This little guy is smarter than Les Kinsolving
At today's White House press briefing conservative buffoon Les Kinsolving managed to waste everyone's time in his usual fashion with this line of questioning:
Q There are news reports this morning that parents and children who were guests of the President, when they visited Congress, wore stickers with the wording, "I was an embryo." And my question is, since all of us were once embryos, and all of us were once part sperm and egg, is the President also opposed to contraception, which stops this union and kills both sperm and egg?MR. McCLELLAN: I think the President has made his views known on these issues, and his views known --
Q You know, but what I asked, is he opposed — he's not opposed to contraception, is he?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, and you've made your views known, as well. The President --
Q No, no, but is he opposed to contraception, Scott? Could you just tell us yes or no?
MR. McCLELLAN: Les, I think that this question is --
Q Well, is he? Does he oppose contraception?
MR. McCLELLAN: Les, I think the President's views are very clear when it comes to building a culture of life --
Q If they were clear, I wouldn't have asked.
MR. McCLELLAN: — and if you want to ask those questions, that's fine. I'm just not going to dignify them with a response.
This might have been amusing if it were Jesus' General doing the interrogating — asking McClellan about the rights of "Blastocyst-Americans" and such — or if Kinsolving were genuinely interested in critiquing the president's childish musings about a "culture of life." Instead, this moment underscored the utter banality of the White House press briefings, the daily burlesque show which the press corps itself has long since decided to attend only while nodding off in an alcoholic stupor. Scotty did his best to sound irritated with Kinsolving, who now writes for the diagnosably lunatic World Net Daily and sits somewhere among the press corps' top five in seniority. But everyone knows that Kinsolving's role is to run interference at these press briefings by cracking wise at the appropriate moments and consuming swaths of time that might be better spent asking America's Ombudsman about, say, torture, or the ongoing futility in Iraq, or the indictment of the Runaway Bride. Instead, we get a moronic Monty Python knock-off from a right-wing gasbag. All this came after an especially unhelpful, 15-minute experiment in bloviation as McClellan tried to explain his master's position on the Israeli security fence, Sharon's "disengagement" from Gaza, and the "Roadmap." In every respect, it was an all-too-typical embarrassment.
Article comments
1 - RJ
Bush is Hitler!
2 - David Noon
Anyone looking at the "weblog" published by RJ will quickly recognize that he is indeed a right-wing buffoon parodying what he probably believes lefties like myself think about in our spare time. Not a bright boy.
3 - RJ
Just mocking you. It was easy to do...
4 - gonzo marx
bad bad RJ..
naughty evil RJ has been out lighting the Grail shaped Beacon again...
and that means we can duct tape him to the comfy chair, pry his eyes open a la Clockwork Orange and make him watch "Manos the Hands of Fate".....TWICE
mwahahahaHhAHAHAHhahHAHAAHhaHAHAHAHahaaa
now be nice...or it's 8 hours of Air America on top of that!
{8^P~~~~~~~~~~~
Excelsior!
5 - John Bambenek
Good luck geting tuned into Air America... might be backrupt by the time you get to it
6 - JR
RJ: Just mocking you. It was easy to do...
Kind of hypocritical coming from the guy who called Hillary Clinton "Hitlery". (see Comment 11 here)
Funny thing, it seems RJ was the first to invoke Hitler in both threads.
7 - Susan Smith
And the refusal to endorse contraception is meaningless?
You guys are so never gonna get laid again.
8 - Natalie Davis
Ah, my old buddy Les. I worked at WCBM-AM for several years back when it was all news. When the right-wing talkradio format started, I was working safely in newspapers. It is always a hoot to cover GLBT-related stories in these parts, because you will often find Les Kinsolving on the homo beat armed with his trusty microphone, which features an oversized WCBM mic flag.
These Les sightings are always a panic. Kinsolving asks ridiculous questions and makes his loathing for GLBT people exceedingly clear to all. He makes statements poking fun at any gay activists (can't prove it, but I have always suspected that he does this in order to piss them off so they will do something stupid and get arrested). If there are arrests, he seems gleeful. Gleeful. And then, should there be a lull in the event, he'll start gabbing to me and other reporters around, reminding the young'uns (for the umpteenth time) that he is one great journalist.
"Did you know I was nominated for a Pulitzer? Twice?" I half expect a flirtatious wink from him. Gross.
"Do tell," I respond. "What would Baltimore journalism be without you?"
"Boring."
"That's for sure. Gotta go; I need to get a quote..."
Every now and again, I tune into Les' evening talk show (if you are in Baltimore, you'll find "Uninhibited Radio" at 680 on the dial at 8pm). I listen to a lot of right-wing radio for the sole purpose of opposition research. Now, listening to the show -- as with Rush and Hannity and Drudge, et al, ad nauseum -- is quite a trial. But several things are guaranteed when listening to the Kinsolving show: It will start off hilariously (Les offers a premise, and it's usually a ridiculous one of the "the sky is falling!" variety, become infuriating (Les gets nasty with a lefty caller), and eventually reduce me to tears (Les gets a right-wing compadre on the line and the two take super-cruel verbal slaps against the bad leftist du jour). But then ol' Les ultimately says something really insipid and sends me back to raucous laughter.
He's one obtuse sumbitch, and he evinces a colossal ego on the job, but he can amuse.
I haven't had the pleasure of seeing him cover the White House -- my DC reportage is limited to chasing lobbyists and congresscritters on the Hill -- but that would have to be a gas to witness firsthand.
And absolutely he's there to distract anyone from talking about anything substantive. That is how he is useful to the Bush gang that continues to OK his credentials (and give him this; he's no toady, as his daily interviews with the Shrub's flack show) -- surely it isn't for his groundbreaking journalism or his intellect. He can be entertaining, though, in a Curly Howard kind of way.
And credit where it is due: Kinsolving famously received a letter from Howard Stern; the missive was a form letter that included a sentence hailing the KOAM as "one of the legends of our time" or some such. Les' reply was priceless: "I would rather listen to 15 minutes of recorded highway noise than to this poet laureate of the men's room wall."
Meow! Two points to the mouthy meathead with the mic.
But give the man this: He really does see himself as a representative of the little guy -- he asks questions he believes his audience wants asked. And he makes himself available -- even giving out his home phone number -- in case any listeners have questions they want raised at the White House. Must say I admire that. I try to do that in my journalism as well, but no one's getting my home number.
9 - Leoniceno
So you're saying that he's running interference to stop anything important from being discussed. This and that whole deal with the fake reporter. There should really be some kind of independent determination of who gets into these conferences. I don't know how we'd do it, but these press conferences aren't meant to just be propaganda sections with some entertaining blowhards thrown in.
10 - gonzo marx
my Hypothesis is that it is all part of the Strategy...the Gannon/Guckert example is another piece
the Tactics employed are quite observable, once you recognize the Variables being manipulated..
take TV news in all it's forms...in a given 10 minute segment for a Topic there would be 2 minutes of commercials and 1 minute of set up with about another minute for the Moderator, leaving 6 minutes for the Debate...in a fair environment that would mean 3 minutes for each side
the GOP knows this , and their spokespeople are told to utilize as much of the Clock as possible...Rant on as long as you can until you are cut off making certain to hit the day's talking points and denigrate the Opposition or Target of the Day, then Interrupt your Opponent as much as possible by talking over him or cutting him off if he is polite enough to pause or stop
another Facet is to change the perceived meanings of words via misdirection, repetition and association with negative "Imagery"...example: use "liberal" as an epithet..snarl it like a "cuss word"
on and on
it is even happening here, now , on BC..i showed on one of John B's threads where the last line was a proud boast stating the entire Post was a "production" for a "Blogburst"
remember those pesky VNR's the Administration was hiring PR firms to put out?
can you say Armstrong Williams?
are you scared yet?
nuff said?
Excelsior!
11 - RM
I do not always agree with Mister Charles Lester Kinsolving, but I have a great deal of respect for the man. As for Natalie Davis, she is entitled to her opinion, but I find her appraisal of Mister Kinsolving not only condescending but insulting. And this woman actually had the unmitigated gall to refer to Les as her buddy(Davis also referred to Les as an "obtuse sumbitch", whatever the hell that means, but it is hardly flattering). Les may ask ridiculous questions at times, but it is his right to do so. As for you Ms. Davis, I can not stomach your sneering appraisal of a fine man and a fine human being. I DISAGREE WITH LES ON A NUMBER OF SUBJECTS (I am no fan of the current administration anymore than I am a fan of the mainstream left-wing media), but I disagree with the man agreeably. Perhaps you should do the same.
12 - Nancy
Kinsolving is a fake journalist & a BushCo hack, planted to deliberately throw soft questions or questions that will allow the WH to pontificate on their latest attempt to justify themselves. Over the past 6 years it has become obvious the BushCo WH has no interest whatsoever in actually answering honest questions addressing difficult issues, especially where they're at fault or have fucked up.
13 - RM
Overall, I don't care for the less than flattering things that Davis (She said "Two points to the mouthy meathead with the mic" which was a rather insulting thing to say about Les. This coming from a person who referred to Les as her buddy-Give me a break!) and other like-minded "compassionate" Liberals have written about Kinsolving. And I especially take umbrage at that picture at the top of this page with the caption "This little guy is smarter than Les Kinsolving". Again, I strongly disagree with the man on various topics and admit that Les asks some silly questions at times and is something of an eccentric. But, I would never refer to him in a disdainful and patronizing manner. One last thing, LES KINSOLVING IS NOT A BUFFOON!
14 - RM
Actually Les has asked a number of questions that the White House press secretary either ignored or really did not respond with a direct question. Hey, I have no admiration for that administration or any white house press secretary, but I don't consider Les a fake journalist. I don't accept his high estimation of the current administration, but I consider him a sincere person. So Nancy, why don't you lighten up? Why resort to insult?