Have
you ever noticed that on the days where there is no real news, the crap stuff
seeps in more readily? This is not to say that on a good news day there is
quality stuff out there, but when the NSA is poking into our business, at least
the big three plus the cable news nets pay a modicum of attention to issues that…
I don’t know… matter.
And
speaking of the NSA, just a quick story: When my husband deployed to Afghanistan
in 2001 I was left behind on Fort Drum, the Army’s 10th Mountain
Division (Climb to Glory!). Since this was the very first “real world”
deployment in a long time, even experienced Army wives didn’t know what to do
and I was far from qualified to understand anything. I pretty much just stood
there and looked confused. Of the precious few pieces of advice I was given: The
mail will be slow, “JAG” was not just a bad TV show and you needed them to fill
out paperwork, and your phone calls would be monitored. Thus, when we were
talking 14 times a day, my sister and I got into the habit of saying “hi” to those
we referred to as the ‘men on the phone.’ Sometimes we gave them recipes
because we’re friendly like that. So this NSA stuff? Sort of old hat. Hello
again, my men-on-the-phone friends! Hope you liked that Yankee Pot Roast recipe
we spoke about a decade ago. Somebody remind me to add a salutation now in my
outgoing e-mails to the nice people at Verizon and at Fort Meade. Moni and I have
a killer salmon recipe for you! Perhaps a poor choice of words….
Now
back to the Invisible Primary.
Last
week seemed to be all about my gal Hillary, whose activities seemed to be
continuously and unimaginatively described as: “Fueling speculation of a 2016
run.” She rather coquettishly leapt ontoTwitter, describing herself as “wife, mom, lawyer, women & kids advocate, FLOAR,
FLOTUS, US Senator, SecState, author, dog owner, hair icon, pantsuit aficionado,
glass ceiling cracker, TBD…” and set the Twitter-sphere afire with loads of new
followers jumping onto the bandwagon with alarming alacrity. She also spoke at
the newly re-named “Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation” where she
talked about early childhood education, always a decent issue upon which to campaign
(the children is learning). So she’s getting
good press, but all readers of this blog know that the media spotlights are hot
things and coverage is capricious. Thus, the news that HRC is slipping a bit in the polls was both newsworthy and unsurprising at the same time. Ah, media attention: You fickle, fickle lady.
The reason for the slip in the polls concerns, of course, the Benghazi affair
which conservatives have locked onto like… conservatives onto the Whitewater
Affair circa 1993. Huh. Anyhoo, a no less vaunted publication than Commentary has seized this moment to
pile on and released this little nugget of joy about Hillary’s piss-poor
performance at State, alleging not only did she cock up Benghazi, but under her
watch the whole ambassadorial corps was riddled with sex scandals, a different
type of cock up if you ask me (zing!). Suffice it to say, Hillary takes the media
lead this week in our Invisible Primary, if only because of her seemingly
road-block coverage of her Facebook-style “selfie” pictures. Oh, and by the way
FLOAR stands for First Lady of Arkansas, so get your head out of the gutter.
Moving
on to another relative of another past-POTUS (actually, two past POTUSES. POTI?), a warm welcome back to the IP to Jeb
Bush, who spoke last week to the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual bacchanal
(just kidding!) in Washington. Jeb, trying to get in front on this immigration
issue, said the following: “Immigrants are more fertile, and they love
families, and they have more intact families, and they bring a younger
population. Immigrants create an engine of economic prosperity.” This truly bizarre
statement brought out the funny from (never thought I’d say this) Sarah Palin,
who remarked to the conference the next day: “I think it’s kind of dangerous
territory . . . to want to debate this over one race’s fertility rate over
another. And I say this as someone who’s kind of fertile herself.” Basically,
Chris Cillizza in the WaPo had a nice piece here about the establishment vs.
hard right kerfuffle in the GOP that is worth perusing if you haven’t already.
This out-in-front strategy of Jeb’s is fodder for “will he or won’t he” 2016
speculation, but since his mom put the kibosh on it we can move along…
…
to Chris Christie, who remains a media darling thanks to a crap-ton of press he has garnered following the death of NJ Sen.
Frank Lautenberg. Calling a special election for October brought mixed reviews,
but the Governor barreled through to “slow jam” the news with Jimmy Fallon,
share an acclamatory stage with Bill Clinton, and then watch as his Gallup poll numbers rise to make him the most popular IP 2016 contender of the moment. Christie
is on top right now as he walks towards his own 2013 gubernatorial re-election bid.
He’s stealing a play from Hillary herself from the time that she ran for her Senate
re-election in 2006: Raise a truck-load of money, spend bupkis, and keep the campaign
cash in your war chest. You know. Just in
case another election just happens
to come your way. Maybe in 2016?
Oh,
who knows. Wait. I know someone who might: Hey, NSA! What do you think?
OK,
OK. Go back to keeping us safe for democracy or whatever. Really: I love your
work. Have you lost weight? Hope you enjoyed that Yankee Pot Roast.
Big
hugs to the men on the phone,
Ali
