Leaving Show Business to the Pretty Folks

Today’s Boston Globe has more interesting stories than can be blogged. The continuing fiasco of Catholic parish closings is covered here. In OpEd territory, Scott Lehigh gives the Democrats a good j’accuse over the party’s destructive relationship with narcissistic Hollywood stars. The choices bits of his critique:

The avidity with which some prominent Democrats later embraced Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" -- a film whose thought-provoking antiwar message was cloaked in cockamamie conspiracy theories and drenched with disdain for Bush -- reflected their misreading of the country's anxious, uncertain mood. The image of Moore ensconced in former President Jimmy Carter's box at the Democratic National Convention showed that that mentality had infected even the highest reaches of the party…

Exactly right. I have tried to find an image of Moore and Carter sitting together on the Internet without success. That image is seared – seared – in my memory as an icon of the malady that has so damaged this poor party.

Other stars may have helped Kerry raise money, but they also served to embarrass him, putting their unbridled contempt for Bush on proud display during a July fund-raiser at Radio City Music Hall. Whoopi Goldberg indulged in a long riff that used the name Bush as a sexual pun. Chevy Chase belittled Bush's intelligence and mocked his pronunciation of "terrorist" and "nuclear." (Didn't Jimmy Carter mispronounce the latter word too?) John Mellencamp sang a song that called Bush a "cheap thug who sacrifices our young." And so it went. Kerry then made the mistake of saying that the stars had conveyed to the audience "the heart and soul of our country." His campaign was soon on the defensive, left to assert the performers' right to express their opinions, while stipulating they did not necessarily reflect Kerry's views.

This is just political common sense. So why did it go unsaid during the campaign?

Now, the celebrities' contempt may well mirror the sentiment of confirmed Democrats.

Hmmm. Hatred animating the Democratic Party mainstream? Surely not, Scott! Unmentioned by Lehigh is the 42nd US president, who elevated the Washington-Hollywood connection to a core party value.

Of local interest in today’s Globe is a story on WBUR, the PBS radio station owned by Boston University, but run until recently as the personal fiefdom of its former general manager, Jane Christo. Christo’s lawyer states that “The reality is that oversight of WBUR's financial affairs, personnel practices, legal and contractual policies is and was rigorously determined by Boston University."

Later even more hilariously, the BU Veep who allegedly oversaw the operation of the radio station says ‘''I have never had a complaint by an employee about Jane, [and] I've never had anybody criticize Jane who were members of the [WBUR] advisory board."

"See no evil", indeed! Take a management hint, sir, that nobody complains too much about dictators when they are known to be ruthless. I guess he never tried asking Christopher Lydon about how it was to work for Christo.

Finally a story that conservative Christians are trying to put the mention of Christmas back into what has become “the Holiday Season”, including local boycotts of stores that refuse to identify the Christmas holiday.

What I find interesting about our culture’s hedging on this point is that the religious meaning of Christian holidays is not a topic that is mentionable in polite public or press conversations, and certainly not in schools! One can respectfully mention the religious significance of Hanukkah or even Kwanzaa, but discussion of Christmas is largely limited to Rudolph and Santa, while Easter is all eggs and bunnies.

A note to slower-learning Democrats: becoming the party of Scrooge will not help you win more states in 2008.