I’m not a big fan of ABC correspondent Jake Tapper. I knew the guy in college, back when he was a mindless blowhard, drawing a very liberal daily comic strip in between making midnight bongs out of soda cans. But I have to admit he scored a major zing! with today’s research work on former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, whose tell-all book is sending the network newscasters into paroxysms of anti-Bush cackling.
Apparently, McClellan voted against anti-Administration tell-all authors before he became one:
On the book critical of the Bush White House written in cooperation with former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, “The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O’Neill,” McClellan said on January 12, 2004:
McCLELLAN: “It appears to be more about trying to justify personal views and opinions than it does about looking at the results that we are achieving on behalf of the American people.”
McClellan also took issue with the book by former Bush White House counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke, “Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror,” on March 22, 2004:
McCLELLAN: Well, why, all of a sudden, if he had all these grave concerns, did he not raise these sooner? This is one-and-a-half years after he left the administration. And now, all of a sudden, he’s raising these grave concerns that he claims he had. …
Q: Scott, the whole point of his book is he says that he did raise these concerns and he was not listened to by his superiors.
McCLELLAN: Yes, and that’s just flat-out wrong. …When someone uses such charged rhetoric that is just not matched by the facts, it’s important that we set the record straight. And that’s what we’re doing. If you look back at his past comments and his past actions, they contradict his current rhetoric. I talked to you all a little bit about that earlier today. Go back and look at exactly what he has said in the past and compare that with what he is saying today.
Yep. That’s the idea.
A while back I was making fun of Britney Spears feeling sorry for herself, devoting whole “songs” to whining about what a drag it is to be her. To cap it off I quoted John Lydon, AKA Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols, on the subject of fame: “If you don’t want to be a pop star, stop being one.” That one has always sounded sensible to me. He cuts right through the bovine feces, Lydon does.
But guess what? Never mind!
SEX PISTOLS star JOHN LYDON wants to write a song for troubled star BRITNEY SPEARS — to help her turn her life around. The punk pioneer empathises with Spears’ personal problems and admits he feels inspired to collaborate with the singer.
Lydon insists he would love to give Spears’ musical career a boost. He says, “I haven’t written a song for Britney yet but I would love to. I’d like to help out because there’s a girl who needs some help.”
Then again, it’s Johnny Rotten, so he’s probably just taking the piss, as they say. He’s nothing if not quotable. Well, I just thought that was kinda funny.
(First Jello, now Johnny. I didn’t mean to turn this into Old Punks Week. They’re just being even sillier than usual lately. Senility is a bitch…)
Recognize this? It’s a card full of hanging chads. Yep. Those nasty little punch-out thingies that made the 2000 U.S. presidential election so very, very interesting as it unfolded in Florida.
Back then, the Democratic Party’s rallying cry was that we should “count every vote.” Al Gore took the case all the way to the Supreme Court, eventually losing the presidency.
Now the same political machine is contemplating a scheme that would ignore the primary votes of millions of people in Florida and Michigan — because state officials had the audacity to hold elections a little earlier than the national leaders wanted.
The Democratic National Committee’s “rules committee” will gather this weekend to decide whether or not to allow Florida and Michigan to seat any delegates at this summer’s national political convention in Denver. The decision will probably determine whether the Barack Obama juggernaut is unstoppable, or if Hillary Clinton still has a fighting chance to catch him.
For a political party that made Florida the backdrop for its drawn-out legal homage to the sanctity of voting rights just two elections ago, isn’t this the height of hypocrisy?
You tell me.
Chris Noth is following in his Sex and the City co-star’s hoof steps by denouncing how materialistic New York has become.
The actor, who began residing in New York City in the 1970s, told Interview magazine that its appeal has greatly lowered over the years. “New York is pretty much commercialized to the point of no return,” he complained. Noth also misses the city’s creative scene, stating, “It’s very suburban. The art scene really left, except in patches. It’s all about sort of a corporate sensibility, and it’s squeezed out room for any other kind of sensibility.”
Noth claims to also miss the city’s diversity – what he calls the “eccentrics” and “different neighborhoods.”
The city has disappointed the actor so much that he has decided to move his Cutting Room night club from New York to Las Vegas. He defends his choice, stating: “I want to take the club to Vegas. I think a Cutting Room would be great in Vegas. I just haven’t really had the time to go out there and schmooze people and try to get them to invest millions of dollars.”
Because when I think “culture” and “taste,” Las Vegas immediately springs to mind.
Let’s be real: I’m a Mr. Big girl like you don’t even know, but Chris Noth willfully participated in and profited from a media empire that elevated materialism to an art form. I mean, his character cruises around Manhattan in a so-exclusive-you-can’t-even-buy-it $200g Mercedes S Class. Chauffered.
Everyone’s favorite drunken troll Kirsten Dunst says she didn’t check into the Cirque Lodge in Utah for drinking, as widely reported. She claims the stay was to treat her depression:
She says “it was a good six months before I decided to go away.
“I was struggling, and I had the opportunity to go somewhere and take care of myself,” she continues. “I was fortunate to have the resources to do it. My friends and family thought it was a good idea, too. But I didn’t know where to go. My doctor recommended Cirque Lodge.”
Thing is? You can’t just go to rehab for any old reason — you have to be an addict to get in. Cirque Lodge’s website is clear as can be that they accept only patients who are dependent on drugs or alcohol. While I don’t doubt that Kiki is depressed, she couldn’t check herself in just for her mental-health issues, and it’s disingenuous to imply that.
Personally, I think she was pressured to counter those reports earlier this month about her staggering drunk out of a New York club. Cirque Lodge doesn’t need another public failure.
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