Gandhi Wuz Robbed

[Beacool]

By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: October 10, 2009

When he heard the Nobel Peace Prize shocker on Friday, Bill Clinton went into one of his purple rages. He picked up the phone and dialed the one person on earth who would be as steamed as he was.

CLINTON: Hey, man, it’s me. This thing is plumb crazy. Can you believe it?

W: No way, Jose!

CLINTON: First that prig Carter. Then that prig Gore. And now President Paris Hilton. The guy’s in office three days and he gets the peace prize? He should have gotten the Nobel in chemistry, because chemistry’s all he’s got. Talk about a fairy tale. This ... is ... just ... wrong! It’s killing me, man. I feel like my head’s explodin’. First I had the vast right-wing conspiracy, and now I have the vast left-wing conspiracy.

W.: I hear ya, 42. As if his head wasn’t big enough. This cat is all cage, no bird. He doesn’t have a clue.

CLINTON: Heck no.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/opinion/11dowd.html?em

Ahhhh MoDo, always oozing vitriol. Managed to outdo herself this time by striking at three presidents at once.

:eyes:

[ErinBerin84]

1. yes, she's such a weirdo

I can't wait until Obama, Hillary, and Bill are ALL Nobel winners...I don't doubt it will happen. She would be better served to note that this is a far better possibility than someone in the Republican party is to get it, alas, that would get in the way of one of her favorite obsessions.

[Beacool]

3. I just think that she's just an unhappy woman.

Her dislike of the Clintons borders on the pathological. But notice how she didn't have the guts to say what she thought of Obama winning the Nobel. Instead, she used "Bill" and "W" to do it for her.

;(

[ErinBerin84]

4. she sounds half way lucid in some columns

but stuff like this (which she does far too often), good god, it pains me that she gets a salary for this.

[BlueMTexpat]

18. She just can't stop her "scorpion" alterego from doing

what it has to do. Just like the fable: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scorpion_and_the_Frog

Yes, she IS painful. :hi:

[Beacool]

28. True!!!

I love Aesop and La Fontaine's fables. They were two of my favorites as a child.

:)

[BluegrassDem]

5. On the flip side, doesn't your hate for Obama border on the pathological as well?

I mean, I don't see much difference between how Dowd hates the Clintons and you hating the Obamas? She just writes articles about it, and you just post yours on a message board. I don't see much daylight between the two. If I'm wrong, please enlighten me as to how.

[Autumn]

7. I am amazed at how many people

have a pathological hatred for all things Clinton. I really think she must have had a thing for Bill,and he just wasn't interested.:rofl: I can hardly wait for Hillary to win a Nobel (and I believe she will) just to watch the melt down. They have such an unhealthy obsession.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

8. Warmonger Hillary winning a Nobel Peace Prize? Please, get real.

[Autumn]

9. What is real is that it is the President

who has the options to start,as Bush did or to continue wars, as Obama has. Yeah I do think she will get a Nobel eventually.

[Beacool]

10. Yes, Maureen is rumored to have had a thing for Bill.

Bill was smart enough not to go there and she has hated him ever since. She can't stand Hillary because she's basically jealous of her. At least that has been the rumor in NY for years. The best thing Michael Douglas ever did was to dump her for Catherine Zeta Jones.

:)

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

19. U can't blame Mike Douglas 4 trading up but Bill would settle 4 Modo if she had offered...

I thought the same thing once, but then again, it's much more likely Bill would never turn it down.

[Beacool]

24. Well, apparently he didn't.

:shrug:

[Peacetrain]

2. There are times I do not get her at all.. Is she just cantankerous to be cantankerous?

[Beacool]

6. She fancies she's a female version of Oscar Wilde or Noel Coward.

She probably would have loved to have attended a British salon dressed ala George Sand while smoking a cigarette from a long holder.

:eyes:

[chollybocker]

14. Bwaaahahaha!

Great image.

...or perhaps a non-penile version, i.e., Dorothy Parker?

Anyways, LOL. :)

[Beacool]

15. Yeah, she probably would have loved to have held court at the Algonquin Hotel.

:rofl:

[chollybocker]

16. Someday, I hope to sip martinis at the Algonquin....

...but I can assure you Maureen Dowd's name will never come up. Out of respect. ;)

[Beacool]

25. That sounds very nice

They have a nice cabaret and bring good singers.

:-)

[Vattel]

32. perfect: you captured her essence

[Beacool]

34. Thank you!!

As I take a deep bow with an added flourish.....

:D

[firedupdem]

11. Vitriol? Is it vitriol because Clinton's name was used?...must

be, because you pushed even worse vitriol the day he won.

[Beacool]

12. The vitriol was directed at all 3 presidents.

But go ahead and defend her.

:eyes:

[firedupdem]

13. Again, you are upset at it being directed to W and Clinton?

You were pushing the same garbage she did on Friday.

[CakeGrrl]

17. Yep, you've got it right

The only offensive thing about this to the OP was that MoDo insulted Clinton.

Just the other day, she was talking about the "stupidity" of the Nobel Committee, and that the award was a "popularity contest" giveaway. In other words, since she hated President Obama getting it, it wasn't worth having.

I guess if Hillary gets it, the prestige will magically be restored and the Nobel Committee will be in her good graces again as sage individuals.

:rofl:

[ErinBerin84]

20. that's too bad

It reflects good on the whole Obama administration that Obama got the nobel, including Hillary since she is a part of diplomatic efforts. Just as it would reflect well on Obama if she were to get it. I did read the post that claims this proved it is "politicized", which I don't know how to take. Obama and Hillary both stand for moving the country in a different direction than the Bush years and focusing on diplomacy. If the nobel committee wants to make that political statement, I'm all for it, and I don't know how a fan of Hillary's could disagree. It helps the administrations' efforts in the world.

Did the most deserving person get the prize? Does the most deserving person EVER get the prize?

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

21. Jealosy explains it.

[Beacool]

23. I refer you to my response above to Cake Grrl

;-)

[Beacool]

22. I said more than once that Hillary wouldn't have deserved it either at this point in time.

An award of the stature of the Nobel Peace Prize should be given for actual accomplishments, not for "maybes", "perhaps", "will see", good intentions.

It cheapens the award and it embarrasses the recipient to receive something not yet earned.

:eyes:

[ErinBerin84]

26. well

no use crying over spilt milk...we could talk about how this cheapens the whole thing etc, but we might as well try to leverage it since it's a done deal. The only ones who decide whether or not the person was deserving is the nobel committee. I'm sure the State department feels emboldened ,not embarrassed .

I think the press reacts partly in hostility to this (again, was he the most deserving? Of course not. But the most deserving in my opinion hardly ever wins) because they have to report on actual diplomatic progress, policy, etc, when they would rather talk about stupid memes (remember how much attention was given to Hillary's comments on her trip to Africa, instead of the actual work she was doing in Africa? The press is lazy). Plus, it makes them have egg on their face after the whole olympic nonsense and "is Obama losing his international prestige?" Again, the olympic commmittee and the nobel committee do NOT stand for the whole world , but it's their decision, and we might as well make the most of it. As someone else said, it would have been nice if the press had reacted with the same hosility and suspicion during the mission accomplished photo op.

[Beacool]

27. I rather the award would have gone to one of those countless people who have fought

against the repression in their homeland. Someone like previous recipient Aung San Suu Kyi (Myanmar's pro democracy activist).

If they were going to give it to a sitting president, then I would think that Chile's Michelle Bachelet is far more worthy of the award. She and her mother were tortured under the Pinochet regime.

Torture and exile
Facing growing food shortages, the government of Salvador Allende placed Bachelet's father in charge of the Food Distribution Office. When the dictator General Augusto Pinochet came to power in the September 11, 1973 coup, General Bachelet, refusing exile, was detained at the Air War Academy, under charges of treason. Following months of daily torture at Santiago's Public Prison, on March 12, 1974, he suffered a cardiac arrest that resulted in his death. On January 10, 1975, Bachelet and her mother were detained at their apartment by two DINA agents, who blindfolded them and drove them to Villa Grimaldi, a notorious secret detention center in Santiago, where they were separated and submitted to interrogation and torture.<13> Some days later they were transferred to Cuatro Álamos ("Four Poplars") detention center, where they were held until the end of January.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Bachelet

[ErinBerin84]

29. again, that's more than fair

But we're not the ones who decide. The ones who most deserve the award in our eyes usually do not win out. Big deal.There were people who I thought deserved it over Gore, but I was still proud of him. You know what I mean? I guess what I'm saying is, this is not some big deviation from the history of the nobel committee.

[Beacool]

30. I understand, but at least Gore had a list of actual accomplishments under his belt.

You may want to read this, it's an interesting article from The New Yorker.

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2009/10/19/091019taco_talk_hertzberg

:-)

[ErinBerin84]

31. yes

I do think that there is a difference between Gore getting it and Obama getting it, but whatever. I give up. I read the New Yorker article , and I find the author's assertion that this is "widely considered a bad break for Obama" to be a little silly . There is a difference between saying that the prize was premature and all of this "THIS IS BAD NEWS FOR OBAMA" stuff. It's not the first time that the Nobel committee has awarded for a work in progress. Some times when they have done this, they have gotten it wrong. Others they have gotten it right. But it's nothing new, and not really our job to determine it. I think it undermines our efforts to use the "empty suit" offense, I would rather congratulate but remind that the big work remains ahead, which I'm sure Obama is aware of.

[Beacool]

33. Yes, I agree that he is aware of it.

Take care!!!

:hi:

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

35. Which is why Obama got the Nobel Prize and Hillary didn't. . .

Maybe when they start acknowledging Hillary for some actual accomplishments-not just her wardrobe-that lead to a more peaceful world, she'll be nominated to receive this prestigious award, if not win it as Obama did to the delight of most everyone who is objective.