| Saturday, November 6, 2004 |
03:00 - Newsweek eats its "golden boy"
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6414892/site/newsweek/
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You know, sometimes I think maybe it's just as well that I'm still getting Newsweek; this week, for example, the big honkin' cover story, an exposé on both campaigns behind the scenes, is an utterly fascinating read. And it pulls few punches, too:
The morning after the Feb. 3 primaries, which vaulted Kerry into a virtually insurmountable lead, the candidate was fuming over his missing hairbrush. He and his aides were riding in a van on the way to a Time magazine cover-photo shoot. Nicholson had left the hairbrush behind. “Sir, I don’t have it,” he said, after rummaging in the bags. “Marvin, f—-!” Kerry said. The press secretary, David Wade, offered his brush. “I’m not using Wade’s brush,” the long-faced senator pouted. “Marvin, f—-, it’s my Time photo shoot.”
Nicholson was having a bad day. Breakfast had been late and rushed and not quite right for the senator. In the van, Kerry was working his cell phone and heard the beep signaling that the phone was running out of juice. “Marvin, charger,” he said without turning around. “Sorry, I don’t have it,” said Nicholson, who was sitting in the rear of the van. Now Kerry turned around. “I’m running this campaign myself,” he said, looking at Nicholson and the other aides. “I get myself breakfast. I get myself hairbrushes. I get myself my cell-phone charger. It’s pretty amazing.” In silent frustration, Nicholson helplessly punched the car seat.
Many have been the jokes about Kerry abusing poor Jeeves on the campaign trail; little did we imagine, though, just how true to life those little jibes actually were. Kinda sucks all the humor out of it, doesn't it?
And this article in the same issue, about the Swift Vets and their attack, and the devastating effect it had within the campaign itself (even if not in the public eye), makes scant attempt to sugar-coat anything. Nor do the articles looking into the Bush/Cheney campaign with just as much of a shadow-piercing eye. It's exhaustive and riveting narrative journalism, this issue, cover to cover. It's almost as though Newsweek is attempting to do some penance, to make up for its knowingly, admittedly biased coverage before the election was over. More power to them, I guess; its good to see they've got a conscience after all. I just find it creepy to imagine what must have been going through their minds as they so baldly promoted a guy that even they could apparently see at the time was so very loathsome.
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Brian Tiemann
