Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
I generally could care less about POLITICO, the epitome of Beltway media villager "conventional wisdom," which is always the GOPropaganda talking point of the day from unnamed sources. it is just another cog in the right-wing noise machine.
But Charles Pierce at Esquire has a wonderfully funny smackdown of Messrs. VandeHei and Allen for what he calls their "Tiger Beat On The Potomac." ROTFL! Things In Politico That Make Me Want To Guzzle Antifreeze, Point Of No Return Edition:
One of my primary criticisms of Tiger Beat On The Potomac has been that the entire enterprise has been dedicated totally to gossip,
triviality, and Drudge-baiting to the exclusion of what's actually going
on in the country to the people these politics are supposed to serve.
Alas, today, the two presiding intellects of the publication put their
watery heads together to discuss "bold" policy choices. I hereby take
back everything I wrote in the former vein. If this is their idea of discussing policy, I wish to the god that gave me breath that they'd go back to who's zooming whom at some lobbying shop.
In short, Messrs. VandeHei and Allen have decided that the way to a
"rocket-propelled" economy is to cut corporate tax rates to almost
nothing, close a bunch of loopholes that will reopen under new rubric in
approximately 11 seconds, and essentially do away with the American
middle class, or at least impoverish its dwindling membership to the
point at which nobody can afford to buy anything anyway.
* * *
And to whom do these two brainiacs turn to for these bold policy ideas?
This is the clear takeaway from conversations we have had
over the past three months with top lawmakers, officials, their senior
aides and the CEOs who advise and lobby all of them. Many of the
conversations were private but many were not.
Of course, it's your "clear takeaway," you twits. You might as well
troll meth labs to learn table manners. Ask dogs for recreational tips
and they'll tell you to lick your balls. Ask monkeys about hobbies, and
they'll teach you to fling poo. Ask the plutocrats, and the politicians
who serve them, and the aides who serve them about what we should do about the economy, and the answer is always going to be "make sure we stay rich."
Jumping to his conclusion:
The longer this goes on, the more depressed I get. Clearly, a deal on
the economy is being cut with the minimal amount of input from the
people on whom the weight of the deal will fall most heavily. Sacrifice
is being parceled out by people who will feel none of it. And elite
journalism is presenting this iniquitous arrangement from the point of
view of the grifters and thieves who will profit most from it. This
piece is not about the current economic stalemate. It's about two
Beltway foofs showing the red on their asses by demonstrating that they
can get important people on the phone. This isn't economics. This isn't
even really journalism. This is a brief in support of oligarchy. It is
public financial star-fking.
Charles Pierce is a brilliant writer. Read the whole piece.
Note: Tiger Beat is a fan magazine marketed primarily to adolescent girls. Its forte is teen idol gossip, movies, music and fashion. Not all that different from the Beltway media villagers really, many of whom view themselves as "stars" in the "conservative entertainment complex." (h/t David Frum).