Conservative bloggers are having fun with John Kerry’s assertion, in the new issue of GQ, that he likes a woman who “wears her womanhood” and is “obviously sexy and saucy and challenging.” Ben Shapiro, a self-avowed “reasoned political thinker” and “powerful writer” (who may not be an expert on this one), writes that “[t]his is just another laughable Kerry attempt to come off as the guy next door — it’s the old Al Gore trick, imitating passion so people don’t think you’re boring. Too bad. America thinks you’re boring.”
Over at redstate.org, meanwhile, Robert Tagorda has deemed “plainly inadequate” Kerry campaign spokesman Michael Meehan’s explanation for why the campaign has been touting Kerry as the former Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. John Kerry never held the position, but Bob Kerrey did. Explained Meehan, with what we can only assume was a shrug and a smile: “John Kerry, Bob Kerrey — similar names.”
Kos, meanwhile, took the time to google a long phrase from one of the “handy templates” for letters to newspapers posted on the Bush/Cheney reelection site. He discovered that about 60 newspapers have run the “letter,” which was, says Kos, “sent by GOP automatons too stupid to vary the wording even a tiny bit.” As Taegan Goddard reminds us, there have been other instances of “astroturfing” — “trying to artificially create the appearance of a grassroots movement supporting their policies” — like this before; a similar instance was discovered in 2003. At the time, newspapers pledged to fight back against form letters.
Let us know when you start to fight back, guys. Hello? Guys? Guys? WAKE UP!
Finally, Garance Franke-Ruta at “Tapped” takes note of the fact that at the upcoming Republican National Convention, “Republican donors, lobbyists, and pols [will be] fat-catting it up in typically excessive NYC fashion — and in the process becoming, by association, typically alienating culturally elite New Yorkers for the week.” Among the events will be private parties at cigar bars, dinners at Le Cirque (which specializes in dishes like “Pieds de Porc Farcis aux Truffes Noire”), and a wine and cheese tasting. Writes Franke-Ruta, with just a hint of sarcasm: “No elitism or fancy tastes there.”
–Brian Montopoli
