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January 29, 2006
Katrina Throws Down
Yeah, I guess I deserved that. You know what? Never mind. Katrina vanden Heuvel's slap at me for knocking Tim Kaine's appearance while not looking like Brad Pitt purposefully misses my point. In politics, looks matter. That's why the cover of Katrina's new book features her in a miniskirt. That's why a study found voters could look at pictures of two Senate candidates they'd never seen before and predict the winner with 72 percent accuracy. Kaine will be giving the State of the Union response on behalf of the entire Democratic Party. He will be doing it on television, a medium acknowledged as visual ever since John F. Kennedy won a beauty pageant against Richard Nixon. In this context, just about nothing could be more relevant than his looks.
On a slightly different note, Katrina writes:
For liberal bloggers who want to get exercised about something really important: Where are the Democrats or liberals talking about Ford laying off some 30,000 workers, the end of middle class benefits for working Americans, IBM's gutting of pension security, and the collapse of American manufacturing?
In order, how about here, here, here, and here? There's lots to be said against me, but insufficient attentiveness to the collapse of the corporate welfare state just doesn't stick. Also, one post on something doesn't mean I'm exercised about it. I think this this is a perceptual gap between folks who began in print and those who started on blogs, but I write, between my three sites, about ten different posts a day. That five or six of them orbit health care is fairly good evidence that the subject upsets me; one post on one day focusing on Kaine really doesn't rise to the level of obsession.
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Comments
Wait... was Katrina sizing you up at the conference?
Posted by: August J. Pollak | Jan 29, 2006 5:56:54 PM
Arianna Huffington isn't exactly Angelina Jolie either, but she gets nice things said about her. Just so long as they offered it to Obama and he turned it down, I don't care. I just hope they give him an audience, since the responses always seem fucking ridiculous without applause lines.
Posted by: Drew Miller | Jan 29, 2006 5:57:04 PM
Also, not to turn bloggers on each other here, but WTF, Katrina? Kevin Drum is devoting his site right now to the crucial matter of the party affiliation of a fictional television character, and you've decided the guy working on three different weblogs is the one to bitch about not writing enough?
Posted by: August J. Pollak | Jan 29, 2006 6:02:37 PM
Yeah, I mean, it's not really worth worrying about. In any response to a comment like mine, the standard thing to do is write that X is no supermodel either. Which is true, I guess, but neither was I chosen as the face of the Democratic party for a primetime speech. Katrina, whose new book features a large picture of her in a tight leather miniskirt on the cover, knows that looks matter, so I find the whole argument a bit baffling. As I said at the time, I wish USA Today hadn't picked up that quote, but Kaine has been quite open about his homeliness, and it's hardly irrelevant to a televised appearance. Readers, of course, can make their own determinations as to my looks.
Posted by: Ezra | Jan 29, 2006 6:29:35 PM
Brad Pitt, maybe not. But Jake Gyllenhaal, it's almost uncanny.
Posted by: Sean | Jan 29, 2006 6:43:57 PM
I'm not sure I see it (Brokeback Blogger?), but I get Matt LeBlanc -- otherwise known as Joey from Friends -- with truly depressing regularity.
Posted by: Ezra | Jan 29, 2006 6:48:59 PM
You're a hottie Ezra, but so is KvdH. And it is funny reading The Nation defending a blue dog Dem against an American Prospect/Washington Monthly type. That's what I like about Katrina -- she often goes against the grain and surprises her audience, something I don't expect from The Nation. She's cool.
Posted by: Laura | Jan 29, 2006 7:12:50 PM
Yeah, I guess I deserved that.
As it happens, I don't think you did deserve that. Irrespective of what you look like, even if you yourself were "a squat, squinty, pug-nosed fellow," you weren't chosen by the Democrats to give the SOTU rebuttal. Looks do matter in politics, whether that's fair or not. If you were assessing Kaine's position on the war and called him an ugly bastard in the process, that might have been a cheap shot, but assessing his viability as a good representative for the Dems for a televised appearance is a different story.
For the record, however, I do believe it is completely acceptable to refer to Denny Hastert as a fat, fugly, nauseating, retina-burning tyrannosaurus of turpitude in any post which unfortunately necessitates reference to his loathsome existence. Every rule has an exception.
Posted by: Shakespeare's Sister | Jan 29, 2006 7:29:50 PM
I am so ignorant. I wasn't really familiar with vdH, and I didn't click on the link immediately, and I got terribly confused. I was certain you were anthropomorphizing Katrina the hurricane, and I thought, "Oh, great. We've got a ruined city and displaced people and a federal government doing jack about it...and now there's something *new* about the Katrina aftermath?" But it didn't make sense. Then I clicked and discovered the non-weather-related Katrina. Whew.
Yeah, making appearance-related wisecracks often comes back at you. I'm expecting a karmic smackdown for making fun of Kaye Grogan on another site. But *you*, Ezra! Brad Pitt dreams of looking like you. So very cute. You don't have to be cute to make sense and be worthwhile, but it certainly adds to the fun.
Posted by: larkspur | Jan 29, 2006 7:46:29 PM
Hey youngster, it's vanden Heuvel. know thine enemy
Posted by: ari | Jan 29, 2006 8:42:36 PM
How about an OK corral thing: The Nation vs American Prospect, with several heats of competition:
- fastest draw
- most accurate firing
- best put-downs and psy-ops
- swim suit competition
- wonkery unleashed
- best frowns
- best evil smiles
- suchi-eating contest (replacing hot dogs)
- mud-wrestling
Posted by: JimPortandOR | Jan 29, 2006 9:05:06 PM
There seems to be no visual evidence the Katrina mini-skit is leather (although the jacket is shiny enough to be either leather or faux-plastique). The skirt looks wool or poly.
We need to have facts here, not kinky insinuations.
Posted by: JimPortandOR | Jan 29, 2006 9:09:12 PM
Good point. Down the memory hole goes the leather...
Posted by: Ezra | Jan 29, 2006 9:24:01 PM
Oh please, Ezra. You define sexy Brazilian Jew (if you are Jewish, that is. If not, mea culpa). But, *cough*, that's neither here nor there. As for looks in politicians, being ugly wouldn't stop me from supporting a poltician I liked best for substantive reasons. Voters are unpredictable and many-sided, and you shouldn't try to manipulate them with a lot of hyper-rational, semi-manipulative calculations about to present your side to the voters. It may be that being good-looking is an advantage for a run of the mill successful politician, but it could be that an ugly politician, if she can overcome initial resistance, becomes *especially* beloved and popular, in part because of her ugliness.
And there's a big difference between being liked, and doing what it takes to be liked, and being respected, and doing what it takes to be respected. Respect arguably counts for more in politics. Voters didn't really like the Republican congress in 2004, or even 2002, but they respected certain things about them, and that's why they won.
Posted by: roublen | Jan 29, 2006 9:35:12 PM
You call that a miniskirt? I need some thigh. Katrina looks and writes better than she talks:keep her off MSNBC.
Ezra writes and looks good;I need more good gossip on Unfogged before I know he is ready for primetime.
Posted by: bob mcmanus | Jan 29, 2006 9:42:43 PM
First of all, per Katrina's comparison to you and Brad Pitt, if we could get Brad Pitt to read the State of the Union rebuttal I'd be all for it.
Also, why does Katrina say you're no Brad Pitt, and not you're no (insert male movie star name here)? Is there a hidden-from-the-public's-eye Brad-Katrina relationship we don't know about? And if so, when will BradKat start hitting the tabloids?
Posted by: J. Puckett | Jan 29, 2006 10:22:14 PM
i woke up this morning to find katrina's post and i knew this was coming!
anyway, as a representative of the better-looking magazine, i'd like to offer some defense of katrina's post. ezra, you certainly do blog about the welfare state and basic economic rights with frequency-- and so it was unfair of katrina to lump you in with the rest of the "liberal bloggers."
but, beyond that, don't you think she's got a point? how many bloggers regularly discuss the minimum wage? how many bloggers wrote about the Sago mining disaster and the ridiculously lax OSHA enforcement in the industrial workplace?
with the exception of yourself and a few others, most of the liberal blogosphere is more interested in whether or not Hillary wants to burn flags than in the basic struggles of the working class in this country. and that's a real problem.
Posted by: sam graham-felsen | Jan 30, 2006 12:00:41 AM
Brad Pitt? Nah, I'm not that enthralled with his delivery.
If I had my pick, it'd be Martin Sheen, as long as the response was written by Aaron Sorkin. On the one hand, the Democrats would get hit for their Hollywood connections, but on the other hand, this would be mitigated from the populace's waning grasp on reality.
(I'll admit, the lady does have nice gams...)
Posted by: Royko | Jan 30, 2006 1:07:02 AM
Sam,
Maybe I'm reading the wrong liberal bloggers but blogs like Political Animal, Reality-Based Community, TAPPED, Matthew Yglesias, the rest of TPM Café, TalkingPointsMemo etc all cover the type of issues you raise (Kevin Drum, in particular, had a lot of stuff on OSHA and the Sago disaster).
Posted by: Jacob | Jan 30, 2006 2:51:22 AM
Oh, and this website as well of course.
Posted by: Jacob | Jan 30, 2006 2:55:03 AM
Steve Gilliard says it perfectly....
Why are so many liberal bloggers up in arms about Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine being picked to give the Democrat's reply to Bush's State of the Union? There's been fury in the blogosphere about everything from Kaine's looks, style, obscurity, his open talk about his faith and his inexperience in national security.
Liberal writer Ezra Klein (no Brad Pitt, last time I checked him out) vented that Kaine is "a squat, squinty, pug-nosed fellow." Even the invariably smart and strategic Arianna (Huffington) weighed in: "What the hell are they thinking?" She accused Democrats of picking "someone whose only claim to fame is that he carried a red state" when they need to make the case that "the GOP is not the party that can best keep us safe."
But, let's get real here.
1. It doesn't really matter who gives the reply, since no one listens and it's an impossible task.
2. This is slightly less important than whether House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi chooses to wear blue or red to listen to the speech.
................
4. And, hell, Kaine is pretty liberal for a Virginian. During the campaign, he was derided relentlessly by the GOP, in an expensive and vicious campaign, as "the most liberal candidate who's ever run for governor in the Commonwealth of Virginia's history." Kaine is a guy who made a name for himself working with the American Civil Liberties Union, who connected his faith to his politics in authentic ways (he was a thoughtful opponent of the death penalty), who was an honest and forthright advocate of government's affirmative role--supporting moves to increase taxes to fund education, transportation and environmental programs.......................
For liberal bloggers who want to get exercised about something really important: Where are the Democrats or liberals talking about Ford laying off some 30,000 workers, the end of middle class benefits for working Americans, IBM's gutting of pension security, and the collapse of American manufacturing?
.........................
If you want to know why Dems don't win elections, it won't be because Kaine is talking this Tuesday night. It's because the mainstream leadership of the Democratic party doesn't think, feel, viscerally respond to the increasing insecurities of working americans.
I guess Katrina doesn't read any labor blogs, oddly enough she should, but that's a pig fight for another day.
First, let's start with her cheap shot at Ezra Klein. He wasn't talking about the man's stature for no reason. It's because it matters. And the point of having Jack Murtha speak was to discuss the war and Bush's lies with impecable credibility. We don't need any fucking lectures on Tim Kaine's strengths and weaknesses. We're the ones who backed his campaign. And frankly, we were more concerned with ginning up support for a filibuster than who refuted Bush at the SOTU. A couple of opinions is not a controversy. Less people posted on this than a discussion on mac and cheese I had on this site a few weeks ago.
I mean, I wouldn't call Marc Cooper a fat piece of shit to describe him, beacuse that's cheap, mean and irrelevant, just like that was a cheap and unfair shot about Klein, who unlike some heiresses with a taste for short skirts and leather jackets, didn't have his blog handed to him. It's an unfair use of power and position to smack someone down for no good reason. But he has friends and friends of friends who won't let that little slam go unremarked.
When Jonah Goldberg attacked her over the hurricane, many in the blogosphere ripped him a new asshole for what he did. It was cheap and unfair and we stuck up for her. This is our repayment.
Ever wonder why liberals get their ass kicked? Because they don't take things seriously like responding to the State of the Union. It may not matter to her and the cocktail party circuit, but it matters to millions of people on TV to hear they've been told bullshit by the President. If she thinks it's on par with Nancy Pelosi's clothing choices, well.........
"Pretty liberal for a Virginian". Wow, not condescending at all. That's pretty much like saying "he speaks well for a black man". And she's giving lectures on what Democrats miss? Well, fuck me, she just sneered at the fairly large number of liberal democrats in Virginia (UVA, what's that?) like they were trained monkeys or something. Just because he has an accent doesn't mean he's a racist or a conservative. There are liberals in every part of the country, but not to the Nation.
She's has the gall to lecture us on workers rights? I mean, I could swing a dead cat around the Nation's offices before hitting a black person. Did you ever notice this city was 57 percent minority? What, not enough blacks or hispanics at NYU or City College to offer internships to? Or only when you know the parents do the offers come through. It's easy to talk about 30,0o0 Ford employees you'll never meet.
But don't you think something is just fucked up when you look around your offices and it looks as white as a country club? You want to talk about visceral? Let's talk about your hiring practices. You want to talk about Democrats and liberals, yet your own publication reflects an increasingly narrow and unrepresentative slice of liberal ideology, one which oddly enough, people are rejecting to read blogs for. Who do you speak for? Not the majority of New Yorkers or urban america, except through a filter of uper middle class entitlement and distant concern.
So I'm in no mood to take lectures from people who have no clue about what Democrats or bloggers even do. And is frankly so spineless as to keep the aformentioned Marc Cooper on the masthead, after he shit on the staff of the Nation to cozy up to his reactionary buddies at Pajamas Media. If the Nation was run by some of the tough minded people who run blogs, his ass would have been bouncing down the street.
posted by Steve @ 1:59:00 AM
Posted by: Bob | Jan 30, 2006 5:58:44 AM
It would help if you spelled her name correctly: Heuvel.
Posted by: Jon Bolton | Jan 30, 2006 9:36:29 AM
Actually, you really are QUITE good looking!
Posted by: Alexandra | Jan 30, 2006 10:05:28 AM
Let me second that, and are you free for lunch next week?
Posted by: Miracle Max | Jan 30, 2006 12:14:35 PM
I'm with Steve Gilliard on this one. There were plenty of reasons not to go with Kaine and I've seen plenty of bloggers out there up in arms about health care, job security, mining safety, etc.
And yes, Ezra, you're quite the hot male creature. She's totally off base on that as well as quite a few other things.
Posted by: Molly Black | Jan 30, 2006 12:37:57 PM
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