David Weigel, reviewing David Zucker’s An American Carol, explains why “conservative comedy” doesn’t work:

David Zucker['s] goals here are as partisan, zealous, and transparent as Warren Beatty’s when he made Reds, or John Travolta’s when he made Battlefield Earth. . . .

Political comedy mocks authority. Conservative comedy in the Age of Bush venerates authority. . . . If you transported Zucker back to 1978 and pitched him Animal House, he’d direct Niedermeyer: Man of Iron.

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Bet you don’t remember Chip Diller. Maybe this will help:

That’s Kevin Bacon as Chip Diller in Animal House (sorry for only a screenshot — I couldn’t find a clip anywhere).  Bacon’s most famous line, delivered while screaming hysterically, was

REMAIN CALM!  ALL IS WELL!

These days, there are thousands of Chip Dillers walking around.  They’re the people who continue to insist that everything is okay even when they know it’s not the case.  To put it another way, they aggressively deny reality.  Or you could just call them Bush Administration officials.

Take, for example our new fearless leader lender, Henry Paulson.

REMAIN CALM!!  ALL IS WELL!!

Kudos to Chris Wallace (of all people) for pushing Paulson on this. But go back and listen again.  Paulson admits that they knew six months ago, at the time of the Bear Stears bailout, that this was coming.   But he didn’t think that they could get Congress to agree to a bigger bailout, so they didn’t even try.

There is no way we could have gone to Congress and got the authority to inject capital into the banking system by buying illiquid assets unless there was a clear and urgent and obvious need.  So although many of us looking at it said it could come to something like this, we [were] hoping to avoid it.  The key here was the speed of the housing price correction.

So let me get this straight.

Paulson, among others, knew six months ago this was coming.  And he knew what it would take to fix it.

And he (they) did nothing — nothing! — to prevent it.  They bailed out Bear Stearns, sat back, and crossed their fingers and maybe their toes.  They waited, hoping — hoping! — that things wouldn’t go to hell.

Knowing what he knew, Paulson also went on national television and lied:

WALLACE:  Are more Wall Street firms in danger, at risk of going under?

PAULSON:  Chris, I’ve got great confidence in our financial markets, our financial institutions, our markets are resilient, they’re flexible.  Our institutions, our banks, our investment banks are strong.

That’s not a fudge, a misstatement, or a misunderstanding.  It’s a flat out John-McCain-in-full-campaign-mode lie.

Just remember. . .

REMAIN CALM!  ALL IS WELL!

And now we’re supposed to reward this guy by giving him dictatorial control over the economy?

I have a better idea.  Let’s impeach him instead.

Chip Diller, white courtesy phone please.

Hat tip:  Think Progress

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9:38   This just doesn’t sound genuine to me.

9:39  Get the federal government under control and out of our way.  Except of course, for all that disaster relief you were just talking about.

9:40  “The hand we feel on our shoulder belongs to Abraham Lincoln.”  Yeah, Cindy, he’s trying to show you the door.

9:41  Crowd is hushed.  Lack of interest or rapt attention?  Hard to tell.

9:41  I’m sorry but she is is so reading.

9:42  Looks like she’s still wearing the same pearls from Monday night, but I think the $200,000 earrings are AWOL.

9:42  What kind of father would a man be?  Ask the kids from his first marriage.

9:43  John McCain is a steadfast man who will not break with our heritage.  That sure sounds like code to me.  As in the other, uppity guy will.

9:44 I just realized who she reminds me of — those upper-class elitist sorority cheerleaders from Animal House.  Oh, and Everclear’s “Volvo Driving Soccer Mom.” And if you think about it, she married Senator Blutarski!

9:45  Sarah Palin in da mansion house!

9:46  Your husband is quiet about his service?  I will grant you he was a hero, but quiet?  Have you listened to the other speakers?  Did you not read the advance text of his speech?

9:47  Wait a second.  McCain told Time last week that “we don’t discuss our sons’ service.”  Whoopsie!

9:48  For Cindy McCain:  “The American Dream” is a black American Express Card and $200,000 earrings.

9:49  Look left, read three lines.  Look center, read three lines.  Look right, read three lines.  Look center, read three lines.  Repeat until comatose.

9:50  Do you realize, Cindy, that the same people who smeared Bridget as “John McCain’s illegitimate black baby” are now running your husband’s campaign?

9:52  Props for the token Rwandan refugee, but “In my box tonight?”  You have a box?

9:52  Cindy is using this poor woman.  Using her.  It’s as cynical as Sarah Palin’s exploitation of her children.

9:53  I think there’s a good reason that Cindy McCain’s speech is taking place outside the prime time hour.  The McCain campaign better hope that this speech.

9:55  Four words:  local station morning host.

I know I’m being pretty harsh on her, but that was not a help to McCain’s campaign.  It was elitist, upper class, and incredibly condescending.  I don’t see that helping the McCain campaign.

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If you look at this blog’s tag cloud, you’ll notice that the largest are the ones for Barack Obama and John McCain.  Given that we are in the middle of a Presidential election, that’s no surprise.  But it did get me thinking about the issue of balance.  I’ve actually tried to write an equal amount on both campaigns, but it hasn’t turned out that way.

Obama’s tag cloud is slightly larger than McCain’s.  Given my preference for Obama, that’s not surprising.  But if you look at the number of posts on each, I’ve actually written more on McCain.  Now that surprised me.  How could I have more stories on McCain and yet more mentions of Obama?

I know this all may seem a little solipsistic or meta (can something be both?), but I think there’s an important point here.  It’s what I’ll call the Dean Wormer Theory of Politics

Read the rest of this entry »

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