Presidents and majority leaders against The Establishment

By Dan Brooks in Rhetoric 1 Comment
Anti-establishment candidate Hillary Clinton

Anti-establishment candidate Hillary Clinton

This morning, Montana state representative and innocent victim of a politically-motivated campaign practices lawsuit Art Wittich (R–Belgrade) tweeted:

Click on that link if you must, but don’t believe what you read. I’m more interested in the implication that Wittich, a former senate majority leader, is somehow not part of the “Helena Establishment.” It seems like he is abusing the term. But Wittich is a colorful speaker, and it’s only Montana after all. Perhaps you would prefer to hear a national figure speak of the establishment—for example, former president Bill Clinton, who told USA Today that his wife is “not an establishment politician.” At the Democratic debate last week, Hillary Clinton agreed:

Well, look, I’ve got to just jump in here because, honestly, Sen. Sanders is the only person who I think would characterize me, a woman running to be the first woman president, as exemplifying the establishment. And I’ve got to tell you that it is …

(APPLAUSE)

It is really quite amusing to me.

Clinton added that she would now express her amusement by making the sound voters call laughter, but she was cut off by more applause. The important thing is that she will strike a blow against the establishment by becoming the first woman president, and also the first president married to someone who was president before.

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Could this woman say something sexist?

By Dan Brooks in Democratic Candidates 1 Comment
Feminist icon and Bill Maher-tolerator Gloria Steinem

Feminist icon and Bill Maher-tolerator Gloria Steinem

On Friday night, Gloria Steinem criticized young women who support Bernie Sanders in, uh, problematic terms. “When you’re young, you’re thinking, ‘where are the boys?'” she told Bill Maher. “The boys are with Bernie.” That’s a bad argument, mostly because it implies that young women care less about politics than catching a man, but also because there’s a much more satisfying generalization right next door. When you’re young, you’re thinking, “where are the young people?” Eighty-five percent of voters under age 30 broke for Sanders in the Iowa caucuses, and he led Hillary by 21 points among voters 30-44. There may be some force at work here other than the overwhelming desire for boys. But if Steinem is a feminist, how can she say something sexist?

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Combat! blog endorses Ted Cruz for president, because why not?

By Dan Brooks in Republican Candidates 1 Comment
Cruisin'

Cruisin’

As we enter the final 18 months before the 2016 election, it’s high time Combat! blog endorsed a candidate for president. That candidate is Ted Cruz. Sure, we disagree with most of his political positions and all of his musical ones. But he has the three qualities this blog looks for in a candidate: 1) He is 15% worse at lying than he thinks he is. 2) He is neither a Bush nor a Clinton. 3) He has almost no chance of becoming president. That last element is crucial to our endorsement. We are proud to endorse Candidate Cruz, because we are confident that we will never have to answer for anything President Cruz might do. He clinched the Combat! blog endorsement with this poll.

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Behold Fox’s coverage of the testimony of our Secretary of State

By Dan Brooks in Contemporary Media 2 Comments
From "The Five" on Fox News channel yesterday

From “The Five” on Fox News channel yesterday

Yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified before Congress regarding the attacks on the US consulate in Benghazi. Initially reported as the outcome of a spontaneous demonstration and later revealed to be a terrorist plot, the attacks have been a black eye for the State Department and a cause celebré for Republicans. Romney made much of them in the late days of the presidential campaign, and the Tea Party caucus has seized on them as evidence that the Obama administration is soft on terror. If you don’t think Benghazi has become a partisan issue, I advice you to consider Fox News’s coverage of Clinton’s testimony, captured in the screen shot above.

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Exhaustive TSA searches fail to uncover news

By Dan Brooks in Public Discourse 1 Comment

Arnold Schwarzenegger's skeleton—my god, he's just a man.

I don’t know about you, but when I lined up for air travel this Thanksgiving, I expected the Transportation Security Administration to use lasers to look at my penis. At least, I thought giddily as I watched an old man at Missoula International Airport attempt to use his library card as identification, I will get an invasive pat-down. Imagine my disappointment, then, when all I had to do was listen to an extremely passive-aggressive lady scold me about the size of my toothpaste tube.* I had been led to believe that this was a big deal. I was told there would be x-ray screens. I was under the impression that this stuff was news, and my disappointment—at least in an impersonal, we-are-all-disappointed-now way—is the subject of this insightful article in yesterday’s Times. Invasive pat-downs to Mike for the link.

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