-
Arnold as the Future Henry K?
Tweet Share on Facebook April 15, 2007 CommentCalifornia Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's play to push up the state's presidential primary to give it a bigger say in the 2008 race, coupled with his aggressive moves to build a strong legacy, has Washington wondering about his next act. Constitutionally barred from being president, the Austrian-born actor-politician has been rumored to be interested in running for the Senate. But allies say he has another thought: secretary of state. And not because of his accent; they say he's internationally famous for his Terminator role and an able diplomat who has many friends in world capitals. And about that accent, says a pal, "he's easier to understand than [former Nixon Secretary of State] Henry Kissinger."
With Silla Brush, Suzi Parker, and Thomas Omestad
-
Only in Arkansas: Lawyer McDougal
Tweet Share on Facebook April 15, 2007 Comment (1)Hollywood might have to delay work on that movie bio we recently noted on Whitewater figure Susan McDougal. She's trying to change the ending. We've confirmed that the former jailbird wants to be a lawyer. She's applied to the University of Arkansas–Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law. McDougal was pardoned for her conviction on Whitewater-related fraud charges, so that wouldn't block her from joining the bar. But legal experts say those blemishes might run her afoul of the good character requirement.
With Silla Brush, Suzi Parker, and Thomas Omestad
-
No Sissy Sauce for Pentagon's Gates
Tweet Share on Facebook April 15, 2007 CommentDefense Secretary Bob Gates reveals that he's a strict traditionalist when it comes to barbecue. "I'm pork ribs, period," he tells radio's Laura Ingraham. Gates also says that he hasn't found any barbecue he likes in Washington, certainly nothing like that served in his old haunt, Rudy's, near Texas A&M University, which he ran before replacing Donald Rumsfeld. And don't give him sauce choices. At Rudy's he goes "with the regular sauce, not the 'Sissy Sauce.'"
With Silla Brush, Suzi Parker, and Thomas Omestad
-
Even Ambassadors Get Ticketed
Tweet Share on Facebook April 15, 2007 CommentThere were Cherry Blossom princesses and tables full of sushi and tempura. But when the ambassador of Japan hosted a reception celebrating Washington's Cherry Blossom Festival, he had something else on his mind: dollars and yen. "Let's talk about money," opened Ambassador Ryozo Kato with a joke. The festival, a tradition since Tokyo's mayor donated the original cherry trees to Washington in 1912, is big business locally, he said to laughter. "You can hear the cash registers ringing." And not just for trinkets but often for parking tickets, because there are few legal spots near the trees. Kato says he should know. "Let me assure you, I have written a few checks to the D.C. treasurer."
With Silla Brush, Suzi Parker, and Thomas Omestad
-
Out Loud
Tweet Share on Facebook April 15, 2007 Comment"These bastards went after me. They got me."
Don Imus, the radio personality dumped from CBS Radio and MSNBC after foes called for his dismissal for slurring the Rutgers University women's basketball team"Arnold to Michigan: Get off your butts and join us."
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, in a speech demanding that the state known for being the home to carmakers mandate deep cuts in auto emissions—as California has"Leave it to the Pentagon bureaucracy to prove that you can, in fact, be brought back from the dead."
Bob Gates, defense secretary, joking about how it took retired Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker six months to fix paperwork that showed he was deceased"I'm sorry I'm late...I had to vote for Sanjaya."
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, House speaker, joking to Tonight Show host Jay Leno about her support for the surprise American Idol contestant Sanjaya MalakarSources: Newsday, Washington Examiner (2), The Tonight Show
-
Cartoon
Tweet Share on Facebook April 15, 2007 Comment -
Weekend Cartoon
Tweet Share on Facebook April 14, 2007 Comment -
Maybe Zbig Can Replace the I-Man
Tweet Share on Facebook April 12, 2007 CommentHere's a thought: How about replacing foul-mouthed shock talker Don Imus with former Carter national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski? Give me a minute to explain.
Seems that the war foe has a shock jock's way of putting down ideas and those he isn't too impressed with. At breakfast today, for example, he took a shot at security guards, the British Navy, and even the new war boss in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus. You be the judge:
On security guards. Claiming that the nation has become fear driven, he offered this tale: "You go to any building in the city, it's lunatic to the way the system operates and I know how it operates. These security companies have been set up. They write letters to the owner of buildings and say we can offer you security and so forth for such and such a fee, and probably somewhere in small print it says that may protect you against liability if anything happens. So everybody gets scared and hires them. It's a totally fraudulent operation. You walk into a building, somebody says show me your ID, in one place somebody asks me what is the purpose of the visit," he says. "Suppose I wrote down I'm here to blow up the building. Would that somewhat sleepy, maybe semi-illiterate quote unquote guard with a big badge–special security agent–stop me? It's absurd."
On the Brits. Here, he has a laugh at the recent seizure by Iran of British sailors, a situation he fears could prompt a harsher reaction than diplomacy should the next one target Americans. "I am afraid that we may get involved in a war that escalates and dynamically enlarges. Something happens involving like ... the British sailors, the recent heroes of the British Navy. Suppose they had been shot and massacred. Supposed it hadn't been these kind of–I must say I am amazed at the British military. But suppose these had been U.S. marines who might not have folded up and wept the first night while interned. Suppose they fired and had been massacred. What do we do? The president goes on the tube and says 15 heroes have just been massacred, etc., etc., I'm here to protect national interests. I'm ordering bang–this for that."
On Petraeus. Here, Zbig raps Republicans and military officials who claim that if a withdrawal timeline is approved, the enemy will just go dormant until the Americans leave. "I find that argument kind of hard to deal with, because it has a simplistic appeal to the public mind and I think this is why the administration uses it. But it's a little bit like, you know, waving General Petraeus all the time as a flag; you know he's a good-looking and intelligent general, so we'd better trust him because these Democratic politicians are not trustworthy. That works, I agree, politically, but I don't find it intellectually persuasive."
-
Thursday's Cartoon
Tweet Share on Facebook April 12, 2007 Comment
—Drew Sheneman, The Star-Ledger (Newark, N.J.)
Distributed by Tribune Media Services
-
Have You Got Fox Derangement Syndrome?
Tweet Share on Facebook April 11, 2007 CommentLook out: Bernie Goldberg is back. We just got an advance copy of his new book, Crazies to the Left of Me, Wimps to the Right, and it's packed full of great stuff about why liberals hate conservatives and why some righties are "gutless wonders who sold out their principles for political power." You know Goldberg: He's the former CBS reporter who shocked the mostly liberal media establishment when he declared in the bestseller Bias that he was a conservative. Well, in his new book, he takes on both sides as only a former member of the mainstream media can.
Some of the chapters are priceless, like the chapter where he reveals a new liberal ailment: FDS, or Fox Derangement Syndrome. He tries to figure out why liberals hate the cable channel and determines that there is no rational reason. So it must be FDS. He suggests that they should love Fox because it is always populated with liberals like lawyer Lanny Davis and consultant Susan Estrich.
"All those lefties getting so much time on Fox should make your run-of-the-mill liberals happy, right? But it doesn't. Why? Two reasons: First, they don't even notice the liberals on Fox, in much the same way that a fish doesn't notice the water he's swimming in. Seeing liberals on the news seems so natural to liberals that it doesn't register as any big deal. Second, they do notice the conservatives who are debating the liberals. They stick out like the proverbial sore thumb. And their very presence–actually, their very existence–makes liberals mad," he writes. "This anger leads to a debilitating disorientation," he claims, which is made worse by Fox's slogan: "Fair and Balanced."
Some conservatives also need a whupping, and here he singles out shock talker Don Imus. Not because of his current controversy. But it's related. Goldberg, citing another race issue, says that Imus suffers from white guilt and wants to be cool. Conservative Gary Bauer, head of American Values, told me and some other reporters the same thing at breakfast today, saying that Imus's recent "vile comments" were his attempt to "be cool." Goldberg references an Imus interview with Charles Barkley, the basketball star who wrote Who's Afraid of a Large Black Man? Here, Goldberg finds Imus pandering. After Barkley talked about what the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King meant to him, Imus responded: "In my view, just as a white man, it doesn't seem to me that a lot has changed since those days." Says Goldberg, "This may be the dumbest single sentence uttered on the subject of race in the 21st century."
In the rest, there's a heaping of hurt on Dan Rather and Katie Couric. The book is to hit the shelves in about a week.
