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Damn It Feels Good To Be A[n Associate] Gangsta
I have to say that I find the Note's tongue-in-cheek approach to reporting a bit hard to understand at times, but today's edition states that they gathered "344 of the full Gang" of 500 at Bistro Bis and resolved, among other things, "to offer associate memberships to the following: Matt Yglesias and Ross Douthat." No more quibbling over metaphysics for us, time to start acting like real insiders and write head scratching columns about what happened to the bipartisan dealmakers of yore. Ah, yore.
February 16, 2005 | Permalink
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» Big Media Matt from Paperwight's Fair Shot
Ah, the Broderization of Matt Yglesias continues apace. [Read More]
Tracked on Feb 16, 2005 1:10:12 PM
Comments
Big Media Matt, indeed.
Posted by: Petey | Feb 16, 2005 10:28:04 AM
Now Matthew can tell what David Broder's like in person! We're all dying to know.
Posted by: Al | Feb 16, 2005 10:37:26 AM
But do you get lunch/dinner out of it? Bistro Biz is good. Mmm. rabbit.
Posted by: Brew | Feb 16, 2005 10:41:46 AM
You want Gangsta, this is it:
Gonzales: Da Original AG At Da DOJ
http://gothamimage.blogspot.com/2005/02/alberto-gonzales-da-original-ag-at-da.html
Posted by: Gangsta -zales | Feb 16, 2005 10:44:17 AM
OK. Now I'm stuck with the image in my head of Mark Halperin in a rap video, decked out in rapper gear and bling-bling, complete with bikini clad dancers.
And worse yet, Halperin is singing "Damn, it feels good to be a gangster" in his Al Gore impersonation voice.
Thanks a lot.
---
Also from today's Note, I'm beginning to wonder what the over/under is on how long until Rahm Emanuel becomes Speaker?
Posted by: Petey | Feb 16, 2005 10:46:53 AM
I know I should read the Note, given how useful it can sometimes be, but its so god damn annoying...
Posted by: sam | Feb 16, 2005 11:04:00 AM
Ugh. Please stay away from that leprosy of unreality that is the Heathers' Royal Court.
Those two opening paragraphs of the Note today had me vomiting out my morning coffee.
Posted by: Joe Drymala | Feb 16, 2005 11:07:29 AM
I never fail to be astounded by the hostility to The Note by mouth-breathers on both sides of the partisan divide.
I can understand hating Broder, but Halperin? If you're interested in politics, how can you hate the guy who delivers the inside baseball?
Posted by: Petey | Feb 16, 2005 12:52:06 PM
Mouth breathers?
Posted by: Joe Drymala | Feb 16, 2005 1:19:01 PM
Congratulations.
BTW, anyone know which Note writer is the righish, hackish one? The one who IN BIG BOLD LETTERS SAYS THAT THE WHOLE POINT OF PRIVATE ACCOUNTS IS TO REDUCE GOVERNMENT BENEFITS. The one who other day referred to HR 418 as a "strong" anti-innigration" bill (it would allow the Secretary of Homeland Security to suspend all laws of the United States in the process of building a border fence). The one who said that the effort to demonize Harry Reid was not really an effort to demonize Harry Reid, but was to throw him off track and make him mad (who could believe that?) The one who takes disdain of Paul Krugman as a given. The one....who...undoubtedly had access to Halperin's memo last year.
Posted by: Sean Flaherty | Feb 16, 2005 1:40:43 PM
I don't think it's rightish as much as it is just Beltway head-in-the-sand. And convinced that its unique purpose in life is to boldly speak truth to the powerless. While fawning over the techniques and strategies of the winners.
Inside baseball is just grand. Being the self-appointed dictator of Washington media's CW, especially while flogging the theme of The Savvy Republicans Versus The Hapless Dems, is less so.
Posted by: Joe Drymala | Feb 16, 2005 2:00:18 PM
"especially while flogging the theme of The Savvy Republicans Versus The Hapless Dems"
Is that a bad description of what's been going on since the day after the 2000 elections?
If we're talking inside baseball, which is the language of The Note, it's worth recognizing that the Republicans have a very impressive political machine operating at the moment.
If you're not interested in the "techniques and strategies" of the game, why are you reading it in the first place?
Posted by: Petey | Feb 16, 2005 2:17:33 PM
I read it because it's important for me to know what the media thinks is important.
Look, this isn't all happening in a vacuum. To pretend that the opinions of the Note authors (one of which, by the way, is a good friend of mine, and I certainly spare none of this criticism for him) don't have very real consequences for what gets reported and what doesn't, is just plain plausible deniability on their part and willful ignorance on the part of their faithful. I'm not accusing you of that (I don't know you at all), but it seems to be the general attitude of those who take their cues from what's written there. As fellow mouth-breather Eric Alterman posted recently in response to a bit of Note silliness, "War, WMDs, Hussein-al-Al Qaida, Swift Boats, Tax-cuts for the wealthy, Social Security, blah, blah, blah. Who cares?" Everyone knows there's a herd mentality among political reporters; do you honestly expect me to applaud one of the chief instruments of this mentality?
Politics in Washington is treated too much like a parlor game with no repercussions, and I'm tired of it. An uncritical media was partly responsible for this morass of carnage and profiteering we're faced with in Iraq. The stakes are real. And the Note can write what it damn well wants to, but please don't criticize me for being angry at it for trivializing the most consequential shift of power in our lifetimes.
Matt Taibbi said it far better than I:
"Last time I checked, the press was not supposed to be part of the ruling structure in our system of government. On the contrary—and I'm just going by Jefferson and Madison, so I may be out of date—it's supposed to be an antagonist to it, a check on civil power."
Posted by: Joe Drymala | Feb 16, 2005 3:22:21 PM
"Politics in Washington is treated too much like a parlor game with no repercussions, and I'm tired of it."
Sure. And that's why you and so many other mouth-breathers of both the left and right have such distaste for The Note.
Politics is such an important business, with such serious consequences, that how dare anyone cover the inside baseball dispassionately? After all, the stakes are so high, truth and justice are on my side, and the press should be explaining that.
Well, like it or not, at the end of the day partisan politics is a game with winners and losers. There's even a handy pocket-sized reference for the rules of the game in the form of the Constitution. And oftentimes the winner of the game isn't the side with truth and justice on its side, but instead is the side that more skillfully plays the game.
I share the common contempt for the content-free and mushy non-partisanship of Broder. It has no point. But I adore the incisive and insightful non-partisanship of Halperin. The Note is one of the few places you can actually find the score of the game.
I suppose the real reason for the popular antipathy to The Note is that most folks don't read up on politics to learn what's actually going on. Instead they're in the business of trying to have their deeply felt beliefs echoed back to them. And The Note is a lousy place to find that echo.
Posted by: Petey | Feb 16, 2005 5:06:21 PM
The format of the note makes it unreadable. It is just a big long list in small type that includes stuff like the times of press conferences.
Posted by: joe o | Feb 16, 2005 6:11:04 PM
But I adore the incisive and insightful non-partisanship of Halperin.
Me too. But man, can you tell when he's not writing, or least when their in-house rightie is writing. It's jarring, because when The Note is good it's lovely (today was very good, for example), but then two or three times a week you have to put up with The Turdball In The Trio, if indeed it's one of Halperin, Ambinder, and Todorovich.
Posted by: Sean Flaherty | Feb 16, 2005 8:08:37 PM
"Sure. And that's why you and so many other mouth-breathers of both the left and right have such distaste for The Note."
Petey, why the hell are you determined to call me names? Are you sitting across from me, watching how I conduct my normal breathing? Or can't you accept that I might just not like the way the Note is written, and that that doesn't indicate a personal flaw on my part?
And it's not dispassionate, in the least. It's almost always a big, long lecture. A dispassionate account wouldn't influence the direction of the news coverage. The Note clearly does.
By the way, the majority of the Note isn't written by Halperin.
"I suppose the real reason for the popular antipathy to The Note is that most folks don't read up on politics to learn what's actually going on. Instead they're in the business of trying to have their deeply felt beliefs echoed back to them. And The Note is a lousy place to find that echo."
Petey, again, you don't know who the hell you're talking to here. Stop ascribing personal attributes to me.
Posted by: Joe Drymala | Feb 17, 2005 11:04:45 AM
how the hell can any sane person -- that is, a person not driven crazy with hatred -- hate broder?
you might roll your eyes when reading or thinking about him, or you might scorn him for being a tool, but he's not worth the hate.
he reminds me of an earnest civics/government teacher in high school back about 30-40 years ago.
Posted by: harry near indy | Feb 18, 2005 7:21:00 PM
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