Thursday, November 01, 2007

Ribald Russert


By JENNIFER LOVEN

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush compared Congress' Democratic leaders Thursday to people who ignored the rise of Lenin and Hitler early in the last century, saying "the world paid a terrible price" then and risks similar consequences for inaction today.

President Bush's Thursday indictment of himself,
chiding congress to do something about it.
****************

OK, enough fun. I've enjoyed sniping at our government because of where it's ultimately led us. But there's really nothing funny about it, is there?

Tim Russert's question of Dennis Kucinich in Tuesday's democratic debate, which Russert assured us was a "serious" question, asked whether or not the congressman from Ohio had seen a UFO as claimed by Shirley McClain in her newest book.

Anything Kucinich said after answering his "serious" UFO encounter question from Russert was disregarded by the media the following morning. The fact Russert defended his UFO question as serious is like Fox in the middle of their 5 minute top-of-the-hour radio news broadcast reminders they're "Fair and Balanced." Always a sure sign you're being bullshitted.

Russert's responsibility as a moderator to get to the really serious issues that affect all Americans trying to discern where the candidates stand was sacrificed by his flippancy in the sacrifice of Kucinich with a "serious" UFO question.

A couple of images came immediately to mind, to wit:
Democratic presidential candidate, Michael Dukakis,
in his 1988 sunken campaign boat, a U.S. army tank.


Howard Dean's famous 2004 campaign ending "scream."

Yet Russert's cute stunt was nothing more than that -- another Russert transgression against objective news gathering. But unlike the media's successful destruction of Dukakis or Dean, I don't think he hurt Kucinich much. That's because to destroy a candidate, you must first build a candidacy and that is something the media never has permitted Kucinich to do.

Of course, Kucinich hasn't helped himself, being unwilling as he is to take obscene campaign contributions from special interests such as banking, big defense contractors, pharmaceuticals and insurance companies like the "first tier" candidates. Something our great American "democracy" demands of all serious candidates--the ones who don't have to answer serious questions about their encounters with UFOs.



3 comments:

D.K. Raed said...

Once a candidate gets painted with a "Governor Moonbeam" type of label, he has officially become part of the lunatic fringe. Nevermind that the real lunatic fringe are on the opposite side of the aisle. We're not supposed to notice the astonishing amt of BS flowing from that direction. IF (and that's a big IF) UFO's are a serious concern of Russert, a concern worthy of being included in a presidential debate, why was it in the lightning round, ltd to 30-seconds? I mean if he was REALLY interested in possible visitation by another sentient species, wouldn't it take more than 30-secs to address? No, all Russert wanted was to Muskie-ize Kucinich. BTW, I was seriously afraid Russert was about to have the big one during the debate -- he was sweaty & palid & hunching over even more than usual.

Dada said...

Dang....if I thought there'd be any chance of catching a glimpse of the end of Russert, I'da watched whole damn "debate"...(sadly, I think he survived, didn't he?)

Fran said...

Kucinich had fun fielding this question though, he quipped more people have seen UFO's, than approve of George Bush's presidency. Made a comment about moving his campaign headquarters to Roswell New Mexico.