Most Overinflated Story: Mark Foley Scandal
Amazing amounts of coverage and huge political damage, including a possible lost election, all resulting from what is essentially a story about a gay Congressman scrupulously avoiding molesting congressional pages. There was no sex and the pages weren't even underage, but yet the news media managed to drag it out for months and it cost people their careers, all over nothing.
More Machiavellian than Karl Rove: Rahm Emanuel
Rahm Emanuel of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee was a big winner for the year, engineering the remarkable election coup in November. He did it by manipulating and betraying his own constituencies with an amazing bait and switch, pimping and then selling out a slew of progressive candidates including the 'Band of Brothers', and ultimately dumping them for a creepy collection of pro-life demofascists who could actually beat the Republicans. There may be a price to pay in 2008, but Karl Rove would be proud.
It Came from Beyond the Political Graveyard: Newt Gingrich
We thought he was doomed to an eternity writing dull science fiction and appearing as a talking head on FOXNews, but somehow he's returned from the grave and people are actually talking about Newt as a presidential contender for 2008. Nostalgia for the honesty and compassion of the Contract for America is one thing, but is running the most divisive figure in modern politics really the way to win over moderates and independents?
Just Desserts: Rick Santorum
I like to call him Rick Sanctimonious, and I'm delighted that voters saw through his smug and preachy facade to the creepiness that lay beneath. All he needed was an opportunity to start a witch hunt - perhaps for gays in the State Department - and he could have been another Joe McCarthy. There's something uniquely satisfying about seeing a self-righteous, bigoted zealot go down to inevitable destriction primarily because his constituents got to see him in action and didn't like what they saw.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Matthew T. Sussman
Oh good, I'm the first one here.
I'll get some popcorn and a lawn chair. This will be one hell of a show.
2 - troll
buttered with yeast please
3 - Dave Nalle
Surely, Suss, there's something here to please everyone and something to annoy everyone.
Dave
4 - Clavos
I like the Chavez bit :>)
5 - Lumpy
So you don't like Republicans or Democrats or foreign leaders. Who's left that you actually like or approvw of?
6 - RJ Elliott
"Most Overinflated Story: Mark Foley Scandal
Amazing amounts of coverage and huge political damage, including a possible lost election, all resulting from what is essentially a story about a gay Congressman scrupulously avoiding molesting congressional pages. There was no sex and the pages weren't even underage, but yet the news media managed to drag it out for months and it cost people their careers, all over nothing."
AMEN!
Foley is a guy who clearly had issues. But he did NOT break the law (to the best of my knowledge). And there was nothing non-consensual about his little perverted IMs over the Internet. But the media made this out to be the biggest story EVER, and made Foley look like some sort of a degenerate pedophile. Which he wasn't (look up the word "pedophile" if you don't believe me).
If this same exact "outrage" had been done by a Democrat Congressman, the media would have downplayed it, and would have instead focused on demonizing conservatives who objected to the whole thing.
Gawd, I hate the MSM...
7 - RJ Elliott
"The New Mussolini: Hugo Chavez
Never has someone marched towards dictatorship with such panache, unless it was Il Duce himself. Chavez has to be given credit for being able to sell his own people on enthusiastically giving up their freedom, destroying their economy and preparing to launch all-out ideological war on most of their neighbors and voting him in as president-for-life at the same time. He's completely insane, but his self-confidence and arrogance are almost hypnotic."
Agreed.
If he was just a run-of-the-mill Leftist, he might have been voted out of power. But he is so far out there, so lunatic left, that his lunacy wins him points for "honesty" and such. Gawd help us all.
8 - Dave Nalle
You do kind of have to admire Chavez - and Mussolini for that matter - for the absolutely shameless way he pursues power. He'll cozy up to any dictator and tell any lie and do it with a smile on his face if it advances his agenda. Admirable at the same time that it's apalling.
Dave
9 - John T Chance
People I Just Wish Would Go Away in 2007: Dave Nalle (who also won the Most
Overinflated Ego).
How much mindless blather can we handle from this loser? Here's a hint - if
you had any good ideas you would have been able to get a job writing about
politics instead of doing it for free.
Carter probably would have been out due to term limits by now, and if you
think Inconvenient Truth was “high-school quality”, you don’t know squat
about films either.
10 - Dave Nalle
Chance, I've had paid jobs writing about politics and many other topics. Right now I like the control and freedom this format offers. And interestingly, I do earn a certain amount from my writing through advertising on my home blog.
What are you doing to express yourself in any positive way?
As for Inconvenient Truth, I never said it was of the quality of the work of high-school students. I associated it with the quality of the instructional materials in a high-school class, and I still think that characterization is dead on.
Dave
11 - Jet in Columbus
Dave I'd agree with your whole list (don't faint) but one item. Al Gore was and is right.
12 - moonraven
I am 100% with John T. Chance.
When they find a sure-fire cure for cancer, Homeboy Dave and his ilk will be history.
13 - Georgio
For those who don't like Nalle I would just like to add that even though I don't agree with his politics all the time I find him to be very informative and willing to tackle tough subjects ....He rarely calls ppl names even when they hit below the belt..I read all the editorials and I enjoy this site the most because we get to respond.
For instance I love Jimmy Carter and Al Gore and his mention of Newt Gingrich does not bother me anymore because the man although smart has no personality at all and will be irrelevant in 08
As for Chaves I am watching him but I love the way he stands up to Bush ..we are stupid to make an enemy of him..after all the ppl elected him unlike our present dictator who wasn't elected by the people in the popular vote against Al Gore..I know the electoral college DUH ..It's outdated and should be fixed or dumped..I bet if Al was elected we would not be in this mess we are in .
14 - moonraven
Georgio,
It's not a question of not LIKING Homeboy Dave (so called because he stated that Hugo Chavez is whiter than he is).
I don't even know Dave.
But by comparison with him he makes bigoted folks like Pat Robertson look as liberal as Chomsky--and for that I find him thoroughly without redeeming social value.
And he has called me plenty of nasty names, FYI.
15 - Dave Nalle
Dave I'd agree with your whole list (don't faint) but one item. Al Gore was and is right.
I withhold judgment on whether Gore is right or wrong, but I think that regardless of his rightness or wrongness he's still tedious.
And even if he's right about global warming, he's certainly wrong about how to deal with it. Government isn't the answer to every problem, and sacrificing our national sovereignty and the welfare and prosperity we enjoy when others are not being held equally accountable makes no sense at all.
I'm all for reducing pollution, but Kyoto just isn't the right way to do it.
Dave
16 - Dave Nalle
Just for the record, I freely admit to calling Moonraven and MCH the occasional disparaging name. IMO I've been extremely restrained in dealing with them. They contribute very little to the positive and constructive exchange of ideas and are both constantly insulting other people, both with their specific words and with their constant insults to everyone's intelligence and to the community which is blogcritics by their behavior.
Dave
17 - Dave Nalle
I know the electoral college DUH ..It's outdated and should be fixed or dumped..I bet if Al was elected we would not be in this mess we are in
If Al was elected we'd be in some sort of mess, it just might not be the same one or take the same form as our current one. He's not a magical cure-all. On retrospect I agree that he might have had something worthwhile to offer in the white house, and I think it's unfortunate for his political career that he's so completely tied himself to an absolutely fatal issue like global warming.
As for the electoral college, thank god for it. It's a brilliant idea. And the way to fix it as much as it needs to be fixed is for states to stop running winner-takes-all elections and send electors proportional to the number of votes each candidates wins in the state. That solves the problems some have with the EC without getting rid of it or changing the constitution.
Dave
18 - moonraven
Dave continues to lie.
He calls anyone who disagrees with the Joseph Mobuto Manual of Political Discourse nasty names.
And he never presents ANY facts or information--just airs his prejudices.
19 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
"If Al was elected we'd be in some sort of mess,..."
Looking at this as someone whose public administration degree was earned at the same time that a nearly bankrupt New York City was being told to go to hell by - you guessed it - the late Gerald R. Ford, Gore would have likely not done something that Bush has done - spend the USA into bankruptcy.
I know you do not see it that way, but your country is on the verge of economic collapse due to the spending habits of George W. Bush.
Whatever other messes your nation might be in (and I do think that your country would be in a mess if Gore had won, even though I voted for him), America would not be skirting being broke.
Buy some gold coins and a troy scale, Dave. You'll be the richest kid on the block when the dollar finally does collapse.
20 - handyguy
Some of Chavez's outrageousness is an act, just like George W's aw-shucks Cowboy Jesus facade. They are both shrewd politicians. Chavez was able to come to power because of the ineptitude of his predecessors in dealing with poverty. He may well be dangerous, or at least a nuisance, but calling him 'completely insane' is off the mark, even in a comedy piece like this one.
And I'll be the lonely voice here defending Jimmy Carter. He actually managed to stir up some controversy at age 81, just by daring to suggest that the groupthink in this country regarding Israel and Palestine might be unhealthy, and that AIPAC possibly has an excessively strong influence on US policy. Yes, he's a bit of an old scold - but he's often right.
21 - Clavos
Handy, I agree with you. His appearance at the UN proves he's a drama queen; it was comical, and he intended it that way.
But, I do believe he's dangerous, in particular to other South American countries. He makes no secret of his hegemonic plans for the region.
22 - moonraven
You don't have to be the lonely voice defending Carter.
He's one of the few--if not the only credible US expresident--both morally and informationally. By referring to the system Israel has imposed on the Palestinians as apartheid (which, by the way was a description used by the governbment of Israel itself) he uncovered the sewer of pro-Israel patronage in the US media and US congress.
Good for him! He's an example of morality winning out over the Libra desire to please behavior.
And just as a point of trivial fact: He's the US president with the highest IQ--way more than twice that of George W. Bush--at 176.
23 - moonraven
Clavos is ALWAYS wrong--seems statistically impossible, but he manages to do it.
Chavez is not a drama queen, but he is a respected playwright.
YOU are the drama queen--with your shrill hyperbole and tedious twisting of reality.
24 - handyguy
Re: Mark Foley
I agree that people calling his actions pedophilia were overblown. (The case of the closeted Spokane mayor who was recalled similarly had false charges of pedophilia injected into it, by well-intentioned 'liberals' in the local press.) But what he did was unsavory enough to elicit a collective 'Eew' even from gay folks like me.
And after all, Foley did resign almost instantaneously once his explicit IM's were revealed. A lot of the media coverage and public firestorm came after this, not before it.
And the strongest effect Foleygate had on the election was the perception that Hastert et al showed shoddy and hypocritical leadership by ignoring the situation until after it blew up.
25 - Dave Nalle
Moonraven lives in a bizarre alternate reality where Clavos is wrong with his parade of facts and documentation and she's not a marginalized loon with her unsupported assertions and personal attacks.
Her math leaves something to be desired as well. I've never seen any documented evidence of Carter's IQ, but experts have estimated Bush's IQ at a respectable 129, and even 176 isn't twice 129. Doesn't take a genius to do that math.
Dave