If This is the "Real Rahm" - First One's On Me!
I am a stunted provincial ( Read- Should not leave the Block) and my world view never really leaves the south side. I lived fourteen years in Indiana but I could not get the hang of saying 'MELK and KRICK' - I thought it was a law firm - and not Milk, a dairy product and Creek, a tiny flowing body of water. I have never understood how driving real fast and making endless left-hand turns 'speaks to the soul in Man.'
As I rarely understand the geography and anthropology north of Madison Ave., I have long labored under the delusion that Rahm Emanual was a Progressive - The one's who raptly listen to NPR, watch WTTW even when it's The Antique Roadshow All Day Every day, and actually think that Don Rose is a sharp political insider. That's me. What the Hell do I know.
Along comes this post about the real Rahm in Steve Rhodes' Beachwood Reporter. Steve's Blogazine is always a great and fun read and almost always politically dodgey - skewed for 'long-haired men and short-haired women.' To my provincial instincts reading Beachwood Reporter's like a kid in 1920's Peotone, Il. reading National Geographic articles about LapLandic Sexual Customs - 'something's in there that I think I'll Like!' Boy, Howdy!
Here's the Link:
http://beachwoodreporter.com/
Steve always has a great and entertaining line-up of news and fact-candy. Here is a wonderful eye-opener about the "Real Rahm." The author is a true Progressive. Reads Granta and pretends to read Thomas Pynchon.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com//sheldon-drobny/the-truth-about-rahm-eman_b_33795.html
Hey, Rahm I am sorry for calling you a Progressive. Let me buy you a tall one at Keegan's to make up. Really, I'd never let any one get away with calling me a Progressive. No Sweat on that Score - That and the Bulls' trolling for my Hang Time and Man-Sized Game!
7 comments:
Hey Pat, thanks for the shout-out. As for the "long-haired men and short-haired women" comment, I'll just let that one pass - though I admit I've gotten a little shaggy and cut use a cut!
An 'homage' to the 19th century cranks who helped to PO the Public with their political hair-shirting.
And you my friend have a very fun an interesting Blogzine - a neologism froma troglyditic knuckle-dragger? 'Paw, bring in the pigs - they got to see this!'
People scoff when I say Dems are headed the way of the whigs....
...but it's exactly this kind of stuff that pushes me that way.
They win and turn on the guy who lead them to the promised land.
The thing you don't hear many folks talking about is to what degree Dems won by outting homosexuals.
Here's Paglia on it via Gay Patriot,
I was especially repulsed by the manipulative use of a gay issue for political purposes by my own party. I think it was not only poor judgment but positively evil. Whatever short-term political gain there is, it can only have a negative impact on gay men. When a moralistic, buttoned-up Republican like Foley is revealed to have a secret, seamy gay life, it simply casts all gay men under a shadow and makes people distrust them. Why don’t the Democratic strategists see this? These tactics are extremely foolish.
Not only has the public image of gay men been tarnished by the over-promotion of the Foley scandal, but they have actually been put into physical danger. It’s already starting with news items about teenage boys using online sites to lure gay men on dates to attack and rob them. What in the world are the Democrats thinking? We saw the beginning of this in that grotesque moment in the last presidential debates when John Kerry came out with that clearly prefab line identifying Mary Cheney as a lesbian. Since when does the Democratic Party use any gay issue in this coldblooded way as a token on the chessboard? You’d expect this stuff from right-wing ideologues, not progressives.
Baar, are you still so angry and befuddled about getting your #%& handed to you on Tuesday, that you resort to this weak link?
But I agree, it is unfortunate that Democrats took advantage of a hypocritical Republican "family values" Congressman who tried luring underaged and barely legal young men into sexually abusive situations, while publicly claiming to protect vulnerable young people from predators like him.
This wasn't about gay men, it was about hypocritical sexual predators. Whether straight or gay, Foley deserved what he got, and the Republican leadership should be ashamed for trying to protect him. Now the people have spoken and those leaders are on their way out.
Not angry, I just agreed with Paglia.
I thought Rahm's strategy the right one except for this part...
...where I happen to agree with Paglia.
Shorter Bill Baar:
Pre-election: If Dems lose, their party is done.
Post-election: Dems, won, and now their party is done.
And how can you call he Foley affair a "strategy." Rahm had been running things for nearly two years. The Foley predator (PREDATOR!) scandal came online six weeks ago.
If you think Foley lost the election for anyone but himself, you're fooling yourself. Three words can sum up Tuesday's results: Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Or for an alternate three words: George. W. Bush.
Their brash, smug ways came to bite them in the behind. As AMC has been running war flicks this weekend in honor of America's Vets, I bring this quote from Patton:
For over a thousand years, Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of a triumph - a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeters and musicians and strange animals from the conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conqueror rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children, robed in white, stood with him in the chariot, or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror, holding a golden crown, and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting.
Post-election: Dems, won, and now their party is done.
Not done at all. Just shifted to the right and assuring Hillary the nomination I think. Feingold saw the writing on the wall with this election.
Certainly better off then before, but I think they'll throw it away.
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