RANT: Barry Levinson and David Mamet

[Montauk6]

First off, three words you don't seem to hear much of: "Wag the Dog"

Yet, I would imagine that the Washington Outfit has given us several vignettes that would qualify for this phrase, thanks to Capo Rove.

Prior to 2000, it was all over the place, you couldn't escape it, the ultimate catchphrase/soundbyte/cliché, courtesy of the rushed, highly overrated political satire of the same name, the timing of which coincided too conveniently with the pseudo (in hindsight) scandal involving President Clinton and Mata Harinsky.

As I'm sure we all know (even those that didn't see it), the film involves the grunt work of a presidential advisor and a Hollywood producer to fake a war in order to distract the nation from a sleazy sex scandal involving the Chief. Now I don't know the exact timeline involving the release of the movie and when the Monica deal hit the headlines but does it really matter???

Allegedly, the film's creators were riffing on the Reagan Administration's weaselling attention from the 200-plus Americans killed by a bomb attack in Beirut by invading the pathetically harmless Grenada (remember them yellow ribbons?). But, HELLOOOO, that was, at the time, over 10 YEARS AGO! Well, I guess better late than never, right?

But, come on, who would've truly made the connection between "Old Shoe" and Grenada? Even if you take off the table the Monica thang, you still have a Prez that the right-wing spin leviathan went overtime in portraying as a lying sleazeball who'd jump on anything with big hair, a hole and a heartbeat. Paula Jones, Troopergate, you know the lyrics.

So, after the movie becomes part of the culture, skip a bit. Terrorist bombings; Clinton orders retaliation in dogged pursuit of one Osama Bin Laden. BUT, because this happened during the Mess on the Dress Mess, the MSM and the machine started taunting, "WAGTHEDOG WAGTHEDOG WAGTHEDOG WAGTHEDOG!!!"

You know, I'm starting to think that maybe Bill should wear the asterisk, since now the common trick is to pull him down in the mud with the snakes by claiming that he shares a LOT of the blame for 9-11 because of his due to his own bungling of the Osama Affair.

But stamp an * there because how do you expect a guy to fully concentrate on popping terror cells while also dealing with preparing for depositions, lawsuits (thanks to the SCOTUS making him open season), (not so) Special Prosecutors turning every little thing into some kind of Gate (from haircuts to leaving the toilet seat up)?

So, skipping further ahead, what happens? Over 3000 wiped in one hellish day, many more destroyed by this pseudo war, REAL scandals plaguing the idiots in charge (the only difference is the woefully dismal lack of enthusiasm in prosecuting).

But, at least, we had "fun" chuckling over how art imitates life (or whatever).

OK... </rant>

So how was your day?

[charlie]

1. Yeah, it amazed me

that the catchphrase got stuck to Clinton. The book the movie based on, American Hero, was an hilarious roman a clef on the Bush administration, rife with footnotes in case you couldn't readily match the fictional events with the real ones.