And He Seems to Think This Happens to Everybody
A number of bloggers have commented on this already, so I'm not going to try to add anything new, but this has been a topic of much conversation at our house. David Brooks is a New York Times columnist. He was being interviewed on MSNBC, and he said this:
Now, I admit, this has never happened to me, so I can't tell you exactly what I'd do. But my reaction would be more like Fixer at Alternate Brain, who said, "Anybody, man or woman, who would take liberties like that with me, uninvited, would be making a visit to the emergency room to get the bones in their fingers reset."
I just imagine the guy sitting there, letting some senator grope him all through dinner.
It's just, it seems, it just ... I don't know what to say.
BROOKS: You know, all three of us spend a lot of time covering politicians and I don’t know about you guys, but in my view, they’re all emotional freaks of one sort or another. They’re guaranteed to invade your personal space, touch you. I sat next to a Republican senator once at dinner and he had his hand on my inner thigh the whole time. I was like, ehh, get me out of here.
HARWOOD: What?
BROOKS: I can only imagine what happens to you guys.
O’DONNELL: Sorry, who was that?
BROOKS: I’m not telling you, I’m not telling you. David Brooks says a Republican senator groped his thigh at a dinner party
Now, I admit, this has never happened to me, so I can't tell you exactly what I'd do. But my reaction would be more like Fixer at Alternate Brain, who said, "Anybody, man or woman, who would take liberties like that with me, uninvited, would be making a visit to the emergency room to get the bones in their fingers reset."
I just imagine the guy sitting there, letting some senator grope him all through dinner.
It's just, it seems, it just ... I don't know what to say.
posted by JimK at 7:05 PM
30 Comments:
Anyone who goes public with a story like this, and refuses to finger the culprit, either:
1. Liked being groped, but feels guilty about it; or
2. Is completely lying.
That's right! Reporters never do anything to protect their sources!
Sure don't!
WASHINGTON (July 12) – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said she's not only staying involved in national politics, but she plans to jump back into the national scrum when she leaves office at the end of the month.
The former Republican vice presidential nominee said she plans to write a book, campaign for political candidates from coast to coast — even Democrats who share her views on limited government, national defense and energy independence — and build a right-of-center coalition.
"I will go around the country on behalf of candidates who believe in the right things, regardless of their party label or affiliation," she said during an interview published Sunday in The Washington Times.
Republican Women Federated of Simi Valley announced Palin was scheduled to speak to the group's private gala on Aug. 8 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California.
The event will take place in an airplane hangar that houses a retired presidential aircraft Air Force One.
Palin defended the decision to resign because "pragmatically, Alaska would be better off" if her state weren't spending time on ethical complaints against her.
Her 2008 running mate disputed suggestions the telegenic and plainspoken soon-to-be-former-official was a quitter.
"Oh, I don't think she quit," said Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee in 2008 who plucked Palin out of near-obscurity and made her a household name. "I think she changed her priorities."
For now, though, Palin isn't detailing those priorities.
"I'm not ruling out anything. It is the way I have lived my life from the youngest age," she said in the Washington Times interview. "Let me peek out there and see if there's an open door somewhere. And if there's even a little crack of light, I'll hope to plow through it."
The self-described hockey mom plans to write a memoir but declined to discuss any potential deal for her to become a television commentator.
"I can't talk about any of those things while I'm still governor," she said.
Yet she's already reminding audiences of her bipartisan and family-oriented appeal.
"People are so tired of the partisan stuff even my own son is not a Republican," Palin said.
Like his father, 20-year-old Track Palin is registered as "nonpartisan" in Alaska, she said.
McCain said he believes Palin will play a major role in politics, telling NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that "she has the ability to ignite our party and to galvanize us and get us going again and give us a strong positive message."
Here we Perot again! Bring it on!
dream on, Anon-B
in 2012:
BO will be Jimmy Carter
Sarah will be Ronald Reagan
missile defense will be Barry's Panama Canal
North Korea will be his Iran
the economy will be his economy
Ronald Reagan? USA Today thinks she's trying to be Queen Esther:
Palin joins Miss California in the Queen Esther pageant
"Queen Esther, the Jewish beauty who was plucked from the Persian king's harem to become queen and wound up saving her people at the risk of her own life, is getting quite a workout this summer.
First, Miss California Carrie Prejean, the beauty queen who took it in the crown -- risking and finally losing it -- was touted as the QE for our times because, she says, she took a Christian conservative stance against gay marriage.
Prejean avoids mention of failing to make contracted appearances that came with her title but that could qualify as breaking man's rules in the name of a Higher Authority.
And who does that sound like? Yes, the Esther mantle is firmly on the buffed shoulders of soon-to-be-ex governor of Alaska Sarah Palin.
She's all over the airwaves and social networks saying that she's been unfairly pilloried for her family (read Christian) values but she'll press forward like a righteous point guard because the right is on her side. Figuratively if not literally.
Andrew Sullivan, in possibly his shortest Daily Dish post (he bashes Palin at length throughout the day), got the morning going with this a post on "The Esther Syndrome."
"That's the dog-whistle behind "If I die, I die." It's a quote from the Biblical figure, Queen Esther, who rose from being a Beauty Queen to being the champion of the Jewish people in their battle for survival. Now imagine if McCain had won, had to resign because of illness, and we were facing an international crisis with Iran. Now take a Xanax."
The first line that always comes to mind from the Book of Esther is where her uncle steels her to step into the dangerous spotlight because God made her "for such a time as this." Palin went to the same book with "If I die, I die," a paraphrase of Esther 4:16:
"When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish."
Now, YOU take a Xanax, Sullivan, say the fans of Palin at New Wineskins who revived their praise of her in September as a modern-day Esther, wise in the ways of power despite inexperience:
Despite the (mainstream media's) hypocritical attempts to change the subject to her supposed irresponsibility in not staying home and baking cookies, she is rather well versed in international affairs... Having a true view of human nature and an understanding that evil really does exist is an excellent starting point.
DO YOU THINK ...Sarah Palin is a new Queen Esther -- or is the Biblical queen getting some strange sisters?"
great, Anon-B
Sarah didn't mention Esther and their stories really have no similarities
so, you have to stoop to putting words in her mouth and then attacking her for what you think she means
shows you have no real material
Andrew Sullivan?
the gay that runs the gay movemnt in America with Barney Frank?
we'll keep in mond who's political rhetoric you're modeling yourself after
Note to John McCain: quitting because you have "changed your priorities" is quitting. Staying on, maintaining the priorities you pledged to work on and delaying the personal rewards of following your new "priorities" because you took an oath to do the job the people of your state selected you to do is leadership.
Sarah Palin chose quitting over leadership. Personally I think Alaska is better off because of it, but yes, she did quit. She really did.
"Anonymous"
Your fixation and obsession with Ms. Palin is a little scary! I sure hope you are able to control yourself in the privacy of your own home!!
shows you have no real material
Go complain to USA Today if you don't like their material.
While you're at it you can complain to The Nation for their report:
Sarah Palin took the biblical Queen Esther as her role model when she became governor, according to her former pastor--a report that suggests her ties to Jewish history are stronger than you might have expected...[Paul E. Riley, her former pastor in the Assembly of God Church] recommended the Old Testament story of Esther, the beautiful Jewish queen who persuaded the Persian king to save the Jews from annihilation and instead let them kill their enemies.
Or perhaps you'd rather take it up with the NYTimes, which reported:
"WASILLA, Alaska — Shortly after taking office as governor in 2006, Sarah Palin sent an e-mail message to Paul E. Riley, her former pastor in the Assembly of God Church, which her family began attending when she was a youth. She needed spiritual advice in how to do her new job, said Mr. Riley, who is 78 and retired from the church.
“She asked for a biblical example of people who were great leaders and what was the secret of their leadership,” Mr. Riley said.
He wrote back that she should read again from the Old Testament the story of Esther, a beauty queen who became a real one, gaining the king’s ear to avert the slaughter of the Jews and vanquish their enemies. When Esther is called to serve, God grants her a strength she never knew she had. "
Or maybe you prefer The American Prospect's piece, "Sarah Palin, Annointed" which reported:
Many evangelicals are talking about Palin being like the biblical Queen Esther, who saved the Jews from the genocidal Haman, and believe that Palin has come, like Esther did, "for a time such as this." (The same narrative built around George W. Bush when he was running. [And look how disasterously that turned out!]) My charismatic source added, "The beauty queen hidden away until an appointed time. The newscaster training, her rise in service, etc. But I just think her authenticity resonates with believers. They feel like she is real. I believe many feel she has been hidden for this time in accordance with God's plan. At least that is their hope."
Or maybe Palin's Deborah, if you believe a friend of Jim Bramlett, author and former vice president with the Christian Broadcasting Network, who said:
Back in the 1980s, I sensed that Israel's little-known Benjamin Netanyahu was chosen by God for an important end-time role. I still believe that. I now have that same sense about Sarah Palin.
Today I did some checking and discovered that both her first and last names are biblical words, one in Hebrew the other in Greek:
Sarah. Wife of Abraham and mother of Isaac. In Hebrew, Sarah means "noble woman" (Strong's 8283).
Palin. In Greek, the word means "renewal." (Strong's 3825).
A friend said he believes that Sarah Palin is a Deborah. Of Deborah, Smith's Bible Dictionary says, "A prophetess who judged Israel…. She was not so much a judge as one gifted with prophetic command…. and by virtue of her inspiration 'a mother in Israel.'"
Only God knows the future and how she may be used by Him, but may this noble woman serve to bring renewal in the land, and inspiration.
Jim
"Sarah Palin chose quitting over leadership. Personally I think Alaska is better off because of it, but yes, she did quit. She really did."
This is just a bunch of terrified liberal propaganda.
As she agreed to do when she took her oath of office, she did what was best for the state of Alaska.
Circumstances had changed and she was no longer the best person for the job.
History is filled tragedies caused by politicians that believed they should stay in office regardless of the consequences.
Like a ghost from an ancient castle, Sarah rattles the resurrection of the Reagan coalition, addressing Democrats dissatisfied with the direction of their party.
To the horror of Tish and Anon-B, this is no nightmare. Sarah's for real.
BOO!
Well, Deborah might be a little closer to Sarah but I still think Anon-BS is lacking material.
Deborah was a leader. Esther was suffering under the type of repression that females in Persia and Arab parts of the Mid-East still suffer from. She showed leadership of a kind but she didn't have that formal role as Deborah.
Are you implying that something is wrong with looking to biblical examples of leadership?
Sarah is beginning to coalesce some of the issues that will bring Barry O down in 2012:
"The life and death saga of the D.C. voucher program for low-income families continues. A majority of the members of the D.C. Council recently sent a letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan expressing solid support for continuing the program. "We strongly urge you to stand with us in supporting these children and continuing the District's Opportunity Scholarship Program," says the letter. "We believe we simply cannot turn our backs on these families because doing so will deny their children the quality education they deserve."
Earlier this year Illinois Senator Dick Durbin added language to a spending bill that phases out the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program after next year. The program provides 1,700 kids $7,500 per year to use toward tuition at a private school of their parents' choosing. Mr. Durbin's amendment says no federal money can be spent on the program beyond 2010 unless Congress reauthorizes it and the D.C. Council approves.
The D.C. Council's letter shows that support for these vouchers is real at the local level and that the opposition exists mainly at the level of the national Democratic Party. Mr. Durbin has suggested that he included the D.C. Council provision in deference to local control. "The government of Washington, D.C., should decide whether they want it in their school district," he said in March. Well now we know where D.C. stands. We will now see if the national party stands for putting union power and money above the future of poor children."
Of course, another issue is the damage Obama is doing to our image abroad. He has now gone to bothe the Mid-East and Russia and implied that America is no better than the thugs there. Oh yeah, he also thanked Daniel Ortega for not blaming him for all the horrible things America has done:
"Asked at a NATO meeting in France in April whether he believed in American exceptionalism, the president said, "I believe in American Exceptionalism just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism." In other words, not so much.
The Obama administration does seem to believe in another kind of exceptionalism -- Obama exceptionalism. "We have the best brand on Earth: the Obama brand," one Obama handler has said. What they don't seem to realize is that once you're president, your brand is America, and the American people expect you to defend us against lies, not embrace or ignore them. We also expect you to know your history."
It surprises me that this reporter would just sit there and be uncomfortable. My automatic reaction would be to push the hand away and say "Keep your hands to yourself". Surely this would be most people's reaction, wouldn't it?
Bad anonymous, thanks for more hilarious predictions of the future. We remember all too well how you've previously asserted your wishful thinking was inevitable reality - the republicans were going to clean up in the 2006 elections, Huckabee would be president, Huckabee would be Mccain's running mate, Colin Powel would be Mccain's running mate, Condoleeza Rice would be Mccain's running mate, Mccain would handily win the 2008 election, the shower nuts would collect enough signatures to put the Maryland trans anti-discrimination law on the ballot, the anti-discrimination law would be overturned, and on and on. Like the fool you are you haven't learned from your huge volume of past idiotic predictions and now continue to talk like your delusional fantasies must come true.
Bad anonymous said "Are you implying that something is wrong with looking to biblical examples of leadership?".
No, nothing wrong with that. Just as there's nothing wrong with looking to example's of leadership in the Harry Potter books.
http://www.atheistalliance.org/Latest/Christianity-is-Finished-in-Britain-says-Church-of-England-Bishop.html
"Christianity is Finished in Britain, says Church of England Bishop
A long-serving Church of England bishop has predicted that the Church of England will cease to exist within a generation. In an article in the Sunday Telegraph, the Right Reverend Paul Richardson said declining church attendance and the rise in multiculturalism meant that "Christian Britain is dead".
The Church is rapidly declining, with attendances at its services in freefall, a proposal on the table at the next General Synod meeting to cut the number of bishops, and huge holes in its finances due to the economic downturn and a lack of congregants to donate to the collection plate.
Richardson said that the Church had lost more than one in ten of its regular worshippers between 1996 and 2006, with a fall from more than one million to 880,000.
"At this rate it is hard to see the church surviving for more than 30 years though few of its leaders are prepared to face that possibility," said Richardson."
The inevitable trend continues.
As people become better educated and more financially secure they stop believing in myths.
then, why is the wealthiest nation on Earth and the place most wealthy foreigners send their kids to school, the most Christian?
"No, nothing wrong with that. Just as there's nothing wrong with looking to example's of leadership in the Harry Potter books."
Could you tell, Anon-BS?
She thinks she's on to a new scandal.
"Bad anonymous, thanks for more hilarious predictions of the future."
You know, Priya, everyone knows that one can't tell the future.
Obama may yet convert to a fiscally responsible and loyal American who is concerned with welfare of disadvantaged youth and thus get re-elected.
The ones in real trouble are people like you who can't even recognize present reality.
Don't seek treatment though.
It may cause harm by depressing you or estranging you from your family.
This post has been removed by the author.
Bad anonymous said "then, why is the wealthiest nation on Earth and the place most wealthy foreigners send their kids to school, the most Christian?".
I have my doubts that most wealthy foreigners send their kids to school in the U.S. - let's see some non-Christian/non-right wing sources showing that.
Americans are more insecure than people are in countries like Britain, Canada, and Scandinavia. They have no universal health care, social safety net, job security, and have one of the highest crime and social dysfunction rates in the world. The gap between rich and poor is huge in the U.S. While you consider it one of the wealthiest countries in the world most of that wealth is concentrated amongst very few people. In fact the gap between the rich and poor in the U.S. has never been greater and history has shown that at a certain ration revolution becomes likely. The U.S. is nearing that ratio. Most Americans are quite insecure people, that's why they cling to religion at higher rates than other democratic countries. However, even in the U.S. the rate of religiosity is declining as education levels increase and the internet provides access to reality based information that religious leaders had formerly had the power to deny to people.
I said "No, nothing wrong with that. Just as there's nothing wrong with looking to example's of leadership in the Harry Potter books."
Bad anonymous said "Could you tell, Anon-BS?
She thinks she's on to a new scandal.".
LOL, you really are dense. That was sarcasam. Looking for examples of leadership in myths written by primative bigotted sheep hearders is not a good idea.
Bad anonymmous said "You know, Priya, everyone knows that one can't tell the future."
Apparently everyone except you - "President Huckabee's going to do this and president Huckabee's going to do that...". Fool.
Andrea- not anon
The whole David Brooks story sounds strange to me. I have met him but hardly know him- my best source on him is out of the country but I will be asking when her trip is over. There are two extremely odd parts- 1.if it actually happened and he did nothing and 2. that he is telling this story now.
Please- Palin as Queen Esther- yeah ,right. Esther saved her people- Palin is trying to sell herself.
To the horror of Tish and Anon-B, this is no nightmare. Sarah's for real.
If mentioning a politician means the person mentioning him/her is in "horror" or having a "nightmare," then you appear to be having an apoplectic fit about your new President Barack Hussein Obama.
Are you implying that something is wrong with looking to biblical examples of leadership?
No, I was contrasting your comparison of Palin to Reagan with mainstream reporting that her minister recommended she use Queen Esther as her inspiration. I never said or implied there was anything "wrong." That's just you spinning and shoving words into my mouth, as usual.
She thinks she's on to a new scandal.
I never said there was a "scandal" either. In your knee-knockin' panic over President Obama's popular leadership, you keep imagining I've said things I haven't.
Drip drip drip
Interesting Saturday night NYTimes report, Cheney Is Linked to Concealment of C.I.A. Project :
The Central Intelligence Agency withheld information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress for eight years on direct orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney, the agency’s director, Leon E. Panetta, has told the Senate and House intelligence committees, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said Saturday.
Following the Times lead, the WSJ reported about Dick Cheney's order to the CIA to keep an "authorization to capture or kill" our enemies secret from Congress:
Ms. Feinstein said Mr. Panetta told the lawmakers that Mr. Cheney had ordered that the information be withheld from Congress. [The recently very media accessible] Mr. Cheney on Sunday couldn't be reached for comment through former White House aides.
Funny, when the press wants to reach him on a matter concerning his own conduct, Dick decides it's time to go back into hiding, much to the relief of some in his party. No doubt he's thinking, "Oh the horror! What a nightmare! My secrets are coming out!"
I, for one, already assumed the government was trying to capture and kill al quaeda members.
With a group who regularly chants "Death to America" and has made good on it, why not?
I think Anon-BS was recently making some big deal out of the fact the Bristol Palin's ex-fiancee was saying Sarah Palin quit for the purposes of "cashing in".
He apparently was on several talk shows yesterday and was contradicting himself and changing his story.
Sounds like a potential honorary member of TTF.
here's on for the sanctimonious Anon-B:
"The CIA program that's the subject of congressional histrionics over who should have been told what when turns out to have been a plan to send assassins to kill Al Qaeda leaders. How nice would that have been?
That the agency hatched such an effort post- 9/11 came to light after spy chief Leon Panetta said the CIA had failed to tell congressional leaders about it.
He may or may not have been right that the agency had a duty to report the formulation of what proved, unfortunately, to be a drive that never came close to fruition.
What's certain is that the CIA was dead-on right to consider the feasibility of whacking Osama Bin Laden and his henchmen, whether with smart bombs or upclose and personal with a bullet to the brain.
Makes no difference to us.
For this congressional Democrats want scalps on the wall?
The proper response would be: Thank you very much. We wish you had told us so we could have helped you load the guns. And are you sure you want to rule the assassination thing out entirely?
Had America flogged itself with such force over tactics employed during the world wars, we would be publishing this editorial in German."
Anon-B and the Democrats she so admires in Congress are examples of why we can be assured that Democrats are not long for power in Washington.
No common sense.
You might even say lunacy.
He may or may not have been right that the agency had a duty to report the formulation...
Only Congress has the legal right to appropriate funding for the operation of the federal government. Under the National Security Act of 1947 and its amendments, the director of Central Intelligence "shall keep the congressional intelligence committees fully and currently informed of all covert actions..."
Dick Cheney's orders for the Director of the CIA to withhold information about assassination squads from Congress were blatantly illegal. All citizens, regardless of the high status of their elective office, are obliged to follow the laws of this land. And guess what? This fact is **not** only true for Democrats.
And Cheney knows it. His actions speak louder than words these days, and we all note lately, he's not talking. Cheney has retreated to hiding in his private bunker and is no longer available for media interviews -- in direct contrast to all those wall-to-wall media interviews slamming Obama he sat for just recently.
IMHO Cheney's sudden return to media inaccessibility says it all. He's conferring with his attorneys, no doubt.
Drip drip drip
unfortunately for you, Anon-B, few of your fellow citizens agree with you
we are at war with al quaeda
obviously, this is different than an assasination attempt against leaders of nations and groups that are not involved in hostilities against us
any Congressional leaders that pursue this will do so at peril of losing their seats in the next election
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