Princeton CAP magazine piece Kennedy read was satire

Powerline ^ | January 14, 2006

[Peach]

You can read the full Prospect article on Kennedy's site. Its subject is a lawsuit by a female Princeton student who wanted to be admitted to an all-male eating club at the university. As the title suggests, it argues more broadly that elitism isn't a bad thing. The article is written in an arch style that doesn't do much for me, and I don't think it's very good. But there isn't anything especially offensive or even controversial in it.

Dinesh D'Souza was the editor of Prospect at the time, and he confirms that the article, by H. W. Crocker III, now an editor for Regnery Books, was a satire:

The essay may not have been funny, D'Souza acknowledges, but Kennedy read from it as if it had been serious instead of an attempt at humor. "I think left-wing groups have been feeding Senator Kennedy snippets and he has been mindlessly reciting them," D'Souza said. "It was a satire."

The bottom line is that if this is the most "offensive" article CAP was responsible for in its decade-plus of existence, the Democrats' whole guilt-by-association effort was much ado about nothing. If being associated, however remotely, with attempts at humor that don't turn out to be very funny is enough to place a public figure beyond the pale, the Democrats had better stay away from Al Franken.

[mewzilla]

Heaven help us if these staffers ever read A Modest Proposal...

[Peach]

Late in the afternoon Lindsey Graham puckishly engaged in what for all the world sounded like a, well, filibuster, whose effect was to drive Sen. Schumer's turn to the exact stroke of 6, when every cable network switched to news programming. Alone now on C-Span, Sen. Schumer rode the thin reed of the 1985 job résumé. Going nowhere, he told an odd mother-in-law story, which Judge Alito mistook for a question: "Senator, I think--." Sen. Schumer cut him off: "--Just let me move on."

They're all half nuts.

[Sofa King]

Why pick exonerate on Kennedy?

I see no reason to think that Kennedy didn't know what he was doing.

[Peach]

They could read it but wouldn't get the satire.

[hobson]

LOL! You just can't make this stuff up.

Didn't another senator use satire not too long ago...my mind is blank? We need to start a list of all the incidents where libs use satire to support their arguments.

[MEG33]

I believe he spoke of it being satire on Friday.

[Peach]

Kennedy admitted on Friday the piece was satire?

[Semper Paratus]

Should forward "The Best of ScrappleFace.com" to Kennedy's office.

[Mr. Mojo]

....proven in part by the fact that the dog is named "Splash" !!!!!

As Leno mentioned the other night, that's the equivalent of O.J. Simpson naming his dog "Slash."

[mewzilla]

They could read it but wouldn't get the satire.

Yeah, I know :-)

[PeskyOne]

I can't resist sending it to Kennedy too since I sent him an email on the 11th telling him how dishonest, despicable, and disgusting he is. If he used the information knowing it was satire, it proves everything I said about him is true. I also told him he was imbecilic, so this article proves that's true too! Thanks for the post.

[Peach]

Oh, Rush spoke about the piece being satire on Friday. My mistake. Did he know it was satire or suspect it?

[Peach]

Do you have e-mail addresses for the Senate Judiciary Committee members or do we have to go, one by one, through their home pages and send e-mails?

[Peach]

You know, on second thought -- I'm calling their staffers on Tuesday (Monday is MLK holiday). Their staffers will make sure they get the message.

[MEG33]

CAP was a "dissident" Alumni group.
From Weekly Standard article...
snip
Princeton, however, had a rough week. In his opening statement, Alito spoke warmly about the New Jersey community in which he grew up. There were few college graduates, and he went to public schools. But then he went 12 miles down the road to Princeton, where, he said, "I saw some very smart people and very privileged people behaving irresponsibly. And I couldn't help making a contrast between some of the worst of what I saw on the campus and the good sense and the decency of the people back in my own community." And then there was Alito's testimony about ROTC at Princeton. He well remembered that his ROTC unit was expelled from campus during his junior year and that he had to go to Trenton State College to finish his ROTC classes. And he commented as to how that was "a very bad thing for Princeton to do." Not bad, but very bad.
snip

You have to wonder how, back at Nassau Hall, they regard the prospect of Justice Alito.



Terry Eastland is the publisher of The Weekly Standard.

[pepsionice]

I'm going to make a guess that the Republicans will raise an issue and ask that he be placed on another committee of some type. The fact that he (or his staff) would draw a satire piece to place as serious material in front of a national audience...leaves his credibility to be in shreds. I can't see the guy being trusted by the national media again when you talk about federal court judges. And as for his personal staff...the guy who got this piece...probably was a dim as they come...did no investigation work...and was a easy target for bloggers to kick. Every single one of these Democratic senators need to review their staffs...and lay off the folks who can't perform.

[randog]

How much longer will Massachusetts inflict this oxygen-thief upon us.

As long as (a) he's stealing oxygen, and (b) he can funnel billions of federal dollars into Massachussets.

Big Dig, anyone?

[MEG33]

I didn't hear it..someone posted that he did call it satire..

[ez]

No-one seeks to exonerate Kennedy, but rather, to attribute the practice of "mindlessly reading" left-wing material to a wider class of mental midgets. FReegards...

[lawdude]

"Time to write something for Teddy!"

Something like an obit?