepy guy we saw this time around - the difference between then and now is that this year, he was THE candidate instead of 2000's the OTHER candidate, so the press was forced to look at him with a more critical eye. When they did (as in Tim Dickinson's damning Rolling Stone article), he responded both by withdrawing from them and by becoming bellicose. Without the day-to-day mutual wanking McCain and the press had enjoyed, reporters started to be able to see the character flaws and mean-spiritedness that had always been there.
