Fascinoma

Sic Transit Gloria

One of the saddest lines in all of literature is in Dreiser’s baggy, creaking, awkward novel (a production that, like Bob Dylan’s voice, has nothing going for it but genius) Sister Carrie; it is, “She had learned that men can change and fail.” And indeed we all need to be reminded of this. The erstwhile hero, wit, or good-guy, can under the corruptive influence of comfort and power, or in the deranging rapture of resentment, become something else entirely. John McCain was apparently quite a man once. But it wasn’t so long ago that he was up on the podium in New York with the GOP kneepads on for Rove and Bush, the same people who punked him so badly in 2000. Profile in spinelessness. But the case in point today: Chris Matthews who, because he was a Democratic operative once, still is able to masquerade as an impartial observer. But here he is too, with the GOP kneepads on, raising the question that's one the back of all our minds, "Is Hillary a socialist," and near swooning with admiration of John Boehner's rhetorical, um...package.

posted by Kalkaino @ 8:48 AM