Friday musings, pundit style. So a priest, a rabbi and a salesman walk into a bondage-themed strip club...
David Brooks:
Let’s say you’re a political consultant. You’re sitting there in your West Hollywood bondage-themed strip club with party donors picking up the tab, and, of course, you’re thinking about what a great country this is. Swept up in the spirit of gratitude, you decide you’d like to give back. You’d like to solve the country’s looming fiscal catastrophe.
Yeah. Sure. I hear that's all they talk about at bondage-themed strip clubs, after having a bite to eat at the salad bar at Applebee's...
David Corn:
If I had a gift certificate to a bondage-themed strip-tease club for every time I've heard Democrats complain that the mascot of their party ought to be a circular firing squad, I'd be able to entertain thousands of GOP operatives. But now it seems that it's the Republicans who are engaging in an orgy of cannibalism -- just when they're poised to mount one of the greatest political comebacks in years.
HuffPo:
The majority of the news stories covered by Jon Stewart are of a serious tone. So while we get to reap the benefits of his satirical breakdown, he's got to deal with the weighty stuff. But shouldn't he get to have some fun, too?
Last night he got his opportunity. Upon hearing the RNC spent nearly $2000 at a lesbian bondage-themed strip club, "The Daily Show" ran with it. A Muppet reenactment, a correspondent totem pole, and Groucho glasses were all included. It was fantastic. Did we mention MUPPET REENACTMENT!??
Um... is today National Bondage-themed Strip Club Day or something?
Paul Krugman:
Let’s face it: Financial reform is a hard issue to follow. It’s not like health reform, which was fairly straightforward once you cut through the nonsense. Reasonable people can and do disagree about exactly what we should do to avert another banking crisis.
So here’s a brief guide to the debate — and an explanation of my own position.
LA Times:
Certainly there’s nothing wrong with having a show devoted to inspiring people, as the daytime talk shows have known for years. But it’s hard not to see [Sarah] Palin, who, after abdicating her own governorship is hardly an icon of stick-to-itiveness, as using this platform, and these people, to further the idea that she has a special relationship with "real Americans." Which makes anyone who finds her less than enchanting at best a heartless cynic and, at worst, a traitor.
I wonder how long it'll be before she quits?
WaPo:
In the late-March poll, the "angry" population overlapped generally with those who identified as Republicans. They were overwhelming white (94 percent) and conservative (73 percent).
Many of those who listed themselves as "angry" said they felt Congress was operating in a vacuum, removed from the problems encountered by average people struggling against a tepid job market, sagging home values and dwindling retirement funds. About 85 percent strongly disapproved of the way Congress is doing its job.
Much of the language echoed that of the vocal, conservative "tea party" movement, as well as conservative talk radio and blogs...
"I grew up in the '50s," said Hugh Pearson, 63, a retired builder from Bakersfield, Calif. "That was a wonderful time. Nobody was getting rich, nobody was doing everything big. But it was 'Ozzie and Harriet' days, 'Leave It to Beaver'-type stuff. Now we have all this MTV, expose-yourself stuff, and we have no morality left, not even by the legislators."
The 'angry' people, including teabaggers, are angry Republican conservatives. let's recognize them for what they are. But no poll suggests they are anything close to a majority.
Eugene Robinson:
Questions about whether Pope Benedict XVI was personally involved, as he rose through the church hierarchy, in sweeping under the rug incidents of sexual abuse by parish priests have put the Vatican on the defensive. A top legal official of the Holy See even felt obliged to argue, in an interview with the Rome newspaper Corriere della Sera, that the Vatican is not legally responsible for any failure by individual bishops to properly handle reports of abuse -- and that, in any event, Benedict is a head of state and thus beyond the jurisdiction of any foreign court.
That is the official line. It won't hold water in the court of public opinion.