January 24, 2004
FIGHTING ABOVE HIS USUAL WEIGHT
The Australian’s Stephen Romei has issues with Mark Steyn:
New Hampshire-based columnist-at-large Mark Steyn has dubbed John F. Kerry - who likes people to know he has the same initials as the last Massachusetts Democrat to win the White House - John F--- Kerry. It's a reference to Kerry's observation that he didn't think George W. Bush would "f--- things up so badly" in Iraq.
That's quite an amusing line from Steyn; one that helps explain why neo-cons love him so. He possesses something they'd dearly like to have but know in their dreary hearts they never will: a sense of humour. Too bad his political analysis is a joke.
Right wingers don’t have a sense of humour, eh? There’s an original idea. Actually, Romei does have a few original notions, among them that the crew currently stinking up New Hampshire is an “impressive Democratic pack” and that “the Democratic campaign, led by the uncompromising doctor from Vermont, may have started out as a Bush-hating contest, but it's now a Bush-beating one. The hot competition between Dean, Kerry, Clark and John Edwards is forging a nominee who will shake the Shrub come November 2.”
Ha! He called Bush “Shrub”! Those lefties and their crazy gags. By the way, Romei’s preferred political commentator is Hillary Clinton:
The insider's story of a White House fixed in its ways after the Reagan-Bush years is told with wit and grace ... Some see Living History as the opening shot in the Hillary 2008 campaign. For what it’s worth, I think they’re right and I hope she wins.
Funny guy.
Posted by Tim Blair at January 24, 2004 03:47 PMThat is plain strange what was going through my head at the time: Why did they call him a shrub? What the hell is the freaking joke? But it's because his name is Bush, and a bush is like a shrub! Now that's comedy, too bad it is of the calibau of a brick. So unfunny I didn't even get it.
Posted by: Dave-26x at January 24, 2004 at 04:00 PMHalf the conservatives in the USA spontaneously & simultanously dubbed Kerry “John Fucking Kerry”—“John F----- Kerry” in hundreds of posts at Lucianne.com—before the justly reknowned Steyn even had a chance to work it into an article. Why? Because it’s so fucking obvious.
“Shrub” is an old one now, originated by Molly Ivins, I think. In terms of Presidential timber, the Dem candidates are the seven twigs.
Posted by: ForNow at January 24, 2004 at 05:08 PMShrub = junior Bush. Funny at first (well, if your not a Bush fan), but now a little old.
Posted by: Stewart Kelly at January 24, 2004 at 05:24 PMSteyn makes the world of writing a richer place, yet I rarely agree with what he says.
I will however defend my right to read & enjoy him.
Where, oh where, are the right-tinged writers in Australia equally intelligent, and perceptive as he. And, perish the thought, amusing. They must exist - ideas please?
Posted by: chico o'farrill at January 24, 2004 at 07:39 PMRommei isn't fit to touch the hem of Steyn's garmet.
Posted by: Mike O at January 24, 2004 at 09:22 PMRommei isn't fit to touch the hem of Steyn's garment.
Posted by: Mike O at January 24, 2004 at 09:22 PMBy contrast we are all aware of the delightful comedy stylings of our scowling leftist commentatariat, John Pilger, Philip Adams, Bob Ellis, a ha ha ha.. Oh I'm laughing alre- ha ha HA HA HA HA laughing already oh the humouresness of it all A HA HA HA HA HA HA OH THE WYMSICAL JAPERY
Posted by: Amos at January 24, 2004 at 10:03 PM"crazy gags"
Which reminds me -- it's been literally days since we've had a decent fat Moore joke. C'mon Tim, your readers are counting on you! Don't let us down! Remind us again what a gigantic fat-ass lardo that piggie fatso Michael "Shamu-Butt" Moore is!
Posted by: vaara at January 24, 2004 at 10:09 PMIt's always a pleasure to help with the fight against fight against obesity.
Posted by: vaara at January 24, 2004 at 11:16 PMAnd click the Lighten Up button while you're at it.
Posted by: Angus Jung at January 25, 2004 at 12:13 AM"If Bush scrapes home this year, Hillary Clinton runs against a fresh Republican contender (dream cage-of-death match-up: Condi Rice) in 2008 and puts a woman on the moon in the final year of her second term. A Democrat win in 2004 would upset that plan."
Where did Stephen Romei get this notion about Hillary Clinton putting "a woman on the moon in the final year of her second term"? What kind of message does that send to homosexuals, single mothers and visible minorities who want to go to the moon?
Steyn is funny, Romei is laughable.
"click the Lighten Up button "
No need. I'm 5-11, 165 pounds.
Posted by: vaara at January 25, 2004 at 12:49 AMvaara,
You just proved Tim's point. Angus meant you shouldn't be so earnest, and you took it at its most literal meaning... Rhetorical is obviously not your first language.
Posted by: JFH at January 25, 2004 at 01:00 AMOh my God Mr. Romei...You mean columnists sometimes make predictions that...don't pan out? Oh, the humanity!
Posted by: madne0 at January 25, 2004 at 01:07 AMUm, I was making a play on words. (That's when you construct a response based on an alternate meaning of a word.) Jeez, and I thought we lefties were supposed to be the humor-impaired ones!
Angus: Like all U.S. Democrats, I'm wearing a gigantic chip on my shoulder. (The preceding was, once again, based on an intentional misreading of a previous comment, just in case that isn't crushingly obvious.)
Posted by: vaara at January 25, 2004 at 01:26 AM"Angus: Like all U.S. Democrats, I'm wearing a gigantic chip on my shoulder."
That's hot. What are you wearing underneath that?
Posted by: Angus Jung at January 25, 2004 at 02:00 AMYou do realize I'm a bloke, don't you? (Not that there's anything wrong with that...)
Posted by: vaara at January 25, 2004 at 02:22 AMToo late to start acting shy now. What are you wearing underneath that?
Posted by: Angus Jung at January 25, 2004 at 03:53 AMTHats funn. Angus must be a closet democrat(or something)
Posted by: Papertiger at January 25, 2004 at 05:50 AMYou mean, apart from my Che t-shirt(1) and my Rasta hat(2)?
===
Notes for the sarcasm-impaired:
1. I don't actually own a Che t-shirt.
2. Or a Rasta hat.
Yes, apart from those. But fine, be a tease. [Pulls up pants]
Posted by: Angus Jung at January 25, 2004 at 06:06 AMDon't all Democrats wear plastic garbarge bags to cover all the collapsed veins from the heroin injections?
Posted by: Quentin George at January 25, 2004 at 07:44 AMAt least Steyn doesn't plagiarize his gags. The laugh-a-minute Molly Ivins coined "Shrub" for Bush about a decade ago and still uses it to wring chuckles from feebs like Romei.
It's her singular claim to comedic fame. Whenever somebody calls her a witless frump, she pulls it out of her muumuu.
Posted by: lyle at January 25, 2004 at 08:22 AMGoogle, Drago, Google. You may want to put spaces in between each 'fap'. And turn off the filtering.
Posted by: rosignol at January 25, 2004 at 09:27 AMHillary tells her story with wit and grace? He must not have read the same book everybody else did.
Posted by: Michael Lonie at January 25, 2004 at 10:45 AMThis Romei bloke obviously hasn't met this funny "neo-con" I sometimes read... um, his name, umm, Tim Blair! That's it- Tim Blair!
Posted by: Jimothy at January 25, 2004 at 12:55 PMRe: Shrub
All of the really intellectual people know how immensely funny puns can be