Oh, Powerline. You never let me down--the sweet nougaty center, the crunchy wingnuttery-peanutbuttery coating. Gimme some of that:
I saw Donald Rumsfeld speak for the first time when I was working as an intern in 1969 for then-Senator Walter Mondale. Rumsfeld was serving his fourth term as a congressman from Illinois' 13th District and spoke to a group of interns in a presentation that my roommate and I attended....
A few days later we went to see the movie "If..." at a sold-out showing in Georgetown. The movie is a bizarre blend of fantasy and reality. After the movie we noticed Rumsfeld among the crowd streaming out of the theater. My roommate shouted to him, "Mr. Rumsfeld, what did you think of the movie?" "I didn't get it," he said with a bemused shrug of his shoulders. I can still see it in my mind's eye and it's a memory that has caused me to resist the media's portrait of Rumsfeld's allegedly unpleasant personal qualities. He has been a remarkable public servant for most of his adult life and I don't think anyone has yet taken the measure of his service.
Um, you saw Rumsfeld barely aknowledge you with a wry comment outside a movie theater one time, and that kernel of insight into his true character sustained you through the next 37 years of new facts you learned about him from multiple sources? Truly, this is the faith that moves mountains.
Speaking of matters of faith, it's cool that we have our first Muslim member of Congress, Keith Ellison. Even cooler is that he's representing Minnesota, because that means the Powerline guys can freak out about it all the time. I bet they'll be the ones to break the story wide open when he declares a hudna with St. Paul. Don't fall for it! He's only regrouping and gathering his forces for a Seante run!!!
jholbo-at-mac-dot-com
"Speaking of matters of faith, it's cool that we have our first Muslim member of Congress, Keith Ellison."
What do you like about him? Just the fact that he's a Muslim?
Posted by: Jim Treacher | November 13, 2006 at 01:14 PM
Jim, don't be silly. It used to be the case that there had never been a Muslim in the U.S. Congress, now it isn't. That's cool in and of itself, regardless of Ellison's personal qualities. Just as it was cool when the first woman made the U.S. Supreme Court, even if SDO'C wasn't your favorite justice.
Posted by: Matt Weiner | November 14, 2006 at 10:28 PM
Yes, that certainly is "cool."
Posted by: Jim Treacher | November 16, 2006 at 06:36 AM
Jim, why the scare quotes?
Posted by: Doctor Slack | November 16, 2006 at 09:17 AM
All the better to show contempt for one's interlocutor, Dr. Slack.
Posted by: The Modesto Kid | November 16, 2006 at 10:39 AM
Interlocutor? I barely touched 'er!
Posted by: Jim Treacher | November 16, 2006 at 07:26 PM
Vaguely on-topic, Glenn Beck is an asshole. An un-American asshole.
Posted by: Matt Weiner | November 17, 2006 at 12:29 PM
That Georgetown theater? It got turned into a drug store several years back. No word on whether the store shows Caligula all day long, though.
Posted by: Doug | November 17, 2006 at 07:55 PM
Looks like there's two Buddhists in the new Congress too, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii and Hank Johnson in McKinney's old Georgia seat. I can't tell if they're the first; some of the sources that say Johnson is the first omit Hirono, and one article that mentions Ellison as the first Muslim congressman doesn't say Johnson isn't the first (and also misses Hirono). Still, I pronounce this cool, if that's OK with everyone.
Posted by: Matt Weiner | November 18, 2006 at 01:20 AM
Beck: "No offense, and I know Muslims. I like Muslims. I've been to mosques....With that being said, you are a Democrat. You are saying, 'Let's cut and run.' And I have to tell you, I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, 'Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.'"
You know, I'm totally sympathetic to Beck. Yes indeed. I mean, shouldn't he nervous? Wasn't it was entirely possible that, at any moment, Rep. Ellison, graduate of the University of Minnesota, originally from Detroit, father of four children, husband of a high school math teacher, when confronted by these difficult and hard-hitting questions, might have screamed “ALLAH IS GREAT!” and lept across the table and cut off Beck’s head with the sword which he no doubt carries in his robes? I sure think so.
Posted by: Russell Arben Fox | November 18, 2006 at 02:19 AM
"across the table" s/b "through the video screen." I was disappointed that Ellison and Beck weren't in the same studio, because I was hoping Ellison would knock Beck's block off.
Posted by: Matt Weiner | November 18, 2006 at 03:17 AM
Amb. Tuttle says first Buddhist members of Congress elected (actually first two). Officially cool.
Posted by: Matt Weiner | November 18, 2006 at 03:22 AM
Or at least "cool".
Posted by: The Modesto Kid | November 18, 2006 at 03:39 AM
Wasn't it was entirely possible that, at any moment, Rep. Ellison, graduate of the University of Minnesota. . . when confronted by these difficult and hard-hitting questions, might have screamed “ALLAH IS GREAT!” and lept across the table and cut off Beck’s head with the sword which he no doubt carries in his robes?
I think he was just about to signal your enemies to detonate the dirty bomb they'd cunningly hidden under Beck's chair. Luckily, Jack Bauer stopped the fiendish plot just in time by beating the crap out of some guy in a basement.
Posted by: Doctor Slack | November 18, 2006 at 07:36 AM