House of clowns

A spectre is haunting America--the spectre of a clownish demagoguery.

The polished ghosts of the profession's yesteryears--the Joe McCarthys, the James Michael Curleys, the Huey Longs and the 'Pitchfork' Ben Tillmans--are surely convening somewhere in Hell to mourn what Dana Milbank calls this "charmingly futile" turn of amateurish vents. I pray God they might rematerialize for at least an hour or two, with Hell's special dispensation, to conduct for these charmlessly living GOPers an advanced seminar in the delicate art of rabble-rousing. 

McCarthy possessed a Luciferian amiability that was mesmerizing; Curley a swashbuckling, picaresque sense of humor; Long a wicked intelligence; and Tillman a truly frightening sincerity. Alas, and quite sadly, House Republicans harbor neither amiability nor humor nor smarts nor sincerity. Matched against the pros, they're batting .000 in the sporting American pastime of Appealing Demagoguery.

In fact they're so disagreeable, so humorless, so bloody insincere and so unspeakably dumb they don't seem to understand that demagoguery is supposed to be appealing.

What they--those they, anyway, on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform--are actually practicing is less demagoguery and more of the "show trial" techniques of the nakedly brutal Joe Stalin. Brutality needs no finesse; indeed it is often resorted to only when finesse just isn't a capable option. Yet because we as a people have to date managed to fundamentally preserve ourselves as a nation of laws--notwithstanding the fundamental lawlessness of the George W. Bush administration--these brutal House clowns can go only so far; blindfolds, stakes, fetters and last cigarettes are but happy elements of their goofy imaginations.

Hence we get down to the real choice of 2012. No, not that of the class, grace, supreme intelligence, extraordinary abilities and remarkable accomplishments of Barack Obama versus the plain oafishness of Mitt Romney. That choice was decided when non-politician Romney began his awkward, overwrought political career nearly twenty years ago. The towering choice facing the American electorate, rather, is whether they really want to keep such an able president in office while saddling him with such a House full of clowns.

Comments

[Susan Zoon]

"House Republicans harbor neither amiability nor humor nor smarts nor sincerity. Matched against the pros, they're batting .000 in the game of Appealing Demagoguery."

I think you're really on to something here. I do think it will come down to personality. Every four years Americans play Dream Date... er... elect a new president and personality usually does win the day.

Just keeping my head from exploding- I can work with this.

[Turgidson]

If I were BHO (and I'm glad I'm not - who would want his job???), I'd condition my acceptance of a 2nd term on the electorate also delivering a majority back to the Democrats in the House.

This bunch in the House right now...egads. Boehner is one of the reasonable ones. That just ain't right.

[Robert Lipscomb]

Last night, I was listening to a discussion about the causes Romney's poll numbers coming out of the primary. The speakers rightly noted that the extremely negative ads by the other GOP candidates had done much harm to Romney, but I think that is a partial explanation.

I think the nastiness of the GOP primary showed the country that the GOP is well ... nasty. Regardless of whom their candidate is, he will be serving a bunch of nasty clowns.

[majii]

Issa never does anything that won't put him in the spotlight. He wants to be the Man's Man, and he thinks the way to do it is to cook up a little controversy about an issue that should have been investigated by having Bush and Obama Administration officials testify. The republicans have no idea how stupid they look. They look like a bunch of braying jackasses, grinning, preening, and displaying faux outrage before the cameras. Even if the House finds AG Holder in contempt, the charge is going nowhere. The U.S. Attorney would have to call a grand jury to examine the evidence. Holder is the U.S. Attorney's boss, and since the president has invoked executive privilege, the U.S. Attorney can't initiate proceedings against the AG. Yep, the republicans in the House are ignorant about the things they should know, but it never keeps them from embarking on another witch hunt, and it never causes them embarrassment by being caught doing stupid things. This is the depth to which their depravity has sunk. They're millimeters away from taking that first step in their dance with Mephistopheles.