Sunday, January 25, 2004
Unconditional Love, Government by Cocktail Party, and Lieberman's Dangerous N.H. Strategy
A few odds and ends, starting with an uncomplicated email:
Next is a brief comment on the comically snarky Maureen Dowd. Today's column, in which she managed to both attack Howard Dean and condescend to his wife while pretending to compliment her, caused an internal debate here at 201k.
Half responded to it with unprintable epithets accompanied by recollections of past offenses. This was fun to listen to, but not very helpful as far as writing something about it.
The other half decided that Dowd--the Marie Antoinette of our cocktail party government, who last week was described by a local TV pundit here as having gone beyond parody--was purposely trying to elicit more of the criticism that has echoed around the web about her. How else to explain her decision to begin with yet another critique of a candidate's clothing, after the pasting she took for devoting an entire column to the sociopolitical import of Wesley Clark's sweater?
If she's aware of the pasting, that is. Yikes, scary thought.
Ah, she must be. In any event, unless we're mistaken, an email address for her has only recently begun to be posted with her columns (appearing at the bottom for the first time today, in fact). The only possible answer is that the NY Times rates its columnists internally by the amount of email they generate.
That would explain a lot, actually.
So we've decided to believe that she's simply trying to catch up to the Punch-me-faced-prep David Brooks in the Times' email regatta (good luck).
And that's all we feel is really necessary to say about her...that's printable.
Now, most importantly: Joe Lieberman, the Democratic candidate whose support runs from one end of K Street to the other, is currently up in N.H trying to drag Independent voters to the polls to vote for him on Tuesday.
Make no mistake: Lieberman is the candidate that Karl Rove wants to do the best in N.H. That's why he was given such an undeservedly bright spotlight in last week's debate, which was broadcast by Fox News and moderated by Brit Hume. Their plan--predicted here and nowhere else, that we saw--was to get him the most exposure possible, in order to maximize his vote. Anything over 10% will do.
Because once Joe gets that, "the story" will be that his pro-war, Bush-Lite act is resonating with Democratic voters. Which it most assuredly is not.
Republicans would have you believe that they are most afraid of a moderate Democrat. Don't believe it. They know that a moderate, business-as-usual Democratic candidate (AKA Joe Lieberman) would sap the vigor and soul of Democratic voters as sure as a ruling from Anton Scalia--which suits the GOP just fine. Remember the Lieberman/Cheney debate? That's what they want.
Be very suspicious of the "Independent voter drive" that Lieberman is counting on. You don't know who's really doing the driving.
201k urges N.H. Democrats to get out on Tuesday and vote for any candidate but Joe Lieberman. Don't fall into the trap that's being set. Send the clear message to the nation that the party intends to send a fire-breathing Democrat to take on George W. Bush--because we know he can't beat one.
From: "Grant"Thanks, Grant. We do enjoy unconditional love in emails. Heck, we love emails that don't require asbestos gloves to open.
To: editor@201k.com
Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2004 10:30:40 -0500
Love your web site!!! Keep up the good work.
Next is a brief comment on the comically snarky Maureen Dowd. Today's column, in which she managed to both attack Howard Dean and condescend to his wife while pretending to compliment her, caused an internal debate here at 201k.
Half responded to it with unprintable epithets accompanied by recollections of past offenses. This was fun to listen to, but not very helpful as far as writing something about it.
The other half decided that Dowd--the Marie Antoinette of our cocktail party government, who last week was described by a local TV pundit here as having gone beyond parody--was purposely trying to elicit more of the criticism that has echoed around the web about her. How else to explain her decision to begin with yet another critique of a candidate's clothing, after the pasting she took for devoting an entire column to the sociopolitical import of Wesley Clark's sweater?
If she's aware of the pasting, that is. Yikes, scary thought.
Ah, she must be. In any event, unless we're mistaken, an email address for her has only recently begun to be posted with her columns (appearing at the bottom for the first time today, in fact). The only possible answer is that the NY Times rates its columnists internally by the amount of email they generate.
That would explain a lot, actually.
So we've decided to believe that she's simply trying to catch up to the Punch-me-faced-prep David Brooks in the Times' email regatta (good luck).
And that's all we feel is really necessary to say about her...that's printable.
Now, most importantly: Joe Lieberman, the Democratic candidate whose support runs from one end of K Street to the other, is currently up in N.H trying to drag Independent voters to the polls to vote for him on Tuesday.
Make no mistake: Lieberman is the candidate that Karl Rove wants to do the best in N.H. That's why he was given such an undeservedly bright spotlight in last week's debate, which was broadcast by Fox News and moderated by Brit Hume. Their plan--predicted here and nowhere else, that we saw--was to get him the most exposure possible, in order to maximize his vote. Anything over 10% will do.
Because once Joe gets that, "the story" will be that his pro-war, Bush-Lite act is resonating with Democratic voters. Which it most assuredly is not.
Republicans would have you believe that they are most afraid of a moderate Democrat. Don't believe it. They know that a moderate, business-as-usual Democratic candidate (AKA Joe Lieberman) would sap the vigor and soul of Democratic voters as sure as a ruling from Anton Scalia--which suits the GOP just fine. Remember the Lieberman/Cheney debate? That's what they want.
Be very suspicious of the "Independent voter drive" that Lieberman is counting on. You don't know who's really doing the driving.
201k urges N.H. Democrats to get out on Tuesday and vote for any candidate but Joe Lieberman. Don't fall into the trap that's being set. Send the clear message to the nation that the party intends to send a fire-breathing Democrat to take on George W. Bush--because we know he can't beat one.
