Good manners type class? Or shut up, peasant type class?
Okay, I promised myself I wasn’t going to take any more shots at McCain, but this is really pissing me off.
Backstory: at a rally in Cincinnati, one of the speakers who worked the crowd before McCain appeared was some bozo local talk show host named Bill Cunningham. He delivered the rhetorical equivalent of a typical Free Republic comment, with references to the Clinton News Network and Barack Hussein Obama. Meh.
Afterward, McCain sought out the press and distanced himself from the remarks. Apologized, even. The blogosphere is taking this as a sign of McCain’s classiness and good judgement. HotAir even wondered if this consititutes a Sister Souljah moment (as if McCain needs to juke left in ’08 the way Clinton needed to juke right in ’92!).
HEL-LO! McCain didn’t hear Cunningham speak. Leading with Cunningham’s remarks or pretending McCain was reacting to the specifics is pointless. When he apologized, McCain had no freaking idea what exactly Cunningham had said. All’s he knew was, some peasant had dared to speak ill of a Senator. And I quote:
“It’s my understanding that before I came in here a person who was on the program before I spoke made some disparaging remarks about my two colleagues in the Senate, Senator Obama and Senator Clinton,” he said. “I have repeatedly stated my respect for Senator Obama and Senator Clinton, that I will treat them with respect. I will call them ‘Senator.’ We will have a respectful debate, as I have said on hundreds of occasions. I regret any comments that may have been made about these two individuals who are honorable Americans.”
Bolding mine. It isn’t McCain’s lean to the left that’s pissing me off here (though it’s hard to escape the impression McCain thinks more highly of Hillary Clinton than he does of Mitt Romney). It’s the whole collegial atmosphere of the Senate thing.
This is why we so seldom elect one of these self-regarding bubble-headed jackasses to the presidency: they think a hell of a lot more highly of each other than they do the rest of us. How this became a blogospheric conversation about whether Obama’s middle name is a cheap shot…is a mystery to me.
Okay, no it’s not. We’re having that conversation because that’s the conversation the media wanted us to have. Happy now?
Posted: February 27th, 2008 under personal, politics.
Comments: 27
Comments
Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: February 27, 2008, 12:21 pm
I think McCain was covering both his asses and his winky. Which – if you imagine it – is a fairly uncomplimentary image. This – from a war hero? Pah!
Face it, Weaz – we’re both unhappy about the process, the available candidates, the media, the pundits, the weather, and our present circumstances (wanting to move but can’t yet).
Right now life sucks a bit.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 27, 2008, 12:27 pm
It’s true, McGoo. Plus, I think I have a virus…or I’ve stirred up something bad in the dustbunnies or something. I’ve felt generally shitty lately, and have behaved generally shitty to go along with it.
Oh, and William F. Buckley died overnight. So there’s that.
Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: February 27, 2008, 12:30 pm
We are running down the same road, Weaz. I just came back here to report on WFBJr. That sucks quite a bit. He was one of a kind.
Things will get better. I’m sure of it.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 27, 2008, 12:58 pm
Heh. I just remembered; this morning, I drove in behind a pickup truck that had a bunch weathered white hand-lettering on the back window. I got close enough to make out the central text: R.I.P.
I wondered if I’d rate an obituary written in soap on a truck window…
Comment from Lokki
Time: February 27, 2008, 12:59 pm
This is really very simple. It is simply a way of staying out of the news.
The press is focused on the Obama/Hillary death-match. That is a good thing. Every day they spend breathlessly reporting on that Gamara/Godzilla swamp fight is another day where the mistress ‘scandal'(sic) becomes old news. “I have already addressed that, weeks ago”
Mac is simply making sure that there’s nothing shiny to pull them away from their current obamasession.
Side note: The conservative world is a sad place without WFBjr.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 27, 2008, 6:08 pm
Did y’all follow the link at Ace’s to the Dyatlov Pass Incident. I’ll link to the Wikipedia version instead…it’s a little more straightforward. Weird Russian hiking death mystery. Just to continue the weird Russian death theme.
It’s an amusing way to burn a half an hour, anyhow.
Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: February 27, 2008, 6:12 pm
The conservative world is a sad place right now – period.
WFBJr taught me so many profoundly obscure words – most of which I have never gotten to use at all!
I just watched a 2-hour History channel show on the “Literary and Mythical references in the Star Wars double-trilogy”. I watched – awestruck – as professor after professor waxed enthusiastic about the so-called literary allusion, mythical references, and other utter horseshit having to do with the flicks.
It gave new meaning to the term “cheap space opera”. Gawd.
Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: February 27, 2008, 6:14 pm
What! Are we comment-melded today. Weaz? Neither one of us has said shit in about 6 hours – and then post comments within 4 minutes of each other independently?
Stwange…
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 27, 2008, 6:16 pm
Well, it’s Booze:15 chez Weasel. My braincell is starting to loosen after the first chemical assault.
Still reading about those poor bastard Russkies.
Comment from Dawn
Time: February 27, 2008, 7:27 pm
hello everybody. I moved and been behind at work. But, I stayed up past midnight last night and have earned myself the right to websurf with abandon again. I have missed you all.
Comment from Dawn
Time: February 27, 2008, 7:28 pm
My grammar sucks.
Comment from Dawn
Time: February 27, 2008, 7:29 pm
Drudge has a picture of young WFb up. What a hottie.
Comment from Gibby Haynes
Time: February 27, 2008, 7:31 pm
Welcome back Dawn. I’ll call of the search party.
Comment from Enas Yorl
Time: February 27, 2008, 7:32 pm
Aliens did it. They probably didn’t mean to kill the people, they just hadn’t perfected their tagging, anal probing, and release back into the wild techniques yet.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 27, 2008, 7:43 pm
Dawn! I was afraid dissing Davey and Goliath was a blasphemy too far (I save all my reverence for Gumby).
Moving. I’m doing it now, in slow motion. I’d rather be skinned alive and dipped in Everclear.
Welcome to your new home. Wherever.
Comment from Dawn
Time: February 27, 2008, 7:56 pm
Well now you’ve gone and dissed Davey and Goliath – them’s fightin’ words.
Actually, I’ve never heard of them. We only had one English speaking television channel in Germany and when we moved to the States, my parents wouldn’t let us have cable. I was one of the lame kids who wore turtlenecks and cords and didn’t get to watch Fraggle Rock or Inspector Gadget.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 27, 2008, 8:04 pm
Oooooohhhh, Dawn. My favorite t-shirt is older’n you!
Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: February 27, 2008, 8:28 pm
Yo, Dawn! Gettin’ out of moving boxes? How’s the new digs?
Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: February 27, 2008, 8:45 pm
Welcome back, Dawn!
Thought the weasels had come for you, after a while…
Comment from Dawn
Time: February 27, 2008, 11:29 pm
The new digs are awesome. I live in town now, which means my drive to the grocery store, church, doctor and Wal-Mart just got 20 minutes closer. I love my new house. It is smaller than our other house, but it is all on the same level, which makes the house seem huge. We have two very long hallways. FUN – I am loving life right now.
Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: February 28, 2008, 9:21 am
Dawn, the tone of your comments lifted my spirits! Thanks.
Comment from Jessica
Time: February 28, 2008, 11:05 am
As a staunch bleeding-heart liberal I doubt I can add much to this discussion. But, I can tell you that when I was little and Davey and Goliath would come on, my mom would say, “I really wish you kids wouldn’t watch that crap!”
Comment from porknbean
Time: February 28, 2008, 6:14 pm
So what do you folks think happened to the Russian hikers?
KGB messin’ with nuclear crap and these guys were in the wrong place at the wrong time (unlike the dude, Litvenwhozeewhatzit, intentionally nuked internally this past year)? Or an outpost for aliens who didn’t like trespassers?
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 28, 2008, 6:22 pm
It’s maddeningly hard to piece it together from the account, PnB. Like, the group who were found later and terribly damaged were found in what they described as a ravine under 12 feet of snow. Could they have fallen? Would that account for the injuries? The woman whose tongue was missing: cut clean or ragged, like chewed off by the little teeth of vermin?
One account said it looked like they had been blinded, because the pair who lit the fire tore off wet branches rather than use the dry firewood all around them.
So, I’d say…big bang. Nuke? Ball lightening? Meteor? Whatever. Blinded. They panic, flee the tent. Wander off in various directions and die in various ways.
I dunno. Weird.
Comment from porknbean
Time: February 28, 2008, 10:22 pm
Something made them panic, that is for sure. But, what I found odd besides the report of an orange tint to the skin, was the fact of they fled in various stages of undress. If it is that cold, wouldn’t you still sleep fully clothed?
Comment from porknbean
Time: February 28, 2008, 10:26 pm
And then being on a mountain, I would think one would be prepared for such things as an avalanche. Snoozing in ones undies doesn’t seem like a smart thing to do.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 29, 2008, 5:10 am
Yeah, actually, that struck me, too. Out camping, I sleep in my clothes and replace them with clean clothes as necessary. If it were twiddly-two degrees below zero? You bet I would.
But then I thought maybe I was just some kind of feelthy peeg, so I didn’t like to mention it.
Write a comment
Beware: more than one link in a comment is apt to earn you a trip to the spam filter, where you will remain -- cold, frightened and alone -- until I remember to clean the trap. But, hey, without Akismet, we'd be up to our asses in...well, ass porn, mostly.<< carry me back to ol' virginny