MOTUS A.D.: Smells Like Mendacity

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Smells Like Mendacity

It never seems to get old: the big fancy house, the neatly maintained gardens, the celebrities in residence, and even more celebrities willing to pay just about any amount of money just to visit. No - I’m not talking about our resident celebs here at the Big White, silly! I’m talking about the swanky fundraisers that the won-half of the won–percenters insist on throwing for the Won. They’re always so much fun.

Take yesterday for example: Harvey Weinstein hosted a little $35,800 per ticket soiree at his beachfront “farm” house estate in Westport Connecticut:

I guess they had to build a special helipad on the beach for Marine Won – butt money’s no object when we’re, well, raising more money. I did hear, though, that some of the perpetually disgruntled little people in town - who have to rely on public beaches for their oceanfront experiences - were complaining that 2 of the local beaches were closed for the day due to security issues. That’s really a small price to pay for an official visit from the Big Guy. And he really needs the money because we hear that Romney is out fundraising him by getting a "whole bunch 'a" money from millionaires and billionaires. 1 percenters!

So last night’s ~~marks~~ guest list included cohosts Anne Hathaway (Batman’s cat woman) and Aaron Sorkin (Westwing, Newsroom) along with regulars Anna Wintour, Jerry Springer and Joanne Woodward.

Not Anna’s and Harvey’s first rodeo for BO

And hey! Here’s a coincidence! Harvey and Anna have been frequent guests at the Big White dinner parties! How nice of them to return the favor.

The WaPo reports on the festivities:

Introducing the president, Weinstein said that “leading with your heart is the utmost” for Obama, adding that he fought to protect Planned Parenthood and to protect women’s rights.

Obama, he said, can take a punch.

“You can make a case that he’s the Paul Newman of American presidents,” Weinstein said.

I wonder which Paul Newman character Harvey had in mind for Big Guy? The Sting’s Henry “Shaw” Gondorff – a professional grifter and con-man:

“If a con game is successful, the mark does not realize he has been "taken" (cheated), at least not until the con men are long gone.”

Or maybe Brick Pollit from “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” ?

Maggie, determined and beautiful, has escaped a childhood of poverty to marry into the wealthy Pollitts, but finds herself unfulfilled. The family is aware that Brick has not slept with Maggie for a long time, which has strained their marriage. (snip)

Brick explains to Big Daddy that Maggie was jealous of the close friendship between Brick and Skipper because she believed it had a romantic undercurrent. He states that Skipper slept with Maggie to prove her wrong. Brick believes that when Skipper couldn't complete the act, his self-questioning about his sexuality and his friendship with Brick made him "snap".

Cool. Almost to the point of distraction.

Hmmm. I guess the Paul Newman comparison was supposed to be a compliment; butt these characters seem to specialize in mendacity which up till now has been a characteristic reserved exclusively for people in the R-word camp. Like e-coli, it’s not generally considered a good thing.

Anyway, BO graciously returned his hosts compliments, saying of Ms. Hathaway:

“She’s spectacular. I got a chance to see “Batman,” and she was the best thing in it. That’s just my personal opinion.” The actress, sitting just a few feet from where the president was standing, beamed and laughed.

Of Sorkin, creator of “The West Wing,” the president said he “writes the way every Democrat in Washington wished they spoke.”

Which really explains a lot, when you think about it.

“Words? Just Words?” Apparently.

I don’t think Big Guy actually watched The Dark Knight Rises though; if he had I don’t think he would have liked it as much as he said if he did. Because, frankly, his side doesn’t make out so well - as Andrew Klaven explains in “Batman Battles the Politics of Resentment:”

The world of the film is our world, and the direct opposite of the world imagined into being by our intelligentsia. Here, free markets and investments, while creating super-wealthy men like the philanthropist hero Bruce Wayne, also create a rising tide of money that lifts the rest of us. Meanwhile, the forcible redistribution of private property is identified as theft, the forerunner of disorder and despotism.

Bane the destroyer of Capitalism, not Bain, the investor in

And according to Andrew, the movie’s message doesn’t place the Harvey Weinsteins of the world in a particularly good light either:

Our chattering classes frequently tell us that art should speak truth to power and shock the bourgeoisie. It just never seems to occur to them that "the power"—and the modern Babbitts of the bourgeoisie—are themselves. [ed. by all means, read the whole thing]

Anyway, after handing out the “at-a-boys” Big Guy launched into his stump speech:

“We’ve spent three and a half years trying to make sure this country gets back on its feet,” Obama said. “We have a lot of work to do, and we’re not done. These gains are reversible. On a whole host of issues, you guys are the tiebreakers.”[ed. good to know: we can still depend on being ruled by the elite – or the “intelligentsia” as Klaven said]

A lot of people are hoping the “gains” are reversible.

I know it seems like all anyone around here is concerned with anymore is fundraising. Butt when you’re the underdog like I guess Big Guy is (?) you have to spend every waking moment raising enough money to buy your votes fair and square. Although this WaPo chart seems to indicate that BO and his DNC have raised nearly twice as much as his loyal opposition.

So can we at least stop whining about the other side raising more money?