Art Pottery, Politics and Food
Monday, January 12, 2004
 
Spin Keeps Spinning

A curious front-page puff piece on tiny totalitarian, right-wing organizer and radical Muslim front man Grover Norquist appears in today’s Washington Post:

He is often introduced as the head of the vast right-wing conspiracy. He accepts the title with a faint blush.

The simpering and lengthy homage is crafty piece of classic Postian nonsense that obscures some facts while totally eliminating others.
Grover’s direct monetary connection to Federally indicted Muslim sympathizer Abdurahman Alamoudi and his months-long tiff with right-wing talking head Frank Gaffney are indirectly excused in two sentences buried deep in the feature:

Some conservatives have attacked him for his outreach to Arab and Muslim Americans, charging that he has embraced radicals with ties to terrorism. Administration officials, including Rove, have said there is no truth to the allegations.

But, indirect media lighting can often provide interesting if unintended glimpses into the life of the allegedly profiled:

One coalition dropout dismissed Norquist as a "homo economicus"...Norquist's bachelor townhouse bears evidence of a man whose ideological core is hard…His Costco-brand shirts hang in a closet under a picture of former Senate leader Robert J. Dole (R-Kan.) signing a no-tax pledge…For a bedside table, Norquist uses a giant green canister for Kraft parmesan cheese. He displays what he hopes will be the world's largest collection of airsickness bags. At staff meetings, employees say, he holds court while variously sitting on a giant red plastic ball, eating tuna from a can, rubbing his feet against a massager and sniffing hand lotion as he kneads it into his fingers. He excuses himself to go to "the ladies room."

Yeesch…Anyone for a little antibacterial gel?
Posts and links on October 25, November 5, and December 10 should illuminate some of the Post’s purposeful darkness on serious matters of US National Security.

Modified Photo: Reuters

- posted by Sean @ 8:38 AM
Comments: Post a Comment

<< Home

Powered by Blogger