Now for something completely different-but otherwise pretty much the same story UPDATE
Christine O’Donnell is not likely to be the next senator from Delaware (keep praying), making Saturday’s profile in the NYTimes fun to read. From a large Catholic family with a lot of diversity (three Republican and three Democrat siblings, one lesbian, and a father who was Bozo the clown), she resembles many Catholic girls we all know and have known–endowed with a sense of humor and the gift of gab. Her garrulous style may exceed that of one former senator from Delaware, Joseph Biden. But where she got her politics?
Here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/us/politics/02odonnell.html?ref=politics
Our fabulist heroine has been corrected by her father:
“To be an official Bozo, you had to go to a special school in Texas,” explained Mr. O’Donnell. He never did. Instead, he was asked to fill-in for the official Bozos whenever they would have to travel out of the Philadelphia area for acting gigs. “They would leave, I would come in and work for two or three weeks, whatever, until the regular Bozo came back,” Mr. O’Donnell said. “I was the fill-in Bozo.”
Nobody took Jesse “The Body” Ventura seriously, either. Or Ronald Reagan. Or Arnold Schwartznegger.
Until they ran for office.
Frank Rich has a devastating column today on O’Donnell and the Republicans’ need for her:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/opinion/03rich.htm
Among other things he says:
“O’Donnell is particularly needed now because most of the other Republican Tea Party standard-bearers lack genuine antigovernment or proletarian cred. Joe Miller and Ken Buck, the Senate candidates in Alaska and Colorado, actually are graduates of elite universities like those O’Donnell lied about attending. Rick Scott, the populist running for governor in Florida, was chief executive of a health care corporation that scooped up so many Medicare and Medicaid payments it had to settle charges for defrauding taxpayers. Rand Paul, the scion of a congressman, is an ophthalmologist whose calls for spending restraint don’t extend to his own Medicare income. Carl Paladino, the truculent man of the people in New York, grew his fortune as a developer with government handouts and favors. His California bookend, Carly Fiorina, received a golden parachute worth as much as $42 million from Hewlett-Packard, where she liquidated some 20,000 jobs.”
When I read that profile, I found myself liking O’Donnell. I would never vote for her, but I think she would be fun to have as a next door neighbor.
Wow, that article is a must-read. One thing I have to say for these Tea Party candidates — they sure make political journalism more entertaining.
That is just such a wonderful paragraph.
Is she a millenial or a Gen xer. Definitely a seeker…
C’mon – how can you not love her?!
I’m with Irene; I’d love her for my next door neighbor. Senator? Not so much.