Tuesday, February 26, 2013

How To Recognise "Prominent" Republicans



From quite a long way away.

Reverse-engineering this story from the Big City Newspaper, it's clear that the chief characteristics of "Prominent" Republicans are A) their complete lack of positions of power within the actual Republican party itself, B) a long absence from holding any elected office of any kind and C) an almost impervious cloak of media invisibly -- sort of like what Newt Gingrich would be if he made drastically fewer appearances on "Meet the Gregory" and if everyone in the Party of Personal Responsibility agreed to ignore him.


#1 The Huntsman
 
The. Huntsman.


Charles P. Pierce has a helpful field guide here:
Seriously, is there one person on that list of serious influence in the Republican party, and it's not Huntsman, god knows, who is a person of serious influence only in the Republican party that exists in the heads of the people in various green rooms. Bill Weld, god love him, has been out of public life since 1996 and Jane Swift wasn't a "well-known" Republican in Massachusetts even when she was governor. Christine Todd Whitman is an influential Republican? Since when? You might as well be talking about William Seward.

2 comments:

ChiefD said...

Deb Pryce? DEB PRYCE?? Christ on a cracker, I work in her old district and she's neither influential nor currently well-known even there.

ScarabusRedivivus said...

"Influential" is a relative term, isn't it. Where? When? Among whom (and how many of them)?

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

The Python bit about the larch reminded me of a poem by Henry Reed, "Judging Distances." Here's a snippet:

Judging Distances

Not only how far away, but the way that you say it

Is very important. Perhaps You may never get

The knack of judging a distance, but at least you know

How to report on a landscape: the central sector,

The right of the arc and that, which we had last Tuesday,

And at least you know

That maps are of time, not place, so far as the army

Happens to be concerned-- the reason being,

Is one which need not delay us. Again, you know

There are three kinds of tree, three only, the fir and the poplar,

And those which have bushy tops to; and lastly

That things only seem to be things.

Text: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/judging-distances/

Audio (Reed himself): http://www.solearabiantree.net/namingofparts/audio/judgingdistances1959.mp3