Hissy Kabuki On Training Wheels

by digby

Greg Sargent has a little light sarcastic post up about the Democratic campaigns calling each other out for being negative. Because we are in primary season and everyone has lost their minds (nothing special — it happens every four years) a bunch of people took him literally and he had to come back and explain that he was just yanking the campaigns’ chains a little bit:

Late Update: I feel almost embarrassed to add this, but this post was intended as a joke — as a spoof of the fact that the campaigns are all attacking each other relentlessly for attacking. This whole effort by all the campaigns to portray everyone but themselves as the real attacker seems to me misguided — primaries should have conflict in them; they should be animated by aggressive disagreements.

I actually think this is wrong. The art of the hissy fit lies in your ability to bring the entire media over to the fainting couch over even the most absurd allegations of impropriety and insensitivity. Pearl clutching and hankie wringing have become extremely important hardball political tactics, as hard as that is to believe. It’s especially effective if you can do it over somethings you yourself have brought into the public square.

The best example of this is the Cheneys leading the whole GOP in an extended wail that John Kerry had the insensitivity to bring up the fact that their daughter was a lesbian in a debate question about gay rights — even though their daughter was out of the closet, lived with her lover and everyone knew she was gay. Lynne herself took to the stump the next day proclaiming “this is not a good man” as if John Kerry had smeared her daughter by telling the truth. It was very effective. Kerry,as usual, was left sputtering.

Another good one also involved John Kerry — the badly delivered “joke” about the troops. It was clear to any sentient being that he wasn’t smearing the troops, but the hissy fit was so effective that it actually persuaded him not to run again.

The all time great example was the impeachment of a President over a blowjob, in a town where wide stance Senators routinely procure them in bathrooms and train stations and most of the press corps is schtupping each other in some sort of twisted game of round robin. As the political leadership and media mavens lined up to condemn the president it was all they could do to keep their shit-eating smirks from showing.

This is a patented technique designed to tie opponents in knots. Faux outrage and phony sanctimony are now required political skills like speaking and persuading others to your vision. Primaries give the candidates a chance to practice on each other what’s going to be practiced on them by the true Hissy Kabuki Masters — Republicans. Better to know now how they handle it.

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