It never fails to surprise or delight me how politicians these days keep stepping on their tongues. It used to be that reporters had to pry information out of these folks with a crowbar, but today they can’t wait to get to a mike and a camera so that they make the 6 p.m. sound byte.
The problem with that is that they don’t always think before they speak.
Take, for instance, New York Senator Peter King, who went on a rant about how the coverage of Michael Jackson’s death was obscene. “He was a pedophile, he was a child molester,” King exclaimed. “Why aren’t we mourning people like firefighters and soldiers who die in the line of duty?”
There is now a website dedicated to getting Jackson fans together to defeat King in his next election.
No word as to whether the fans will take similar actions against President Obama, who in one of those unfortunate open mike exchanges, griped to a pool reporter that “its been 10 days already and they tell me if I want to get on the air I better mention Michael and Sarah. Come on, I’m in Russia talking strategic arms limitation.”
While it is true that what the president is doing is much more important than the self-proclaimed King of Pop’s last hurrah, you better keep it to yourself.
Then there is the recent melt down in the fraternity of GOP Governors and their self-destructive public appearances.
Mark Sanford of South Carolina just couldn’t leave his press conference confessions of infidelity be No, he had to come back out and lump more embarrassment on his family and constituents; nice job. And now Sarah Palin just bails out on her state. Gee Gidget, what happened to the pit bull in lipstick bit? Things get rough and you cut and run? Sounds to me like Sarah made herself a multi-gazillion dollar deal with somebody and the battle between greed and duty ended in the normal political way, with greed on top.
No surprise really, but at least it makes for entertaining viewing most of the time through my new digital converter box.
After all, politics is the first and still the best reality TV show ever created and there are always good episodes to watch, I can’t wait to see what Joe Biden says next.
It is, of course, our fault that they are like this. We feed their egos and push them in front of the cameras to compete for airtime.
I have to wonder what folks like Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and T.R. would think of the circus-like atmosphere that is today’s American politics. I dare say they would break out the stocks and whips in the town square.
Ahh, the good old days when you could flog your politicians.
