Yesterday was a bad day for one tough-talking Texan, reviled both by Bostonians and New Yorkers — as well as the “liberal media.” We’re talking, of course, about Roger Clemens. And speaking of sports figures, Matt Drudge claimed earlier this morning that Mike Ditka was set to announce his run for senate in Illinois at 9:30 a.m.. (Of course, 9:30 a.m. came and went without an announcement from Da Coach.) Blogger Luis Hestres passes along a quote from Ditka, who “loves his dogs.” Why? “They’re glad to see anybody. If they haven’t peed on something, they’ll pee on you.”
Sounds like good practice for politics to us.
In other news at the nexus of dubious politics and dubious celebrity, Noam Scheiber is lamenting John Kerry’s missed opportunity for a Sister Souljah moment. “Seriously, was there any good reason not to denounce the celebrities who spent last Thursday night tastelessly bashing Bush at that now-infamous New York fundraiser? It would have brought Kerry a little flack from the celebrity left, no question. On the other hand, no one demographic group seems more determined to oust Bush from office, so I doubt the damage would have been permanent.”
Pro-Bush blogger Hugh Hewitt, meanwhile, in an incredibly generous gesture, is sending copies of his book, which discusses “the dire consequences of a John Kerry victory,” to “leftys” like Josh Marshall, Matt Yglesias, and Peter Beinart. And he’s encouraging readers to do the same. “I especially hope you are giving early Christmas presents to the fence-sitters and Michael Moore Democrats in your life.”
Finally, we’re a little late on this, but on Monday Kos excerpted a CBS News report in which wide-eyed couple Andrea and Dennis Cariello marveled at the wonderfulness of the president’s tax policies. When they got married, the Cariellos worried their taxes would go up, but instead they got money back. Dennis, who sure is happy about the whole thing, wants to “tell the President to keep doing what he’s doing and hopefully drop taxes down even further.”
“So who is Dennis Cariello?” asks Kos. “A swing voter? Independent? Nope. He is the president of the New York Young Republicans Club.” (The original story did not include this piece of information, but the online version has been updated.) Maybe young Dennis will get that chance to talk to the president after all.
–Brian Montopoli
Brian Montopoli is a writer at CJR Daily.