After watching Ramesh deflate like a squeaky mylar balloon on TDS last night, I just had to take a peek around The Corner, where I found K-Lo, Jonah and The Derbster "analyzing" the appearance while desperately hoping that none of their readers had actually watched it.
For the record, it was brilliant. Stewart was as deferential to Ponnuru as his native good sense would allow -- meaning he (almost apologetically) could not help but drop a few gotcha moments on Ramesh's head for the latter's blatant hypocrisy on the abortion issue; the former didn't seem to relish those moments, though. The problem was not, as Derbyshire would have you believe, that Stewart didn't "let him get a word in edgeways," but that Stewart brought up points to which Ramesh had no answer; Stewart was not issuing rapid-fire interruptions, but kindly trying to help Ramesh along when the brilliant cultural critic got a little tongue-tied. Nor was the problem what the Pantload asserted, that TDS's audience was too racuous; they weren't cheering Stewart's pungency as much as laughing when Ramesh couldn't defend his thesis (Stewart, by the way, did his darnedest to keep the audience in check so that Ramesh could have replied if he wanted to.)
La Lopez, natch, all but admitted that she just would have thrown a hissy fit at the first sign of resistance to the ridiculous ideas being forwarded and called it a day -- making her the most honest of the bunch.
I suppose the only diagnosis one can come up with is that the huffy morlocks from NRO (as well as many other corporate slush fund-underwritten Regnery crackpots) have simply grown soft after too many uncritical receptions by "real journalists" at broadcast and cable news networks. It is to Stewart's credit that he didn't bring up the point of sentences for women who have abortions, a point that has shut Ramesh and others up in the past, or the facile hypothetical of the two year-old girl vs. the petri dish full of blastocysts that has had a similarly muting effect on the Right. His questions and responses hewed very close to the real-world, man-on-the-street POV, but no matter how innocuous, he was simply too much for Ramesh to handle.
Ramesh really needs to take a page from Ann Coulter: if your words are going to be as divisive and inflammatory on the page as that, you need to back it up in your personal appearances. Otherwise, you look doubly weenieriffic.
As an aside, it seems that there's an inordinate amount of effort being put by the NRO folks and Ramesh himself into flogging this "Party of Death" book. Is it because the author is a non-white conservative? Is it that the book really is the cream-of-the-crap of the soon to be remaindered tales of fear and sociopathy currently on the market? I don't get what's so special about this book, that it would get any more than some ad blocks on NewsMax and a few shout-outs from D-List wingnutlebrities.
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Comments for Damage Control
blastocysts and weineriffic in one post? does it get any better than this?
So what were the questions he asked Mr. Poonanie? I need some additional questions that go beyond the facile and the overdone.
- Posted at 3:21 PM | By
Man, he got skinned alive in that interview.
Is his voice normally that high and squeaky, or was that just the natural result of his testicles climbing into his larynx?
Is his voice normally that high and squeaky, or was that just the natural result of his testicles climbing into his larynx?
Wingers aren't used to being asked tough questions. Why do you think Dubya has his audiences hand-picked and sequestered? It isn't just because he's stupid; the wingers need to maintain the public appearance of unanimity for the benefit of their retrograde base.
- Posted at 4:07 PM | By
Sam Holloway
dex: heh.
mitzzee: the biggest? Bigger than Jimmy?
chuckles: I didn't check, did he come back and whine later? I was focusing on the others whining on his behalf, tho'...
doggirl: ANAL FISTULA!!!
butchie: Oh, my darling, I can't wait!!! Be there in two shakes...
gregor: Well for one thing he pinned Ramesh down on the whole "we need greater civility in our political discourse" thing. Lovely and reasonable. Then he simply re-read the title of Ramesh's book. Rim-shot.
otto: yeah, he's always like that. If Jonah is a Simpsons conservative, Ramesh is an Oompa Loompa Republican.
cs: exactamente. And then when they're thrust suddenly in front of someone who doesn't absolutely adore and worship them, they fall apart. Sad, really.
ap: I so want Jonah to go on flogging his Nazis were Liberals/Liberals are Nazis crap. Really.
mitzzee: the biggest? Bigger than Jimmy?
chuckles: I didn't check, did he come back and whine later? I was focusing on the others whining on his behalf, tho'...
doggirl: ANAL FISTULA!!!
butchie: Oh, my darling, I can't wait!!! Be there in two shakes...
gregor: Well for one thing he pinned Ramesh down on the whole "we need greater civility in our political discourse" thing. Lovely and reasonable. Then he simply re-read the title of Ramesh's book. Rim-shot.
otto: yeah, he's always like that. If Jonah is a Simpsons conservative, Ramesh is an Oompa Loompa Republican.
cs: exactamente. And then when they're thrust suddenly in front of someone who doesn't absolutely adore and worship them, they fall apart. Sad, really.
ap: I so want Jonah to go on flogging his Nazis were Liberals/Liberals are Nazis crap. Really.
Hissyfit, eh? I'd pay money to put K-Lo on there and watch her get Daily Showned.
- Posted at 10:05 PM | By Ron Mexico
I love how Pantload applauded Token, er, Rameesh, for "going into the pit." Ooh, way to weather a tempest of zingers, tough guy.
Speaking of going into pits, you would think someone that sprang from Lucienne's womb wouldn't scare so easily.
And two points to teh for a Morlock reference.
Speaking of going into pits, you would think someone that sprang from Lucienne's womb wouldn't scare so easily.
And two points to teh for a Morlock reference.
you know, i watched that interview again last night. i really don't see what nro's up in arms about. aside from the audience cutting in, it was all very cordial and even-keel.
what is it about affable, diminutive jewish men that makes them hurl their cheetoes bags?
what is it about affable, diminutive jewish men that makes them hurl their cheetoes bags?
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