Friday, April 01, 2011

Elephant Dung #24: Rand Paul slams Gingrich and Fox News over Libya

Tracking the GOP Civil War

By Michael J.W. Stickings

(For an explanation of this ongoing series, see here. For previous entries, see here.)

Via Think Progress, the radical libertarian senator from Kentucky took swipes at both Newt Gingrich and Fox News at Wednesday's Congressional Correspondents Dinner: 

I was happy to see that Newt Gingrich has staked out a position on the war, a position, or two, or maybe three. I don't know. I think he has more war positions than he's had wives.

And:

There's a big debate over there. Fox News can't decide, what do they love more, bombing the Middle East or bashing the president? It's like I was over there and there was an anchor going, they were pleading, can't we do both? Can't we bomb the Middle East and bash the president at the same time? How are we going to make this work?

I rarely (i.e., never) do this, but allow me to put my hands together for Sen. Paul. Those are some truly biting comments. The one about Gingrich is not just on the mark but hilarious. And the one about Fox News gets it exactly right, the tension not just at Fox News but among Republicans generally (with some exceptions).

Was he just trying to be funny? Maybe. (You can see a wry smile after the Gingrich line.) But he knew what he was doing, and he knew just how to twist the knife.

Nicely done.


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posted by Michael J.W. Stickings at 3:00 PM

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4 Comments:

  • Was he trying to be funny? LOL.

    Duh, of course he was as he was one of the congressmen that delivered comedic remarks at a comedy event.

    Here, for instance is a remark by the Democrat Anthony Weiner:

    "Weiner on Rahm Emanuel: "Who knew that all it took to be a mayor of a big city is to be a hot-tempered, arrogant, loud Jew with nine-and-a-half fingers? In other news, I've taken a job at Arby's as the meat cutter."

    By all accounts Weiner, a democrat, stole the show at this COMEDY event. I find it hilarious how the left is trying to spin the Rand Paul comments as somehow "serious".

    ROFLMAO

    By Anonymous manapp99, at 12:03 PM  

  • Yeah, Weiner's funny, too. But don't think for a second (although I'm sure you will) that Paul wasn't also trying to score a political point or two.

    By Blogger Michael J.W. Stickings, at 1:04 PM  

  • If you just judge the comments on what you know as opposed to what you think you know you can only come to the conclusion that Paul was just doing a comedy act. If you WANT to infer a deeper political point taking or two that is your prerogative however it is also a fools pursuit.

    I first heard the comments played on the left wing radio show on POTUS radio (sirius/XM) by the stand up comedian Pete Dominick. He tried put some hidden deeper meaning to this obvious comedy routine. As a comedian he defended this as a rift between Paul and Newt (as well as between Paul and FOX news)by explaining that the "slam" (his words) was not even funny so it must be heartfelt. If you listen to his routine you see that Pete knows quite a bit about what is not funny.

    Now if you google "feud between rand paul and newt gingrich" you will see all the leftie sites picking this up. I know they really really WANT there to be some major rift inside the GOP because they envision it will help their side in DC but just shouting it on the lefty websites does not make it so.

    Do you find any other comments made by the two to read anything deeper than just comedy into Rand's remarks? The alleged rift seems to be just the fantasy of the left who appears to want to prove it (to themselves?) by stretching these comments.

    By Anonymous manapp99, at 1:09 PM  

  • Yes, yes, I realize there is a tendency to hear what you want to hear, whether you're on the left or the right, or wherever. But this wasn't just "a comedy act." Or, at least, his jokes had a purpose beyond here comedy. Why else tell them?

    And there's a difference between calling someone arrogant and loud and basically unmasking how Fox News is covering Libya and pointing to the flip-flops, hypocrisy, and character issues of Newt Gingrich.

    By Blogger Michael J.W. Stickings, at 12:11 AM  

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