ASSociations
I once lived with a gun enthusiast. He loved to buy, sell, shoot and stroke his guns. I tried to enjoy shooting with him at the range, but I much prefer taking aim at a log up in the empty mountains with a .22 rifle versus pointing a handgun at the shape of a man in a noisy, smelly, shooting range.
So, although I lived with this gun enthusiast, I myself am not a gunman (or gunwoman, as it were).
I know a stripper, and I'm friends with a girl whose husband works as a bouncer at a strip club. I've gone there, sat down for a few beers, and put dollar bills in the strippers' g-strings, and even gave one of the girls a kiss for a laugh.
But, although I know strippers and have been to a strip club, I myself am not a stripper.
I know a lot of accountants. I understand what GAAP stands for and I know the difference between a 10-K and a 10-Q. I know plenty of terms like ROI and NOI and P & L, and I use Excel spreadsheets on a daily basis.
But, although I hang out with numbers and bean counters all day, I myself am not an accountant.
Why is it, then, that Obama can be from Chicago, where an apparently corrupt Governor is currently governing, and be labeled corrupt by the right wingers and wing nuts within seconds of the Blago story coming out?
Obama is corrupt as Blago is corrupt because they are both politicians in Chicago?
I just don't get it.
Wingnuts are wingnutty and I don't think anyone pays them much mind anymore.
Americans can stand hypocrisy, greed, incompetence, graft, arrogance, and corruption in their elected officials, but not all at once. As someone recently observed, not all at once, because that's plain stupid.
Americans can't abide stupid.
It's the usual hysteria from the, "we-don't-have-the-budget-for-a-real-newsroom-so-we'll-hire-a-wind-bag-and-shoot-a-reality-show" networks trying to spin viewership out of a sows ear. (sorry smallish Miguel-waterdude)
December 10, 2008 8:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
's Ok Bwak. Me hates it when they try to spin me ears.
December 10, 2008 9:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'll try to refrain in the future.
=D
Good to see you, amigo
December 10, 2008 9:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm getting very tired of the reality show news stories. Even Rachel Maddow is pissing me off these days.
Bah, humbug!
December 10, 2008 8:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Rachel hasn't grown into her new position, yet. I keep checking in about once a week, but can't watch for more than a few minutes. I like her, but something is wrong with her presentation/format/progamming.
December 10, 2008 10:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
At least they calmed down the animated backgrounds. The first few days I thought my head would explode.
(Animated BG's work best when they are dark and defocused.)
December 11, 2008 1:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
hmmm
All my neighbors up and down the hall (and up and down the street) seem to be NuYawkahs, but by the social conventions I grew up by, I am, and will be to my dying day, an Honorable Virginian (although, technically, I do register to drive and vote in NeuYuck). This association stuff beats me, too.
December 10, 2008 8:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, actually, I only register to carry a driver's license. Only the crazy or the foolishly rich have actual cars in NooYackCzity.
December 10, 2008 8:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've always known you to be a fine Southern gentleman, meself.
December 10, 2008 8:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
I was born of Republicans. They're still Republicans. I've argued politics with my dad since I was maybe 15. Yup.... your point is valid! (either that, or I am a repub in Dem clothing... sounds like a swear-word or bad grammar: Dem clothing)
I think the press is just looking for some kind of excitement - to sell papers or get people to watch teevee more! (instead... we're all looking for truth on the web)
December 10, 2008 8:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dem clothes, dem clothes....ragged and torn, but very comfortable, and getting mended as we blog.
December 10, 2008 9:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
They do it because it's all they've got. Nobody has discovered any skeletons in the Obama closet, so they went with the second best thing: neighbors and associates. It's frustrating, but it won't stick. Unless there's something there, all the teeth-gnashing will go the way of BillAyersReverendWrightTonyRezkoBorninKenyaSatan'sSpawnClosetMuslim arugment.
December 10, 2008 9:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah, yes, the old BARWTRB-iKS'sSCM argument.
Otherwise known as the barkin' up the old tree argument.
Only, updated.
December 10, 2008 9:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama needs a few more shady associates with names that start with vowels, only then can we brand a proper acronym.
December 10, 2008 10:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
I knew that this site would eventually be taken over gun-stroking accountants in pasties. Shameful.
December 10, 2008 9:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah... and there are lots of us.
December 10, 2008 9:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Speak for yourself, nose-tube boy. I only stick my pasties to plastic water guns these days.
December 10, 2008 9:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
kinky
December 11, 2008 12:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Honey, you don't know the half of it. Oops, there goes half a pastie.
*squirts gun at Genghis*
Oh, wait, you have no head to aim at. Never mind.
December 11, 2008 1:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
I guess nobody needed for you to be a gunman, or a stripper, or an accountant, but there are definitely people who need Obama to be a bad guy.
December 10, 2008 9:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good point, tlees2.
(smoothes the chicken's feathers and wings)
December 10, 2008 9:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nobody, Tom, needs two different sides to constantly be arguing different angles at every opportunity, no. It's very much like being the kids of divorcing parents. We Americans are stuck in the middle, passing the custody checks along to Mom and the kvetching on to Dad.
December 10, 2008 11:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh it's just the wingnuts trying to create a Monica Lewinsky type scandal so Obama can't get anything done. However, the lousy economy has people's attention - they won't be distracted by wingnuttery (at least for the time being).
December 10, 2008 9:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
(feathers ruffling)
Yep.
December 10, 2008 9:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
I note that the bad press is about Springfield, not Chicago. That is, city government is not in question. Daley already went through Fitz's wringer, and survived.
Springfield is a real cesspool, in terms of favors passed back and forth, I've heard (with strippers included).
December 10, 2008 9:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah, but does Springfield have gun-toting accountants?
And, my apologies for replying to the wrong comment upstream....my pasty fell on my keyboard and I had to shoot it out of the way.
December 10, 2008 10:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Spoken like a true gun-toting, bean-counting stripper!
December 10, 2008 10:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sarah Palin's got NUTHIN' on ME!
December 10, 2008 11:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Try hanging out of a helicopter and shooting the wonderul endangered species of this great country while breastfeeding, keeping your hair in place, and also too, fighting corruption and being mavericky.
You betcha, that's tough.
December 11, 2008 10:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
You left out associating with (as in married to) a secessionist and never once getting called on it. Of course it is hard to call someone on something when they don't speak to the press except under very controlled circumstances...tends to water down their questions.
December 11, 2008 12:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah. She can't count.
December 11, 2008 10:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
I sincerely doubt that Chicago is in good shape. Not when you have city aldermen with multi-million dollar campaign war chests (how many city council members with $5 million dollars in on-hand campaign funds?).
No, Chicago city politics are just as bad (note that when Obama started running for political seats it was statewide, not city wide. He would NEVER have come out of a city seat clean). But in these years after Mayor Daley's dad's Machine, there are two things to consider: 1) the current mayor and aldermen are under intense scrutiny and (much like the mob) have learned to be cautious - not psycho blatant like Blago was. They assumed they're being wired at all times. 2) the people of the city assume that's how the city gov't operates, and as long as their streets are paved, trash is collected and crime is contained to a couple of neighborhoods, no one cares.
In fact, there's an understanding between the city employees and the citizens that clout is fine so long as it's used to benefit the people from time to time:
http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1465.html
Blago's mistake is that he used his clout to only benefit himself and ALSO tried to hurt the people (holding up children's hospital funding) AND he said "f--- Obama" which is fighting words in these parts.
December 11, 2008 10:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
There's nothing to get, LisB. People in authority cannot typically withstand even the appearance of scandal. It's the "even the appearance of" standard that makes you different from your boss, local authority, etc. This is also a typical phrase when talking of conflict of interest. It's not enough not to do wrong, it's important to even prevent the appearance of.
Why?
Because we need to trust these individuals who will not always be able to explain their reasoning to us.
Even if Obama is not directly involved, he is running out of time to codify and release any talks he had with the governor's office. It's the old "if you had nothing to hide..." game.
Much of this isn't old-style politics, however. It's part of the standard fabric of our social covenant.
December 11, 2008 2:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, bushwah. None of those rules you describe as a part of the fabric of our social covenant seem to apply to Republicans. Ever.
Where was this concern with the mere appearance of impropriety that's supposedly part of our social covenant when Cheney was holding secret meetings with his oil company buds to concoct a national energy policy? Where was this concern with potential past misdeeds when the MSM "vetted" GWB's history and gave a gigantic yawn over, both, his insider trading in Harkin stock shortly before before the company went belly up and the mysterious lack of SEC action that would have come down on him like a ton of bricks if he'd been a Democrat?
Republicans engage in actual conflict of interest corruption and the press yawns. Democrats engage in transactions and activities that are transparently and self-evidently above-board and the press turns into a mob of Cotton Mathers ferreting out the witches among us.
December 11, 2008 10:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
Should he reject and denounce?
December 11, 2008 10:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well, I enjoy this thread where it veers off to guns and pasties.
But is this another wonderful moment of TPM self-delusion?
"Hi, I'm a lobbyist on K Street". What impression would you take away from that?
"Hi, I'm a politician from Sugerland, Texas"
"Abramoff? He was just another guy in the hood."
"Hi, I'm a politician from Alaska, run into Mukowski & Stephens here and there but don't really do business with them".
Let's be real, folks. Chicago does have a reputation for corruption, and everyone's jumped all over themselves to give Obama the benefit of the doubt that he's not dirty in the midst of all that squalor. A straight-up Eliot Spitzer kind of guy. Oh wait, uh.... Giuliani? Nope, that won't fly... I'll think of a name in a second.
-------------------------------------------------
It all began, as I have said, when the Boss, sitting in the black Cadillac which sped through the night, said to me (to Me who was what Jack Burden, the student of history, had grown up to be) "There is always something."
And I said, "Maybe not on the Judge."
And he said, "Man is conceived in sin and born in corruption and he passeth from the stink of the didie to the stench of the shroud. There is always something."
December 11, 2008 5:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
What will happen if Candidate #5 is indicted? Blago claims that #5's team was waving around some money. Which seemed to promote the idea of an auction. What did Rahm know and when did he know it? Did he get a whisper and give up the plot to the DA, or was that a bit of CYA or just sand in the eyes? Both Rahm and Jackson were close to Blagojevich, and there are going to be questions. Hopefully everyone knew that Blago was poison for some time, so maybe it is just an indictment against him. (Fitzgerald has been after him for years on a number of ethics issues).
Anyway, Chicago is known for the Daley's, Rostenkowski, Ryan, Rezko, et al. If it's a dirty machine, you'd be more surprised to find a white handkerchief popping out.
December 11, 2008 5:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
"Candidate No. 5" was given a heads-up regarding imminent bad publicity by the FBI before they booked Blago. They don't do that for people they think they're going to indict. So, basically, your question is just the same kind of ridiculous Clinton Rules what-iffing we've seen out of the cable hacks all week.
December 11, 2008 10:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
He hasn't quit smoking.
December 11, 2008 10:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
OH MY GOD! NOW THIS IS SERIOUS!!!!!
ACTUALLY, THIS IS EXCELLENT NEWS! FOR HILLARY!
December 11, 2008 12:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hillary put about 18 million cracks in that glass ceiling, and God willing, if one of those cracks opens up, I might barge right through!
December 11, 2008 1:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, not fair! Do you guys wait up until I fall asleep so that you can diss my message while I can't fight back?! LOL....whatever.
Desi and Clear, you guys just keep on being the pessimists I know and love so well, 'kay?
December 11, 2008 8:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry Lis, you're going to have to tell me more about kissing strippers if you really want to make your point. :)
December 11, 2008 10:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
I find video evidence far more convincing, personally.
December 11, 2008 10:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
Next time I go to the strip club, I promise to wear a wiretap so you can hear all the juicy details, 'kay?
December 11, 2008 12:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
You are a damn good sport!
December 11, 2008 12:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, I've heard how these wiretap conversations go.
"The kiss is [expletive deleted] valuable... She's just offering me her [expletive deleted] gratitude!"
December 11, 2008 3:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lis, my fave of yours I think, but then again I have a bias towards ass words :oP
December 11, 2008 11:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
Admit it. You're were actually Ana Marie Cox, aren't you?
December 11, 2008 11:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
You mean I'm not still? Actually I'm a Greg Sargent pseude unleashed during the primary so he could share his Hillary Love with the world. Happy now? :)
December 11, 2008 3:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just going with AMC, momentary forms of verb "to be" confusion notwithstanding, because no one loved a good assf****ng joke more than she did back when Wonkette was worth reading.
December 11, 2008 4:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
George Bush is moving to Dallas. He bought a house in a development that once had a covenant that did not allow homeowners to sell their property to African Americans. John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.
George Bush is a racist murderer but that's just a coincidence. It has nothing to do with the above.
December 11, 2008 11:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, as a matter of fact it does have much to do with the above. George W. Bush is all of one piece, everything fits.
I use the Spanish metaphor, "lie down with dogs, get up with fleas", but they have another one just as good, "dime con quien andas y te diré quien eres" which means "tell me who you hang out with and I'll tell you who you are." It seems that only Barack Obama is absolved from this common sense dictum.
December 11, 2008 3:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh David why don't you go somewhere else where your "Obama is from Chicago so he must be corrupt" message is welcome with open arms and closed minds. You use a lot of words to say as much.
December 11, 2008 3:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
One thing in defense of Bush, its funny that such a racist as he is should be the first president to have a black secretary of state... and the second president too. However, the murder charges will stick.
December 11, 2008 3:36 PM | Reply | Permalink