Writers We Love: James Wolcott
(h/t B.) When the blogoverse is running slow, and deadlines loom, with lines like "Fred Thompson still acts like an amused/bemused bystander, as if he's filling in for himself", James Wolcott in Vanity Fair is always good for 3rd down completions. His assessment of the Iowa Republican debates is no exception:
Seance on a Wet Afternoon-- It's like a men's club meeting in a funeral parlor, this Republican debate in Iowa, a row of dark suits forming a domino rank across the stage as they're quizzed by a strict schoolmarmish moderator who seems to have a stopwatch ticking inside her head. Her reluctance to lax the rules leads to some shows of resistance from the contestants, Fred Thompson refusing to raise his hand on the issue of global warming, perhaps because his arm is tired. The glossiest domino is Mitt Romney, of course, who does himself no favors by getting testily anal about how much time he's being alloted, though he's a portrait in deportment compared to Alan Keyes, who seems to have stored up a pissload of anger, resentment, and righteous petulance until the right camera opportunity came along for maximum martyred posturing. Fred Thompson still acts like an amused/bemused bystander, as if he's filling in for himself. Rudy Giuliani seems diminished by the format, rattling off his answers as if perforating a dartboard. ... read more...
A men's club meeting in a funeral home? Sounds like a good idea if you want to stop in for a nice tall "cool" one after a hard day.
OT - Urgent! I need to ask a favor of my C&L friends and Dennis Kucinich supporters.
A writer at the Des Moines Register named David Yepsen wrote this about Dennis Kucinich's exclusion from today's Democratic debate:
"On the plus side, minor candidates Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel were not invited to participate because they are not running credible campaigns in Iowa."
I called him to let him know my opinion. He said he was working up against a deadline and didn't have time to answer questions. He then hung up.
If you'd like to call him RIGHT NOW and let him know your opinion that'd be really perfect. Lets let him know that if he's going to slam and belittle our candidate he better be ready to face the critics. Unless he's not a "credible" reporter.
1-515-284-8545
Remember, call NOW while he's working to meet his deadline. He didn't seem to care that Dennis' deadline for the debate was TODAY, and he made sure Dennis wouldn't be invited!
"Her reluctance to lax the rules"
Why won't she SLACK the rules?
If these Republicans can't tell if watertorture is torture, they for sure can't tell Wolcott that 'lax' is a noun, not a verb.
Maybe he meant that they should LAX the rules, which would probably involve some sort of line and a scanner.
Or maybe it's 'lax (relax) the rules.
Adjective, not noun, sorry. Still not a verb.
Wolcott, as always, lashes the Repub candidates and their sycophants to the wheel and then begins turning the crank:
The battle of ideas will be won through words.
Mr Wolcott, is a gem!
A men's club meeting at a funeral parlor would be a step up for these night of the living dead creatures. Alan Keyes, however, is a gem, howling Repug values like blaxplo movie werewolf. I wouldn't want to run into him on the night of the full moon. Anyway, at least the good citizens of Iowa have decided not to let Dennis Kucinich or Mike Gravel speak in their debate. Is this the sort of scum now the typical American?
Wolcott is a national treasure
Too bad he didn't say anything about the idiot questioner Washburn.
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