It is a minor journalistic cliché to call former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson "a gifted wordsmith." That he is. Gerson is the devout Christian (just ask him) whose presidential speeches contained subliminal messages to evangelicals ("wonder-working power", "an angel rides the whirlwind," etc.).
Gerson used these dog-whistle techniques to help persuade followers of the Prince of Peace to embrace an unjust, unwise, unwarranted war. A man who would contort the language of Christ and His followers to promote a war would, you'd think, have a high tolerance for how others use words. But not Mr. Gerson.
In a pompous, preening, prissy, preachy op-ed in the neoconservative Washington Post, Gerson excoriates, of all people, Al Franken. Why Franken? Well, Franken has committed a sin far more egregious than Bush, who, using Gerson's words, led thousands to a certain and unnecessary death. He told some dirty jokes.
Goody-Goody Gerson has the guts to cheer the Bush-Cheney war machine. But when Al Franken tells a poopy joke or a booby joke, Mikey gets all woozy. Someone quick get this frail flower a fan. He has the vapors.
Franken, more than most people I know, has thrown himself into supporting and comforting the soldiers whom Gerson's boss has used and abused. I can't count the number of USO trips Al has made, the troops he has entertained, the men facing death who had a brief laugh (maybe even at a wee-wee joke!) before heading back into combat. Or Al's many visits to military hospitals, the countless acts of true charity -- dare I say Christian charity? -- that this good man has committed while Gerson poses as a saintly supporter of senseless slaughter.
One of the Franken jokes Gerson is most nauseated by is Franken's 2006 monologue in which he allegedly impersonated Strom Thurmond saying, "Yeah, I screwed a woman who was vomiting once." Horrific, isn't it? But it's actually an example of satire being less shocking than truth. There is no record, (that I know of), of Strom Thurmond actually screwing a woman until she threw up. Hence Al's line was meant to be over-the-top, ridiculous, comic. But Thurmond did in fact have sex with a woman as she was being driven to the electric chair*, which I think is worse.
But that's just me. I think death is worse than sex. Perhaps for Mr. Gerson it's the other way 'round. He's clearly more comfortable putting words in the mouth of our incompetent, dishonest President; he's happy to be a sycophantic scribe for the bastards who have plunged us into this damnable war. But heaven forefend Al Franken - who opposes the war - would tell a dirty joke.
It is Mr. Gerson who is dirty and his writing which is a joke.
So I'm going to do some writing in response. Not just this post. I'm writing a check to Al Franken for Senate. Better still, I'm going to click here and donate right away. I hope you'll do the same. Stand up for good, clean dirty jokes and against sanctimonious, smug, speechwriters.
*See Jack Bass and Marilyn W. Thompson's book Ol' Strom for the full story of Strom nailing convicted murderer Sue Logue as she was being driven to the South Carolina death house in 1943. Logue's nephew said his aunt "was the only person ever seduced on the way to the electric chair." Thurmond's longtime, trusted driver, Randall Johnson, who witnessed the tryst on the highway to heaven -- or hell -- said the two were "a-huggin' and a-kissin' the whole way" to the death house.
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I thought you meant Strom found a woman vomiting and took advantage of her while she was preoccupied, not that he screwed her until she puked. That would be giving him too much credit for being a mighty mighty man.
Spot on Paul! Michael Gerson gave GWB "evangelical language" that he never owned for himself. Bush cloaked himself in Gerson's words that were so familiar to the right wing - beliefs, phrases and lingo that Bush would have never used on his own. The soaring speeches that plucked the heart strings of the evangelicals convinced them that GWB was "one of them" and in truth his own language and ability and my guess, even his faith, was never as real as Gershon's speeches convinced the right wing it was.
I would hazard a guess that after Gerson stopped writing for GWB his support levels dropped like a stone.
I lay much responsibility for the mess we're in at Gerson's feet. The propaganda that was peddled was only palatable because it was candy coated in his easy-Jesus words.
How about placing the blame at those morons who voted for and continue to support this failed President. Speeches aren't actions. Look at what he has done and react accordingly. Impeachment is the tool we have to hold the President accountable. Don't blame it on some born again speech writer. I heard his speeches, did a little research and found out he was a liar.
Norm Coleman is a classic Wind-Sock Politician who was a Progressive Democrat when he carpet-bagged his way into Saint Paul, MN from his home in New Jersey, then when the NeoCon's took over, he suddenly became a Righteous Republican as a way to vault into the Senate.
He ran his Senate sub-committee as an arm of the White House's Propaganda machine and now he is running ads here in MN that don't even MENTION that he is a Republican, more or less his voting record in the Senate.
What a douche-bag.
I will vote for Al Franken BECAUSE he has the smarts to speak truth-to-power, not despite it.
I can't wait to see him eviscerate Normy in a debate (although it looks like Norm will claim he is "too busy" to debate him.) There is a reason that the RNC is holding it's convention in St. Paul, MN this year, they see Minnesota as a swing state, and hope to support one of the weakest RNC senatorial candidates they have (Normy) while promoting one of their rising stars, our idiot governor (and former State House Republican Whip) Pawlenty (he doesn't have a snowballs chance at VP, but he is too ambitious to admit it publicly.)
As is the usual case, they read it wrong. MN will go big-time for Obama and Franken, and Normy will have to go back to NJ to try to get elected dog-catcher there.
My money is in the mail.
Paul, you are absolutely right to characterize the once respected "Washington Post" as neoconservative. Imagine, the one paper that broke the Watergate story in the early 70s has now seemingly morphed into some stale, pathetic mouthpiece of the neoconservative movement. With the exception of E.J. Dionne, I'm not interested in the opinions of that newspaper. And I find their editorial slant on many of the important news stories of today to be repulsive.
Michael Gerson's words mean nothing. He has zero credibilty. Zero morality. And zero ability to convince us that a few jokes told many years ago should have any impact on this election.
Norm Coleman has zero credibility and zero morality as well. Franken should win easily over the cretin Coleman.
The evangelical neocons don't need anything remotely reasonable to justify their voting for a member of the ethically bankrupt Republican Party. Complaints about dirty jokes is just as good as impeaching a president because he had consensual sex they didn't approve of. They take mega dose hypocrisy pills along with their moron pills every morning.
I've been reading one of Franken's books. He really defends the Clintons full out in the book. So did I at the time he wrote that book. However, I'd have to see what he says about Hill's Rovian run for the White House before I'd send him any more money. I'm not voting for Rovians or anyone who supports Rovians. If Obama turns Rovian, I won't vote for him either. Every time I read something like this, it makes me contribute again to Obama, because so far, he's the only politician I trust at all. And I blame Hillary Clinton for that because I used to trust her too.
So the big question is, what does Franken say about the Clintons now? Anyone know the answer? I haven't found it yet.
Not going to happen Paul. We've already had an actor and do not need a comedian. Especially one who is a pro-Israel as Lieberman. Coleman is more even-handed than either of them and even though I'm a Democrat I will support him.
Franken has nothing in common with Lieberman. Why such a ridiculous straw man? Franken is brilliant, and supports progressive politics.
A democrat who doesn't support democrats in congress right now doesn't understand or doesn't care. We need to win seats. We need 60 real democrats in the Senate so we can kick Lieberman to the curb and still own cloture. Franken would be a huge pickup for us.
Support our candidates. We need them all.
Well, maybe not Pelosi...
Al does have something in common with Lieberman... they're both Jewish... maybe that's what Han objects to. Bloody shame if it is. If someone is prejudiced, they belong on the other side. And, Han, if I've misinterpreted you, I apologise.... but you should know better after all these years than to vote against a liberal.
Coleman is a classic Rethug"doesn't support VA benefits, doesn't really "support the troops." But he has supported Bush at every turn"every illegal maneuver, every hideous Republican act, and clearly does NOT represent the peope of Minnesota.
So go vote for hi, Even-handed. That's absolutely hysterical. You just don't like Jews_whether or not they spport Israel.
You do not know of what you write"and if you're a Democrat, I'm Princess Di.
What makes you a "Democrat"? What policies and programs do you support as a "Democrat", and does Coleman support them?...I'm just curious.
"Be not righteous over much..." (Ecclesiastes 7:16)
Methinks Mr. Gerson could stand a course in Bible learning, for if he did take that course, he might stop casting stones and aspersions on the Christ-like Franken (or Frankenchrist) and remove the logjam from his eye and toejam from his mind...or whatever it is that makes him think, or pretend, that his own monster is, or was, somehow, an immortal coil of God-league impunity, while the true fountain of love and light gets spun into Dacron throwrugs.
Al Franken will bring intelligence, wit, charm, grace, style, humor, respect and, dare I say it, fun, back to Washington, which has, itself, devolved into a mudfight between opposing lobbylubbers, whose minds are now fully marinated in the fotzepolitik, and mammoniacal self-absorption, of the day.
Do as Paul does, and support Al Franken. He is not a toadie.
He is probably even a member of The Nuculus -- that evolving progressive social entity made possible by Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed, and the best of the new social media.
Al is there, here. His opponent is not. His opponent's party is not.
McCain is not only not a netizen...he is a computer illiterate.
Make him leader? No. Make him a student.
Bring on the Nuculus. Bring on the Frankens and The Harry Taylors.
Then I might shut up...
Like almost everyone associated with Bush, Gerson is a fraud with blood on his hands. Not that he doesn't sleep well at night like most sociopaths.
Reagan had a group of heartless sycophants around him. Bush 1 too.
So what?
The American people seem to love these people. After all, most seem to get rich despite their moral crimes.
No, the fault is not with these talentless careerists/ collaborators but with ourselves: We who confer power on them despite their unlimited ability to harm us.
"contained subliminal messages "
On the topic of the subliminal have a look at the current logo on the Obama website --
http://www.barackobama.com/images/temp_flashheader.jpg
I am sure it's the late hour but if you zoom in just to the right of his necktie, something appears to be written in the clouds (seriously)
You need to get off the rubbing alcohol.......fast....
Yes, but it looks more like the creator was leaving a personal mark than anything subliminal. I've been fascinated by subliminal advertising for years. I saw the many genitalia in the Joe Cool Camel before it was ever mentioned in the news. I can show you the chapter and verse of every Phillips Morris funded quit smoking campaign's word games to keep you from quitting and the ones that cause you to accidentally encourage your kids to smoke too. But the word muaia..... whether received consciously or subconsciously seems meaningless to me. My only response to it would be a Tim the Toolman curious grunt.
While of course every individual death is a tragedy to the bereaved families, great achievements have been won in Iraq and Afghanistan at a cost in human life a fraction the size of any past world-historical struggle of this magnitude.
The number of American troops killed and wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan is equivalent to the losses they endured - for a nation only a little over half the size in the mid-Forties - capturing a single island from the Japanese in the Pacific War.
British losses of 103 killed over seven years in Afghanistan bears comparison to a quiet weekend on the Western Front in the Great War, or the numbers the Army loses in traffic accidents in peacetime. History can lend a wider overall perspective to what are nonetheless, of course, immeasurably sad events.
History will also shine an unforgiving light on those ludicrous conspiracy theories that claim that the Iraq War was fought for any other reason than to implement the 14 UN resolutions that Saddam that had been flouting for 13 years.
I just wonder how much every dead kid is worth to KBR, Lockheed Martin, Blackwater and all the others involved in this little business venture.
I noticed in your brutal mathematical assessment you do not even mention the many thousands of Iraqi civilians killed.
You can not talk about this war in relative terms because this war is an illegal occupation based on lies. There is simply no moral or ethical reason for us to have gone into Iraq or to stay in Iraq, and you know what? THE IRAQIS DON'T WANT US THERE. You personally may find the numbers of "coalition of the willing" fatalities to be acceptable in relative terms but anyone who has been paying attention and knows that this is a fabricated war that was pitched to us like a Hollywood movie will find that deeply delusional and ignorant... and yes, horrifying. We created this. Are you really ignorant of that? WE CREATED THIS and it's all based on lies and manipulations. How can you give a pass to these war criminals and pretend that it's all about history?
How can you say that the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths, the 1 million refugees in camps, the 1 millions who have had to flee their own country are better off than they were before? And how can you say that WE had the right to impose anything on these people?
If you do not know that you have been lied to and manipulated into supporting this war then you are just ignorant and need to read more than just right-wing dogma. It's unforgivable that anyone would support this war at this time; it's level of obscene human waste is, plainly said, reprehensibly criminal.
You clearly have no son or daughter, no relative who has dead"or worse"come home to commit suicide, or live a life destroyed by injuries sustained in threIllegal Invasion of Iraq.
History will not shine an unforgiving light on this War for Oil. History will not shine a forgiving light on a president who is just this side of insane, or the Republican Congress who raped America"who stole the Treasury, who devalued the dollar, who destroyed the economy, who legalize warrantless wiretaps on Americans, who outsourced torture, who killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi men, women and children in the name od "democracy."
You defend demons. You have no conscience. You must be a Republican.
Bob, doesn't all that spin make you dizzy?
Only hours after I had sworn I would never again donate to the Democratic Party as a whole, after the House, and Steny Hoyer and Nancy Pelosi had given Bush more than he ever hoped in a revision of FISA, ... and immunity for crimes committed at the behest of Bush by the major telecoms in the US, ... I met a young Democrat.
Her right to vote in November's Election is in process as I write. Her name is Margaret. So well-spoken, personable, and promising.
That she would have the courage and conviction to walk this Suburban Republican enclave in hopes of one or perhaps two voters to support her chosen party is a credit to her person, and to her her parents, who must have raised her to be fearless. By the time she had finished with me, I had given $ 20 to the DNC, whose shirt she proudly wore, and a few bucks for her to have dinner on her way home, by the same train that brought her to my neighborhood. My wallet was empty. My heart was full.
How lucky I am to have met this young woman. How proud I am, that despite the many issues I have with the Democratic Party, that I met this young Democrat. Al will not receive my money directly. He should, however, thank Margaret from South Philadelphia, for overcoming my Friday reluctance to donate.
I will join the Democratic Party as a member, when Margaret is made
Satirists are excellent perceivers of the truth behind the mud.
Vote and support Al in any way you can.
He will tell the truth to MN and to the world; that you can count on.
"Someone quick get this frail flower a fan. He has the vapors." LMAO! Begala you're great! You can always tell the difference between a Republican and Democrat. The former is always sanctimonious, the latter has wit and intelligence.
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Posted June 19, 2008 | 06:54 PM (EST)