"... and try to explain the importance of the 2022 midterms to Trump’s legacy. But Trump doesn’t give a damn, except how he can use the midterms for revenge or self-promotion.... By coddling Trump on his election fakery, the Republicans gave it so much oxygen, it led to tragedy. Trump, the supreme ingrate, wasn’t grateful for McConnell’s nay vote. He promptly composed a masterpiece of spleen, a statement threatening to primary Mitch’s candidates and calling him 'a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack' who lacks political wisdom, skill and personality.... Ted Cruz’s truckling may be the most jarring, given Trump’s attacks on Cruz’s wife and father in the 2016 campaign. But I’ve always said the story of Washington should be titled 'Smart People Doing Dumb Things.' Cruz wouldn’t even study with people from what he called 'minor Ivies' while at Harvard Law School but didn’t think twice before leaving Texans starving, freezing and dying to go catch some rays in Cancun and then blaming his daughters. We’ll see if Trump can sustain this king-in-exile routine without the infrastructure he once had. Consider his asinine election challenge with all those crazy lawyers. Ever the shrew, all he has left now is his forked tongue."
From "The Tale of the Untamable Shrew/Republicans are still trying to muzzle a smack-talking Trump" by Maureen Dowd (NYT).
1. Dowd is comparing Trump to Kate, the shrew in Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew." As I've said more than once, there is something womanly about Trump. And there are times when the way people react to Trump is like the way they react to an untamed woman. Dowd talks a lot about "Shrew" but also wanders all over the place and never really explores the hypothesis that Trump's wildness is something like a nasty woman. Why do we feel this deep need to control him? What does it say about those who think that he did not belong in our serious, well-established institutions and that he spoke with shocking directness and exhibited self-dramatizing emotion?
2. Here's a whole Wikipedia article on the "nasty woman" meme that originated in the 2016 campaign.
3. Is it true that the word "handful" is usually leveled at spirited women? I'd guess it's mostly used about children — a nice way to say the kid is hard to manage. If you say it about an adult, you are loading in the concept that you are into manipulation. Both "manage" and "manipulate" are built from the Lain word for "hand" ("manus"). If you think an adult is a "handful," maybe you ought to consider why you're putting your hands on her/him.
4. Let's take a closer look at the last sentence of the column: "Ever the shrew, all he has left now is his forked tongue." I see 2 ways to go with this:
a. Metaphor screw up. A forked tongue is characteristic of some reptiles, notably snakes. A shrew is a small mole-like mammal. If you don't mean to refer to the animal, but only to the extremely irritating person, then don't bring up an animal characteristic like "forked tongue." Sharp tongue would be fine.
b. Microaggression alert. Are we still using "forked tongue" to refer to lying?! I would have thought it was relegated long ago to the dustbin of potential microaggressions. Background from Wikipedia: "This phrase was... adopted by Americans around the time of the Revolution, and may be found in abundant references from the early 19th century — often reporting on American officers who sought to convince the tribal leaders with whom they negotiated that they 'spoke with a straight and not with a forked tongue' (as for example, President Andrew Jackson told the Creek Nation in 1829). According to one 1859 account, the native proverb that the 'white man spoke with a forked tongue' originated as a result of the French tactic of the 1690s, in their war with the Iroquois, of inviting their enemies to attend a Peace Conference, only to be slaughtered or captured."
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So, Trump will easily win a congressional seat in Florida if he runs in 2022. The census update likely means the GOP picks up 5+ seats in the house to take control. And then the GOP makes Trump speaker. Then Trump has control over the legislative agenda and impeachment. Fun ensues.
You really think Maureen Dowd represents anyone but the lunatic left?
Trump, the supreme ingrate, wasn’t grateful for McConnell’s nay vote. He promptly composed a masterpiece of spleen, a statement threatening to primary Mitch’s candidates and calling him 'a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack' who lacks political wisdom, skill and personality....
Oh, yeah, Maureen, that's what it was all about. It had nothing to do with what MCConnell, completely unprompted, said on the Senate floor about Trump could still be criminally liable for the Jan 6th riot. I mean, did McConnell think that those ill-considered words were going to be helpful to the cause of Republican comity?
While I sometimes think that Trump should have tempered his outbursts, I was more often reminded of the French saying "That animal is wicked! It defends itself!"
Trump doesn't have any response that's emotional. It's all calculated for effect. As anybody but a woman would know.
Forked tongue is indian-belittling humor, like wampum and firewater. Everything indian is risible.
Then Trump has control over the legislative agenda and impeachment. Fun ensues.
Thought experiment. Is Trump the leader better as Speaker of the House or President?
Traditionaly, a business leader would be thought of as a great executive. But Trump ran into problems getting his own agencies to do his bidding. The federal government is a massive behemoth and while the President can set some policy through executive orders, it still requires funding, etc.
Trump has added to his talent stack however, with being able to motivate masses of voters. That is not a traditional Speaker trait. Newt Gingrich comes the closest. He was certainly able to rouse more people than say, Tip O'Neil. But the Speaker is one of many. How does Trump the personality fair in such an environment?
What would a Trump Speakership look like?
One thing is for sure it would be "entertaining".
Was the "forked tounge" expression really a Native American phrase? It just seems weird to me that after thousands of years of the snake being the invetor of lies in the Judeo-Christian tradition that Europeans would hop on a boat and then meet other people that would teach them this expression.
Either way, it Chamberlain Rocks all the way down.
Dowd showed us who she was over two decades ago, when she first mocked and demeaned Clinton for his womanizing and lying, then reversed course and attacked the GOP when she saw that Clinton's womanizing might lead to his impeachment.
Whatever political legacy Clinton had would have continued, uninterrupted, with Gore, had Clinton been forced out of office, so Dowd's Clinton truckling was simply a show of anti-conservative social solidarity: "I am not 'one of those people,' like you, I hate those people!"
Feel the love.
“Forked tongue is indian-belittling humor, like wampum and firewater. Everything indian is risible.”
How.
“Election fakery” == “fortifying the election”, and was admitted to. She might want to read more than her own paper.
"Lindsey Graham...with his sovereign lord... But Trump doesn’t give a damn.... By coddling Trump on his election fakery...
I suppose this goes without saying, given that it’s Maureen Dowd, but, fuck off.
Was the "forked tounge" expression really a Native American phrase?
SURE! *IF* you Admit, that John Milton was a Native American
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forked_tongue#Literary_usage
There are appearances of the phrase "forked tongue" in English literature, either in reference to actual snakes' tongues, or as a metaphor for untruthfulness, such as a sermon by Lancelot Andrewes, who died in 1626:
"And he hath the art of cleaving. He shewed it in the beginning, when he made the Serpent, lingnam bisulcam, a forked tongue, to speake that, which was contrary to his knowledge and meaning, They should not die; and as hee did the Serpents, so hee can doe others."
The phrase also appears in Milton's Paradise Lost (1667):
"According to his Doom: He would have spoke,
But Hiss for Hiss return'd with forked Tongue
To forked Tongue, for now were all transform'd..."
". . . Everything indian is risible.”
We don't call them "Indians" any more.
The properly accepted term these days is "Bloodthirsty Redskin."
Almost every piece that MoDo ever wrote is screwed up, so this grand mix-up of well-worn tales of the weak bowing to the mean-talker is low and outside the strike zone. Had our NYT columnist had the guts to refer to the white senator from South Carolina as "Miss Lindsey," perhaps it would better explain why playing house . . . um, golf with Trump represents Graham's only headlines of late.
And when Rubio and Cruz couldn't make the "small hands" - "dumber than shit" - "lies like a cheap rug" work, they kicked it all in at the GOP convention in 2016. So sing it:
Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man
That he didn't, didn't already have
And cause never was the reason for the evening
Or the tropic of Sir Galahad
The NYT must fire Dowd for culture appropriation. The term "speaking with a forked tounge" is a Native American phrase. A proper use would be a Native American describing the NYT.
Writing about Biden must be like walking through a minefield. Your complicity, willful blindness, and dishonesty could be exposed at any moment.
I'm guessing that Maureen Dowd makes a lot of money.
The establishment does not understand draining the swamp.
They see everything in right and left politics.
Trump and his supporters do not.
"Is it true that the word "handful" is usually leveled at spirited women?"
I think handful is usually applied to women with respect to their boobs.
I don't think Maureen or Peggy or SNL could be any less relevant to the present crisis. Clearly they all miss Trump....
My understanding of “forked tongue” is as a reference to the serpent in the garden of eden, who manipulated Adam and Eve into eating the apple. It is used to describe friendly speech intended to trick people into acting against their own interests.
Toddlers of either gender are often referred to as "a handful"
I became suspicious at "spirited women" and stopped reading at "Maureen Dowd."
Seriously, why give ANY legitimacy to this person or, I ask again, the New York Times??
We’re occupied by the CCP.
The Dem/CCP axis continues its relentless unpersoning campaign against the former president and leader of the GOP. Trump has been censored out of the media where he might speak.
The election rigging was brazen. Elections are a joke.
Now the Dems have completely embraced the CCP system and are installing it in the U.S.
Modo reminds me of Rush's best intro mixtape: We're feminist, we're fierce and in your face.
Have none of you ever seen a Western movie or TV show??
Really, "White man speak with forked tongue" is certainly a well-worn line.
You are clearly occupied by the ccp chimera, Thomas. Go snowshoeing with the grandkids.
Cruz wouldn’t even study with people from what he called 'minor Ivies' while at Harvard Law School
We don't know for sure if he actually said that, but if he did it's hard to think somebody actually said that without being at least a bit ironic.
You know how young people (and sometimes even not so young people) can be. Statements can be ambiguous: they can be snobbish and making fun of snobbery at the same time (and maybe not making so much fun of snobbery after all).
It's not something one would normally obsess over. Another Romney's dog.
How does she know? They just can't let go of Trump, he's too good for business.
It's pronounced Forkid tongue
Oh there are plenty of instances where politicos HATED each other but still found ways to tolerate, grovel even work together. The most infamous being LBJ and the Kennedy boys. As long as there is power (real or perceived) and it’s useful a political person will overlook any slight. Cruz wants higher office. Who cares what Trump said during 2016. As long as Trump is viewed as Kingmaker, Cruz will learn to forget the nasty grams.
Dowd needs articles to eat so she writes dumb things like this. I’m being generous because perhaps she’s just historically illiterate ��
I looked up "forked tongue." The first thing I saw were snakes, then pictures of a woman with a nose ring who has had her tongue split in the middle. I gather she thinks it will grow back some day, but isn't in any hurry about it since there may be nothing distinctive or individual about her if it does.
"Forked tongue" may be found in Aramaic (Chaldean) translations of biblical literature, but my Aramaic (Chaldean) is so rusty that I don't know for sure.
"Toddlers of either gender are often referred to as "a handful""
Correctimundo. You could also add stepchildren. We probably should excuse MoDo as she has neither.
The Dem/CCP axis takes sadistic pleasure in inflicting suffering and death on normal U.S. citizens... the Deplorable ones.
Have you noticed?
Ho humm
If it had been President Trump dying last week instead of Limbaugh, leftists would be forced to dig him up everyday to use up all their hate.
Meanwhile the real media is busy with relevant events.
The media in Australia is examining how a great Nation, purportedly the worlds greatest Nation, elected a President suffering from late stage dementia.
Something a functioning press would have never allowed to happen.
Dowd is so yesterday.
“Forked tongue is indian-belittling humor, like wampum and firewater. Everything indian is risible.”
Iowa has covid vaccination under control (#47th nationally) is renaming creeks and streams. Squaw creek bit the dust last week. Get this. "The US Board of Geographic Names" approved the change to Ioway
"It’s a fool’s errand. Like Kate, Trump is seen as a “fiend of Hell.” He has the nastiest tongue ever heard in American politics. But unlike Kate, he won’t be persuaded to be more civilized."
-- Isn't that a good thing? Isn't the modern read on Kate that she's a horrible victim of abuse and gaslighting? Like... I'm not sure this analogy holds up the way Dowd wants it to hold up.
"Thought experiment. Is Trump the leader better as Speaker of the House or President?"
-- He's best as an outside advocate where his toxic, radioactive nature (whether deserved or note) doesn't immediately taint everyone who potentially talks to, works with, or interacts with him. Yes, yes, canceling people bad. Black lists bad. But, until we actually reach a point where there aren't black lists being drawn up left and right, it is political suicide to look at giving Trump a position of political power. But, of those two positions, I would rather he not be President again because we can't trust the rest of the Executive Branch to not once again sabotage the American presidency for four years.
"It’s a fool’s errand. Like Kate, Trump is seen as a “fiend of Hell.” He has the nastiest tongue ever heard in American politics. But unlike Kate, he won’t be persuaded to be more civilized."
-- Well-behaved men are apparently the only ones allowed to make history. Geesh. This is so monumentally stupid with the modern read/understanding of Shakespeare I have to wonder how with-it Dowd is.
Trump won't become speaker. He doesn't do institutions well, and the GOP that kept Liz Cheney as head of the conference wouldn't vote for him. If Republicans do retake Congress that would mean that as many anti-Trumpers as Trump supporters would come to DC, because it would mean that suburban districts that went for Biden would turn red in the midterms.
Mark said...
Have none of you ever seen a Western movie or TV show??
Really, "White man speak with forked tongue" is certainly a well-worn line.
No kidding. Brings back memories of F-Troop.
Trump is a shrewd shrew.
Man...SNL followed by Maureen Dowd. It's gotten harder to tell them apart.
I fail to see why I need to pay any attention at all to this Dowd person venting her hatred.
It's framing. It wouldn't be surprising if Biden or Harris visited Obama or Clinton, but make it seem like it's unnatural or scandalous that Graham or Cruz didn't reject Trump and make it seem like the natural, the decent, the only thing to do is to repudiate Trump. You know there is something to be said for loyalty and there is also still disagreement about the election and the supposed "insurrection," but the playbook is just to ignore all that.
The "shrew" comment does seem a bit out of place. It may be projection. Tit for tat for the "nasty women" comments (and for widespread perceptions of Dowd and Gail Collins).
I've seen late stage dementia. My mother had it. Biden is not at that point yet, though he will be close the end of his term.
DAMMIT, Maureen, if you must say Trump has a forked tongue, compare him to a snake. Then tie it to his campaign rhetoric, and make a pithy comment about Trump has to tell us what he is before he betrays us. Except I understand why you can't do that, MOSTLY because you're an incompetent writer who made your bones whoring yourself out to rich men in New York, but definitely because it describes the neoliberal business model to a T. The lack of awareness is total but primarily centered around the self, because Maureen Dowd calling people shrews is like the pot calling the toilet black. Particularly because Donald Trump is consolidating his populist support in the Republican Party while its elites at NR fall over themselves explaining that Rush Limbaught really wasn't their thing.
Actually, the idea that Trump doesn't have "infrastructure" because he doesn't have his pick of Ivy League lawyers is hilarious on multiple levels. First of all, a man with substantial real estate and de facto control over multiple state governments by definition has infrastructure. Second of all, the Trump campaign's email strategy was so bad in 2020 I had to unsubscribe, and I'm a total stan otherwise. I have zero doubt that this expensive and extremely counter-productive drag on the campaign was duplicated throughout the GOPe consultant infrastructure. Yes, Trump really did win even with this internal sabotage, but the fact he didn't engage in mass firing shows that his staff really underestimated the self-inflicted damage. From these facts we can infer that Donald Trump is shedding himself of all the dead weight similar to Rocky Balboa in most of his comeback stories, and that would explain why Maureen Dowd is more incoherent than usual.
The muttering of some old white woman at the NYT. Yawn
"What does it say about those who think that he did not belong"
They are the ruling class. They intend to rule. They crush interlopers.
Maureen Dowd: prog woman writing in the prog womanly way to suit an audience of prog women. Unfortunately, since they are the main pillar of the regime, attention must be paid.
How sharper than a shrew's tongue it is to have a thankless old white scribbler-woman at the nyt.
And yet, the commies in NYC are closing down the ice skating rinks because TRUMP!!!! Screw the little kids who have nothing to do in the closed down city except for ice skating....Gotta erase TRUMP!!! NYC is dead.
As I keep saying when her name comes up, MoDo is Mo DUMB.
Donald Trump and The Gaming of the Shrews.
If he were to disappear tomorrow, the shrieks of journalists like Dowd would become increasingly shrill as they realize their life has no meaning and little purpose without him.
"He promptly composed a masterpiece of spleen"
Yet restrained in comparison to Mo's screed.
Howard said...You are clearly occupied by the ccp chimera, Thomas.
--
"They're good folks".
How's that investigation into Hunter going? Probe widening?
When does his memoir drop?
Semper Fud!
Idem Vetus Longe Reliquit Amentia could have been the tagline for so many of your posts Althouse.
I'm puzzled by "Cruz wouldn’t even study with people from what he called 'minor Ivies' while at Harvard Law School but didn’t think twice before leaving Texans starving, freezing and dying to go catch some rays in Cancun" - how does the "but" make any sense? This is a total non sequitur.
Nicholas: That sentence makes sense provided you read the one before it: "Ted Cruz’s truckling may be the most jarring, given Trump’s attacks on Cruz’s wife and father in the 2016 campaign. But I’ve always said the story of Washington should be titled “Smart People Doing Dumb Things.” Cruz wouldn’t even study with people from what he called “minor Ivies” while at Harvard Law School but didn’t think twice before leaving Texans starving, freezing and dying to go catch some rays in Cancun and then blaming his daughters."
Basically, Dowd is saying, Cruz was so smart that even other super smart people weren't in his league, yet he made this rookie error.
Dowdy endlessly repeats Cruz's alleged law school snobbery, but I doubt she has ever mentioned Kamala hoing it up with old married men in her 30s.
It’s difficult to evaluate which is less appealing Trump’s “shrewishness” or Dowd’s denial. Trump’s abrasive ness probably cost him the Presidency. On the other hand, Dowd’s denial, and that of others, of rampant and illegal election irregularities exposed by Trump supporters will combine with such irregularities to cost us much more - fair and honest elections. (It is an act of generosity to credit Dowd, other mediaswine and Democrats with “denial” rather than dishonesty.)
And what is the big deal about Cruz? Isn’t it the responsibility of a husband and father to move his family away from discomfort or danger if he has the means to do so. I can’t believe he caved and characterized it as a mistake. We are turning into a nation of looney tunes thanks to our stupid, irresponsible media.
Cruz fucked up by apologizing instead of telling the media to fuck off. The story is fake anyway, having been sold as vacationing when he was just a courier/ babysitter and didn’t even get to “catch rays” as Dowd dishonestly writes. By the way, “Dowd dishonestly writes” can be standalone phrase, sentence, or introduction to any cogent analysis of her drivel.
There's a certain old white woman columnist (MoDo and Peggy, and I'm sure there are others) whose entire writing style is the exasperated sighing style. If I wanted to be sighed at by an old white woman, I'd, I dunno, date a white chick and piss off her mom.
Fuck off biddies. They were never smart, amusing nor as good looking as they think they were.
Maureen Dowd has obviously never had a small child or an active dog--both of which can be described as "a handful"--and often are.
On the other hand a great number of Ms. Dowd's columns can be described as "a pantload".
Which can also be found on a small not yet toilet trained "handful" of a child.
1. Dowd is comparing Trump to Kate, the shrew in Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew."
But..but...well behaved women seldom make history!
Or so I'm informed by many a bumper sticker!
I read the post, and was quite amazed to discover that Orange Man Bad. Still. Who knew?
God help us if Trump ever cures cancer, walks on water, or discovers cheap renewable energy, because the press will be telling us he's lowering doctor's salaries, damaging the cruise ship industry, and destroying fossil fuels.
I too think that "handful" is mostly used in regards to children. She missed a chance to reference that Baby Trump balloon.
Cruz fucked up by apologizing instead of telling the media to fuck off
This.
Cruz should have told the media to fuck 0ff. Then tell them, "if they need me they know where to find me.' ie, See Obama, 2008.
>>Althouse said...
"Microaggression alert. Are we still using "forked tongue" to refer to lying?! I would have thought it was relegated long ago to the dustbin of potential microaggressions."<<
Yeah, we all must stay on top of that constantly expanding long list of "potential microaggressions' now, don't we.
Anyway, thanks for the reminder to use that term whenever possible. I'd almost forgotten it.
"Trump, the supreme ingrate,"
A perfect description of Trump. (One of many.)
"Brings back memories of F-Troop."
"The Hekawi tribe was originally called the Fugawi. The name of the local tribe is a silly pun, The Hakawi, based on the punchline to a joke, "Where the heck are we?" Originally, the writers used a moniker a little more blue, and tried to push "Fugawi" past the censors."
METV.com
I've come to the conclusion that the Progressives will only talk about Trump's personality because they can't bring themselves to recognize the benefit his policies was bringing to the country.
We were on a path to a sane immigration system. People apply for asylum in their country, or the first country they come to. Wow. Wasn't that the way it was supposed to work?
Or energy independence-- something a previous President said would never happen.
Or beginning the long road to holding China accountable for its lawlessness. Someone had to take the first step. China had only been stealing and cheating for 25 years.
Instead of telling Americans how these policies only seemed to have improved their lives, they can only talk about his personality and how disruptive he was to the Washington cocktail scene.
I think the majority of Americans have or will soon catch on, as their lives are disrupted as the Progressive EO's of Biden begin to dismantle what President Trump achieved in four, hate filled, impeachment crazy years.
Unless he could get a lot of supporters elected in the House he would be less effective as Speaker than he was as President. He is not skilled at politics and its required machinations. Would be colossal fun though and the media are likely to promote it to improve their failing ratings and influence.
What's a bigger waste of time:
1) Reading Dowd
2) Picking lint off the sofa
You make the call! Its funny that these elite newspapers, the NYT and WSJ, both have women writers that are 12 years past their sell date. Dowd was "cute" when she was jabbering about "Bushie", but that was a long, long, time ago. Noonan has become just as dated and dull. Yet, there's no one to replace them.
Even after he's gone - and been quiet for weeks - they still have to spew their bullshit.
Pathetic.
People of color and other marginalized communities
How the fuck would she know?
Why are lefties always inferring Trump is feminine? I thought that would be a compliment in looney-leftworld.
Personally, I don't see it. I mean, he's no Reagan on a horse, but he's certainly mas macho than Graham.
"Why are lefties always inferring Trump is feminine?"
-- The same reason they like to call Republicans "gay." It's an attempt to insult them with what they think are insults to the people they're insulting.
I don't give a damn what Maureen Dowd thinks about anything.
Althouse,
I would like to acknowledge that one of the useful things you do is "Reading the New York Times so the rest of us don't have to".... but in the case of MoDo you don't have to, either. There is so totally no there, there.
Kate's the protagonist of that play, though!
Or Petruchio is, anyway. And it's clear by the end of the play that Kate is the prize of the two sisters and Bianca is the real handful. Kate's a shrew because she doesn't respect the men around her, and why should she?
10 Things I Hate About You is a great adaptation of the source material, by the way. It turns out that Shakespeare can be adapted to teen comedy better than you'd think.
My Mom called be a handful...a lot. What that meant to me is that when Dad got home, there was hell to pay.
I kept waiting for Hell to pay, but it was always me paying. Where was Hell. Why wasn't Hell paying. Hell owes me.
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