From: Sgt Mom
To: B. Obama
CC: Mainstream Media, Lefty Blogosphere
Re: The Sound of Skewered Sacred Cows in the Morning
1. I haven’t read the New Yorker in a while; somehow all that New York trendoid media’s almost incestuous fixation with its own navel kind of wore thin after a couple of decades. They will also persist in paying great wads-o-cash for Seymour Hersh to dribble all kinds of disinformation from his handlers – er, his oh-so-secret gummint sources into the world at large – apparently on the off chance that the law of averages will catch up to him someday and he will actually make an accurate prediction. So here they go, making a huge splash with a cover that has managed to become the blogosphere’s “S**tstorm of The Day” by skewering both the anointed of the lefty blogosphere, the Obaminator himself and his missus… and the so-called follies of the righty blogosphere.
2. I presume that the editors of the New Yorker are chortling all the way to the bank, having created more interest in this particular issue than in practically anything else since the cover that featured a Hasidim in a torrid embrace with a black woman. Still, if they really had a pair, I can’t help thinking that they’d have used one of the dreaded Danish Motoons of Doom on the cover. Ah, well, say what you will, I don’t think Moveon.org or the Huff-Post will slap a fatwa on their asses or break out the exploding vests at this act of les-majestie against the Chosen One, the Fresh Prince of Chicago.
3. It has not gone without notice that other political figures have been savaged in caricature and cartoons in recent times, occasionally by this very same publication, with scarce a resulting peep. In fact, sitting presidents and aspirants to that office have been savagely caricatured for simply decades, nay for the two centuries plus that this nation has been a going concern. There were early politicians of hot temper and thin skin who were moved to fight duels, and a senator of Southern sympathies who took a cane and whaled the tar out of a senator with abolitionist leanings on the very floor of the Senate in the lead-up to our Civil War… but in the main, they manned up and developed a hide of the approximate thickness of a rhinoceros’s. The very best of them managed to pass it off with a quip and a chuckle – a course of action I would suggest to Mr. Obama.
4. It is being said – with an increasingly defensive tone of voice – that no, no, no, the cover is supposed to represent the those fears and rumors being whipped up by those running-dogs of the Right, the Minions of the Dreaded Lord Rove, all those gun-hugging, God-clinging white racist lumpen-proles who are not falling to their knees and instantly worshipping the Anointed One, all those ignorant Jesusland freaks who would just redeem their horrible selves if they would only accept the changyness and obey the commands of the anointed… and if they don’t it only proves that they’re “teh racists!” Oh, yeah. Whatever. Go pull the other leg, sport, that one has jingly bells on it. Being one who actually hangs out on some of the dreaded “Right Wing Blogosphere Weblogs o’ Death, I must observe that the objections to his proposed tenancy in the White House mostly center upon a resume as thin as his skin, his choice of friends, his propensity for using and then throwing the embarrassing and/or inconvenient ones under the bus, his background as a product of Chicago Machine politics, and the whole “tomorrow belongs to me” * ambiance about his followers. I won’t even get into his search for a father figure except to note that these ‘seed and leave’ men (such as Obama, Senior) do tend to leave a lot of damage in their wake.
5. Eh, well – this is what makes an election season so interesting. It makes amusing sport, so pass the popcorn. At this rate, it may be a very interesting summer.
6. Sincerely though, Mr. Obama – develop a thicker skin. You are only a politician. Man up and take your lumps like all the rest. You are not special, and you are not allowed to float graciously above the fray. The color of your skin does not give you a pass. As MLK so cogently observed, one should be judged upon the content of ones’ character.
Sincerely,
Sgt. Mom
* For those who need reminding, here is the best “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” sequence that I could locate. It’s from “Cabaret”, and pretty well illustrates some of the creepiness that some critics see in elements of the Obama campaign:
The first time I heard the song was in Cabaret. And yes, about the creepiest thing I’d seen up ’til then as he went into the refrain the first time.
“a senator of Southern sympathies who took a cane and whaled the tar out of a senator with abolitionist leanings on the very floor of the Senate…”
This sounds like a garbled version of the Brooks-Sumner Affair in 1856. Rep. Preston Brooks (D-SC) took offense at a speech by Sen. Charles Sumner (R-MA), in which Sumner excoriated his uncle, Sen. Andrew Butler (D-SC). Brooks attacked Sumner at his desk on the Senate floor and beat him insensible with a walking stick. Sumner was hospitalized for three years, though he did recover and served till 1874.
But if you think that was wild – consider this:
During the debate over the Compromise of 1850, Sen. Thomas Hart Benton (D-MO) took offense at the rhetoric of Sen. Henry Foote (Whig-MS), and marched toward him in a threatening manner (Benton was over 6′ tall). Foote fled to the desk of the Senate President, and pulled out a gun!
There was Rep. Philemon Herbert (D-CA). When the House voted on intervening in the Brooks case, it was noted that they had just voted not to intervene in the similar case of Herbert – which I had never heard of. It seems that a month earlier, Rep. Herbert got into a brawl at Willard’s Hotel, in which he shot and killed a waiter. The House voted that it was matter for the D.C. courts, not a question of Congressional privilege.
But even Herbert was hardly the most violent man in Congress of that era.
Rep. Dan Sickles (D-NY) shot and killed his wife’s lover in Lafayette Park, across from the White House. Sen. David Broderick (D-CA) was killed in a duel with the ex-Chief Justice of California.
Our present crop of politicos are tame by comparison.
It was the Brooks-Sumner imbroglio I was thinking of… and my, they were an uninhibited lot in the 19th Century! Possibly why I enjoy that century so much – Americans didn’t seem to do all that much passive agression.
Just as an aside his wife’s lover killed by Dan Sickles was the son of Francis Scott Key, the composer of the national anthem. And then he forgave and took back his wife, which didn’t go over well at all. His career was sunk until he came back as a political general in the Civil War.
Perhaps one for you then:
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/time_publishes_definitive_obama
I still think he’s a better option than John “the answer to any given question is ‘more war’” McCain, but there’s definitely some anointing going on.
As for whaling an abolitionist with a stick, I thought for a minute this was a reference to Jesse Helms…