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Don't Take It From Me, Take It from Someone You Trust

Submitted by chicago dyke on Sun, 2007-07-29 18:59.

She Who Until Very Recently Was Unseen:

If we do nothing else, we should ensure that the Democratic candidates pay no attention to these gasbags. That’s not to say they shouldn’t pay attention to the actual press narratives and the stereotypes that will inevitably emerge. But the punditocrisy should be shunned and ignored. They are promoting their own interests and those interests are always hostile to Democrats, who by dint of their more diverse coalition of Americans, are simply not as willing to bow down to the establishment. They are effectively agents of the Republican party simply because that is the party of authoritarian followers who will put their trust in the elite village elders. Democrats will never win by catering to them.

Well, blogosphere- are you listening? Because if you take away all the posts and discussions in the political blogosphere that relate to what Bobblehead of the Day has said, what are you left with? Unfortunately, not enough.

Let me put it another way. A wise friend once told me that in order for there to be a better future, we must imagine and describe it first, so that people will have a “roadmap” of how to get there. What possible better place to do that than the Interwebs? Specifically, the political blogging community, which just happens to be filled with brilliant, creative, underutilized people who for various political reasons not of their own making, have been effectively shut out of the Republican Loyalty Hierarchy that has become “our economy?”

When I think of the tremendous intellectual energy and creative ability I know is in the blogosphere, and I mean you, gentle reader, I weep to realize how infrequently we all spend time doing just that: taking steps to create that better future. Because we’re all too busy playing a game we’ll never win, that is, expecting the SCLM and their Republican/DINO codependents to discover a sense of shame, honor, decency, etc., because we’ve documented their lies and hypocrisy. Nah. Gunna. Happen. Evah.

I’m not saying that projects like Media Matters have no value, nor do I want to lose the moments of mirth I enjoy when better bloggers find some gem of absudity in the mouths of the pundit class and write accordingly. But it’s a question of scale, and time, and I think both are creating an imperative. In a lot of ways, this is why I’m not blogging so much anymore- I’m waiting for more people to be interested in talking about something else other than The Game. The Game is eternal, and these days, only a carefully selected chosen few can play it in a way that actually can make a difference (Edwards, potentially, for example). But I think the rest of us waste valuable time, and more importantly, the chance at a better future, by describing in endless detail and constant attention, what Lying Liars are Lying about Today.

Short version: turn it off. You know who and what I mean, and I promise you, you’ll feel so much better when you do. I know I do.

I found this via the Crack Den (surprise, not) and fwiw, when I lived in DC, the real ’townies’ called it “The District,” and not “the village.” Although to be fair the Grey Lord may be referring only to those in the District who are the subject of Digby’s post.

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"The village" is a reference to Sally Quinn's legendary column

Submitted by lambert on Sun, 2007-07-29 20:21.

About The Clenis, naturellement. I’ll cherry-pick some quotes, the most famous one being the “not his place” one from Broder**:

When Establishment Washingtonians of all persuasions gather to support their own, they are not unlike any other small community in the country.

The people in it are the so-called Beltway Insiders — the high-level members of Congress, policymakers, lawyers, military brass, diplomats and journalists who have a proprietary interest in Washington and identify with it.

They call the capital city their “town.”

And their town has been turned upside down.

With some exceptions, the Washington Establishment is outraged by the president’s behavior in the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

This is where they spend their lives, raise their families, participate in community activities, take pride in their surroundings. They feel Washington has been brought into disrepute by the actions of the president.

“He came in here and he trashed the place,” says Washington Post columnist David Broder, “and it’s not his place.”

“This is a community in all kinds of ways,” says ABC correspondent Cokie Roberts, whose parents both served in Congress. She is concerned that people outside Washington have a distorted view of those who live here. “The notion that we are some rarefied beings who breathe toxic air is ridiculous… . When something happens everybody gathers around… . It’s a community of good people involved in a worthwhile pursuit. We think being a worthwhile public servant or journalist matters.”

“This is our town,” says Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, the first Democrat to forcefully condemn the president’s behavior. “We spend our lives involved in talking about, dealing with, working in government. It has reminded everybody what matters to them. You are embarrassed about what Bill Clinton’s behavior says about the White House, the presidency, the government in general.”

NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell adds a touch of neighborly concern. “We all know people who have been terribly damaged personally by this,” she says. “Young White House aides who have been saddled by legal bills, longtime Clinton friends… . There is a small-town quality to the grief that is being felt, an overwhelming sadness at the waste of the nation’s time and attention, at the opportunities lost.”

“We have our own set of village rules,” says David Gergen, editor at large at U.S. News & World Report, who worked for both the Reagan and Clinton White House. “Sex did not violate those rules. The deep and searing violation took place when he not only lied to the country, but co-opted his friends and lied to them. That is one on which people choke.

Washington’s insider press corps has shown little pity for any of them. The feeling toward the president is similar.

“The judgment is harsher in Washington,” says The Post’s Broder. “We don’t like being lied to.”

“We don’t want to hang him,” says Gergen. “There’s a sense that we all want to clear this up. And there’s a maddening frustration that the political system doesn’t have a set of penalties for this kind of activity.”

“The founding fathers let us down,” adds [Presidential historian Michael] Beschloss.

Even those who have to deal with or publicly support the administration do so grudgingly. They say that regardless of whether his fortunes improve, Bill Clinton has essentially lost the Washington Establishment for good.

Versailles on the Potomac…

** Which in fact I was riffing on in the last paragraph of this post.

No authoritarians were tortured in the writing of this post.

thanks, lb. my bad for not remembering that line

Submitted by chicago dyke on Sun, 2007-07-29 20:32.

not that i’m upset my precious brain cells are devoted to something other than recalling clinton era High Broderism.

still- if it’s a “village,” it’s a medieval one. that is, one with serfs, and one with lords and court retainers. the latter never knew, nor cared, about the suffering and day to day of the former, so long as food made it to the common castle table. ahem, “above the salt,” anyone?

which is why i say again: shut the door to the common dining hall in dc. it’s easier to do, o pitchfork owning friends, than you may think.

& OMG does that gergen quote make me want to puke

Submitted by chicago dyke on Sun, 2007-07-29 20:43.

ha ha, ““Sex did not violate those rules.”

/cow sized eye roll/

what. ever.

there is so much kinky sex going on in DC it’s not even funny. especially today. especially by republicans and their pundit slaves. please, take it from me, this is one area in which i am an expert (kink but not DC rethug kink- i know that from a comfortable distance). do you like hawt gay man-on-man-in a harness sex? are you looking to train yourself as a 24/7 bondage slave? diapers turn you on? you only have to walk a block or two, and you’ll find your soulmate in the beltway.

what i hated most about life in DC: that everyone in The District was soooooo open about this reality, when in town and speaking to other townies. but those same perverts would get in front of the camera and pretend like they didn’t just have an albino dwarf rimming their assholes clean 15 minutes before the presser. which was further, more difficult to perceive up close, knowing the albino was also the cameraman for CNN’s domestic politics div.

that’s not a true story, but as a metaphor, it’s close enough. if i wasn’t worried it would get me killed, i’d tell you what paul bremmer’s top admin asst. offered me one afternoon on a DC sidewalk, rich and flush from raping iraq’s wealth, women and resources bringing democracy to iraq. and no, i didn’t take him up on it. because, um, ick.

Wow. Albino?

Submitted by lambert on Sun, 2007-07-29 21:00.

Now that’s just… Wrong.

It’s always the details, isn’t it?

No authoritarians were tortured in the writing of this post.

Incident in a store . . .

Submitted by anonymous coward (not verified) on Mon, 2007-07-30 11:01.

Heh, heh,

Back when Dream Dresser was a real fetish store (before it got sold) down by the water on Wisconsin Ave. in Georgetown- I got talking with the original owners.

They were New Jerseyites who had originally started the business in Montclair, NJ. They found, however, that most of their business was coming from people in Washington- who were quite willing to drive several hours (or send their driver- apparently many of their customers back then were “people you see on the news”) to get that perfect harness, or whip, or latex knick knack.

They figured why not have a shop right in DC, if that was where more than 1/2 their business was coming from? Of course, part of the appeal of the Montclair store to the newsworthy types might have been its location in a place nobody’s ever heard of …

Anyhow, their take on the fetish world was that there is more than the average amount of fetishism among people who: i) are in high-stress work, ii) who face a large amount of uncertainty in their career, including the prospect of being turfed out on short notice if they lose a competition (election!), iii) who seek power over other people- and where better to find the perfect storm of such factors converging than in DC?