You Took My Joy, I Want It Back
Our local paper has been running columns by the Boston Globe's Joan Vennochi and I've been trying to figure out why. Today's was a particular doozy, particularly since it captures a certain mindset of journalists/editorialists (I'll let you decide how thick or thin to imagine that slash). It begins:
THE COUNTRY still has George W. Bush to kick around for 2 1/2 more years. But the thrill is gone. Bush-whacking isn't as much fun as it used to be.
Now, if she started the piece by reversing that first sentence--"Bush has the country to kick around"--she might be telling us something. But are we really supposed to get a thrill out of it? Or is her worry that we won't enjoy hearing about it, so won't read newspapers? Oh, yeah, nobody does read newspapers. Maybe because of lines like this one:
The joyless political left started up in 2000 and shows no signs of letting up.
As a member of the political left, I stand un-bemused. Bush stole an election, thanks to the Supreme Court. Those of us paying attention had a feeling he'd be a disaster. Six years later, we get to be proud, miserable Cassandras and point to a New Orleans still ravaged by Katrina, to an Iraq leveled for its own freedom by the U.S., to a mushrooming deficit (maybe that was the cloud Condi Rice meant way back when?) fueled by the foolish Iraq war. That's just the start.
But it's not enough for Venocchi, who seems to want theater more than real government, and even seems to want to invoke the pity rule.
But the joy of ''I-told-you-so" fades with the realization that Bush looks less like a worthy opponent than a sorry dog, waiting for the next kick.
She seems to forget the old line, "always kick a dead dog, you never know when it might get up and bite you." For if Bush is such a lame duck, how are we still getting an NSA spy/military man to head the CIA? What are we supposed to think when the AG says threatening the press is a good idea? Bush doesn't care what his numbers are, and that's the frightening thing. He's going to do damn well what he wants--no matter what the people, the Constitution, the Democrats (a couple have tried to stand up to him, no? once or twice?), or even Rush Limbaugh, to mention one of the folks Venocchi claims is ragging on Bush now, says.
I'd be more than happy for a columnist to write about that.
THE COUNTRY still has George W. Bush to kick around for 2 1/2 more years. But the thrill is gone. Bush-whacking isn't as much fun as it used to be.
Now, if she started the piece by reversing that first sentence--"Bush has the country to kick around"--she might be telling us something. But are we really supposed to get a thrill out of it? Or is her worry that we won't enjoy hearing about it, so won't read newspapers? Oh, yeah, nobody does read newspapers. Maybe because of lines like this one:
The joyless political left started up in 2000 and shows no signs of letting up.
As a member of the political left, I stand un-bemused. Bush stole an election, thanks to the Supreme Court. Those of us paying attention had a feeling he'd be a disaster. Six years later, we get to be proud, miserable Cassandras and point to a New Orleans still ravaged by Katrina, to an Iraq leveled for its own freedom by the U.S., to a mushrooming deficit (maybe that was the cloud Condi Rice meant way back when?) fueled by the foolish Iraq war. That's just the start.
But it's not enough for Venocchi, who seems to want theater more than real government, and even seems to want to invoke the pity rule.
But the joy of ''I-told-you-so" fades with the realization that Bush looks less like a worthy opponent than a sorry dog, waiting for the next kick.
She seems to forget the old line, "always kick a dead dog, you never know when it might get up and bite you." For if Bush is such a lame duck, how are we still getting an NSA spy/military man to head the CIA? What are we supposed to think when the AG says threatening the press is a good idea? Bush doesn't care what his numbers are, and that's the frightening thing. He's going to do damn well what he wants--no matter what the people, the Constitution, the Democrats (a couple have tried to stand up to him, no? once or twice?), or even Rush Limbaugh, to mention one of the folks Venocchi claims is ragging on Bush now, says.
I'd be more than happy for a columnist to write about that.
posted by George at 12:35 PM
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