More Silliness From the Punditacracy

The irritation over the Times' story is not going away...

"Pundits go tabloid over politicians’ marriages
By Gene Lyons

. . .Who cares how often the senator from New York gets laid ?

Maureen Dowd and David Broder, that’s who. Shortly after the Times’ tabloid-style exclusive, Hillary gave a speech at the National Press Club about energy policy. What the newspaper’s ace columnist got out of it was that she hated Hillary’s “blinding yellow pantsuit,” and that Al Gore must hate her for stealing his issue.

Broder, the so-called dean of Washington pundits, also hated the pantsuit. He wrote that the “buzz in the room was not about her speech,” but the Times’ gossip about the aforementioned alleged Canadian hussy. Who cares if Hillary has what Broder sneeringly described as “a rational plan that will, she says, not only move the nation substantially toward energy independence but improve living standards for almost every American” ?

No, the real issue to these jokers is that her husband’s a hound dog, she’s a cold, manipulative shrew and their marriage a politically inspired sham. The real issue is that Hillary thinks she’s smarter than you—or smarter than Dowd and Broder anyway, which may be the crux of the matter. Smarter than me, too, for the record, except that I got over being outclassed playing high school basketball. Some people never adjust.

That’s the only explanation I’ve got for a transcendentally inane piece of mind-reading by Slate’s editor, Jacob Weisberg. He scrutinized a list of Hillary’s top 10 iPod songs (Stones, Beatles, Aretha Franklin, the Eagles, U 2 ) and pronounced her a calculating phony.

“In point of fact,” he wrote, “I doubt that the relentlessly driven Hillary Clinton spends much time listening to music of any kind.” And whose iPod list proves him a Regular Guy ? Why, George W. Bush, of course (Creedence Clearwater, Van Morrison, George Jones ). “Bush,” see, “doesn’t worry about being politically correct or care what other people think of him.” Then how come Bush wears cowboy clothes and talks about “ranchin’” although there’s no evidence he’s ever owned cows or horses ? Because he’s indifferent to public opinion ? Please. All politicians care deeply what other people think of them. Will the Times profile the marriages of prospective GOP candidates Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain, with five wives between them ? Not likely. The scripted D. C. pundits have their theme for 2008. As in 2000 and 2004, the Democratic candidate’s an elitist phony, the Republican’s “authentic.” No matter who wins the nomination."