1) FROM THE “NOW I CAN DIE IN PEACE” FILE – Professor Bainbridge has said something nice about me! He followed it up with a couple of trademark insults, but his perhaps inadvertent moment of kindness will have me skipping through the rest of the week. As a matter of fact, when I’m on TV on Friday, I think I’ll have them introduce me as, “Dean Barnett, who blogs at HughHewitt.com and Townhall.com, and about whom that Professor Bainbridge guy once said something nice.” Has a certain ring to it.
2) I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO MAKE OF THIS – Courtesy of Allah and his incredibly valuable headline service, we learn that Al Qaeda has its very own Francis Fukayama. What’s that mean? They’ve got a brilliant political theoretician who refuses to incorporate relevant recent events into his theories and instead stubbornly denies their existence? I can’t help but think this is good news.
3) MY MAN MITT – The Politico’s Jonathan Martin spent most of the 4th of July with Mitt Romney, and came across some telling details:
His wit is quick and, for all his aw-shucks'isms, can be biting. "Give it to somebody who you may get a vote from," Romney suggested to a Tancredo backer offering a lapel sticker for his candidate in Clear Lake. When a local TV reporter stuck a microphone in his face during the course of the parade and asked him a long-winded question about Iraq, Romney gave her a short answer before noting that it was "a major issue," but "probably not a parade issue." Later, in Waukee, he encountered a not insignificant amount of horse manure along the parade route. "Look at what somebody in the media did," he told me, averting the pile.
4) HEAD ON, APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD – The Boston Pops’ annual July 4th spectacular on the Esplanade featured legendary roots-rocker and political nitwit John Mellencamp. I’ll let the Boston Globe hail Mellencamp’s inclusion:
Picking pop singer-songwriter John Mellencamp to headline last night's Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular on the Esplanade was not only an inspired move, but for those familiar with the heartland rocker's recent work, it was a subtly subversive one as well.
Against the contrast of the evening's red-white-and-blue-ensconced pageantry, which included the final flyover by the 102 d Fighter Wing (whose 86-year history makes it the fifth oldest unit in the Air National Guard), and the presence of the Navy Honor Guard, Mellencamp's forthright brand of critical patriotism represented a different democratic ideal.
“Critical patriotism”? Is that what we’re calling Mellencamp’s bizarre brand of a-military-response-to-Pearl-Harbor-was-inappropriate politics these days? Besides, on the 4th of July, can’t we just ditch the “critical patriotism” and express an unalloyed love of country? Seriously. Aren’t 364 days a year enough for “critical patriotism?”
If the Pops are looking for a truly patriotic act next year, rocker John Ondrasik of Five for Fighting regularly extols our men and women who fight for our country. We did “critical patriotism” this year. Let’s go for the real thing next year.
5) HELL HATH NO FURY LIKE A STYLIST SCORNED – John Edwards’ hair stylist, he of the controversial $400 haircut, is a little miffled by the fact that Edwards has pretended not to know him. He’s so miffled, he’s begun to sing like a canary, and has even provided details of a $1250 coifing that went down during the 2004 campaign:
The Beverly Hills hairstylist, a Democrat, said he hit it off with then-Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina at a meeting in Los Angeles [in 2003] that brought several fashion experts together to advise the candidate on his appearance. Since then, Torrenueva has cut Edwards’s hair at least 16 times.
At first, the haircuts were free. But because Torrenueva often had to fly somewhere on the campaign trail to meet his client, he began charging $300 to $500 for each cut, plus the cost of airfare and hotels when he had to travel outside California.
Torrenueva said one haircut during the 2004 presidential race cost $1,250 because he traveled to Atlanta and lost two days of work.
As Allah says it so perfectly, Torrenueva’s thanks for this labor of Pony love?
Edwards said [recently] that he was embarrassed by the cost [of the $400 cut] and that he “didn’t know it would be that expensive,” suggesting the haircuts were some kind of aberration given by “that guy” his staff had arranged. His wife, Elizabeth, made lots of jokes at her husband’s expense and the campaign wished the whole issue would go away…
In the days after the $400 haircut first caused a stir, Torrenueva did not give many details about his client to reporters who called or came by his Beverly Hills salon. But Torrenueva says he was hurt by Edwards’s response to all the flap.
“I’m disappointed and I do feel bad. If I know someone, I’m not going to say I don’t know them,” he said. “When he called me ‘that guy,’ that hit my ears. It hurt.” He paused and then added, “I still like him. . . . I don’t want to hurt him.”
Okay, it’s official – Edwards is a jerk. I especially like the detail that Torrenueva “brought together several fashion experts to advise the candidate on his appearance.” That, my friends, is comedy.
Compliments? Complaints? Contact me at Soxblog@aol.com