Reply #54: Ok, I hear you on that, but don't you and I expect that for every one [View All]

[saltpoint]

Katha Pollitt there'll be three dozen Paula Zahns? That's always what reform is up against -- majority viewpoints.

An enthusiastic bystander told then-candidate Adlai Stevenson at a rally, "Mr. Stevenson, you're the choice of every thinking man and woman in the nation!"

"That's not nearly enough," Stevenson said. "I need a majority."

And he didn't get that majority because a majority of the nation thought Ike was their guy. You and I aren't going to reverse the anti-intellectual vein in American life. Gore Vidal traces it to the very first Calvinist/Puritan/nutbags England dumped onto a boat and sailed west. They were our social founders. While Madison and Franklin and Jefferson convened in Philadelphia, raving fundie nutbags were running our towns and villages and families, and generations down the line, we get numbskulls (literally) like Reagan, shitheels like both Bushes, and a gaggle of maniacs in the U.S. Senate like Santorum and Sessions and Ted Stevens. Jesus. It's an incredibly stiff challenge to be on the Democratic side, especially nowadays.

So when Roberts slammed Lamont, and then apologized on the air to his face, it's noteworthy. Some would say praiseworthy. You can bet a pile of emails gathered at CNN's offices and the top guns understand that you can't smear liberals with lies without challenge. I like that role. I respect Roberts for delivering the apology he truly owed. Lamont accepted the apology. And that's where we stand tonight.