Rick Hertzberg is a senior editor and staff writer at The New Yorker, and former editor of The New Republic and a former speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter. For TPM, he opines on stupidity, venality and political insanity.
Meritorious Achievement in The Crazy
Ginny Thomas: Clearly it was the women who dominated the category this time around. For me it came down to Christine O’Donnell versus Ginny Thomas. A tough choice, because the two kinds of crazy they personify are so different.
O’Donnell was pure entertainment. Kewpie doll-cute (those adorable dimples!), delightfully silly and gifted with an unerring instinct for R-rated wackiness, she provided fans like me with an extra dollop of pleasure: the knowledge that every time she popped up on TV, which was often, she made it more certain that the Democrats would retain Joe Biden’s old Senate seat.
Mrs. Thomas is a sadder, scarier case. She has obviously based the last two decades of her life on the fantasy that Anita Hill was lying, or was brainwashed, or whatever. Yet the strain of forcing herself to believe the fantasy has engendered emotions and, perhaps, doubts that she cannot fully suppress. I feel sorry for her and feel a little guilty for being a party to ridiculing her, but I feel I must, mainly on account of the clues she has provided about the strange psychological brew in which she — and, more importantly, her husband — has been marinating for lo these many years.
Unrefudiated Champion of Tea Party Wackiness
Carl Paladino: Perennial favorite Michele Bachmann, with her glassy eyes, fixed smile, and kindergarten-teacher drone, had a bit of an off year, it seemed to me, though she finished strong with her revelation that it was reading Gore Vidal’s Burr (a terrific novel, by the way) that made her crazy to begin with. Sharron Angle did not reach her full craziness potential either, I thought, though obviously her efforts were enough to perform the signal public service of reelecting Harry Reid.
But as a New Yorker I have to go with the favorite son. Admittedly, he’d probably be more at home at a necktie party than at a tea party. But how often do we get a snarling, menacing gubernatorial nominee who acts and talks like a character in Quentin Tarantino movie?
Most Outrageous Election Season Fib Issued By A Politician
My choice of Lieutenant Governor Dubie is based on its historical resonance:
I have in my hand 57 cases of individuals who would appear to be either card carrying members or certainly loyal to the Communist Party, but who nevertheless are still helping to shape our foreign policy.
–Senator Joseph McCarthy, 1950
Nominees For Most Over-The-Top Campaign Ad
Demon Sheep: I like the nutty audacity of trying to persuade people that Harry Reid wants to spend taxpayers’ money in order to help sex offenders achieve satisfactory erections, but Carly Fiorina’s ovine opus is the keeper.
It has too many fine qualities for me to mention them all, but one of them is its metaphor confusion. In order to show that Tom Campbell is not a “fiscal conservative” like Carly Fiorina, the ad portrays him as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Therefore, “fiscal conservatives” like Carly Fiorina are… sheep.
I cannot disagree.
Also, the opening is unusually Pythonesque for a campaign ad — an hommage to Terry Gilliam.
The George Allen Honors For Best Tracker-Captured Freak-Out
Carl Paladino: The freakiest freak-out, purely as a freak-out, is obviously Phil Davison’s. But I find it hard to believe that the video was “captured” by a “tracker.” Do marginal candidates for county treasurer in Ohio really merit trackers?
Anyway, since this award honors a freak-out that helped keep the egregious George Allen out of the United States Senate, it should go to something similarly consequential.
Tarantino again. Or on this one, maybe Coppola or Scorcese.
Best Scandal — Sex and Generalized Carnality
Nikki Haley: It depends on what’s meant by “best,” doesn’t it? As an exercise in exposing hypocrisy or revealing “character” — the usual lessons people draw, or claim to draw, from sex scandals — the Family Research Council guy with the rent boy would have to be considered the best.
But I prefer Nikki Haley, because her scandal didn’t hurt her at all. The voters didn’t seem to care. Good for them. Good for her.
She may or may not have “committed adultery” — she probably did — but so what? She was within her rights in denying it, just as Gary Hart was. Just as Bill Clinton was. Lying about adultery is an intrinsic part of adultery itself. It says nothing about a person’s general propensity to lie.
Governor-elect Haley may not have wanted to, but she has nevertheless struck a blow for feminism, moral “relativism,” and sexual privacy. Sexual freedom, too.
Brian Nieves runs a close second to Paladino in the Tarrantino/Coppola/Scorcese department, but they’re not nominees in this category.
Some of the others may actually deserve the prize more fully, but routine graft is too banal to intrude on an awards ceremony as glamorous as this one.
Best Scandal — General Interest
Meg Whitman’s Maid Scandal: I’m tempted by the Young Eagles blowing thousands in strip clubs, but I can’t think of a better use for Republican campaign contributions. This sort of thing should be encouraged, not deplored.
No, it’s Meg Whitman who takes the cake — for callousness, arrogance, ruthlessness, contempt for the huddled masses yearning to breathe free, and an assumption of entitlement common among certain kinds of self-regarding rich and successful people. Another plus: it helped cost her the election.
