Election-Day Souvenirs

signing credentials like that reminds me of the story that Dick Armey has told about the difference between his dealing with the Clinton White House and the Bush White House -- for me, this little anecdote has always summed up so much. The telling is a bit down page at http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200709/karl-rove/3 and goes (I fixed an naughty word)

"ick Armey, the House Republican majority leader when Bush took office (and no more a shrinking violet than DeLay), told me a story that captures the exquisite pettiness of most members of Congress and the arrogance that made Bush and Rove so inept at handling them. “For all the years he was president,” Armey told me, “Bill Clinton and I had a little thing we'd do where every time I went to the White House, I would take the little name tag they give you and pass it to the president, who, without saying a word, would sign and date it. Bill Clinton and I didn't like each other. He said I was his least-favorite member of Congress. But he knew that when I left his office, the first schoolkid I came across would be given that card, and some kid who had come to Washington with his mama would go home with the president's autograph. I think Clinton thought it was a nice thing to do for some kid, and he was happy to do it.” Armey said that when he went to his first meeting in the White House with President Bush, he explained the tradition with Clinton and asked the president if he would care to continue it. “Bush refused to sign the card. Rove, who was sitting across the table, said, ‘It would probably wind up on eBay,'” Armey continued. “Do I give a d**n? No. But can you imagine refusing a simple request like that with an insult? It's stupid. From the point of view of your own self-interest, it's stupid. I was from Texas, and I was the majority leader. If my expectations of civility and collegiality were disappointed, what do you think it was like for the rest of the congressmen they dealt with? The Bush White House was tone-deaf to the normal courtesies of the office.”

When I got MSNBC Fox advertised on that channel. I think the local cable company sells time; its not a national ad.

Update: Tequila - could he be any more perfect?

53_3 Says:
" .. (Voting) was better than seks! .."
And afterwards you had a smoke, eh, coffee at Starbucks?
Keep off the generics, son.
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Carl S. Says:
" .. Your reportage has allowed us all to be vicarious participants in history."
Some was just precious.
Like the one from the middle east - with KT totally pinning for a cold soda.
Like the one from 10 Downing Street, London - with the local reporters - the restless natives - standing at the scaffolding on the periphery being totally mad at KT and the privileged US reporters seated on the ground a few inches nearer "That one".
[What do you know: Those imperial Brits also hate being the target of discrimination ..]

sg:
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My brother in law noticed they started here late yesterday on MSNBC.
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My wife just voted, too! I had to scout the scenery for her, then I came home and took the car with her wheelchair so she could vote.
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That's 5 for 5 in my immediate family. Debbie's brother is going to vote at two (five there) and I must make a very important note.
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I've been there twice this morning and I saw four youth voters in the 20 minutes total we were there!

cfukara:
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Hades chimes, Batman! My wife agrees with me!
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You only get to do it once every two years, after all...

53_3 Says:
" ..It was better than seks!"
And afterward you had a smoke, eh, coffee at Starbucks, right?
Keep off the generics, son.
--
Carl S. Says:
".. Your reportage has allowed us all to be vicarious participants in history. .."
Some of the reports were precious.
* Like the blog from the middle east with KT totally preoccupied with pining away for a cold soda - and totally oblivious, apparently, to the grandeur of the Roman ruins in Amman, Jordan.

* Like the one from 10 Downing Street, London - with the local reporters - the restless natives - standing at the scaffolding totally hating the US reporters for the privilege of sitting on the ground a few inches nearer "That One". Later, I saw a picture of the reporters and the scaffolding. I WAS amused. It made my day.
[Who would have thought that the imperial Brits hate being the target of discrimination ...]

Thanks KT - for taking us along.

Sorry 53 - about the double.

no prob cfukara!
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BTW, neither of us smoke! But. But!
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Not all Starbucks have gone out of business here, so yes, indeed, we are tipping our favorites as I write...

Tequilla.....interesting.
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Tequilla was the song in "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" that he danced to.
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Paul Rubens played Pee Wee Herman.
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Paul Rubens was arrested for indecent exposure.
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Therefore, applying Fox Fair and Balanced logic Obama is a sex freak.

Even Schmidt knows that any reporter who doesn't recognize the magnitude of today's history is in the wrong business.

Obama did sign
Karen's credentials for TIME
Smiles for tequila!