Your Turn: Eight Bucks Every Three Weeks

Remember the pre-election Economist cover we looked at the other day?  The one with the vultures circling the Capitol?  It's now stuck in my mind as a metaphor for Washington.

Three weeks ago, the vultures were hungry for Republican meat.  This week, the animals look more like the media eyeing the new Democratic leadership.

Uhh!  This morning, I wasted some perfectly good time thinking through this image fronting the NYT.  In less than a week from now, nobody is going to remember what happened in picking a Democratic Majority Leader.  Blues fight, Blues come together.  There's your story.  (By the way, let's see how smoothly it goes for the Reds in sorting out their leadership in the coming days.)

The vultures can stew in the news vacuum.  If the MSM can hardly put a "bigger mind" to America's political, cultural and personality shift, we can here -- and, enjoy it.

There's no shortage of new iconography to appreciate now.  A key place to start is with the Tester flat top.  It costs eight bucks every three weeks to maintain.  In our starvation for a little populism, Tester is a gift.

Now, how about some riff on that cut?

(image: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.  Great Falls, Montana.  nyt.com)

Comments

[margaret]

The proof will be in the pudding this new Congress will make. And, it will also be in how closely we hold them accountable for the reasons we voted them into office.

Too many of these folks arrive in Washington "just plain folks" and end up, after a short time, smoothly groomed with expensive haircuts, handmade suits and Italian shoes. Look at the record of how rich they become while they "serve" the people.

I am taking a "wait and see attitude," with great hopefulness in my heart, but a realistic sense that unless the structure by which we elect people changes, we will only be looking at further scandals down the road.

[KansasKowboy]

Tester is for real. Bush had to go out and buy a "ranch". Tester is the ranch. Reagan and Bush put on the rancher image. Reagan from his movie days and Bush from copying Reagan. I saw a commercial this guy did. Apparantly they make a lot of movies in Montana. I guess Tester promoted Montana for the movie industry to bring in some revenue. His commercial was a western. The good guy possy riding into town to clean out the rift raft. It was good, it made the point and was humorous at the same time. It wasn't phony because it was like a skit you might see on Saturday Night Live. He wasn't trying to fool anyone into beleiving he was some kinda country, cowboy kinda guy. He was having fun with his campaign. But it is about the real cowboy coming into town to throw out the drugstore cowboys. This guy should probably run for President. We might as well have a real rancher for a change. The last two-term Republican Presidents won pretending to be one. Maybe that is how we need to get the Republican vote over on the Democratic side.

[Doctor Jay]

Ok, you beat me to the real vs. fake ranch thing. So lets talk about the slightly dirty ski jacket. Or the barbed wire that he is unconcerned about. He's pushing up on the barbs and smiling, unconcerned. He's not afraid to get dirty, and the barbs that Republicans throw, you know, "tax-loving, baby-eating, latte-drinking liberal", don't even take away that big grin.

Contrast this kind of authentic with the tobacco-spit authenticity of George Allen.

[zatopa]

The three fingers missing from Tester's left hand happen to be the ones you need to flash the "W" sign.

[Darryl Pearce]

...I'm just a trailer-trash hillbilly from Soledad Canyon, California but he sure looks like a hard-scrabble rancher to me. ...good luck to him.

[boxcar]

"Now that's a haircut you can set your watch by!"
- grampa Simpson referring to Johnny Unitas' flattop.

Yes, you can set your watch to Tester's flat top. Hopefully the time is NOT 1955...
;)
peace
box

[Mark J. McPherson]

It's funny, I hadn't done much paying attention to Tester before the Times article. I knew he was a flat-top, hard-scrabble rancher, but that's it. I didn't know he had made sausage out of one of his hands. When I first glanced at the photo, I thought he was inadvertantly, but in keeping with his nature< flashing the Hawaiian "hang loose" sign. It goes with that look and laugh on his face, as if he knows the whole deal is more than a little nuts. I think there is a lot of pent up feeling of wanting a guy like Tester to come in there and blow the doors off the place. Talk in a big and booming voice, disrupt all the scurrying around and weasley deal-making. I will have to take a closer look at the guy. I don't know that the Insiders will be all that charmed, but I'd guess he won't lose a lot of sleep over that.

[MonsieurGonzo]

regarding l'affaire Pelosi, you gotta wonder if the "news" there is "Speaker of the House Plays Hardball Politics," or "OhMyGod, a woman plays hardball politics! "

regarding Mr. Tester, he's on the fence, man; and his left is our right, right?

[gmoke]

Tester is also a crunchy granola organic grower. This ain't Earl Butz' kind of rancher. Not only is he a working man but he's a thinking man, able to make the transition from chemical to organic agriculture.

Tester has been having fun all throughout his campaign. He'll have fun in DC too.

[Victoria]

It's so much more than the haircut! It's the well-worn coat, which is all you can afford when you're living paycheck-to-paycheck on less than twenty thousand a year, as he does - and could we have more folks with that experience in national office, please? ...it's that un-pretty dry-farming land that he has turned organic (he "gets" ecosystem; may it serve him well in DC)... it's the three missing fingers that didn't keep him from playing musical instruments and majoring in music ...it's the sunny "we'll get 'er done" (his motto in the Montana Senate) smile even though it was anger that propelled him into politics - well, that will teach you the difference between rigteous anger and dumb resentment (DeLay and his ilk) as a motivator.

[Megan]

He isn't pushing up against barbed wire; that's a phone line supported by the pole behind him. Barbed wire HURTS.

He is leaning in, interested, he want to see for himself what is going on. I like it.

[Cactus]

I think The Bag is letting us off easy on this busy Friday before Thanksgiving. But I did like the NYT photo of Pelosi, et al. That one really intrigued me. Pelosi and Hoyer making nice, as they must because they are the leaders and have to work together. Murtha in the back row looking every bit the dour loser. Rahm Emanuel to the side with a prissy expression that says, "I'll get you next time." What's really interesting is the partial black clapping hands on the right frame. Why didn't the NYT crop them off or show the whole person? What do they gain by doing this? Democrats only like token blacks? Or, blacks may be part of the new democratic leadership, but here's what we think of you? It's just a reminder of what NYT thinks of minorities. And notice Hoyer's flag lapel pin.....is that a 'gotcha' to the republicans?

Slightly off topic, I heard BBCWorld last night reporting on the French socialist "US style" elections where Segolene Royal won and will probably challenge Sarkozy for president. They interviewed a reporter and other politicos. What was so interesting was that what they said about Royal was almost word for word what the 'pundits' here were saying about Pelosi the day after the mid-terms. So, from France, the birthplace of chauvinism, plus ça change, plus c'est la même.

[LanceThruster]

I like the fact that he's secure enough to sport a hairstyle (I suppose it is more accurately deemed a "haircut") because he looks good in it, and not that he's following a trend. It's obviously practical as well; wash and wear, and he doesn't have to fly in a special hairdresser to keep it neat. If he ever takes the president's job, he'd look like his own Secret Service.

[donna]

Pelosi supported the one who helped bring the Dems to the party by saying what every American with a brain thought about the war. There's no rift, Murtha will get over it, and Hoyer has proven he can bring in the votes, which is what you want the whip to DO.

So let's all get on with it. This isn't the Dem party we've dreamed of yet. We need more Testers, we need more hard-working Americans in office period, instead of a ruling class that has forgotten who it really works for.

[Cactus]

donna.....nailed

That's also why we must support Dean's 50-state strategy and put Carville back in the closet. The dems have to build a strong base and do it now. That's always been their strength, working middle class Americans, not the beltway elites (DLC).

[momly]

Wha---?

Carville's out of the closet?

Cactus is right. Corral that sumbitch and right quick.

[Kitt]

Did anyone happen to watch MTP yesterday? (Sunday) Tester was sitting in his kitchen for chrissakes! It was great. Since Montana is next door, I watched a couple of the debates with Tester & Burns. Burns was no match. Tester is a thinker.

[readytoblowagasket]

"Tester is a thinker."

This is a reasonable inference if you read the NYT article, yet *nowhere* does it mention that Tester even HAS an education.

So, does the Times typically neglect to mention a public figure's educational background in a profile piece? Or does it just neglect to mention education level when it profiles a Democrat?

Thanks once again, New York Times, for your thoughtful, thorough, and unbiased reporting on Pearl Jam.