George W. Bush-by-Proxy Syndrome

This week’s Washington Times column:

There is an extensive body of writing from both sides of the political aisle that has analyzed the extraordinary depths of hatred leveled at former President George W. Bush.

His birth into a wealthy and politically connected family is where a lot of the animus starts. His rejection of his Connecticut roots and adoption of a rugged Texan persona naturally riled his birth-constituency. His disjointed speaking style also alienated many others – especially those who covered him in the Northeastern media. Naturally, some of his initiatives were controversial. His allies say he didn’t do enough.

But all presidents make mistakes, pursue unpopular ideas, possess off-putting personality traits and don’t do enough to appeal to their core supporters. Something far more insidious was at work in the hatred of our most recent former president.

Now that Mr. Bush is quietly going about his retirement, this strain of rage – the GWB43 virus – has spread like wildfire, finding unsuspecting targets, each granting us greater perspective into what not long ago seemed like a mysterious phenomenon isolated only on our 43rd president.

The first person to catch the virus was Sarah Palin, whose family also was infected, including, unforgivably, her children.

(more…)

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Tags: David Axelrod, GWB43 virus, joe the plumber, Mormons, Obama
Posted Aug 16th 2009 at 5:40 pm in Featured Story, Media Criticism, Politics | 206006172 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/abreitbart/2009/08/16/george-w-bush-by-proxy-syndrome/George+W.+Bush-by-Proxy+Syndrome2009-08-17+00%3A40%3A36Andrew+Breitbart

Fishy

I’m doing standup in Denver. Shelley is driving me from radio to radio to TV as I do the monkey dance at each station promoting the show, selling tickets. I don’t like this part of the job. I must answer the same 10 questions about Saturday Night Live and try to explain where I’ve been for the last fifteen years. All the DJ’s want are some juicy stories about celebrities. I don’t really have that many. I’m booked at two political talk stations, a rock station, a country station, and two local TV shows.  I guess that’s my demographic! Everyone! I ask Shelley why I’m booked on the political stations. She shrugs, “Well, we didn’t really know…isn’t that what you are doing now?” The first stop I’m told is a “just right of center” show, so I feel free to share my newest shocking information that the White House is asking us to “snitch’” on our friends and family. To report anything “fishy.” This news is so abhorrent to me that I could barely sleep the night before. I immediately emailed Andrew Breitbart to see if it was true. He said yes. I searched the hotel computer web to see if the big shots, the smart people have gotten on this. They were just starting to fight back. The news was so new. Well, at least this administration is entertaining…in a bad way. I’m watching a horror movie every day.

As I share the shocking information that our Freedom of Speech is being attacked, the radio host across from me, his face, it looks like he just ate a lemon. It’s all scrunched up like…he hates me. He abruptly cuts me off and ends my interview. I’m stupefied at the reaction of people who “just can’t handle the truth.” My driver Shelley is a liberal. She doesn’t say anything. As we get in the car I try to apologize, “Well, he asked me why I was a new political activist.  I guess I should just tell jokes.” I mean I have been hired basically to sell tickets to a bar where people will spend lots of money on alcohol. And, I do need to make some money. My husband is a cop. (more…)

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Tags: "Unhappily Ever After", Andrew Breitbart, Beer Summit, Cornyn, Cornyn and Sekulow's letters
Posted Aug 10th 2009 at 12:25 pm in Featured Story, News, Politics | 203378144 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/vjackson/2009/08/10/fishy/Fishy2009-08-10+19%3A25%3A11Victoria+Jackson

A Beer is Fine But Forgiveness is Divine

Dennis Miller and I were gabbing on his talk show about the Gates-Crowley affair and a thought occurred to me: Professor Gates needs to forgive Officer Crowley and he also needs to forgive the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.

Here’s what popped into my head on the Miller Show. At the age of five, my mother told me that if my father ever left her she would kill herself, and that if I wanted to prevent that from happening, it was my job to keep him around. This is a heavy responsibility to lay on a kid of five but I accepted it without question. I adored my mother. She was beautiful, smart, sexy and funny. She was also a self-destructive drunk who had room in her heart only for my father. He was a charming sadist with room in his heart for no-one: a hot-shot liberal who helped found the New England branch of the A.C.L.U. but in private often used the word jewbastard.

Their marriage was, to say the least, tumultuous. I had been sent by Central Casting to play the small but important role of the child. After each of their frequent and alcoholic altercations, my father would storm out of the house (actually, the rented, upper half of a house in a working class neighborhood in Cambridge, Massachusetts…Gates-Crowley country) and head off to spend a few days with one of his girlfriends. I’d be sent after him, once actually barefoot in the snow, a sobbing ten year old, to catch up and explain how much I loved and needed him and beg him to come back. “Go home,” he’d tell me. “I’ll be back in a while.” (more…)

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Tags: forgiveness, Harvard, Professor Gates, racism, Sgt. Crowley
Posted Aug 5th 2009 at 5:01 am in Featured Story, Politics | 19920291 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/obean/2009/08/05/orson-post-gates/A+Beer+is+Fine+But+Forgiveness+is+Divine2009-08-05+12%3A01%3A36Orson+Bean

Jimmy Crowley: One Good Cop

I like Sgt. James Crowley. I like him a lot.

Jimmy, from all accounts, has shown himself to be a stand-up guy. A good man, a good cop. Someone who is respected and loved by the people who matter most in his life: family, friends and the men and women who serve with him in the Cambridge Police Department, back in my home state of Massachusetts. Anyone who saw the strong statements made by Sgt. Leon Lashley and Officer Kelly King in support of their colleague can appreciate that these two people came forward.

I’m happy for Jimmy Crowley because now that the dog and pony show staged by the ringmaster-in-chief is officially over, he can get on with his life. Go back home where he belongs, with his wife and kids, being a dad. He can hold his head high for the way he conducted himself, after being called “a racist” by a good friend of the president during an unfortunate event which should never have occurred in the first place. (more…)

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Tags: Beer Summit, Cambridge Police Department, Obama, Officer Kelly King, race
Posted Aug 1st 2009 at 6:55 am in Featured Story, Politics | 195498122 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jarone/2009/08/01/jimmy-crowley-one-good-cop/Jimmy+Crowley%3A+One+Good+Cop2009-08-01+13%3A55%3A11Jimmy+Arone