or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
November 23, 2008
Learn How to Dance the "Kiss-Up/Kick-Down" with Anthony Cordesman
By: Bernard Chazelle
Today's New York Times squeezes Maureen Dowd right between Donald Rumsfeld and Ahmad Chalabi. Precious. Sulking in the corner, meanwhile, poor little Tom Friedman is in full meltdown mode. Mr America-Ueber-Alles seems not so Ueber anymore. But then, if my wife's $2 billion fortune was down to one nickel and two pennies, I too might be singing the Mustache-of-Wisdom blues. So I'll leave Tommy alone until his Prozac kicks in, and instead turn to my buddy Tony Cordy's op-ed. For some mysterious reason that surely has something to do with his monstrously jutting jaw, Cordesman is always referred to as the "Highly Respected Military Expert/Scholar/Analyst Anthony Cordesman." OK, let's see what the respect is all about:
Cordesman writes today:
Moreover, the best case for the Iraq war means coming to grips with the legacy of the worst secretary of defense in American history, Donald Rumsfeld.
Rummy, of course, is retired. Back when Cordesman was sweating over whether Rummy would invite him to his Xmas party at the Pentagon, this is what the Highly Respected Military Scholar had to write about the worst-ever SecDef:
"Frankly he [Rumsfeld] has done about as well as anybody can in the military sense", said Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
For a larger sample of Cordesmanian kiss-up moves, click here and here.
— Bernard Chazelle
Posted at November 23, 2008 04:22 PMRummy may have won this years award for worst, but just U wait til next year's ceremonies---Gates, mark my words.
Posted by: Mike Meyer at November 23, 2008 06:47 PMBefore January 20, 2009, Rummy will be in line ( with who knows how many more, like Paulson may be! ) to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Only in this administration, worse the performance, higher the award, by the worst president ever. And on that day, Mr Cordesman will be waiting in line or falling over everyone to congratulate Rummy! Talk about hypocrisy!!!!
Posted by: Rupa Shah at November 24, 2008 12:03 PMThis was described in Blackadder as:
Melchett (very drunk): You twist and turn like a ... twisty-turny thing. I say you are a weedy pigeon and you can call me Susan if it isn't so.
Posted by: Euripides at November 24, 2008 03:05 PMToday's New York Times squeezes Maureen Dowd right between Donald Rumsfeld and Ahmad Chalabi
The only way to make that image tolerable is to imagine that the squeezing is done by an African bull elephant sitting down on them.
Posted by: Dunc at November 25, 2008 12:29 PM
