Congratulations, Tim Russert! Asshole of the Year

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

By PAUL KRASSNER

http://counterpunch.com/krassner11122007.html

---snip---

It's Tim Russert. The moment he said to Dennis Kucinich at a "debate" among Democratic presidential candidates, "This is a serious question," you knew it wouldn't be. A responsible journalist might have asked, "Why do think that Dick Cheney should be impeached rather than George Bush?" But Russert wanted to further marginalize Kucinich--to ridicule him in a flying saucer kind of way--and, like a trial lawyer who already knows what a defendant's answer will be--his "serious question" was "Did you see a UFO?"

Kucinich tried to explain that the U in UFO means "unidentified" flying object. He joked, "I'm moving my campaign office to Roswell, New Mexico and Exeter, New Hampshire." He pointed out that Jimmy Carter had seen a UFO, and "More people--" Russert interrupted him with a statistic: 14% of Americans had seen UFOs. Kucinich asked him to repeat that number, as if to thank him for inadvertently providing him with the UFO sighters vote. Russert repeated the number and, with the smug satisfaction of having generated a guaranteed sound bite, he said, "I want to ask Senator Obama..."

There was a predictable trickle-down effect. Even Bill Maher mocked Kucinich, though Maher's real target should've been Russert. A few days later, I met a woman who asked me who my ideal candidate is. "Dennis Kucinich," I said. She responded, "Isn't he the one who said he saw some Martians?" Of course, there's a video of that encounter in the secret government implied-blackmail lock-box, along with the video of a threesome--Charles Schumer, Dianne Feinstein and a billy goat--and the video of Rudy Guliani performing an abortion on Pat Robertson's mistress....

[PDittie]

1. O. M. G.

That's really quite a DeMille closeup of something I didn't need to see.

(Is this the sort of thing I'm missing by avoiding teh porn?)

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

3. Try not to get bogged down with the graphic...

...it's just a device -- or an asshole, if you like.

Mom's got all the good porn sites blocked here -- I can't say what you may or may not have been missing.

I do know, however, that every boy needs a hobby -- what's yours?

[PDittie]

18. I play a lot of poke her.

[Kurovski]

9. If by "porn" you mean "Meet the Press" then yes, that's EXACTLY what you're missing.

;-)

[greyl]

2. Paul Krassner fucked up the story.

During the debate, Dennis said something like "More people have seen a UFO than approve of Bush." That's why he asked Russert the asshole to repeat the 14% statistic.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

4. I wasn't aware of that, thanks for the correction. nt.

[gateley]

7. He asked him a couple of times -- which I thought was slick! An old lawyer tactic.

[greyl]

13. Yep, Dennis handled it brilliantly. nt

[UTUSN]

5. K&R big #5, let me be the ONE!1 n/t

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

6. Hey thanks, UTUSN....

...I'm ringing Nana right now with the news -- finally made the greatest page -- HOT DAMN!!!

[UTUSN]

8. Cross post from the Lounge:

*******QUOTE*******

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x7126560

lionesspriyanka (1000+ posts) Sun Nov-11-07 01:48 PM
Original message


Can anyone sum up why a lot of DU'ers dont like Tim Russert?






(My reply: ) Because

1) He *is* harder on Dems than Rethugs, lets Rethugs get away with BAD BAD stuff.


2) He was one of ours, a Dem operative, but now appears to be theirs.

3) He was the first to give LIMBOsevic an opening into the mainstream, hosting him for a few years for an hour long interview that aired each year over the long Thanksgiving holiday with repetitions.

4) His "openness" to wingnuts appears to have come about from the very "bleeding heart liberality" when he got deeper into being a media player, listening to "both" sides, looking for fresh angles from unlikely sources. Iow, he began to give a break to wingnuts from the premise that they really are goodhearted people who had been maligned and marginalized for a generation or more.

5) Or 4.5, GREED made him open up to wingnuts.

6) That Shrub '00 button under his lapel. Has he ever denied it?

7) He lost his roots and became jaded and cynical.


I fear I've gone beyond a summary...
********UNQUOTE*******

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

10. All valid reasons not to like him...

...that stupid self congratulatory grin he sports when he thinks he's said something clever is insufferable -- he's an asshole.

[gratuitous]

11. Dammit, don't do that!

Naming Pumpkinhead the asshole of the year in the second week of November is just going to piss off the other assholes, and we'll be in for seven weeks of the likes of Limbaugh, Savage, Coulter and so many others trying to wrest the title from the champ before December 31.

This is going to get ugly.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

17. Don't worry, still plenty of co-asshole awards to be given out...

...Sometimes a celebrity asshole has to share the spotlight with other celebrity assholes -- it's all part of being a celebrity asshole and they must learn to accept this like the celebrity assholes that they are.

[BigBearJohn]

12. This week Russerts bags under his eyes were so huge he looked like a barn owl

[orleans]

14. i've been thinking about this ufo shit lately--wondering why shirley mclean

must hate dk for printing that in her fucking book.

[gateley]

15. And wasn't the book just released? Even if it's not, she shouldn't have done

that to someone who's holding a public office, even if she is his daughter's godmother. She knows the ridicule that comes with this topic.

On the other hand, maybe she asked his permission and he said okay.

[orleans]

16. she's wacked. it pisses me off that she wrote that. n/t