Cheney's Foot in Mouth
Lynne, not Dick.
I was very curious to see how Jon Stewart would handle interviewing the wife of the guy he has ripped more frequently and severely on his show than anyone other than President Bush. Awkward!
I figured he'd ask her some softball questions about her new book, throw in some mild jokes about her husband, and call it a night. That's probably what her handlers expected as well. Instead, he managed to draw her out on gay marriage, Iraq, and terrorism (after the obligatory fluff about her book), and basically, he worked her, simply by asking smart follow-up questions and engaging her in debate rather than letting her get away with canned pablum. In doing so, he backed her into uncomfortable corners, and in the end, gave her just enough rope with which to hang herself.
A couple of the better exchanges:
On her own husband's administration professing a desire for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage:
LC: [Discusses how open-minded and progressive she and Dick are about gays and people of all races]
JS: So you vehemently disagree with the Republicans when they say gay marriage should be in the constitution, banned...
LC: I think that the whole idea of an amendment opposing gay marriage is wrong, and I've said so publicly.
On the slow progress in Iraq:
LC: One of the good things you learn when you study history is that some of these things are not so easy to do. [Discusses America's own drawn-out process in drafting a constitution after the Revolution]. So, you know, these things are tough. But, take the historical perspective, understand what's going on here's a little tough, and maybe that gives us a little more patience.
JS: Do you feel like, we were, at the beginning of it, told it was gonna be easier than maybe it turned out to be, even though the people that...
LC: No.
But the highlight was the discussion on the state of terrorism over the last six years, in contrast to the Clinton administration. Totally botched by Cheney, to the extent that it was actually shocking to watch her say something so stupid. And Stewart let her off the hook at just the right moment, when she'd already been clearly beaten, and anything further would have just been piling on. Rather than running a fake punt up 50 late in the fourth quarter, he took a knee and let the scoreboard speak for itself.
I was very curious to see how Jon Stewart would handle interviewing the wife of the guy he has ripped more frequently and severely on his show than anyone other than President Bush. Awkward!
I figured he'd ask her some softball questions about her new book, throw in some mild jokes about her husband, and call it a night. That's probably what her handlers expected as well. Instead, he managed to draw her out on gay marriage, Iraq, and terrorism (after the obligatory fluff about her book), and basically, he worked her, simply by asking smart follow-up questions and engaging her in debate rather than letting her get away with canned pablum. In doing so, he backed her into uncomfortable corners, and in the end, gave her just enough rope with which to hang herself.
A couple of the better exchanges:
On her own husband's administration professing a desire for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage:
LC: [Discusses how open-minded and progressive she and Dick are about gays and people of all races]
JS: So you vehemently disagree with the Republicans when they say gay marriage should be in the constitution, banned...
LC: I think that the whole idea of an amendment opposing gay marriage is wrong, and I've said so publicly.
On the slow progress in Iraq:
LC: One of the good things you learn when you study history is that some of these things are not so easy to do. [Discusses America's own drawn-out process in drafting a constitution after the Revolution]. So, you know, these things are tough. But, take the historical perspective, understand what's going on here's a little tough, and maybe that gives us a little more patience.
JS: Do you feel like, we were, at the beginning of it, told it was gonna be easier than maybe it turned out to be, even though the people that...
LC: No.
But the highlight was the discussion on the state of terrorism over the last six years, in contrast to the Clinton administration. Totally botched by Cheney, to the extent that it was actually shocking to watch her say something so stupid. And Stewart let her off the hook at just the right moment, when she'd already been clearly beaten, and anything further would have just been piling on. Rather than running a fake punt up 50 late in the fourth quarter, he took a knee and let the scoreboard speak for itself.
posted by Chang Kim at Saturday, October 27, 2007
1 Comments:
Loved the reference to it being "just like a scene from "Mavrick"...one of your favorite movies...
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