(TYVM kevao!!)
Posted on 06/05/2014 7:49:44 AM PDT by onyx
In 76-year-old Sen. Thad Cochran‘s case, the anecdote in Atlantic‘s Molly Ball’s story Tuesday, on the day of his primary, looks bad. Make that incredibly bad.
With a runoff in three weeks against his much younger opponent, Chris McDaniel, 41, Cochran (R-Miss.) can’t afford any more coverage like this. The story questions his physical and mental ability to serve in Congress after, ironically, 41 years in office.
Politicians half his age have had memories as bad as the silky white-haired Mississippi lawmaker. Some pols are good at that stuff– they make it a point to recognize reporters in the marble hallways of the Capitol and greet them with hugs or handshakes. Many even know regular Capitol Hill reporters by name.
Others, no matter that they’ve told you their whole life story that included the detail of eating chicken fat sandwiches as a child (yes, that’s you New York Democratic Rep. Jerrold Nadler), have no earthly idea who you are. It’s just the way it goes and a reporter should never take it personally. They have a lot of faces and names to imprint in their memories and if you’re a reporter, you’re largely on the level of shit under their shoe.
In Ball’s case, Cochran appears to really have no recollection of meeting her, even though she’d interviewed him just a half hour before in a square in Meridian, Miss. She asked why Mississippi needed him in the Senate. She wrote that he didn’t appear to understand the question. Later, the reporter followed the senator to a local diner.
The damning moment: “Cochran didn’t pose for any pictures during his brief sweep,” she wrote. “As he made his way toward the exit, the senator held out his hand to me. I had met and interviewed him less than half an hour before. ‘Hello, how are you doing?’ he said with a kindly smile. ‘I’m Thad Cochran.’”
Which gives great credence to the theory that he was going to resign early next year, and let the Mississippi GOPe ( that’s you, Haley) pick the replacement..who would be expected to win easily in 2016..
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BINGO — And it bears repeating; Cochran is simply nothing more than a puppet of the progressive/corruptocrat wing of the Republican Party.
That was a meet’n’greet. This chick interviewed him at length. He still didn’t recognize her 30m later.
I’m an old coot and I can say with assurity that old coot is too old to serve another term.
That’s the point.
LOL. Right on!
God bless.
Oh yeah. Quayle not recognizing someone from one of hundreds or more he’d shaken hands with is one thing. Not recognizing someone who’s just interviewed you is disturbing.
Precisely.
And in fairness Strom Thurmond as well. And the scary thing is that in the case of Cochran and Byrd and Thurmond you know that most of the decisions were probably made by the Senate staffers and the Senator voted as he was told. In Cochran's case it could well be that admin assistant he's "renting" an apartment from. So there goes the whole idea of accountability to the people who elected you. The real power is being wielded by unelected people pulling the strings.
I can understand a face in the line. But in Cochran's case the reporter had just spent an extended period of time interviewing Cochran, and 60 minutes later it's as if they had never met.
Byrd and Thurmond were icons of the Senate. A little special treatment for them is okay, but THAD WHO?
(. ‘Hello, how are you doing?’ he said with a kindly smile. ‘I’m Thad Cochran.’)
At least he remembers his lines well.
He’s not saying “Now what was it Haley told me to say”
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