Discussion for article #234955
âLook, when young people come to me and say, âHow do you become a United States senator?â I say, âWell, do about 35, 40 years of comedy and then run for the Senate.â Itâs worked every time.â
Ted Cruz has been doing the formula for only a tenth of that time and doesnât even know it! Thatâs how well it works!
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Like being an astronaut: 100% success rate.
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Stupid Senator Tricks could be hysterical with clown car passengersâŠ
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And Jon Stewart might want to look at a NJ Senate seat that might be opening up soon!
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I recorded this last night, havenât yet watched it but it looks like Al Franken feels free to be funny again instead of the Serious Senator Concerned About Important Issues he turned into.
John Cougar Mellencamp might not be a bad choice either.
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Now that was a great observation! And, a very attractive scenario overall! With these guys working together, the clown car wouldnât stand a chance.
There was a time back when we had a country and a middle class when the John Birch Society was roundly ridiculed by the press, the politicians, and the public. By contrast, the ascendancy of their demon spawn, the American Tealiban, was treated with deference and fear, not unlike a shadow puppet becomes a much-larger representation than the object casting the shadow.
At the risk of declaring a sea change prematurely, the sonsofbitches finally seem to be on the run at last. The corporatist Republicans who shamelessly used the teabaggers now realize that their radical politics are ineffective beyond isolated pockets of dumbassery, and that the stupid shit they say is hurting their chances to ever hold the Presidency again.
I can think of no more perfect time to have Franken, Letterman, and Stewart in the Senate at the same time with Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown and Bernie Sanders. I canât wait to see their first joint press conference. Skewer the bastards!
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Practically a shoo in. Retirement would bore Dave to death.
Yes â the Comic Caucus!
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There was an Astronaut in one of the southwest states who didnât get elected in the past few years, I believe.
Are you thinking about Harrison Schmidt from New Mexico? Failed to get reelected, but he won his first race.
He spoke on this after first being sworn in 2009. He said he got advice from Dem senators on how to act. That is, if a newly elected US senator is interested in getting things done in the Senate, itâs necessary to avoid showing up the senior senators or stepping on their toes or occupying their bit of turf unnecessary. He said that meant avoiding the national cable scrums, Sunday shows, talk radio and late night TV, and instead taking extra care to favor the state and local home press and to regularly appear all the shows and events back in Minnesota. He said he understood and accepted that it was necessary to go this route thru first re-election, and after that heâs be accepted and part of the Senate furniture and protected by incumbency and could do the national scrums and shows. Sure enough âŠ
Obviously, Ted Cruz is following some entirely different agenda, one that really doesnât involve being in the Senate for long or getting anything positive done there. One would have figured him to make a big splashy show of seeking the RNC nomination for president, make a spectacle of himself and go out of his way to diminish and embarrass future rivals in the debates and stumping, hang in for a while, say gracious sounding things on conceding, leave the Senate for his next job as a cabinet member if an R gets elected to the White House, maybe stay busy and noisy for a few years til he runs for Texas governor, all towards gaming the presidency. And, sure enough âŠ
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Nah, I found him:
Oh, him. House races donât count. The Astronaut pin only gets you into the Senate clubhouse.
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I think itâs a great idea and it would drive the right-wingers nuts. Thereâs nothing they hate more than a liberal smart-ass; itâs because there arenât any funny conservatives. The only right wing comedian I can even think of is that guy who used to be on SNL (and I canât even think of his name right now), but heâs about as funny as a trip to the pediatric burn ward.
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Dennis Miller?
He used to be funny, on SNL and then HBO (his ârantsâ were classic), if you could decipher his continual literary and cultural references. But Iâm pretty sure the debacle on Monday Night Football turned him.
Now heâs just another humor-challenged hack with a bad attitude.
Funny how that works, itâs almost like conservatives donât understand humorâŠ
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Oh please, Dave! Oh my god, how amazing would that be?!! Please run Dave!
Because comedians and former talk-show hosts need their own senatorial caucus.
Could he give up his 'Iâm just a dumb guy what donât understand politics" schtick? Usually I dig the ott midwestern modesty but it grates on me wrt politics, Tom Ashbrook does a newscaster variant thatâs even worse