The Heckling Order

Hi! I'm still working on becoming not just a Washington insider (I live and work inside the Beltway, so by some geographical standard, I am already an "insider") but the ultimate Washington insider. It started as a joke, but now that I'm starting to realize what a negative connotation the term has, I'm deadly serious about this mission.

Negative? Well, Vice President Cheney, for instance, is an ultimate Washington insider. I want to be like him.

Then there are the outsiders, including the subject of this post: Hecklers. They make a great foil for insiders or anyone who gets to be "on stage."

Sticking with Cheney for a second, remember that time a heckler managed to get close enough to yell, directly at the VP: "Go f**k yourself, Mr. Cheney! Go f**k yourself!" -- an allusion, of course, to Mr. Cheney's famous riposte to Patrick Leahy on the Senate floor, which had started as a private insult from one insider to another, then got out. But just as rich was the reporter's straightfaced question that followed: "Are you getting a lot of that, Mr. Vice President?" Don't we wish.

Peter Baker's important but under-noticed story in the Washington Post about the White House handbook for keeping dissent(ers) out of President Bush's appearances fell victim, I'm afraid, to the outrage fatigue many are experiencing after seven years of this administration. Is the handbook an unacceptable breach of the spirit of our democracy? Yep. Now just throw it on the pile.

What counts as heckling may be changing. As press conferences become more and more one-sided (i.e., the speaker takes no questions) the important queries have to be yelled out of turn, heckler style.

So, is a credentialed White House correspondent's shouted question heckling? When Karl Rove gave his teary-eyed goodbye statement with President Bush, they took no questions, so as they walked away CBS' Bill Plante yelled audaciously at their backs: "If he's so smart, how come you lost Congress?"

As bona fide reporters get relegated to heckler status and potential hecklers increasingly aren't allowed in at all, we relish the heckling that beats the odds and happens.

Yesterday someone (do we knew who it was yet? I want to buy him a drink) yelled, in a sneering voice, "Hey, what if you were gay? Come out of the closet!" at Senator Larry Craig as he left his public-statement reading. I let out an "ooo-hoo"-type laugh and felt a little spasm in the pit of my stomach. Part of the fun of witnessing heckling is that we all know how much pluck it takes to pull it off. So our laughter or approval or even disapproval is the surprised kind, infused with admiration for the heckler. Heckling upends the established power structure deliciously for a moment.

(Meanwhile, to give a counterexample, this "prank" is just stupid and not funny at all, a creaky insider-to-insider joke that had to be phoned in by the lame [duck] White House staff directly to the insider media.)

So, while I've still got some outsiderness going, I think I'd like to do some old-fashioned heckling at the next "thing" I attend. I'll let you know how it goes.

I guess in a way bloggers are hecklers. Their freedom to say whatever they want irritates and afflicts the credentialed journalists and other powerholders, who, just like in the offline world, can choose to ignore or engage with the heckler. The bloggers, in turn, are "heckled" by commenters, who then "heckle" one another in the comments section. It's the heckling order.

Comments

[Ben Dixon]

There is a fine line between Democracy and mobocracy. Heckling crosses that line.

[Colmore]

Good for Bill Plante. By the way, is he still employed? The WH does not tolerate any dissent. I would like to have asked "Why did Mrs. Bush fly on a seperate plane to NOLA. Isn't this a total waste of fuel?" Georgie was putting on his usual show of "great guy to have a beer with" down there. I imagine him to be a mean drunk, he is cruel when sober.

[shrake]

Next time you see Laura, just yell "Is George a mean drunk?" I want to hear what she says.

[dannyS]

Heckling is entertaining, don't get me wrong, though I can't help but think it wouldn't be necessary if politics was less personal/partisan and more productive towards correcting the problems we have. Isn't that's what's supposed to happen?
It has become a game where you score more with humiliation than actual achievement and progress.

[shrake]

To quote Homer Simpson @ Marge (paraphrasing Michael Corleone @ Kay):

"Oh, now who's being naive?"

Remember? They're discussing Bart becoming a stripper or a Supreme Court justice...

And in Godfather II, Michael is responding to Kay saying "Senators and presidents don't have people killed!"

Did you realize the former was a quote of the latter? That's why the Simpsons writers deserve a Nobel Prize.

[dannyS]

If the bona fide press have been relegated to hecklers, what good are they?

[afgail]

My heckle for the President is this. "Mr. Prsident you lie 24/7. If you ever were to tell the truth how would we know?"

[shrake]

Mine would be shorter, something like "You're dumb!" or "You look really old!" I saw the prez at Christmas time at the WH tree-lighting ceremony on the Ellipse, which was orig. supposed to be invite-only (actually open to the public, too. You just had to get tix from the Park Service) but at the last minute they just let everyone in. I guess they were banking on the Christmas spirit to ensure no one would heckle him or throw a piece of fruit.

[indypete]

Since discovering I could participate on this blogsite, I've come to regard my fellow hecklers (the bloggers and commenters) as my friends. This is our little cyber-coffeehouse where we can gripe about things with like-minded people and occasionally trade digs with "moles" from the other side. Entertaining and educational!

[JScott]

And the genius of it is that it shows, others can call em to account then everyone just get's tired of it all and it moves WAY to the bottom of Huffpo and everyone forgets.

[shrake]

I hate that sinking thing that happens. Down to the bottom then poof.

[shrake]

That has been Arianna's genius, and one of the reasons this site is the #5 blog in the world: She's truly democratic. Most everyone can join in. Because everyone's got something to say, so let them say it.

[SWD]

The challenge for hecklers of this administration is the impossibility of embarrassing people who have no shame. Go ahead and try. If you get through the buffer squad, you'll just get shot in the face with a hearty "go ***k yourself!"

[shrake]

Well, you are right. But at this point, they've f**ked themselves pretty bad, too. Hence the appropriateness of the Cheney heckler's timing: The VP was speaking in the Gulf Coast in the direct aftermath of Katrina. The heckler was, I believe, an EMT/nurse or other first responder. But Cheney did "laugh it off." He may not feel shame, but we do. For him.