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A Vast Waistband

Friday January 14, 2000

  • TITLE: "A Vast Waistband" A pun on the famous phrase "A Vast Wasteland" which was used by FCC Chairman Newton Minnow to describe television programming - not while watching television in 1999, but while observing television in 1961.

  • "All righty, then …" David Letterman has been berating the campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton Rodham for weeks for their refusal to be on his late-night television program. Immediately after a poll showed Mrs. Rodham Clinton's favorables to have dropped below 50 percent, the campaign agreed to do the show.

  • "… the scripted applause lines …" I never attended a Newt Ginrgrich appearance on Jay Leno, but I was involved in approval or editing of the areas to be covered in the discussion, jokes to be told, or any set pieces to be used. There is not much which is going to be a surprise to either the producers of the programs, or the staffs of the politician.

  • "She was no Bob Dole." Dole is a truly funny person and does uniquely well on these kinds of programs.

  • "… Hillary Van Doren." Charles Van Doren was the man who was at the center of the Quiz Show Scandals in the late 1950's which was, interestingly, the last time the nation exhibited "quiz show frenzy" much as we are seeing now.

    Van Doren, was a contestant on the show, "21." He became so popular NBC hired him to appear as a regular on the "Today" show. It turned out he had been given the answers and coached on how to stumble, wipe his brow, and show great relief when he was told his answer was correct.

    Does this sound anything like Hillary "stumbling" over the exact nature of Maple which represents the State Flower of New York?

  • "… look for new ways to enforce the 10th Amendment." That particular Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

    This Amendment has been ignored in the extreme over the past 60 years. My personal belief is, when the political history of the 90's is written, a great deal of positive space will be devoted to the Republican-controlled Congress' re-invigoration of the 10th Amendment.

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