I have no idea what you're trying to say - please explain. This cryptic note to insiders is?
Or " Sorry Rik, you're too dense to be reading this".
Either way, you leave me confused.
Or say "I pity the fool".

I think you're too wordy...

Evict the little prick and turn him out to trick.

Alphonse ( Al ) Kada
Iranians are fighting the Americans in Iraq so they don't have to fight them on the streets of Tehran

Even with the explanation I don't get it.  Must just have been a joke he couldn't resist making. Oh, well, that's blogging for you.

John 

http://www.haberarts.com/

Can I have a twice-a-week spot on the op-ed pages of the Washington Post now?

You would have to lose the beard and change your name to "Broob" or "Beer."

Maybe if you stuck to architecture.

Personally I thought it was pretty darn funny. And I bet that neither Quinn nor Broder would get it.

sPh

You've been actually reading Dean Broder's matriculations, I see. Attempting to analyze them is where the madness gestates.

DC has the finest weenies. Just read the Post's op-ed page. Broder, Krauthammer, Cohen, Ignatius, Hiatt; Joe Lieberman even checks in monthly.

You don't get any weenier than that.

Fine, tiny little weenies all.

Thank you for responding to my confusion without making me feel like a fool. You are a gentleman.
You deserve that op-ed spot. Just write a few more words for clarification.
Thanks again.

John, this link will help you understand Michael's sarcasm:

link

That old Broder line has come to symbolize, for liberals critical of the media, what the problem is in a nutshell - that the MSM and our political elite are The Same Elite and they protect each other.

For example, they consider guys like Clinton (outsider from Arkansas) foreign to their cozy little DC insider class.

"John, this link will help you." Thanks.  Frankly, my reaction was that if he can tell jokes that only a Washington insider can get, he's sure to get the job. Besides, it seemed odd for Libby. I can see someone pretending as a joke to defend Bush that way, with the entitlement he's had all his life. But Libby didn't own much or trash much. He was just a foot soldier in the Rove operation. 

John 

http://www.haberarts.com/

I find your insiderness insidious and insipid.

Safire is probably a good example of the insider attitude to justice. During Clinton years, almost every week he was describing who should be kept in slammer until he or she rots or coughs out some goods on Clinton and his people. Because a number of people were treated in this fashion, one can check how sympathetic were WP columnists to non-insiders.

Actually -- and while you may have missed the Quinn/Broder reference -- you were not wrong to challenge Bérubé's reaching for a too easy allusive witticism.

To my knowledge no "[l]iberal bloggers are complaining that Scooter came in and trashed the place." What those bloggers are complaining about is hypocrisy --Repug outrage over Clinton's "perjury" in a case of a manufactured sex scandal and their demand that he be impeached against their current support of a convicted perjurer who was, as well, convicted of obstructing the investigation of a case which bore on national security.

The Quinn/Broder snark is a criticism of manners; Libby, to Washington powerbrokers, was guilty only of seeking to protect and/or advance the exercise of power.  For them the game must be played and getting caught is a risk of playing the game. They can only intone sympathetically that old song "There, but for the grace of God, go I."

I'm sorry brother, you just aren't ready for the big times. Don't you read the GOP talking points? Aren't you capable of almost plagarism at their level yet. At least, take a highly disputed comment and repeat it like the "big lie" a little, will ya? Make me work thru your article almost puking in the process...THEN you'll be ready for the big times.

John,

You know I love your posts, just check how I've rated you in the past.

But I also love a witty 2 line rejoinder and Michael really brought the goods with this one.

One could criticize the gag as insidery, but not for this audience. Most of us know and are offended by the fact that David Broder accused the Clintons of "trashing D.C."

In this case, Michael ably skewered Broder and used 2 lines to do it while Broder used 100 or more lines to make his initial point.

Or, as Shakespeare put it, even though he put it in the mouth of a fool: "Brevity is the soul of wit."

I just mean that despite Michael's brevity, some real effort went into this one. It's not easy to tell a joke like this in two lines.

thosethingswesay.blogspot.com

Point taken, and I apologize (although I was thinking mostly of our other experts, and even then some, like Larry J. on intelligence, truly do bring expertise I could never have).

John 

http://www.haberarts.com/

For what it's worth... strikes me that the left of center bloggers are still trying to cope with humor.

We tend to prefer the long and serious analysis and we prefer that for good reason.

But it's also important to be funny because it's engaging and part of how people really talk.

When you're trying to be funny, it's best to be short. Most funny folks, including professional comics, are remembered for a few good lines rather than an entire hour long monologue.

We;re all interested in deep policy analysis. But we need a good one-liner every now and then too. By that I don't mean to speak in favor of soundbites. A good, short joke is a hard thing to craft. Harder, I venture, than a slogan.

But, I'm biased because I do stand up every now and then. And damn... that's kind of terrifying.

thosethingswesay.blogspot.com