Toughguys Wear Tails

Tim Cavanaugh | November 22, 2005

How silly is the current silly season in political images? Yesterday, my local daily and The New York Times both featured page-one, multi-pic spreads showing President Bush's locked door slapstick in the People's Republic of China—a fairly funny incident that got about 10,000 times as much attention as it deserved. Today asses are frosted because of a buy-popcorn-now message allegedly sneaked into a clip of Vice President Cheney.

Meanwhile, nobody seems to have noticed one of the unhappiest political images of the twenty-first century: Last week Cheney chose to make his opening salvo against the Democratic traitors during a speech at the Americans For Tax Reform Ronald Reagan Gala—while standing at a podium wearing evening clothes. Whose brilliant idea was it to have the most hated person in the White House talk about standing firm in Iraq while he's looking like Edward Arnold playing the villain in a Frank Capra movie?

I don't care about the content of the argument; it's the image that's fascinating. Is this more evidence of the Machiavellian public relations genius of Karl Rove? Didn't they have maybe a big round bag with a dollar sign on it the veep could have held while he was telling us all to toughen up? And since Cheney has obviously just hatched some deliciously diabolical scheme against Jimmy Stewart, maybe he'll be feeling expansive enough to answer my biggest question: What kind of age of irony are we living in, where an image audiences would have howled at in 1937 passes without notice?

Comments

gaius marius|11.22.05 @ 1:34PM|#

didn't you get the memo, mr cavanaugh? class warfare is "out". :)

|11.22.05 @ 1:40PM|#

What kind of age of irony are we living in, where an image audiences would have howled at in 1937 passes without notice?

I guess there just aren't enough people watching Robert Osborne over at the Turner movie channel.

|11.22.05 @ 1:40PM|#

At least he's not wearing a monocle.

|11.22.05 @ 1:42PM|#

All it needs for a complete Thomas Nast look is one of those top hats. I thought it was strictly forbidden for a contemporary politician to appear in a tux.

|11.22.05 @ 1:42PM|#

Oh my god, a millionaire who owns a tuxedo, wears it to formal functions and talks while wearing it. Absolutely unforgiveable. Off with his head, off with his head.

|11.22.05 @ 1:53PM|#

Can we now acknowledge, once and for all, that Karl Rove isn't some amazing evil genius? I mean, how many time does the Administration have to screw up for that to be understood? What I see is a lot of incompetence, period. I don't even think there's all that much corruption in the Administration (relatively speaking, I hasten to add)--most of what I see is just ineptitude.

I know, I know, that's what I'm supposed to think.

|11.22.05 @ 1:55PM|#

There's nothing wrong with a tux.

Cheney looks evil, because Cheney looks evil. He'd look evil in a fuzzy old flannel and slippers.

|11.22.05 @ 1:58PM|#

Incidentally, if Cheney had been wearing a formal kilt, well, that would've ruled on so many levels.

|11.22.05 @ 2:00PM|#

Tim, what if he'd been wearing--shudder--ruffles? Egad.

|11.22.05 @ 2:09PM|#

I guess it's fascinating if a) you perceive evening clothes as somehow diabolical, b) if you think Cheney looks like that actor, and c) that then triggers a cultural reference to the depression-era United States, where statism was cemented into the institutions of government.

I'm glad those sensibilites are 70 years old, in other words.

|11.22.05 @ 2:14PM|#

Discussion of Cheney's pictures in the press, coincidentally posted yesterday over at Grylliade's.

There's that snarl again. Never see him without it.

|11.22.05 @ 2:17PM|#

Here's my crackpot theory: I think the reason Rove makes people of a certain type trembly in the knees (beltway journalists) is not so much his genius as his penchant for pushing it. He's like Divine in Pink Flamingos. He's not really gonna do that is he? Not only will he get down there and wrestle in the poop, he'll eat it and ask for more. This makes the MSM bottoms cluch their hankies and reach for the smelling salts. It's a weird almost sexualized relationship that is just a more extreme version of the MSM reaction to "tough guy" republicans. See Chris Matthews and Cheney or McCain for another example.

(First time I've used "MSM" unironically).

R C Dean|11.22.05 @ 2:37PM|#

Pro Lib -

Cheney only looks like an evil genius when you put him up against his political opponents.

And if you think this White House looks incompetent, well, you haven't been paying attention to anything else happening in Washington recently.

|11.22.05 @ 2:39PM|#

The "Bush and the locked doors" video would have been a lot funnier if Bush had pounded on the doors with both fists and yelled, "Wiiiilllllmmmmmaaaaaaa!"

|11.22.05 @ 2:47PM|#

I tend to think Cheney should stay away from tuxes because he already looks like a smoke-free version of the Penguin between the glasses, sharp nose, and talking out of the side of his mouth. A dinner jacket and bow tie just completes the image.

Viking (mastering the obvious)|11.22.05 @ 2:58PM|#

"Cheney only looks like an evil genius when you put him up against his political opponents."

ain't that the truth!

|11.22.05 @ 3:18PM|#

I once had a prick of a boss who was never seen without a suit, and was very rigid about even the lowliest lackey like me maintaining professional dress code.
A time came where he decided to run for a local public office, and in all his campagn photos he was without his tie and had his sleeves rolled up.
I almost died of laughter when I saw them, thinking, "yep, he's a working class hero now."

|11.22.05 @ 3:22PM|#

RC Dean, I think most government actors are incompetent. This administration seems a little worse than some, but we've had some doozies in recent years. I have plenty of bad things to say about the Clinton team, though I think the ineptness of that administration was shielded from view somewhat by being (1) blocked in its more crazy moments by an opposition Congress and (2) scared to do anything too stupid that might affect the then-booming economy. Of course, there were a few glaring examples of the Peter Principle at work back then, too.

One good thing about all of this is that our system is really designed to be inefficient, which makes politicians look worse than they sometimes really are. Good.

|11.22.05 @ 3:25PM|#

I think he looks grandfatherly and tender!

|11.22.05 @ 3:26PM|#

What kind of age of irony are we living in, where an image audiences would have howled at in 1937 passes without notice?

The same kind of age of "irony" that has relegated moonpies and pennywhistles and steam power and bathing "costumes" and fedoras and crooning and the handlebar moustache to the "not so relevant" pile.

In other words, 1937 + 70.

|11.22.05 @ 3:31PM|#

MoonPies (get it right!) are always relevant, thank you very much. And I think there's a minor resurgence in men's hats, too.

|11.22.05 @ 3:35PM|#

Moon... Pie... What a wonderful time to be alive...

|11.22.05 @ 4:17PM|#

Cheney is the second smartest man I've ever met.

|11.22.05 @ 4:41PM|#

And I think there's a minor resurgence in men's hats, too.

Yeah, I'd like to see the fedora make a full comeback. I think I might still have the one I bought back when Raiders of the Lost Ark came out. Just so I'll be ready, tell me: are you supposed to take your fedora off in an elevator? All the irony of the present age has caused me to forget.

|11.22.05 @ 4:48PM|#

I don't care about the content of the argument; it's the image that's fascinating.

That's perfect.

|11.22.05 @ 4:57PM|#

Ethan - Apparently it is acceptable to keep your hat on in an elevator unless there is a woman present. But I'm hardly an authority on this. I'm still trying to figure out if men's hat etiquette has evolved much since the Victorian age... Lately I've been wearing my porkpie, but I'm going to switch to my Mississippi gambler soon, since the porkpie doesn't really look right with a long coat, IMO.

|11.22.05 @ 8:26PM|#

I believe that Chris Matthews or one of his panelists mentioned the tuxedo and its bad vibes on his Sunday evening CNBC show.

|11.23.05 @ 12:16AM|#

"Whose brilliant idea was it to have the most hated person in the White House"

the wierd thing is that it was today that i decided to really like our vp... for some reason i just had an image of him tearing edwards a new asshole in last years debates and just then decided "you know i like Cheney"

Of course it really isn't that big of happenstance...i mean everyday everyone everywhere hates the guy. :)

Anyway a conservative republican who hires his lesbian daughter in a presidential election campaign can't be all bad.

|11.23.05 @ 8:24AM|#

joshua,

Why are you slandering Mary Cheney? ;-)

|11.23.05 @ 9:46AM|#

What are you talking about Tim?

|11.23.05 @ 12:09PM|#

"What are you talking about Tim?"

See? Now that's funny.