By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: October 16, 2010
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CloseLinkedinDiggMixxMySpaceYahoo! BuzzPermalink LAS VEGAS
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
Go to Columnist Page »As I sat above the Hoover Dam under the broiling
sun, I was getting jittery.
There was Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona, speaking at the dedication of a
bridge linking Arizona and Nevada 890 feet above the Colorado River.
As the politicians droned on and my Irish skin turned toasty brown, I
worried that Governor Brewer might make a citizen's arrest and I would
have to run for my life across the desert. She has, after all,
declared open season on anyone with a suspicious skin tone in her
state.
We are in the era of Republican Mean Girls, grown-up versions of those
teenage tormentors who would steal your boyfriend, spray-paint your
locker and, just for good measure, spread rumors that you were
pregnant.
These women — Jan, Meg, Carly, Sharron, Linda, Michele, Queen Bee
Sarah and sweet wannabe Christine — have co-opted and ratcheted up the
disgust with the status quo that originally buoyed Barack Obama.
Whether they're mistreating the help or belittling the president's
manhood, making snide comments about a rival's hair or ripping an
opponent for spending money on a men's fashion show, the Mean Girls
have replaced Hope with Spite and Cool with Cold. They are the ideal
nihilistic cheerleaders for an angry electorate.
Seated next to Brewer at the bridge dedication was Harry Reid, the
slight, mild-mannered, 70-year-old Senate majority leader who has
wandered into the surprise fight of his career — a race where the fur
is flying.
"Man up, Harry Reid," Sharron Angle taunted him at their Las Vegas
debate here Thursday night. That's not an idle insult, coming from a
woman who campaigns at times with a .44 Magnum revolver in her 1989
GMC pickup.
With casino red suit and lipstick, Angle played the Red Queen of the
Mad Hatter tea party, denouncing career politicians and ordering "Off
with your head!" and "Down with government benefits!" Even sober and
smiling beneath her girlish bangs, the 61-year-old Angle had the
slightly threatening air of the inebriated lady in a country club bar,
tossing off outrageous statements and daring anyone to call her on
them.
The debate between the former boxer and the former competitive weight
lifter, the soft-spoken Mormon and the outspoken Christian, was a
source of fascination because the rivals perfectly represent the two
caricatures of the midterms: The Washington incumbent and master of
back-room deals who's been around forever and lost touch with people
versus the wacky new-breed Tea Party challenger who's hiding from and
hating on the press, spouting a lot of weird stuff and vowing to do
what Barack Obama didn't: Shake up Washington.
The senator began the debate with a gentle reminiscence about his
mother, who took in wash from the brothels in scruffy Searchlight,
Nev.
Angle could have told the poignant story of her German immigrant
great-grandmother who died trying to save laundry hanging on the
clothesline in a South Dakota prairie fire, which Angle wrote about in
her self-published book, "Prairie Fire." But instead the former
teacher and assemblywoman began hurling cafeteria insults. "I live in
a middle-class neighborhood in Reno, Nevada," she said. "Senator Reid
lives in the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, D.C."
Reid did not man up enough to mock Angle's nutty assertion that
Shariah law exists in Dearborn, Mich., and Frankford, Tex. (a town
that hasn't existed since 1975). But he did rebut Angle's inane
contention that health insurers should not have to cover anything,
talking about how important it was to be covered on mammograms and
colonoscopies.
"If you do colonoscopies," he said, "colon cancer does not come 'cause
you snip off the things they find when they go up and — no more."
"Well," Angle replied tartly, "pink ribbons are not going to make
people have a better insurance plan."
Angle has been pressing the case, underwritten by Karl Rove's
operation and other conservative groups that have made the majority
leader their No. 1 target, that Reid must be punished for being in a
socialist triumvirate with Nancy Pelosi and President Obama. In the
debate, she went for the jugular, asking him how he became "one of the
richest men in the Senate" after coming from Searchlight "with very
little."
Reid, who cloaks his ambition and brass knuckles under a mousy facade,
looked as if she had slapped him. He called her "my friend," but
clearly did not think of her as his "pet," as he unfortunately dubbed
Chris Coons, the Delaware opponent of the bewitching Christine
O'Donnell.
He said that was "really kind of a low blow," adding that he had been
a successful lawyer before becoming a pol, and "did a very good job in
investing."
After the debate was over, Angle scurried away and so did I — in a
different direction. I was feeling jittery again. If she saw me, she
might take away my health insurance and spray-paint my locker.
More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/opinion/17dowd.html?ref=opinion
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
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