Which one in the Village is Number Six, by the way?
Just kidding. Great post, LM.
I grew up watching and listening to the Watergate hearings, and watched on the news as Nixon left the WH for the last time. Other kids thought I was a bit weird because I was so interested in it, but these are seminal events; a lot of our history in terms of economics, politics and governments derives directly from that scandal.
Oh dude, you have to write a book one day. You have too much stuff to just put it out online.
Sara's piece got me remembering how I grew up (in the era before Reagan). When our morals and attitudes were set by wall to wall liberal shows ("All in the Family," "MASH," "Maude" and a host of others). When we actually had some form - albeit limited - of an opposition in Washington. When networks televised our wars in the middle and not just the beginning.
That's probably why so many of us walk around right now going "what the fuck." This is not our world. Or rather it is - but we struggle with jumping back into the narrative.
That's why you need to write the book or the script. You almost singlehandedly destroyed Miller with your prison satires. My girlfriend who is fairly apolitical printed those off in hard copy so she could keep puling them out. (Sadly, the alternative is the new planned movie that casts Miller at the heroine.)
Sorry for the long post. Home with meds today so less organized.
Ah... brings me back, LM. It's all of a piece, isn't it?
Thanks!
another great post, LM...i was only just graduating highschool during the time the dipshit-ocrites were impeaching clintons penis, & i know that the government & the media have degraded exponentially since that low point, but seriously, WTF does it take to make a scandal these days???
Oh, honey. It even gets better, but since you set it up so beautifully, here I am with it
Sally Quinn
Washington Post reporter
Washington Post journalist, author and Washington DC insider, Sally Quinn founded and co-moderates On Faith, a blog from the Washington Post and Newsweek. Co-moderated by Newsweek editor and bestselling author Jon Meacham and hosted by a panel of renowned religious scholars of all denominations, On Faith is the first worldwide, interactive discussion about religion and its impact on global life.
julia:
As the cynical, perverted murderer said in Chinatown: "Crooked politicians, whores, and old buildings all become respectable -- if they last long enough."
Ooh Hoo, LM, that was freaking fantastic. I watched all that crap on teevee when I was a young teenager. It formed my opinions of government and politics.
I really do think you should write a book.
Man, that is good stuff.
It's not just that it's true. It's that it is absolutely rolling prose that paints a picture.
Thank you.
The drawback of a meritocracy, which is what we strive toward, is the panic of those who know they do not qualify, and will rip the bone marrow out of their own mothers to hide that fact.
All of the "merit challenged" are the same way, and band together in a mutual protection society to squeeze out the truly talented.
And, by the way, your dead on take on Quinn gives a whole new meaning to "The Peter Principle," doesn't it?
Up until 1975 the Post had a strict rule that if you quit, you could never come back. After Sally Quinn got canned from CBS, Ben waived the rule and let her return.
The rottenest stunt she pulled was back in the 60's she profiled some glad-handing smalltimer who had moved to Washington in the tradition of countless glad-handing smalltimers before him, dreaming of making it big.
In her piece she made sport of him for attending the Episcopal Church when he was actually a member of the Church of the Nazarene or some hick religion like that. He, like most guys of his ilk, boasted of being friends with people he barely knew. She called up his putative friends and got quotes saying they barely knew him.
Sure, he had it coming but if he did, so did 10,000 other guys just like him. This ran on the front page of the Post and destroyed any chance he had at a career in Washington and humiliated, he left town.
His mistake was not being an air-headed blonde who fucks her boss and succeeds in spite of having no discernible talent.
These people, who scratched and clawed and swallowed all manner of viscous bodily fluids to get where they were did not appreciate being a bypassed rung on the D,C. power ladder. - LoLo
Ha! Now that's the DeeCee I remember!
lots of useful memories, well-crafted, LM. thank you.
brilliant... long-- but brilliant.
This “shining” city.
A fiction. A daydream. A mindfuck—needed to make the “Villagers” feel better about themselves. A psychically gated community, sealed off by a fear of everyone outside finding out that the residents of it lie, and cheat and steal and fuck just like everybody else—in spite of their precious, elitist status....
Actually, it says something important about or foreign policy as well. And of course I'm thinking of the
Green Zone".
Beautifully written.
Love it. Brings back some very fond memories of the ol' DC "swallowed-all-manner-of-viscous-bodily-fluids" gang. I always wondered where Broder was coming from when "his" town was already a dung-infested trash heap long before the Clintons' arrival.
Excellent post, LM.
This anti-democratic clique has held power too long. This reminds me the most about Tim Russert asking Representative Kucinich in the debates about seeing a UFO. It was as if someone double dog-dared Russert to do it, and he would be getting slaps on the back from his DC buddies in the press all night.
The DC media and the power brokers need to stop literally fucking each other. Here in the sticks we only see the ones that get married to one another, but I would have to assume there is a lot more fucking going on.
Petty shit of the self-styled aristocratic class will have to be destroyed to ever have a hope at true democracy in this country.
I love it. What a great little walk down memory lane in my hometown.
Hey Barack: "The revolution will put you in the driver's seat!"
LM,
You left out Bush Sr. and Jennifer Fitzgerald.
Awesome-est rant on the Beltway singularity evah!
Just a thought and I'm probably wrong, but: the other commonality that they all have (with the exception of the Flighty Quinn) is that they all came to town when Reagan did.
You see, they didn't have these types of soirees when Carter was President; he was too busy trying to govern. Carter was no fun. Carter was a policy wonk in a cardigan sweater telling you to turn your light off when you leave the room. "Money doesn't grow on trees, you know."
Reagan was diamonds and furs and limousines and tuxedos and endless, backslapping cocktail parties. Reagan was fun. Who cares whether the rent got paid? (Notice, also, how DC itself seemed to go straight to hell when Reagan was elected.)
They're in their mid-to-late fifties now, and they were in their impressionable late twenties and early thirties--nothing succeeds like the facade of success--when Reagan was elected.
Just a thought.
I started off on short hike through the woods, and ended up being walked by LM across decades and continents.
Thank you for your brilliant words, amigo.
On a vacation spent, with a cousin "connected", I witnessed Much of what you have written. The vacation happened when the junior members were being indoctrinated. Animal House was tamer. Two things became very clear, in The Village. The closer you get to the seat of power, the higher the grade of "beef." And, don't be surprised nothing is out of bounds,or subject to happen, at anytime, or anywhere. (I didn't finish the vacation, and ran for the plane. I needed rest).
where's the pre-publication sign-up list for your book? Put my name on it. You can write.
That vid made me want to dust off my P-Funk CDs...
"On guard!
Protect yourself!
Movin' in on you, baby
I don't think you hear me
I said they're spoiling the fun
We shall overcome
We got to shoot them with the bop gun
Hey, babe
Bound to get down
Closing in on you!"
Here's my favorite special comment from Stevie of that era. I love the bright melody he set it to; there's no rage like disguised rage.
"Big Brother" by Stevie Wonder
Your name is big brother
You say that you're watching me on the tele,
Seeing me go nowhere.
Your name is big brother,
You say that you're tired of me protesting,
Children dying everyday.
My name is nobody
But I can't wait to see your face inside my door.
Your name is big brother
You say that you got me all in your notebook,
Writing it down everyday.
Your name is I'll see ya.
I'll change if you vote me in as the pres,
The President of your soul.
I live in the ghetto,
You just come to visit me 'round election time
I live in the ghetto,
Someday I will move on my feet to the other side,
My name is secluded,
we live in a house the size of a matchbox,
Roaches live with us wall to wall,
You've killed all our leaders,
I don't even have to do nothin' to you
You'll cause your own country to fall
A great great post. It's a perfect fit. How nice to catch something from someone who knows what's what. One snub at one party and The United States of America is about to disappear forever. We can fix this and we can make sure it never happens again. School's out, forever. Down with Heathers.
Ah, brilliant. Fucking brilliant. You've summarized exactly what a petty, venal, shallow and poisonous bunch controls the messages that inform a large chunk of the America public.
I already loathed Sally Quinn for her snide coverage of the Clintons -- including the 120-column inch story on the front of the Post's Style section on Clinton's inauguration day in 2003, mocking him for being a no-class hillbilly with a chunky wife and awkward 13-year-old daughter-- and I didn't even know what a shamless hypocrite she is. And we're supposed to respect these people?
"The Revolution will NOT be televised."
- Gil Scott Heron
Selah.
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