Tim Cavanaugh: Where Did It All Go Wrong?

David Weigel | May 8, 2007

Ah, this is a a free trip to the spa for anyone who has to listen to a lot of political speeches. Former Reasonoid Tim Cavanaugh, now of the LA Times, takes to the op-ed page to offer "notes on my career in office."

Perhaps it was hubris to touch the third rail of American politics. I freely admit my Achilles' heel was that I ignored the elephant in the room. But I could not let a rogue actor continue to thumb his nose at the international community, while handing money hand over fist to the same old tunnel vision and short-term thinking. This is not about politics; it goes to who I am. To understand my decision, you'd have to go back to my recently discovered Jewish ancestor Madam Valdez, who arrived on the Mayflower. Those are the kind of deep roots and local values I brought to the Capitol. At a hastily called prayer breakfast, I consulted my deeply held beliefs, and mistakes were made.

Read it all.

Comments

|5.8.07 @ 10:12AM|#

He forgot to accept full responsibility...

Chris Monnier|5.8.07 @ 10:14AM|#

It sounds like an Onion article...

|5.8.07 @ 10:20AM|#

Captain of the Cliche?

thoreau|5.8.07 @ 10:22AM|#

I'll be back in California in a few months, and once I'm there I will DEFINITELY vote for Cavanaugh!

|5.8.07 @ 10:29AM|#

Stringing together cliches has been done so often it has become cliche. It looks like Cavanaugh has become grist for the machine. Or perhaps he's just jumping the shark.

|5.8.07 @ 10:44AM|#

What a simple article to write. Just take all the political speeches from the last twenty years, insert in word blender, and apply the paste evenly on the page.

|5.8.07 @ 11:15AM|#

Well, for everyone who thinks it's tired and overdone, there are those like myself who think it's a nice summation of the lip-service and BS politicians try to unload on us.

|5.8.07 @ 11:29AM|#

I loved it. Very George Carlin-esque

|5.8.07 @ 11:33AM|#

Oh, you forgot "going back to the ranch," "spending more time with the family " and "mending fences, literary and figuratively."

|5.8.07 @ 12:04PM|#

Mixing that many metaphors could cause an explosion.

|5.8.07 @ 12:09PM|#

Tim's a 'bot?

|5.8.07 @ 12:29PM|#

Proof that good things can happen when you spike the coffee in the newsroom.

|5.8.07 @ 12:33PM|#

People should have competitions reading this while trying to keep a straight face.

|5.8.07 @ 12:39PM|#

That was a hell of a thing.

|5.8.07 @ 2:33PM|#

It's a shame we don't have Cavanaugh to kick around anymore.

|5.8.07 @ 2:56PM|#

That's old news. It's a tired rehash of stale cliches. We need to think outside the box, not just mouthe old platitudes. But instead of speaking from the heart, Cavanaugh offers us recycled one-liners. Talk is cheap, but we need less talk and more action. The article sheds more heat than light. We need new thinking.