Monday, March 22, 2004

Say Goodnight, Dick!

Fred Hembeck (who has a wonderful website here) says he was watching MSNBC — "because someone has to" — and he thought of this...

Lester Holt was interviewing some White House official — Jim Wilkinson, was it? — about Richard Clarke's claims, and while it was no surprise to hear the Bush aide aggressively deny all charges, what did catch my attention was the way this official repeatedly kept referring to Clarke as "Dick Clarke!" He said it so often and so relentlessly that you almost got the feeling that part of their strategy is to repeat "Dick Clarke" over and over, hoping somehow that the public will figure that these damning claims were made not by a high-ranking former official, but the guy who once ran American Bandstand!?! That it wasn't the Bush administration who dropped the ball, but good ol' Dick Clarke — just like he does every New Year's Rockin' Eve!?! Geez, they really do think we're stupid, don't they?

Actually, I noticed a lot of Bush staffers calling him "Dick" today. Cheney called him that on Rush Limbaugh's show, Condoleezza Rice called him that in several statements and White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan kept referring to him as "Dick." I don't think it's because they want to confuse him with the TV host. I suspect the idea here is to suggest a familiarity. It's like they're saying, "I know this guy well enough that you should trust my opinion of him."

Figuring out exactly how to refer to your opposition is a science. I remember back during the '92 presidential election, there was a period when Republicans thought the Democratic nominee might be Mario Cuomo. A decision was obviously made to keep referring to the man as "Mario" because that made him sound less serious. The premise, I guess, was that good Americans, at least outside New York, do not vote for someone with a foreign first name...plus they planned to suggest that Cuomo had mob ties so it helped to make him sound extra-Italian. There was one speech in which then-President Bush (the last one) especially acted like there was a contest to see how many times he could refer to his possible opponent as "Mario." He said it so often that the following week on Saturday Night Live, Dana Carvey did Bush saying "Mario" over and over.

In the meantime, the Democrats adopted the equally-childish policy of referring to Bush's vice-president by his real name of J. Danforth Quayle. They did that so often that Bush blew up at some public appearance and said it was unbelievably low of them to make fun of a man's name. And of course it was, but it was the same stunt Bush had tried before he discovered he'd be running against a guy with the good ol' American name of Bill. I thought the whole thing was one of those moments when American politics really seems to resemble Kindergarten but without the sandbox and naptime.

• Posted at 11:25 PM · LINK

Two Quick Points...

Quick Point #1: I am in receipt of at least a dozen e-mails telling me different ways of spelling "al-qaeda." Rather than choose, I have decided I will show my contempt for the organization by spelling its name inconsistently. Don't tell me I'm not doing my part to fight terrorism. And if I get mad enough, I may also start misspelling "Iraq." That'll show 'em.

Quick Point #2: Yes, I know how cheap and easy it is to get a DVD Player that will handle PAL disks and I may just do that. But I shouldn't have to. Laurel and Hardy should — like clean air, clean water and copies of the book I'm finishing up at the moment — be readily available to all.

Thank you.

• Posted at 3:31 PM · LINK

The Chicken in Specter

Here's a political-type ad by someone (I don't know who) using a clip of Senator Arlen Specter from yesterday's Face the Nation. I'm sorry to see he's come to this because Specter was one of those politicians I occasionally admired for his willingness to buck his party when he thought it was wrong. The polls suggest he's not long for the Senate...which would be a shame if he hadn't been reduced to spouting nonsense like in this clip. (I also happen to be among those who believe in the so-called "single bullet theory" in the J.F.K. assassination. Specter was one of those who formulated it.)

[UPDATE, added 3:42 PM: I traced the source of the clip and it's from a group called The Center for American Progress.]

• Posted at 3:24 PM · LINK

Today's Political Rant

One thought about a lot of what I'm reading today in response to Richard Clarke's charges on 60 Minutes...

A lot of the response — maybe even the majority — is in the "Blame Clinton" category: The Clinton Administration had eight years. We had only 234 days. They didn't do this. They didn't do that. And so on. We've also heard the charge that Bush shouldn't be faulted for believing Iraq had Weapons of You-Know-What because Clinton did, too.

Okay, some of that's true. I think they may understate the extent to which the Clinton administration was at least aware of the al-Qaeda problem and urged that it be dealt with quickly...but let's say all that's true; that the Clinton team dropped the ball, too.

Well, so what?

If the Clinton squad was inept at protecting us from terrorism and the Bush forces were inept at protecting us from terrorism, how is that an argument in support of the latter? Clinton is not up for re-election and I don't see how what that administration did has any bearing on what a Kerry administration might do. I also don't think Bush (or any president seeking a second term) can get very far on a platform of, "A lot of things have gone wrong but they really weren't my fault." It reminds me of the old joke about the comedian who comes up on stage and says...

I had a rough time at a club the other night. The girl singer who was on before me was so bad that right in the middle of my act, they started booing her. They couldn't forget how lousy she was. Do you know that some people walked out on her while I was still performing?

The Clinton administration did a lot of things I didn't like, and they can't all be explained by the distraction of impeachment. But you know, Harry Truman had that sign on his desk — "The buck stops here." And when presidents take office, they ought to have a limited grace period to blame the guy before them...maybe 30 days on everything except the stock market. In reality, a lot of presidential actions do take months, sometimes years to have their full impact. But clearly, something like being on the lookout for terrorists and mass murderers is not one of those reponsibilities into which you can just ease yourself after you finish redecorating the Oval Office and clearing brush on your ranch.

• Posted at 1:01 PM · LINK

More on the Sunshine Boys DVD...

My pal Ken Plume, who contributes wonderful articles and interviews to IGN FilmForce, informs me that he's seen the Sunshine Boys DVD and that the make-up test of Jack Benny is silent and that he sports an extremely dark dye job. I'm guessing that's make-up for the scene in the film where Lewis and Clark do one of their old vaudeville sketches. Mr. Burns had a bad dark wig on for those moments in the movie, as I recall. I'm still eager to see this footage, and I'm wondering if they'll ever find or release some of the other tests done for the film. Milton Berle, I believe, did one and it would be great to view the test of Red Skelton that won him (briefly) the lead. Reportedly, they tested Skelton more as a courtesy to a legend than because they thought he'd be good in the role, but he surprised everyone by being wonderful. Then he surprised them all over by walking off the film.

And of course, it would be great to see Mr. Benny's actual screen test. This may be apocryphal but the story is that at one point during the filming, Herbert Ross (who was directing) stopped the action and told Benny he was moving with too much energy. He said, "Remember, Jack, you're playing a 70-year-old comedian." There was a pause and then Benny replied, "But I'm an 80-year-old comedian."

I don't know if that actually occurred but it does prompt an interesting argument: If Benny had played the role, should he have moved slower to conform to the way most of us expect a septegenarian to act? I mean, it's not like critics would write, "Jack Benny is way too young for the role." On the other hand, the character in the film is retired and a certain lack of energy might have been right, at least in a thematic sense. So who can say?

By the way, Ken Plume is the gent who gave me the advice that solved my problem with my Panasonic DMR-E80H DVD Recorder — a model he also owns. So I thank him, and I presume others who've written me to say they had the same crisis, thank him too.

• Posted at 12:31 PM · LINK

A Reason to Envy the British

Boy, I wish this would play on my TV. The folks who control the rights in this country seem to have no interest in putting out such a thing for us...but maybe some day...

• Posted at 12:10 PM · LINK

Political Animals

In case you missed 'em over the weekend, C-Span has posted the video of several broadcasts about political humor. It's a little over three and a half hours and it includes on its various panels, Garry Trudeau, Stephen Colbert, Phil Hendrie, Drew Carey, Greg Proops and others. Here's the link and it should be there for about two months. (If that doesn't work, use their search function and look for "Trudeau.")

• Posted at 11:24 AM · LINK

Lewis and Clark — Together Again!

It doesn't come out until next week but I just went and ordered the new DVD of Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys. It's a fun movie but I think I'm ordering it as much for its special features as the movie itself. There's a commentary by co-star Richard Benjamin. There are make-up tests of Walter Matthau and Jack Benny. And there's a newly-found screen test of Phil Silvers! Silvers was one of many old Jewish comedians who tested for the film, and I can't imagine it won't be fascinating to see the footage of him playing — I presume — Willie Clark, the role Matthau wound up with. (The casting of The Sunshine Boys was complicated: After all those tests, they selected Red Skelton for the role of Clark, with Benny as his partner, Al Lewis. Skelton withdrew for reasons that no one ever quite understood, and he was replaced by Matthau. Then Benny died and was replaced by his old buddy, Burns. And it didn't stop there: Originally, Harvey Keitel was cast as the nephew but after a few days of shooting, Simon and director Herbert Ross decided he didn't fit with the other actors so he was dismissed and Benjamin got the role.) Anywho, before I head off to bed, I just wanted to tell you all about these special features and post this link in case you want to order a copy from Amazon. Nighty-night!

• Posted at 1:51 AM · LINK