-Caveat Lector-
http://www.unknownnews.net/cdd-archive.html#051402
Cheryl's Daily Diatribe:
Tuesday, May 14, 2002
Caroline Kennedy Meets the Press and Soars above the Slings and Arrows of
Outrageous Russerts
Caroline Kennedy must have felt like she'd wandered into a seedy bar
when she appeared on "Meet the Press" with Tim Russert and Bob Woodward on
May 12. Kennedy was part of a "round table" discussion that was supposed to
be devoted to a new version of "Profiles in Courage for Our Time" (the
original was, of course, by JFK) which she helped to edit and write. That she
would agree to go onto the same stage with Tim Russert shows incredible
optimism... or a strong stomach... or amazing stamina...or perhaps all of the
above.
What a contrast! The classy, self-possessed and unpretentious Caroline
on one hand, the pontificating, outrageously self-important and belligerent
Russert on the other. Russert, whose face seems to balloon more each week,
while his beetly brow grows more beetly, acted like some old barfly trying to
bait the other, less soused patrons of the joint into an argument or reduce
them to tears. Bob Woodward, off on the sidelines, reminded me of some washed
up has-been you find hiding in a dark corner of a bar, looking hunted and
guilty, lamenting his finer days and proffering lame excuses to those near
and dear as he sniffles into his beer. Alas, the guy who exposed Watergate
now he seems more interested in keeping buffoons like Russert appeased than
offering anything of worth to the field of journalism.
Russert treated Kennedy badly — though in a snotty, passive-aggressive,
sneaky fashion. But everyone sees through this — after all, we all have at
least one dreaded relative who systematically sets out to ruin family
occasions in much the same way Russert operates. He asked Kennedy about one
of the people she had selected for a special award — one Dean Colhaven, a
Republican Mayor in Illinois who defended the right of Muslims to build a
mosque in his town. When she mentioned that Colhaven eventually lost his bid
for reelection, Russert broke in with snide satisfaction, "Not just defeated,
but he came in a distant third. And then was sued by the very people he was
trying to help." You almost hear Russert thinking, "Yeah, what a sucker! Nice
guys finish last. And all for a bunch of towel heads!"
"The discussion, of course, was supposed to be about the "Profiles in
Courage" concept — Kennedy's concept...but Russert kept babbling on about
Nixon, as if by shoving Nixon into Kennedy's limelight he could somehow plump
up the Crook's image. At one point, Russert commented that from early on in
his career, "so much of his political coverage had been fixated on..."
There's a slight pause, and of course everyone — the audience, Caroline,
probably even the cameramen — all think he's going to say Kennedy, because,
Russert WAS a liberal Democrat back before he discovered he liked money more
than principles (one of Russert's actual statements was "Integrity is for
paupers!"). But it's a set up — Russert instead says "John Kennedy AND
Richard Nixon." Equal billing for the leader and the loser. The idea being,
of course, to see Caroline's face fall and hear her stammer a confused reply.
But nope, Caroline remained collected throughout the ordeal, like Alice at
the Mad Hatter's tea party — even when Russert said, with old barfly cruelty,
"So, Caroline, now that your father's gone, your uncle's gone, your mother's
gone, and your brother's gone, are you going to carry on the family torch?"
With his tone, he may as well have said "So, honey, now that your whole
family is DEAD, all of them DEAD, how does it feel?"
But Caroline seemed prepared for anything — who wouldn't be, knowing
anything about Russert, who is a step below Rush Limbaugh on the protozoan
food chain (at least Limbaugh doesn't pretend to be anything other than a
pontificating old rightwing windbag on the take from corpolitical patrons).
So, even when Russert brutally showed a photo of Jackie Kennedy taken during
her last year when illness had clearly taken its toll - a gesture that seemed
to stretch for some Kennedy bashing impact on the public or at least to wring
a few tears from his guest — Caroline remained poised and in doing so make
Russert's buffoonery stand out in stark relief.
Instead of taking the Kennedys down a notch, as he so clearly was
trying to do, Russert succeeded only in making the viewer realize just how
many painful miles lie between Camelot and Crawford.
© 2002, Cheryl Seal
Cheryl may be contacted at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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