Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Hertzberg Does Gannon/Guckert
If it sounds like that title is an intentional innuendo, it isn't. Every other configuration, like say, Hertzberg on Gannon/Guckert seemed as innuendo-bound, but then isn't it true that Gannon/Guckert's life as we've come to know it is as rippling with innuendo as it is with muscles of all varieties.
Anyway, The New Yoker has it here, so give yourself a treat and go read. I sometimes wish that Hendrick would let more of his emotions show, but he's a wonderful writer who mainly gets the politics right. Okay, I could have written "correct," but the right wing has manged to make it into an even dirtier word than right wing.
Sometimes I wish Hertzberg's pieces were longer, but he manages to be pithy and say what needs saying; I especially like that he picks up what Al Franken has been delighting in - that the famous new conference question one sees played endlessly, about what crazy Harry and crazy Hillary said about the economy was actually a quote never uttered by either Senator, but made-up by Rush Limbaugh, who was delighted to claim authorship of the phony quote. How many degrees of irony is that? I lose count so easily.
I'm reading Hertzberg's new book, "Politics, Observations and Arguments 1966-2004," and it's terrific. You younger readers should have it on your bookshelf. I lived through those years as an adult, and I'm still enjoying it...Holy Moly, has it really been that long that I've been reading, you, Rick?
Anyway, The New Yoker has it here, so give yourself a treat and go read. I sometimes wish that Hendrick would let more of his emotions show, but he's a wonderful writer who mainly gets the politics right. Okay, I could have written "correct," but the right wing has manged to make it into an even dirtier word than right wing.
Sometimes I wish Hertzberg's pieces were longer, but he manages to be pithy and say what needs saying; I especially like that he picks up what Al Franken has been delighting in - that the famous new conference question one sees played endlessly, about what crazy Harry and crazy Hillary said about the economy was actually a quote never uttered by either Senator, but made-up by Rush Limbaugh, who was delighted to claim authorship of the phony quote. How many degrees of irony is that? I lose count so easily.
I'm reading Hertzberg's new book, "Politics, Observations and Arguments 1966-2004," and it's terrific. You younger readers should have it on your bookshelf. I lived through those years as an adult, and I'm still enjoying it...Holy Moly, has it really been that long that I've been reading, you, Rick?
