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Skippy on the Dock

Jesse Walker | 10.28.2005 1:04 PM

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Michael Kinsley reviews the Plamegate show.

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Jesse Walker is books editor at Reason and the author of Rebels on the Air and The United States of Paranoia.

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  1. Rich Ard   20 years ago

    Snapper. Heh.

  2. Douglas Fletcher   20 years ago

    If Kinsley can't make sense of this, what hope can a mere mortal like myself cling to?

  3. JW   20 years ago

    Why does anyone actually give a shit about this silliness?

    Put Novak and Wilson in Thunderdome and have at it. My money's on Novak.

  4. Shem   20 years ago

    If it's Thunderdome we're talking, I'd rather see Rove vs. Wilson. On the one hand, Rove is a master of the evil arcana, but on the other, wizard classes have really lousy physical stats. Especially against barbarians like Wilson. Be a really good fight.

  5. saw-whet   20 years ago

    Tether Rove and Wilson together and give One a mace and the other a broadsword. Anyone recall the Latin for bread and circuses?

  6. John   20 years ago

    The Democrats don't get the concept of playing down excpectations. Lying to a grand jury is serious stuff, especially by the Chief of Staff for the Vice President. The problem is that the MSM and liberal bloggers got themselves so worked up and hyped this story so much that what should be a big deal ends up being a disapointment. If they had downplayed the story and lowered expectations, this would play better for them. They do the same thing every four years before the Presidential debates by talking endlessly about how brilliant their candidate is and what a dope the Republican is. All they accomplish in addition to feeding their own smugness, is lower the expectations so much that if the Republican manages not to pick his nose and speak in complete sentences, its considered a victory.

  7. sidereal   20 years ago

    saw-whet: The combat would be disappointingly short. Rove is a lover, not a fighter.

    Apparently Kinsey uses Yahoo as his search engine and assumes everyone else does. How embarassing.

  8. Jesse Walker   20 years ago

    John: I was living in D.C. the year of the Lewinsky scandal. If you thought the liberal bloggers have been getting themselves hyped up for this one -- "He's gonna indict *Cheney*! Bush will have to *resign*!" -- you should've heard some of the rumors that were floating around the right wing back then. I still remember a conservative friend popping into my office and declaring confidently that investigators had found cocaine in the semen stain on Monica's dress.

  9. John   20 years ago

    Jesse,

    Good point. Of course the Lewinski scandle helped the Republicans so much in the 1998 elections. Eitehr way, the smart thing to do on these kinds of things is to downplay them. That way nothing is seen as a disapointment and you get maximum effect no matter what happens.

    That said, all three networks stopping regular programing over some guy no one who is not a political junkie has ever heard of getting indicted is a bit over the top. Henry Cisneros got indicted during the Clinton administration and he was a full-fledged cabinet member and I think it was a bottom of page 1 story in the Times and a second or third string story on the nightly news. My God, why don't the network talking heads just high five each other over someone, anyone, in the Bush Administration being indicted and give the rest of us our TV back.

  10. Pro Libertate   20 years ago

    Panem et circenses.

  11. John   20 years ago

    Pro Libertate,

    Damn Stait!!!!

  12. jf   20 years ago

    I can't believe how this story has completely overwhelmed the George Takei affair.

  13. Pro Libertate   20 years ago

    Sulu's gay? Oh, my. Didn't see that one coming. Now Kirk and Spock, okay.

  14. Kris   20 years ago

    What? There's a George Takei affair going on and I haven't heard about it? DAMN YOU LIBERAL MEDIA!!

  15. Pro Libertate   20 years ago

    If Takei is gay, does that mean John Wayne was, too? I mean, they were in the jungle together for The Green Berets and everything. Um, not that there's anything wrong with that.

  16. Pro Libertate   20 years ago

    Frankly, I blame Chekov. I was always suspicious about that Davy Jones shtick.

  17. thoreau   20 years ago

    I join the others in my surprise over not having a Takei thread.

  18. Douglas Fletcher   20 years ago

    Sulu's gay?

    I heard him on a phone interview on Howard Stern a few years back -- Takei was at home and introduced his little dog to Howard.

    "Her name is Rien -- it's French. It means queen."

    I don't know what the latest flap is about but since then I've assumed there were a few bars around the galaxy that Sulu didn't share with his shipmates, if you know what I mean, nudge nudge.

  19. Pro Libertate   20 years ago

    thoreau, welcome to the George Takei is Not Heterosexual Thread.

    ****Sponsored by Saurian Brand Brandy. Saurian--it's green.****

    A horrible joke comes to mind, but I WILL NOT BE THE FIRST TO SAY IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    In other news, I wonder if the whole Shatner-Takei vendetta has anything to do with this? Maybe Shatner is a homophobe as well as a Klingon-phobe.

  20. Ruthless   20 years ago

    Michael Kinsley, unable to row his boat ashore, remains adrift on the River Styx. Good. He belongs there.
    Justin Raimondo, another silly goose, is able to drive his point home.
    To quote Justin's AntiWar.com Blog, "it's going to the top, baby!"

  21. Carl   20 years ago

    The unspoken joke is "to boldy go where, blah blah blah, anal sex"?

  22. Denny Crane!   20 years ago

    Denny Crane.

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