Glitzy

by digby

Some of you may recall a post I wrote some time back riffing on a TNR article about Republican strategist and social maven Ed and Edwina Rogers and their house called Surrey Hill.

I think that what may have surprised me the most about this story is that Ed Rogers is married to a woman, but the large sums of money come in a close second. Property in McLean is more valuable that Greenwich or Malibu and there is something terribly wrong with that. These are the good ole boy Republicans who hold fancy “Pig Pickin’parties” and claim to represent Real Americans — it’s one of the greatest con jobs ever perpetrated. I’ve got no problem with people getting rich — I’ve got a lot of problems with people doing it by stealing money from the taxpayers while wearing a cross and condemning others’ morality.

Dover Bitch noticed that Ed had some things to say today about Obama’s problems with elitism:

Super lobbyist, McCain donor and loathsome GOP figure Ed Rogers decided to talk to the Washington Post about Barack Obama last week:

John McCain’s celebrity ad was effective. It wasn’t uncontroversial and it didn’t please all the political scientists, but it sure got noticed, and it made Barack Obama overreact. Questions about Obama’s desire for celebrity status will linger. He now has to be very careful about intersecting with Hollywood, pop culture and entertainment. Lee Atwater said the worst thing you can do in American politics is play to your negative stereotype. Well, Obama’s negative stereotype now includes the idea that he may be a little too glitzy. (Speaking of negative stereotypes, when Obama was talking about the pictures of presidents on dollar bills, was he introducing the presumptuous notion that his face belongs on American currency? I wonder whom he thinks he should replace.)

Glitzy? Ed and Edwina’s house makes the Liberace museum look like an Amish farmhouse.

Here’s DB with the kicker:

In other news, NBC has just completed the pilot for their new show, POWER HOUSE. In the first episode, we get to see how Ed Rogers and his wife live in their “Republican Shangri-La” — an 18-thousand square foot estate in McLean, VA.

Click over to Dover Bitch for the stills from the show. One, in particular, is priceless (in more ways than one.) DB writes:

That’s right. She’s standing in front of rows of her designer shoes cutting up sheets of freshly printed U.S. dollar bills with a pair of scissors so she can use them as wrapping paper.

You cannot make this stuff up. The middle class African American guy who made his own way and whose net worth wouldn’t cover the garage in this man’s house is nonetheless subject to criticism from him for being “too glitzy.”

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