Mullings A Political Cyber Column By Rich Galen

�

Click here for the Secret Decoder Ring to this issue!

We Don't Need No Stinking Lawyers

Friday, August 25, 2000

First, the obligatory Survivor reference: I had never watched a single second of the show, but when 40 million people are going to look at something, you have to at least tune in. I did tuned in, long enough to watch Rudy get voted off by Kelly who then (after I switched to a show on the History Channel) lost to Rich. Good. After just three seconds, I didn't like her whining.

Go here to see the top 10 all-time TV shows.

Prior to that exciting bit of television, I was having dinner at a small neighborhood Italian restaurant in the People's Republic of Alexandria, Virginia. Seated at a nearby table was a young couple with a new baby. And I do mean new.

The baby was at that stage where she was just able to hold her head up and every movement got her rapt attention. She had that eyes-wide-open look that babies have so they can see as much of their whole, new world as quickly as possible.

There will be a lot of wonderful things for that beautiful little girl to see over the next 80 years of her probable life. As a real Survivor.

Al Gore proved, again, you don't need to spend money on your own defense attorney when you have taxpayer-funded Janet Reno.

Speaking of Gore, have you noticed the buy-in of the national media by calling his latest version: populist? When did "populist" become a synonym for "liberal?"

Pat Buchanan's class warfare rants eight years ago were called "populist," too. Someone should ask whether Gore thinks he and Buchanan occupy the same space on the political continuum.

On Wednesday, Mullings reproduced a list of people who, fairly quaking with righteous indignation, accused the GOP with leaking the news about a federal grand jury to examine Bill Clinton's truthfulness.

One of those was CBS anchorman Dan Rather who wrote an item about it on the corporate website, CBS.com during the conventions. By the time most people got Mullings and clicked on the link, the Rather diatribe had been taken down, replaced by a blank page. After the facts got in the way of Rather's opinion CBS.com simply erased the error.

Once again, does Mullings leap into the breach. For those of you who want to see what the Poster Child for Media Bias wrote (and what CBS.com is trying to forget), go here.

Interestingly, the CBS.com web page had the following message up last night at about 10 PM Eastern time:
"To preserve the suspense of the Survivor winner for our West Coast viewers, the site will be relaunched at 1AM EST. At that time you'll be able to access complete confessionals from the final four castaways as well as exclusive, never-before-seen video from this final episode."

CBS, apparently, was more interested in the "suspense" value of Survivor than the news value of Dan Rather.

Follow me here: Ezola Foster, who is Pat Buchanan's running mate, once claimed she had a mental illness to get workers' comp benefits for about a year, according to a report by Doug Smith in the LA Times.

But Foster now says she never really had any mental or emotional problems. It was some deal worked out between her doctor and her lawyer. "I am perfectly sane," Smith quotes Foster as saying.

Hello? Sane? You are Pat Buchanan's running mate! Let's define the term: prima facie. Go here.

Tiger Woods has jumped out to a lead in the NEC Invitational with a first round 64 at the Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio. Golf fans know that the South Course is famous for its 16th hole which, for championships, measures 625 yards. Not only is that too far for me to get through in five strokes. It's too far for me to get through without having to stop at a porta-potty - in a cart.

-- END --

Copyright © 2000 Richard A. Galen

Current Issue | Secret Decoder Ring | Past Issues | Email Rich | Rich Who?