#FridayReads, Nov. 9–“The Dogs of Riga,” a Kurt Wallander novel by Henning Mankell. I find myself getting totally absorbed by Mankell’s sympathetic characters, intriguing criminal puzzles, and compelling narrative style.
Perhaps because my tutelage in the media world began as as a bookstore owner, it’s been a long time since I’ve been surprise when an author and his or her book lands in the center of a swirl of current events. The latest connection between the book world and current events is the revelation, as reported tonight by Richard Engel on NBC, that the woman with whom David Petraeus had the affair prompting his resignation today as DCIA is his biographer. Her name is Paula Broadwell and in January 2012 Penguin Press published her book All IN: The Education of General David Petraeus. Last week, she published a piece drawn from the book, in the Daily Beast, as pointed out by Josh Marshall on Twitter.
The romantic link between Petraeus and his biographer, reported by Fred Kaplan of Slate among others, is pretty stunning. If a spy novelist presented me with that plot point in a thriller I’d question its plausibility. On the other hand, there’s something so human–but also predictably tawdry–about a writer being seduced, taken in, by her subject. Yet, there are times when it works differently, so perhaps this is the other way around. Writers like Janet Malcolm are known for so closely examining their subjects that they are able to write intimate portraits of their biographical subjects, far more revealing than their willing subjects ever imagined or intended.
Please note post below, “NBC’s Richard Engel, on the Petraeus Resignation.” I will continue following the Petraeus story, and the frequent intersection of the book world and current events.
Regarding David Petraeus’s abrupt resignation as DCIA, NBC’s Richard Engel just reported on Hardball that the FBI is investigating, and possibly involved is a female biographer of the General, Paula Broadwell. He speculated that agents may be looking at whether Broadwell may have had improper access to classified material Petraeus failed to secure. Over at TPM, one reader with knowledge of national security law, writes to Josh Marshall that Petreaus’s security clearance would have been yanked immediately, and thus made impossible his status as Director. If or when I get a link to Engel’s reporting or this TV appearance, I’ll share it here.
H/T Martha Moran and Chris Kerr for bringing aspects of the Petraeus story to my attention, including this New Yorker blog post by Amy Davidson, linking Petraeus and Benghazi.
According to this Washington Post story by Peter Wallsten, Republican poobahs are so out of touch that on Election Night,
“Party leaders said they already had planned to poll voters in battleground states starting Tuesday night in anticipation of a Mitt Romney victory—to immediately begin laying the groundwork for midterm congressional elections and a Romney 2016 reelection bid.”
I actually had to read that twice to make sure I got it right. After my double-take, it sank in that Repubs had already been planning for Mitt’s reelection! Wow–they were planning to review why they’d won, and had anticipated no other result. Even if they believed so adamantly in their certain victory–despite the objective absurdity of it–wasn’t this extremely imprudent? Isn’t it wise to hope for the best, while planning for an outcome that falls short? This is as clear an instance of epistemic closure as I’ve yet seen, even from this political party that has made hermetically-sealed stupidity their singular trademark. In the wake of what was to them an unexpected drubbing,
“Top Republican officials, stunned by the extent of their election losses Tuesday night, have [instead] begun an exhaustive review to figure out what went so wrong and how to fix it.”
But in signs of a stunningly uninsightful self-assessment to come,
Party officials said the review is aimed at studying their tactics and message, not at changing the philosophical underpinnings of the party. ‘This is no different than a patient going to see a doctor,’ said Sean Spicer, the Republican National Committee’s spokesman. ‘Your number one thing is to say, I’m not feeling well. Tell me what the problem is. Run some tests on me.’”
Well, a majority of the American people have already delivered their diagnosis, and it ain’t a pretty picture. Republicans need to revitalize their sclerotic circulatory system by allowing their organism to be transfused with new blood that will prompt new ideas and a new way of viewing the evolving American electorate.
This is a great piece of video taken Wednesday when President Obama visited his Chicago campaign headquarters to thank staff for all their devotion and hard work. Moving stuff.
As if more proof were needed, this Gabriel Sherman report in NY magazine, tipped to me by TPM, shows how intertwined FOX News continues to be with the Repub establishment. On Tuesday night, after FOX, following the same decision by other networks, called Ohio for President Obama, there was a meltdown on the right, culminating in Karl Rove’s rant on camera, when he sounded like a spoiled child who wanted his toys back:
“Instantly, FOX phones lit up with angry phone calls and e-mails from the Romney campaign, who believed that the call was premature, since tallies in several Republican-leaning Southern counties hadn’t been been fully tabulated. ‘The Romney people were totally screaming that we’re totally wrong,’ one FOX source said. ‘To various people, they were saying, ‘your decision team is wrong.’ According to a FOX insider, Rove had been in contact with the Romney people all night. After the Ohio call, Rove—whose super-PAC had spent as much as $300 million on the election, to little avail—took their complaints public, conducting an on-air primer on Ohio’s electoral math in disputing the call.
I guess phone numbers of FOX senior producers is something Repub operatives are given when they get hired.
Sherman’s story also makes clear how willing FOX is to dangle and pimp their on-air female talent before male viewers. In an impromptu episode that followed Rove’s refusal to accept the Ohio call for Obama, FOX producers sent host Megyn Kelly on a bizarre expedition down the hall to conduct an interview with the experts staffing the network’s election decision desk. Sherman reports that,
“One idea was for two members of the decision team, Mishkin and Fox’s digital politics editor Chris Stirewalt, to go on camera with Megyn Kelly and Bret Baier to squelch the doubts over the call. But then it was decided that Kelly would walk through the office and interview the decision team in the conference room. ‘This is Fox News,’ an insider said, ‘so anytime there’s a chance to show off Megyn Kelly’s legs they’ll go for it.’ The decision desk were given a three-minute warning that Kelly would be showing up.”
This isn’t a network, it’s a burlesque show.
Via TPM, most Jewish voters found Romney’s rhetoric about Israel, the United States and Iran, and that of his surrogates, completely unpersuasive. The president got 70% of Jewish voters, a slight shift down from 2008, but Romney managed only 30%! Can the media now stop shouting for a while about this topic, and enabling shouters like Rudy Giuliani, whose campaign excesses this time were egregious, even for him. It’s remarkable how much of Romney’s attacking rhetoric against the president was unavailing.
Grateful, relieved, happy, and hopeful for so many things, a handful of them below:
1) Grateful that our president will be returned to office with the support of a majority of the nation’s voters; that so many progressive women will be serving in the Senate; and that marriage equality has been affirmed on the east coast and the west coast.
2) Relieved that the policies and cohort of the challenger won’t be installed in the White House.
3) Happy that I was able to lend my support to the Obama campaign with some phone banking (not as much as in 2008, though I still made some calls); that I connected with the Obama Campaign’s digital outreach staff, especially Teddy Goff and Erica Sackin, and was able to inform this blog with their informed content; and that the curation and writing of this blog spread accurate information and motivating commentary about the campaign to a widening circle of readers and sharers. Thanks to all.
4) Hopeful that four more years of President Obama’s astute leadership will heal our economy with more opportunities for all; nurture civil and human rights; and lead to more global understanding.
As this first day after the 2012 election goes along, I may have more items to list, but for now these will suffice. As always, thank you for subscribing, reading, and sharing from The Great Gray Bridge. If you care to, please share some things for which you are grateful, relieved, happy, and/or hopeful in the comments field below.