-- CALLING CONGRESSMAN WEINER
-- RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE:
THAT SHIP JUST SAILED
-- GAY-BASHING: WHOSE LAUGHING NOW?
-- THE ASSOCIATION: BRON-BRON'S BREAKDOWN
-- COLLEGE FOOTBALL IN COLLAPSE
Before we get to our regular roundup, TGG is announcing a new category of current events. We don't yet have a name for it, but Back In The Day, if we recall, Arsenio Hall used to refer to these events as "Things That Make You Go Hmmmm....."
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| Remember Me? |
Two items were reported in the press this week that left us, well, speechless. In an earlier day, in fact, we might have called them "Things That Make You Go Hmmmm....", but frankly, they left us much more puzzled-slash- astounded than that.
The first was a number of reports concerning Congressman Anthony Weiner, who was married to his wife, who is a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a ceremony officiated by former President Bill Clinton. The stories noted that "the Clintons" were
"very disappointed by
Congressman Weiner's behavior."
Huh?
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| "How Exactly Does That Work, Chief?" |
The second was a statement issued by Ohio State Athletic Director Gene Smith, after disgraced quarterback Terrelle Pryor announced that he would not be returning for his senior year at the university.
"We understand Terrelle's decision and wish him well in this next phase of his life," Smith's statement said. "We hope he returns one day to The Ohio State University to finish his degree."
Right.
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Because We All Know That He Was Just A Few
Credits Short of His B.A. In Astrophysics.... |
Calling Congressman Weiner
The cable-news headlines continued to belong to Anthony Weiner, whose latest ploy to hang on to office was to announce that he was seeking treatment and requesting a leave of absence from the House. This, on Saturday, in the wake of mounting calls for him to resign, including ultimately from Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Clearly he needed treatment. But the political question for the Democrats was how long they could afford to have him around as a member of the House. Because as long as he stayed, his saga would crowd out other news from Capitol Hill. It's always easier for voters to pay attention to sex scandals than to policy issues, and Weiner's scandal looked like it might play out for months on end --- treatment, return to Capital Hill, rehabilitation, first floor speech, first interview (MSNBC), first interview (Oprah/Barbara Walters/60 MInutes), etc. etc. etc.
It wouldn't leave much time for the Democrats, who actually had some hope of recapturing the House in 2012, to talk about the GOP plan to End Medicare As We Know It.
If Weiner wouldn't resign, the Democrats could move to have him expelled from the House.
But did anybody have the guts to do it?
The other shoe(s) were bound to drop, and we wanted answers: had anybody in the House Democratic Leadership listened to the TGG Old School Jam of the Week?
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| (..."Might Hurt You...") |
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| Time To Make Some Hard Choices |
As commentator Peggy Noonan of The Wall Street Journal said,
"Of course he should resign --- or, better, and as a statement, the House should remove him. I speak as conservative who wishes to conserve. If I were speaking as a Republican I'd say, "By all means keep him, let him taint all your efforts." But Sometimes all of Washington has to put its hand up like a traffic cop and say no. It has to say: That doesn't go here, it's not acceptable, it's not among the normal human transgressions of back stairs, love affairs and the congressman on the take. This is decadence. This is pornography. We can't let the world, and the young, know it's "politically survivable." Because that will hurt us, not him, and define us, not him. So: Enough."
Race for the White House --
"That Ship Just Sailed"
Of course, the biggest news from the political world was the virtually unprecedented decision of all of Newt Gingrich's senior campaign staff to quit en masse. It was felt to be a crippling blow to a campaign that had already gotten off to a disastrous start. Various reasons were given, from the staff's disappointment that the Mr. and Mrs. Gingrich chose to take a two-week cruise to the Greek Isles at a time when they should have been trying to get traction for the campaign.....
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| A Carnival Fun Ship It Was NOT. |
To reports that the staff found the candidate's third wife, Callista Gingrich, extremely difficult to get along with.
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| Somehow, We Don't Have Any Problem Believing That |
In the wake of Gingrich's embarrassment, the press seemed to delight in portraying him as some kind of has-been rube, who knew nothing about campaigning, strategy, or the hard work of winning. How quickly they forget --- Gingrich almost single-handedly captured the House for the GOP in 1990s, after having labored for years in obscurity when the conventional wisdom held that the Democratic majority in the house was, if not "permanent," at least the natural order of things. Gingrich was responsible for the recruiting, the strategy, the fundraising and the message behind the Republican takeover of the House. And now, all of a sudden, he knows nothing about politics? There is something more to the story. TGG just wishes we knew what it was.
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| It Was A Breakthrough Tactic At The Time |
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| Just Remember -- This Is Not Newt's First Rodeo |
Newt's troubles were more or less a sideshow, however. As the economic news continued to be problematic --- high unemployment, especially in battleground states like Florida and Ohio, weak expected growth, and bad news from the stock market, President Obama's approval ratings stalled and some polls actually showed GOP front runner Mitt Romney beating him in a head-to-head matchup.
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| This Is No Joke |
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| And POTUS Knows It |
Analysts universally agreed that the continuing economic woes redounded to the benefit of Romney. And they were probably right. As always, the Journal's Noonan had a right-on-point take on Mr. Romney:
"His seamless happiness can be grating. People like to root for the little guy, and he's never been the little guy. His family has never in his lifetime known financial ill fortune, and his personal wealth is of the self-made kind, the most grating because it means you can't even patronize him. He has in him that way of people who are chipper about each day in large part becuase each day has been very nice to them. This makes some people want to
punch him in the nose."
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| We're Saving Our Questions For Later.... |
Gay-Bashing --- Who's Laughing Now?
30 Rock star Tracy Morgan's vile rant that he would "kill his son if he were gay" (it actually was worse than that) has gotten all of the criticism it so justly deserved, including ultimately from Chris Rock and his own
co-stars....
When will they ever learn? Some things are not funny. Some lines are not to be crossed.
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| TGG Is Just Asking: Was He Ever Really That Funny Anyway? |
On a related note, TGG wholeheartedly supports the NBA's anti-homophobia campaign. It's about time. But we have to ask, might it not have been just a little bit more effective if it featured players other than Grant HIll (because after all, don't we expect this from Grant Hill?) and one of his Phoenix Sun teammates who nobody had ever heard of? Grant was always a likely suspect to to do a public service announcement like this. The NBA will really make strides when its pro-tolerance campaign features a player or two that makes you say, "I never expected that from him."
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| But We've Got To Start Somewhere.... |
The Association -- Bron-Bron's Breakdown
Maybe LeBron James could make such a commercial. But in the meantime, LeBron had troubles of his own. The Chosen One had only 11 fourth-quarter points in 5 games, and his Heatles were facing elimination down 3-2 with 2 games left at home in Miami. Dallas star Dirk Nowitzki had more than 50 fourth-quarter points, and appeared set to spoil the Heat's march to the first of their "not 5, not 6, not 7 titles." The critics of LeBron were merciless, especially ESPN, which endlessly dissected his clutch time failures and even used special graphics to show the clear lanes to the basket that he failed to exploit when guarded by the much-smaller Jason Kidd.
Was all of this fair? All TGG can say is "be careful what you wish for." LeBron asked for the spotlight when he "took his talents to South Beach," and he asked for it even more with all the hype of the introductory press conference/pep rally, etc. Some of the greatest in recent memory had their failures in individual series (most notably Magic Johnson), but the great ones to whom LeBron wishes to be compared all earned multiple titles as well. LeBron is stringing together a series of questionable moments --- not shaking hands with the Spurs after the Finals defeat, vanishing against Boston in his last playoff defeat with the Cavs, orchestrating the ridiculous "Decision" and its aftermath, and now fading in the 4th against Dallas. It could be a long, long summer unless he and
D. Wade can pull these next two rabbits out of the hat.
LeBron wants to be considered among the all-time greats. In basketball, that means two things: (1) You win titles, and (2) Year-in, Year-out, you come up big when the game is on the line. The Chosen One now has some catching up to do.
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| Except Maybe If We're Talking About The Last 12 Minutes of The Game |
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| How Time Flies |
College Football In Collapse
Lost in all of the discussion about LeBron, but critically important, was the fact that college football is virtually imploding on itself. Last week, the BCS stripped the USC Trojans of their 2004 national title. This came, of course, the week after the Ohio State program self-destructed with the resignation of Coach Jim Tressell and the announcement that star quarterback Terrelle Pryor would not return for his senior year. As if that weren't enough, last years' National Champion Auburn Tigers remained under investigation for possible violations, and the NCAA called in current USC frontman Lane Kiffin to discuss possible major violations under his watch when he was the head coach at Tennessee.
Make no mistake about it --- USC and Ohio State are two of the premier programs in college football --- and two programs that were thought to be basically doing it right. If they are cheating, who is not? The practical effect of all of this for college football fans is that you basically have to go through the season rooting for your team or teams (and against your rivals), and then just hope against hope when the season is over that there is not another shoe which is about to drop. The whole thing becomes more and more unseemly each year, and ultimately will reduce enthusiasm for the game. Wake up call to the NCAA: Is anybody home?
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| Be Careful Where You Stick That Thing, Tommy.... |
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| But Were They All In The Past? |
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| Where There's Smoke? |
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There's Something We Just Don't Like About Lane Kiffin
OK, Strike That --- There's Everything We Just Don't Like About Lane Kiffin |
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| The Fakest Fake Tough Guy Ever? |
Tiger: In The Tank?
Finally, as Tiger Woods withdrew from the U.S. Open, the question no longer was when would he win the additional 4 majors to tie Jack Nickalaus' mark of 18, but would he do it at all?
Analysts said that at his 25% rate for winning majors (14 for 55) it would take the 35 year-old Tiger until he was 40 to tie the mark.
Our prediction: He's lost his dominance and isn't ever going to get it back. Tiger finishes oh-so-close-yet-oh-so-far-away with 17 majors. Remember, you read it in The Global Game first...
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But The Question Is, Does He?
Stay tuned next Weekend for Volume 1, Issue 17 of TGG, and be on the lookout for periodic updates "as events warrant" |
