#Fridayreads/Feb 10–The Executioners
#fridayreads Creator of the Travis McGee series, John D. MacDonald’s The Executioners the basis of “Cape Fear,” w/Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck.
Who’s Mitt?
Conservative pundits don’t agree among themselves on the question “Who is Mitt Romney? Today, after Mitt’s C-Pac speech, his campaign favored Washington Post blogger Jennifer Rubin, an avid Romney booster all year, with a sit-down with the on-again, off-again frontrunner. She begins her account like a true homer, in unctuous tones:
“Following his very well received CPAC speech, I met with Mitt Romney in a small meeting room in the hotel where thousands of conservatives have gathered.”
She wants readers to believe this privileged access has afforded her deep insight into the pol’s deepest character traits:
“While his critics and much of the media ding him as ‘plastic,’ in person he is warmer and more at ease than the average pol. Most politicians after a big speech will pump you for compliments: ‘How was I? What d’ya think?’ Romney doesn’t do that, perhaps reflective of the fact that he really didn’t live most of his life as a politician and doesn’t crave personal approval as many who’ve spent their lives in public office do.'”
Got that? Mitt “doesn’t crave personal approval.”
But wait, what about David Brooks’s NY Times column this morning? Drawing on The Lonely Crowd, he cites Mitt as a classic example of the “other-directed personality type . . . attuned to what other people want him to be. The other-directed person is a pliable member of a team and yearns for acceptance.”
I favor Brooks’s interpretation, but reading these pieces in succession I chuckled and wondered, “Hey, guys, which Mitt is it?”
Hyp–Hyp–Hypocrisy!
From Saturday’s NY Times: “Although Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York has been leading the national fight against requiring Roman Catholic hospitals, universities and charities to cover birth control in their health insurance plans for employees and students, some Catholic institutions in his own diocese and others throughout New York State have for 10 years been complying with state law mandating precisely that coverage. The state began requiring contraception coverage in 2002, and Catholic institutions, after losing a court battle over the issue, have followed the law. . . . ‘We currently follow New York State law,’ Mr. Howe [Fordham’s director of communications] said. ‘For employees and students, we provide insurance coverage that includes contraception. That’s the law.'”
Governor of New York State in 2002? Republican George Pataki.
It’s pretty obvious the Catholic bishops’ opposition to the Obama’s administration’s policy of requiring contraceptive coverage is really all about opportunism, and trying to give President Obama a hard time.
Such hypocrisy.