Matt Taibbi's latest offering at Rolling Stone is absolutely savage. Entitled "The Crying Shame of John Boehner" it contains some of the most scorched-earth political writing I've seen since the glory days of Hunter S. Thompson. It's a long piece, but absolutely worth the time it takes to read. Some of the tastier bits:
John Boehner is the ultimate Beltway hack, a man whose unmatched and self-serving skill at political survival has made him, after two decades in Washington, the hairy blue mold on the American congressional sandwich.
And that's just the first sentence! It gets better...
The Democrats have plenty of creatures like Boehner. But in the new Speaker of the House, the Republicans own the perfect archetype — the quintessential example of the kind of glad-handing, double-talking, K Street toady who has dominated the politics of both parties for decades. In sports, we talk about athletes who are the "total package," and that term comes close to describing Boehner's talent for perpetuating our corrupt and debt-addled status quo: He's a five-tool insider who can lie, cheat, steal, play golf, change his mind on command and do anything else his lobbyist buddies and campaign contributors require of him to get the job done....
After all, the modus operandi for Bush Republicans like Boehner has always been to talk a good game on spending cuts, so long as the cuts were coming out of the food-stamp program or aid to Katrina victims — but they would never go so far, or be so radical, as to cut overall spending, which would require scaling back the industry handouts they have spent so much time putting together on the golf courses of America...
This was always going to be the model of how Republican Party hacks would deal with the Tea Party: Bash the living hell out of hated blue-state Gorgons like Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama, jack off the mob by incorporating the Tea Party's Constitution-and-liberty rhetoric, hand the Tea Party those reforms that the GOP's big campaign contributors want anyway (most notably, tax breaks for the rich and deregulation of big business), and then cough up a note from the doctor or some other lame excuse when the time comes to actually cut spending.
Really. Read the whole thing. I think I need to buy this guy's books....
I just detest this guy. When is he going to cry for someone other than himself or his rich Republican friends.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Taibbi got my attention after the '08 Wall Street swindle. There's no other columnist laying it down like this guy. The vintage Thompson comparisons are on the money. P.S., the content, in addition to being a hell of a read, is right on the money.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link. Neat read.
ReplyDeleteOne of the oddest things about the Tea Partiers is that many of the things they believe in - liking cutting overall spending and the deficit - are supported by most everyone. But, the nitwits and nutjobs go front-and-center, beating the drum, and rational people are driven far away.
I've loved Taibbi's essays for awhile. But I read his "Great Derangement" and didn't think his writing held up so well for a whole book. I'd be interested in your opinion, if you get around to reading it.
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