March 14, 2005

THE NEW YORKER BIDS TO RESTORE ITS REPUTATION FOR HUMOR

        It is a long time since Horsefeathers turned to The New Yorker for high quality comic writing. Truth be told, we rarely read it any more. The weekly anti-Bush rants of Jimmy Carter's speech writer, Hendrik Hertzberg, finally caused our eyes to glaze over once too often. However, in the wake of the Presidential election, the New Yorker's strenuous efforts to raise the spirits of their liberal elite readership is producing some hilarious comic writing. The New Yorker shares the view that the Democrats lost because they didn't seem tough enough. So the task is to make them look (rather than be) tough! No need to consider their message of nuanced, metrosexual, multilateral UN worship; no, it was nothing but a failure to effectively convey their inner toughness. They were so much smarter, so much deeper in their understanding than the dumb cowboy. What message could possibly have misled the public into their resounding verdict on the Dems- the guys who leave the barroom when the fight begins? It's got to be time for a makeover. Jeffrey Goldberg sets out to remedy the problem by offering up a lengthy portrait of a real tough Democrat--none other than the camera hogging, blow dried plagiarist Joe Biden! Biden's preening, coiffed presence suggests he really could kill---for camera time. Watch out Chuck Schumer, Joe Biden may trample you in a race for face time on Meet The Press.
        The whole Goldberg article is amusing. Did Goldberg mean to leave the reader with the impression of Biden the fool, a blowhard who tries to convey his toughness by liberal use of curse words? Goldberg first establishes Biden's limited geopolitical intelligence by quoting his assessment of Bush's policies towards Yasser Arafat. No mention of Bush's break with the longstanding policy of cozying up to the old terrorist, and instead isolating him and rendering him politically impotent. No, “This is a very lucky President,” Biden said. “Why did Arafat die on his watch? I mean, give me a break.” That last, "give me a break" is particularly rich. Yes, Joe it's all about you and we'll try to give you a break. Another instance of his deep understanding came in his pompously condescending advice to Condeleeza Rice: “For God’s sake, don’t listen to Rumsfeld. He doesn’t know what in the hell he’s talking about on this.” Of course, Joe knows. But it remains for Biden to establish his toughness credentials with the sympathetic interviewer. He does so by letting fly a string of obscenities reminiscent of a loud mouthed schoolyard bully. This is Senator Biden's assessment of his Republican colleagues who differed with him over policy towards Bosnia. "What is so transformational in the last four years is that these assholes who wouldn’t give President Clinton the authority to use force” have now become, he said, moral interventionists. “Give me a fucking break.” This time Joe asks not just for "a break" but for a "fucking break". What a guy! I'd really want him next to me in a foxhole. He'd probably curse his fate and blame the Sec'y of Defense for getting him into the predicament.
For the rest of the article see here.