Good Morning, Creep

by digby

This Michael J. Fox controversy is making me more angry than I can remember being in a long time. There is something wrong with people who think like this:

LAUER: And you brought up Michael J. Fox. Let me just ask you: You know, Rush Limbaugh started a lot of controversy when he said perhaps Michael J. Fox was exaggerating or faking these effects of Parkinson’s disease in that ad promoting stem cell research. Didn’t Rush Limbaugh just say what a lot of people were privately thinking?

[…]

LAUER: But also, Susan, last word. If Michael Fox goes out there politically and puts himself in the fray, he has to expect to be, you know, taken to account, correct?

ESTRICH: Correct. And he is being taken to account.

If Michael J. Fox could still act he would be making millions of dollars acting in paying TV commercials, films or sitcoms. He’s only 45 years old for God’s sake and he still has young kids. He is suffering from a horrifying disease and he deserves for people to respect his sincerity if nothing else. He does actually have Parkinson’s, after all, and I’m sure he really does believe that stem cell research provides a hope for a cure — unless they think he’s lying about that too.

I was never an avid fan of The Today Show but I never knew that Matt Lauer shared the same privileged, cynical sophomoric worldview as the talk show pig, Rush Limbaugh. Now I know. I won’t be bothering with him anymore.

* And Susan Estrich is typically obtuse for agreeing that Fox should be “called to account.” What exactly does he have to account for? Being struck by a debilitating disease and campaigning for a cure?

Jesus this political establishment is a bunch of heartless, useless creeps. No wonder most poeple in this country are turned off to politics.

Update: In an amazing exchange of posts between Jonah Goldberg and Kathryn Lopez (ayeee, my head)on the Corner Jonah approvingly posted this e-mail from a reader commenting on the opposing Missouri stem-cell ads:

So let me get this straight: It’s an outrage when Michael J. Fox, an actual Parkinson’s sufferer, films a political ad supporting a measure allowing stem cell research, but the fact that stem cell research opponents used a fake Jesus speaking in Jesus’ language, gets no comment? Which side is being basely manipulative?

Good question. That Cavaziel ad is just weird. But you have to see this from K-Lo to really appreciate the tenor of the discussion:

The Absolute Last Word on Jesus vs. Alex P. Keaton [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
A reader points out the real genius in Jim Caveziel appearing in that ad: “the point is Jim Caviezel is HOT! is that blasphemous?”

(Though truth be told, MJ Fox isn’t bad himself. So the two commercials are apples vs. apples, at least on one front. How you like them apples?)

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