I actually fell asleep last night during Keith Olbermann and I woke up in the middle of the night to find Hardball with Chris Matthews on my teevee. There was a panel with Eugene Robinson, Wonkette, and some loser GOP bastard (strictly third-string) that I had never seen before. The topic of Fred Thompson came up and it quickly got very disturbing. I figured I’d write about it, but I didn’t have the transcript.
Fortunately, Greenwald has the relevant part.
MATTHEWS: Does [Fred Thompson] have sex appeal? I’m looking at this guy and I’m trying to find out the new order of things, and what works for women and what doesn’t. Does this guy have some sort of thing going for him that I should notice? . . .
Gene, do you think there’s a sex appeal for this guy, this sort of mature, older man, you know? He looks sort of seasoned and in charge of himself. What is this appeal? Because I keep star quality. You were throwing the word out, shining star, Ana Marie, before I checked you on it. . . .
Can you smell the English leather on this guy, the Aqua Velva, the sort of mature man’s shaving cream, or whatever, you know, after he shaved? Do you smell that sort of — a little bit of cigar smoke? You know, whatever.
You know, whatever.
I really don’t understand this mancrush thing that Chris Matthews and other pundits like Maureen Dowd have for Daddy. It’s like they are living their lives in an episode of Dennis the Menace, or something. They want a president that comes home, puts on a smoking jacket, sits in special lounger chair, opens the paper, lights his pipe, and ignores his frigging kids while he blottos out on well-aged Scotch. Maybe he will suffer five minutes for his son or daughter to sit on his lap and take in his manly aroma, and then it’s off the bed with you.
Maybe I just didn’t have this kind of relationship with my Dad. We played chess and crazy eights, and I thought his cigars smelled bad. Nothing against my father but I have never considered his scent when pondering the electability of a politican.
Matthews wants a president that smells manly. What the hell? I want a president that knows what to do in an emergency and that doesn’t violate the law.
Chris Matthews apparently is suffering from gender issues. And on top of that, he’s supposed to represent the craft of political analysis in our country. Matthews is a twit. Maybe Thompson will let him drive his “authentic” rented, chaufferred red pick up truck.
Matthews is a twit
Tweety is a twit! No doubt!
I think you’re getting to the existential truth about Matthews with this
This explains Matthews’s weird reaction to the definitely non-Daddy knows best persona of Bill Clinton.
Matthews may have a man crush, but I’m actually hoping for Thompson (Fred, not Tommy.) He’s lazy, and not well versed on the issues. He’ll look good in the primaries and fade in September, I’d bet. Hillary, Obama or Edwards would chew him up and spit him out.
But my nagging fear is that he’s a shill–a figurehead for a Jebby run as Vice President. Then Fred claims his ongoing therapy for his cancer is getting rough, he backs out, and Jebby is there again.
Oh shit, our version of the Borgias raises its ugly head again.
That’ll teach ya.
Booman, you’ve given me multiple minutes of mirth with this diary.
Real men wear Old Spice. English Leather smells like ass.
Can we dub all these war-loving make-believe candidates the Red Truck Republicans?
No one ever mocked Bush when he became the instant rancher. We need to ridicule Republicans and drooling reporters like Matthews for falling for the image instead of looking at the substance. They slur Democrats as sissys but almost without exception most top Republicans were too busy to serve their country when they had their chance–they just like to play the tough guy on TV.
And I SO apologize for using sissy, but that’s EXACTLY what I think of when I think of Junior. Can’t do a damned thing without whining for Mommy or Daddy, but if you build the brat a ranch, he’s manly?
Could it really be that half the country has Daddy issues? ‘Cuz Stevie Wonder can see how fake he is.
The man couldn’t get a frog to kiss him let alone a princess. But Tweety, on the other hand, would probably be delighted. Fred Thompson and sex appeal is like atheists and evangelicals.
I read about this too, and I immediately wondered if he Tweety was or is sleeping with him.
I absolutely do not get the appeal of the man, I really don’t. I like his character on “Law and Order” (or as I like to say, the “THUM-thum” show–I, for some reason, get such a kick out of it) and he makes me laugh, but um…it’s a FICTIONAL CHARACTER! That’s all.
Seriously, Fred Thompson as some great symbol of masculinity? (Unless you count the stories of “how much pipe he laid” around town when he was senator–which, if true, shows that rethug women have NO standards.) A portly ex-senator who can act? That’s really saying something, but not the message this pundit crowd thinks it is–which is really creaky, stale, Viagra-addled and phony. And no, Tweety–no amount of English Leather, Aqua Velva or Old Spice can sweeten it up. Talk about quite literally “fakin’ the funk.” Ugh.
And sorry to say, but the man is butt ugly–a disastrous combination of Uncle Fester and Lurch.