Making Power

Much of the discussion of politics and policy -- on the left mostly, because the the right is just nasty -- much of the talk just seems so naive.... foolish.   The arguments that Pelosi should do this or Obama is a fake or a failure seem informed by some fantasy of what managing power is like.

So here's a story.  During the Carter Administration I ran into a friend at the White House.  Things like walking the hall at the White House were easier then and I was visiting to report a magazine piece,  she was on the National Security Council.  Said, 'hey.  How's it goin.' And this person, one of smartest and most capable I've known, she gave me a half focused look, and she said, 'It is unbelievably hard.  You would not believe how hard it is.'  Since I probably indeed can't believe how hard it all is, I've never fully digested her statement, but I think about it often.  And BTW, if it was hard then, it's surely harder now.

Tom's tired

Bear with me. This started when my friend Keith sent me a right-wing screed called "I'm Tired", an old fart doing an Andy Rooney number. You know, down with Obama, socialism, left-wingers, liberals, Muslims, George Soros and Michael Moore, and the main stream media; up with Fox and Tea Parties and so forth.

(One interesting thing is that Keith's version attributed the nonsense to "Robert A. Hall, the actor who plays the coroner on CSI if you watch that show." Actually, that would be actor Robert H. Hall who didn't write the piece, altho it is his picture that is attached. Never trust the provenance of anything that comes in a chain letter. Snopes is your friend. The real author's blog is linked in the first graf and he now includes a note exonerating the actor Hall.)

Anyway, I'm older than Robert A. Hall, and I'm tired too. I'm tired of a few old crotchety white guys embarrassing the rest of us with their silly, frightened, anarcho-libertarian rants.

Being civil

Lots of kerfuffle about President Obama dissing the Supreme Court during the State of the Union. Oh, my. but really, he fits right in. Letterman, O'Brien and Leno are being rude to each other in public; TV ads call the competition liars by name; a Reep called the President a liar right out loud during another Congressional speech. It's absolutely trendy to be impolite. Gonna get worse too.

Party w/o a Soul

I got a live call from the DNCC, fund hustling arm of Dems in Congress. Told the nice lady that I didn't trust them and was giving money only to Act Blue. She said, 'oh, then you're in the Progressive Wing of the Party.' Well, I guess I am, I said. She wanted to explain why sometimes they had to run a Blue Dog to win, and I said I understood, but that they weren't going to do with my ten bucks. No hard feelings.