Althouse: Camille Paglia frames the question well.

August 8, 2007

Camille Paglia frames the question well.

"Why was Clinton campaign advisor Ann Lewis (sister of Barney Frank) so addled and strangely superheated by the Washington Post's whimsical meditation on the saggy Hillary cleavage that she instantly turned it into a crass cash come-on?"

28 comments:

Tim said...: No surprise here. For the political party of professional victimization, every insult, real or imagined, is an opportunity - for a press release, a press conference, a protest, a boycott - and a fundraising letter. Every "outrage" is an opportunity to shake the tin cup for money. It is part of their culture, and the Hillary! is no different.; 8/8/07, 1:27 PM
phosphorious said...: Yay!

more breasts on Althouse. . .; 8/8/07, 1:29 PM
Mutaman said...: Every "outrage" is an opportunity to shake the tin cup for money. It is part of their culture, and the Hillary! is no different."

That's why i'm a Republican. They never "shake the tin cup for money". I like the fact that Republicans make political decisions without considering opportunities for fundraising.; 8/8/07, 1:55 PM
Anonymous said...: In her fund-raising letter for Hillary in which she tries to harness outrage over outing cleavage outage, Ann Lewis says, “But first, she has to win. And only your support -- in whatever amount, large or small -- will help make that happen.”

Sounds like they’re soliciting contributions of sturdy white cotton brassieres, cup size AA to E.

Hillary's going to Cross Your Heart, America.; 8/8/07, 2:10 PM
MadisonMan said...: Affronts to Hillary are used to raise Democratic money, affronts by Hillary are used to raise Republican money.

Maybe there's a Party that ignores Hillary to make money, but even that is using Hillary to make money.

Where would American political parties be without Her? Broke!; 8/8/07, 2:24 PM
Brent said...: both tim and mutaman are on to a very important point about the differences between the 2 major parties.

The Democrats - and I'm talking the standard bearers, not the pundits and chattering classes - seem to have trademarked the term "I'll fight for . . . " They seem to want to fight a lot. Every Democrat is "fighting" something. We know this because they always tell us.

Republicans rarely frame the issues as "Ill fight for . . ." This doesn't make them better, just a different approach.

Democrats see every issue as a complete struggle between (their definition) of right and wrong. It doesn't matter that "right and wrong" can shift for them depending on the political need of the moment.

When you say "I'll go to Washington and I'll fight for you", you're framing the issue as us (you and me) against someone(s) who are much more powerful than just me and all of my friends so far alone. That's why I need you (remember, you're a fighter).

So . . . which political party so often seeks to win votes by letting you know that you are weak and can't win without "them" fighting for you?

Which party seeks to divide the electorate by class wars?

If a party politician is asking for my vote so that he/she can "bring us together", then who are they fighting? How can we all be together if we have to have to fight some of us?; 8/8/07, 2:25 PM
Maxine Weiss said...: Tornado in Brooklyn? Nah, it's just Althouse making her grand arrival. Doesn't foul atmosphere always precede Althouse where ever she goes?

Climate-wise, I guess you chose the wrong spot.; 8/8/07, 2:43 PM
MadisonMan said...: In Wisconsin, at least, the fighting politician might be the mark of a progressive, harkening as it does back to Bob LaFollette.; 8/8/07, 2:59 PM
vet66 said...: Shaking your cup! Gives new meaning to the "Secret Embrace" (apologies to Victoria's Secret.)

Next we can look forward to Washington D.C., the seat of government, being referred to as the "G Spot!" with appropriate booty shaking for donations.; 8/8/07, 4:20 PM
hdhouse said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/8/07, 4:52 PM
Maxine Weiss said...: Turn back! The Universe is giving Althouse a sign. New York isn't the best place to be now, or in the future. My psychic powers tell me there's even more bad stuff on the way.

Who's bright idea was it, anyway, to move to New York, and without consulting me first?

It's not too late to cancel, and still be able to save face. We all make mistakes. Some of us, namely Althouse, don't always use proper judgment.

Don't say you weren't warned.

Love, Maxine; 8/8/07, 5:08 PM
Meade said...: If Hillary would just eat more of those F-ckUp boob-builder cookies (68.7 calories per serving), she might gain enough increase in targeted adipose tissue to distract me from the reality that she's a government leader who can really barely wait to put even more government on my tired ass.

Distract me enough, and even I might consent to slipping a few small bills into her cups.

But she'll have to be careful -- distract me with too much, and that would cross over into obscene.; 8/8/07, 5:24 PM
Maxine Weiss said...: "Dear Ms. Paglia,

I look forward to your musings very much, first because they don't come often and second because they affect me in the nature of an old song replayed brand new. Especially this time with your ideas on the church of Bergman who I love very much. I too sat in the front row when they first appeared and alone in revival after revival and even made a sort of pilgrimage to Faro and Stockholm to hopefully stitch together the pieces of myself he had discovered in his dreams. Recently I saw "the Virgin Spring" and stopped in the middle because I couldn't go on. Two weeks later I finished it. Unlike the silly cartoon slasher movies of today, The Spring was too real. He reconnected the latent feelings inside us all, perhaps from prehistory, of the thrill of killing, the excitement of the sexual feast and finally the sweet dessert of guilt at the satiation. The veneer of civilzation is thin, and Bergman plunged his master's lens clean through to expose the bloodlust. "

Love, Ann Althouse; 8/8/07, 6:27 PM
From Inwood said...: Anybody remember G. S. Kaufman's mot that Jane Russell's movie should be re-titled

"A Sale Of Two Teaties"?; 8/8/07, 6:36 PM
Eli Blake said...: Mutaman:

That's why i'm a Republican. They never "shake the tin cup for money". I like the fact that Republicans make political decisions without considering opportunities for fundraising.

Is that supposed to be funny or something? Because if you are serious, then you are seriously both blind and stupid.

I could give you dozens of examples of the obvious, but I will just point out two current ones: 1. The recent fundraising letter by Mitt Romney in which he took advantage of Al Sharpton's gaffe in a debate with Christopher Hitchens, and 2. the recent Giuliani fundraising letter attacking Democrats as 'coddling terrorists' sent to subscribers of the Jerusalem Post apparently with the assistance of the Post, which the FEC is looking into as possibly being illegal.

And I haven't even mentioned how desperate John McCain is getting for funds. Pretty soon I expect he will have a fire sale on his sweaters.; 8/8/07, 6:43 PM
ricpic said...: President Hillary in a wonderbra. Eye candy for us serfs.; 8/8/07, 7:02 PM
Ann Althouse said...: hdhouse: Why are you posting that here? I have no idea what it refers to.; 8/8/07, 7:27 PM
Maxine Weiss said...: Ann Althouse....it's something called "cognitive dissonance"---don't you know what that is?

hdHouse, and me---that's what we're all about.; 8/8/07, 7:33 PM
MadisonMan said...: I can't understand why B and Eli Blake took mutaman seriously.; 8/8/07, 8:27 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Don't clutter this post with irrelevant material. If you have a problem that relates to another comments thread, you should be emailing me, not posting here and writing in capital letters. I'm deleting material like that. I do not read all the comments, so posting some notice to me in the comments is ineffective.; 8/8/07, 9:12 PM
Peter Hoh said...: I started reading Paglia's column on Salon -- wow is she in rare form. What fun. Now if only she and Ann could get together and share an egg salad sandwich. Maybe they could do a little faux cooking show first. If they did a regular reality show on HBO, well, then maybe I'd have to rethink my longstanding refusal to get cable.; 8/8/07, 10:40 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Peter: Don't you know there was a whole incident where she got me uninvited from a dinner when she saw a blog post I wrote about a talk she gave here (a blog post that her publisher was linking to in the ad for her book)? She went out of her way not to eat with me. Had to be rather awkward to do it, but she did. Can't have two divas at one table, perhaps.; 8/8/07, 10:51 PM
Peter Hoh said...: Ann, yes I know, but I can dream, can't I? Perhaps one day, Andrew Sullivan will broker a truce between the two of you. Three divas on the same couch.

Like I said, I'd pay money to see it.; 8/8/07, 11:40 PM
Anonymous said...: Three divas on one couch! That's really funny.

It is really funny. I have loved to read Althouse and Paglia for a long time. There is something similar in the both of them somehow. I wonder what it is...; 8/9/07, 12:16 AM
hdhouse said...: fine Ann...where does one find your email; 8/9/07, 3:23 AM
KCFleming said...: "where does one find your email"

EGGAGOG@GMAIL.COM
or
http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html; 8/9/07, 7:04 AM
knox said...: I can't understand why B and Eli Blake took mutaman seriously.

no sense of humor; 8/9/07, 8:29 AM
I'm Full of Soup said...: hdhouse said:

"Fine Ann ...where do I find your email?"

Try looking on her blog like an intelligent person would do.; 8/9/07, 10:45 AM