12 Oct Politics as Unusual

Posted at 19:44h in News Outta My Control by

Please settle a bet (the loser has to cook dinner). My wife says Arnold Schwarzenegger is only 5 feet 8. I say he’s taller. Who is right?

P.C. Kearns, Utah
Parade Magazine

Arnold/Ronald

It’s the beginning of a new era in California politics so let’s get this straight right from the start. Arnold is short. I once stood right next to him and Maria at the Pace Gallery in New York. Schwarzenegger is far from the 6\’1\” his official bio states. The Terminator terminates at 5\’7\” at best. Oh, and one other thing: “Arnold” is an anagram of “Ronald.”

My DC politico sightings continue. Last Sunday night I saw Ari Fleischer, former Bush Press Secretary, at Yom Kippur services at Georgetown University. I could only ask myself: “Ari, what was a nice Jewish boy like you doing in an Administration like that?”

Dean Sheen

And, finally, Mel ponders the eerie similarities between real presidential candidate Howard Dean and fictional President Josiah Bartlett on NBC’s The West Wing. Uber-liberal activist and actor, Martin Sheen, plays President Bartlett.

While I’m solidly behind the Experimental Party’s virtual Presidental candidate, Abe Golem, the combination of political outsider Dean and left-leaning Martin (who already knows how to act presidential) could prove to be a powerful cocktail.

Given the present Administration is driving many of us to drink, I pronounce the DEAN MARTIN Ticket an attractive way to drown our sorrows. Martinis anyone?

Update: Kevin Sites, who used to work at CNN and started a blog just before the Iraqi War, is back on the blogosphere. Asked by the Cable News Network to stop posting, he is now freelancing for MSNBC, which seems to have no problem with his extracurricular activities. He’s once again reporting his personal thoughts from Baghdad.

Top Photo Montage: Lance Jackson via The Washington Post
Bottom Photo Montage: brushstroke.tv.

Jeff
jeffgates@outlook.com
2 Comments
  • Donna
    Posted at 22:59h, 12 October

    Arnold opened a door for me at a studio commissary a few years ago. I was stunned not only by how short he was but also by how “small” he seemed. The camera can work magic. Viewers believe that he is tall, huge, and can sock the sense into our economy.
    Unfortunately he promised things that are not his to deliver. But mainly, he was asked to run by Ken Lay of the Enron scandal because Davis and Bustamente had a 9 Billion dollar lawsuit on behalf of the state of California. Watch that lawsuit suddenly disappear now and California loses the 9 billion dollars it is owed from the Bush friend Key Lay and his energy buddies.
    http://gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=283&row=0
    “Arnold Unplugged – It’s hasta la vista to $9 billion if the Governator is selected”

  • Laura in DC
    Posted at 17:02h, 01 November

    Have you seen the first two episodes of the second season? If not, go on Kazaa and download it, or see if they sell the episodes…the similarities between Bartlett’s campaign and Dean’s are striking, and the episode was written long before anyone outside Vermont had heard of Howard Dean.