March 28, 2004
AREA MAN CLAIMS TO 'UNDERSTAND DOWD'
John Kerry endures some gruelling MoDo analysis:
I wasn't sure how to ask John Kerry, so I just blurted it out: "Is there anything we need to know about your relationship with your father?"
I didn't think the country could take another vertiginous ride on the Oedipal tilt-a-whirl. It's hard not to see the Bush unilateral foreign policy — blowing off allies and the U.N. to rewrite the ending of a gulf war his father felt had ended appropriately — as the ultimate act of adolescent rebellion.
"I know what you're saying," Mr. Kerry murmured.
He does? Meanwhile, Margo Kingston brings Sydney Sun-Herald readers up to date on the Richard Clarke controversy:
Bush's former top counter-intelligence man Dick Clarke wrote in a book released last week that Bush was more interested in Iraq than al-Qaeda, even on September 12, 2001, and saw September 11 as cover to get away with invading Iraq.
Bush "launched an unnecessary and costly war in Iraq that strengthened the fundamentalist, radical Islamic terrorist movement worldwide", Clarke wrote. "Nothing America could have done would have provided al-Qaeda and its new generation of cloned groups [with] a better recruitment device than our unprovoked invasion of an oil-rich Arab country."
You get the feeling Margo hasn’t followed subsequent developments in this story very closely. Luckily for us, Mark Steyn has.
Posted by Tim Blair at March 28, 2004 06:03 PM"I know what you're saying," Mr. Kerry murmured.
Tim, could you call the other three horsemen and let them know I'm running late?*
==========
*Shamelessly stolen from Fuzzy Logic
Posted by: david at March 28, 2004 at 06:16 PM"Sun-Herald," Tim?
"Call me crazy....". Okay, Maroogo, you're crazy.
Posted by: Screamapiller at March 28, 2004 at 06:38 PMThe most chilling "revelation", at the bottom of the article.
"Margo Kingston is the political editor of The Sydney Morning Herald online."
Posted by: max power at March 28, 2004 at 07:30 PMI've got a mate in the sydney media game who suggests that margo may occasionally self medicate on a substance that many would argue should not be trialled.
Posted by: bugner at March 28, 2004 at 08:22 PMWhat you have all been missing is that Mo-Do expresses herself on the road; thank Jeebus motorcycles are faster than cars.
Posted by: Habib at March 28, 2004 at 09:39 PMOedipal tilt-a-whirl?
Is La Dowd saying President Bush wants to kill his father and marry his mother, or is she just proclaiming her ignorance to the world?
Posted by: Pixy Misa at March 28, 2004 at 10:18 PMPixy Misa:
Dunno. She could mean that Bush likes to wear togas and engage in self-mutilation. We'll have to wait for a clarification.
Yes, he loved his mother like
No other -
His daughter was his sister
And his son was his brother
One thing on which you can depend is:
He sure knew who a boy's best friend is.
When he saw what he had done
He tore his eyes out
One by one.
A tragic end to a loyal son
Who loved his mother.
"Nothing America could have done would have provided al-Qaeda and its new generation of cloned groups [with] a better recruitment device than our unprovoked invasion of an oil-rich Arab country."
Yes, "nothing" brought us 9/11.
Posted by: charles austin at March 29, 2004 at 01:29 AMMy question: How the hell did these two morons end up with well-paid writing positions? I mean, who the fuck reads AND believes them?
Reality baffles me.
Posted by: ushie at March 29, 2004 at 01:36 AMRemember how enthusiastic Margo was about the US attacking Al-Qaeda after 9/11? Me neither.
Posted by: Paul Zrimsek at March 29, 2004 at 05:34 AMIs La Dowd saying President Bush wants to kill his father and marry his mother, or is she just proclaiming her ignorance to the world?
Exactly. Pointless waffling from someone who has no idea what the oedipal complex is.
If their idea is that W is engaging in war to "avenge his father", then it clearly isn't an Oedipal thing.
Unless George W wants to kill George H W and marry Barbara behind everyone's back...
Posted by: Quentin George at March 29, 2004 at 06:30 AMHeh. I bet the 'look' Clarke reckons Rice gave him when he mentioned Al Qaeda was:
"This guy really is stupid."
Posted by: Quentin George at March 29, 2004 at 07:02 AMIf their idea is that W is engaging in war to "avenge his father", then it clearly isn't an Oedipal thing.
Right. However, Dowd seems to be saying that Bush waged war to defy his father, which is an even lamer theory. (Though still not exactly Oedipal. Though to be technical, Oedipus did not have an Oedipal complex.)
But to Dowd the world is just one big high school, and post-adolescent motivations do not exist.
Posted by: Angie Schultz at March 29, 2004 at 08:01 AMSo we have Clarke's characterizations against what Bush actually did. For someone fixated on Iraq after 9-11, he sure took his sweet time. I seem to remember a war in some other country taking place...one might almost think his priorities were in another place because of 9-11
Posted by: RC at March 29, 2004 at 08:37 AMMaureen Dowd has the mental agility of a small soap dish.
Posted by: Fat Cracker at March 29, 2004 at 07:50 PMEver notice how you never see Margo Kingston and Maureen Dowd in the same photograph?
Just wonderin' y'know?
Posted by: Mike at March 29, 2004 at 10:04 PM