Reasons why I can’t stand K Street:
-Bragging in the second episode about the impact of James Carville-feeding Howard Dean his line in the first. (Not only do we make news, we shoot and edit the show as fast as the news cycle!)
-Being forced to imagine just what it might be like inside the Carville/Matalin marriage.
-Watching journalists like Joe Klein and Howard Kurtz giggle and smirk (respectively) through their cameos. (Yippee! I’m on TV and it’s not even Sunday morning!) (Incidentally, Klein described a Carville-like character in his pseudonymously published book Primary Colors as looking like he’d been conceived during the love scene in Deliverance. Meow!)
-Not being able to read the newspaper anymore without wondering what stories will make their way into the show next week. (Of course, Mary Matalin’s continued consulting with Dick Cheney will certainly limit or change the tone of coverage.)
Reasons why I enjoy K Street:
–Roger Guenveur Smith is an amazing actor and maybe this show will finally bring his one man show A Huey P. Newton story to a wider audience.
-The little Soderberghian touches like the phantom woman who keeps appearing to John Slattery (shades of Solaris?).
-The name of the imaginary lobbying/consulting firm is Bergstrom/Lowell, which is clearly a reference to muckraking former 60 Minutes producer (and occasional Times investigative pinch-hitter) Lowell Bergman, memorably portrayed by an over-the-top Al Pacino in The Insider.
-Knowing that George Clooney gets to be a politician without giving up his movie star lifestyle.
Month: September 2003
Not Reader Mail, but Representative Mail
As October approaches, we thought it fitting to do a “one year later” examination of the events leading up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in spring 2003. And what better lens through which to examine this than incriminating mail from elected representatives who signed off on the President’s ability to pre-emptively go into the Middle East?
Yes, it’s painfully easy to rail against George Steinbrenner and his disdain for salary caps and smaller market baseball cities. But why should we exclusively scorn the Yankees’ bossman?
It seems as though his uber-capitalist TV-revenue-seeking mindset has spread to his employees as well. Listen to NY’s celebrated/overrated slugger Jason Giambi’s pullquote contribution to a Washington Post article about the celebrated matchups in this particular baseball postseason:
Jason Giambi can see why there’s so much enthusiasm.
“The teams that are in the postseason – the Cubbies always have great support. These playoffs should be great, a lot of TV viewers.”
Maybe George’s mouthpiece is anticipating a raise, what with all the exciting licensing revenue sure to come in this fall!
Following up on the post immediately below, meet one Joe M. Allbaugh, the former Director of FEMA. A predictably awful suggested headline may have been, “FEMA DECLARES HAIRLINE A FEDERAL DISASTER AREA”, but that would have been tasteless. So instead, we’ll simply let the image speak for itself, and lest you think we’re picking on this poor chap in an unwarranted manner, take note of the following info snipped from the FEMA site:
“Mr. Allbaugh served as the National Campaign Manager for Bush-Cheney 2000 with responsibility and oversight for all activities related to the Bush election campaign. He had previously served as Campaign Manager for President Bush’s first run for Texas governor.”
See, the guy deserves it! Laugh away!
Overheard at a Bethesda Denny’s
Joe M. Allbaugh: Damnit, man. Everyone and their mother is making money in Iraq and we’re sitting here with our thumbs in our asses!
Edward M. Rogers, Jr.: You found those xeroxes? I was drunk.
Lanny Griffiths: Shut up, you idiot. Joe’s right: we gotta monetize this Iraq thing now!
Joe M. Albaugh: I got an idea. We should start our own company to hook people up with George.
Edward M. Rogers, Jr.: Like a dating service?
Joe M. Albaugh: No, you idiot. A consulting firm.
Lanny Griffiths: That’s a capital idea.
Joe M. Albaugh: Literally!
Rogers and Griffiths laugh
Edward M. Rogers, Jr.: I don’t get it.
Washington Insiders’ New Firm Consults on Contracts in Iraq
New Bridges Strategies.
This is so easy
I have seen tomorrow’s Maureen Dowd column and it contains a Pepe Le Pew joke.
The World is Yours (for now)
Good morning, rappers and rapper-wannabes! Today is the day to send your men servants (that means you, Farnsworth Bentley!) to J&R to get a copy of the cynically-reissued Scarface 20th Anniversary DVD.
As anyone who’s ever watched an episide of Cribs knows, rappers love the rags-to-riches-to mountains of coke saga of Tony Montana. Heck, just this week mush-mouthed rapper and walking clay pigeon 50 Cent bought Mike Tyson’s Montana-esque 18 bedroom mansion to live out his drug lord fantasies. Yep, rappers love Scarface! My question is, have any of them watched the film all the way to the end? The fall of the House of Montana (its foundation built on coke instead of sand) makes the Hammer Behind the Music seem positively uplifting.
Dummy on Board
Queens-bred, Oscar-winning model-lover and Dummy star Adrien Brody got into a little fender-bender on Delancey Street yesterday.
“I saw this big SUV on my left, and the next thing I knew, he was trying to switch lanes, but we ended up colliding instead… He said: ‘Didn’t you see me? Why didn’t you make room for me?” says Heidi Hong, the driver whose car he hit. “He seemed pretty angry, but there was no way it was my fault.”
Adrien. We expect better from you! Where did you learn such a thing? Oh, right. Next up, Brody snogs Durst.
The politics of spite
Wow, these people are amazing. This is a real example of treason, and where’s defender of freedom Ann Coulter when we need her? Probably picking out bits of vomit from under her French manicure.