Dick Cavett: yet another liberal dazzled by Petraeus’ shiny medals (OUTRAGEOUS insult by Cavett!)

Michelle Malkin ^ | 04/12/2008 | Michelle Malkin

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

There’s something about General Petraeus that brings out the most quotable in liberals. Most recently it was LA Times wine critic Matthew DeBord who must have been auditioning for a fashion column as he critiqued Petraeus’s uniform and, especially, his many tacky, tacky medals awarded for service to his country. Righteous indignation about that from Uncle Jimbo, hilarious sarcasm at Iowahawk. Take your pick.

That was yesterday. Today it’s talk show host Dick Cavett, who I’m glad to learn is still alive, getting all hot and bothered about General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker in the New York Times.

Petraeus commits a different assault on the listener. And on the language. In addition to his own pedantic delivery, there is his turgid vocabulary. It reminds you of Copspeak, a language spoken nowhere on earth except by cops and firemen when talking to “Eyewitness News.” Its rule: never use a short word where a longer one will do. It must be meant to convey some misguided sense of “learnedness” and “scholasticism” — possibly even that dread thing, “intellectualism” — to their talk. Sorry, I mean their “articulation.”

Yes indeedy, Dick, where does this Petraeus fellow get off pretending like he’s some sort of intellectual? Poor clod only has a Ph.D. in International Relations from Princeton University.

But clever Dick can’t resist the lure of those bright, shiny medals:

I can’t look at Petraeus — his uniform ornamented like a Christmas tree with honors, medals and ribbons — without thinking of the great Mort Sahl at the peak of his brilliance. He talked about meeting General Westmoreland in the Vietnam days. Mort, in a virtuoso display of his uncanny detailed knowledge — and memory — of such things, recited the lengthy list (”Distinguished Service Medal, Croix de Guerre with Chevron, Bronze Star, Pacific Campaign” and on and on), naming each of the half-acre of decorations, medals, ornaments, campaign ribbons and other fripperies festooning the general’s sternum in gaudy display. Finishing the detailed list, Mort observed, “Very impressive!” Adding, “If you’re twelve.”

But if you’re a grown-up New York Times reader, if you move in the elite circles that Dick does, then valor, patriotism, and service to your country are just a clever punchline.

Baldilocks zeroes in the artillery:

When you’re soon in that rest home, Mr. Cavett, you can spend your remaining days thinking about how you have wasted your life; something which better men than yourself–like General Petraeus and General Westmoreland (RIP)—will never have to do.

Ouch. But it’s true. Dick Cavett has led, by most measures, a successful life, and yet in spite of his success he’s now shown himself to be a petty, envious, and ungrateful little man.

Perhaps the saddest part is that all this effete sniping represents an improvement in the tone as compared with the last time the General testified before Congress.

[wtc911]

Well, the good news is that Cavett spends every day knowing that he is nothing but an embarrassingly irrelevant has been whose current career consists of begging his buddy Imus to give him an occasional two minutes of radio time.

He is one of those 'old celebrities' who wander the streets of Manhattan with their heads held high, trying to meet every passer-bys eye in desperate hope that someone will recognize them.

His is a pathetic existence.

[sergeantdave]

I can predict that the leftists will smear Mr. McCain’s military service. They’ll try a swift-boat type propaganda campaign that will blow back with hurricane force and destroy the Stalinist party. They can’t help themselves. These tiny, wimpy purse-carrying worms will always try to cut down men taller than themselves.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

He is one of those 'old celebrities' who wander the streets of Manhattan with their heads held high, trying to meet every passer-bys eye in desperate hope that someone will recognize them.

As the few remaining natural habitats of The Fading American "Z"-List Celebrity all eventually fade away into the swirling mists of history -- Graumann's Chinese; The Brown Derby; lower corner left box on The Hollywood Squares -- these strange, fragile creatures, too, will watch helplessly as the candle of their final passing gutters and ebbs and (inevitably) fails altogether.

God willing, I mean. ;)

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

These tiny, wimpy purse-carrying worms will always try to cut down men taller than themselves.

In the case of 5'6' Dick Cavett: that's virtually every male on the planet old enough to hear their own voices change. ;)

[oh8eleven]

After you are awarded a ribbon or a medal you have to wear it on your dress uniform.
I do not believe there is a regulation that actually requires that.

[Farmer Dean]

Never knew THAT about LBJ.Pretty low for a Texan.I’ve been hurt worse than Kerry while shoeing a horse.What frauds these little weasels are.

[RetSignman]

I imagine this little twit, in his school days, relished his job as hall monitor as an intoxicating way to have authority over others.

He probably avoided any sports, not only that he was inadequate, but because the thought of having to shower with all those boys was terrifying to him, his small little body exposed and open to ridicule.

He probably favored hanging out with the girls and gossiping because they were less threatening than the boy’s and he could easily regale them with his pseudo intellect.

He nothing more than a small effete little man who uses his dry sarcastic wit as a defense against his obvious insecurity.

[Farmer Dean]

Was that photo taken before he threw his medals over the fence?Oh,that’s right-he threw someone else’s medals over the fence.He framed his and put them on the wall of his Senate office.

[bert]

This was news to me. I thought Dick Cavett had died and gone to hell.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

This was news to me. I thought Dick Cavett had died and gone to hell.

[::Gets up. Walks towards window. Peers out into the Seattle night. Walks back towards computer. Sits down again.::]

Nope. Not here. ;)

[Condor51]

The first thing that jumped out at me regarding Gen Petraeus and his 'gaudy uniform' was this....

Master Parachutist Badge
"Participated in 65 jumps to include 25 jumps with combat equipment; four night jumps, one of which is as a jumpmaster of a stick; five mass tactical jumps which culminate in an airborne assault problem with a unit equivalent to a battalion or larger; separate company/battery or organic staff of a regiment size or larger; graduated from the Jumpmaster Course; and served in jump status with an airborne unit or other organization authorized parachutists for a total of at least 36 months"

In English: Girly Men don't get "Master Blasters" (old term of yore)

Nancy boy Cavett and that h*mo wine critic would sh*t bricks over ONE jump. So I suggest they STFU about anything worn on any military uniform, by anybody.

[Mr Rogers]

I doubt Army regulations would allow Gen Petraeus to wear a uniform WITHOUT medals while testifying to Congress. And as another poster pointed out, if he HAD done so, the Democrats and liberals would consider it a deliberate affront to their dignity!

[RedCobra]

Dick Cavett.....didn’t like him back then.....don’t like him today. A smug, smarmy, wormy looking little elitist, effete, mincing, gay looking pseudo intellectual liberal fool who forgets that he can’t pop his little impudent, decadent mouth off were it not for men like General Petraeus who safeguard our liberties.

[LucyJo]

Accurate. Succinct. In a nutshell...BTTT.

[driftless2]

I used to watch Cavett’s show in the sixties because he put on a lot of rock groups I liked. And they didn’t have to lipsync like on American Bandstand. But he’s always been far out on the left politically. He once interviewed noted commie I.F. Stone without ever once mentioning Stone’s political allegiances.

[Leisler]

"He wore the Silver Star in his lapel all his life, up to and through the presidency," said Robert Caro, a historian and Johnson biographer. "When he was campaigning in Texas and he wanted to draw people's attention to it, he would actually do this (with his lapel) when he was giving a speech," said Caro, demonstrating how Johnson would grab his lapel with the Silver Star and flap it. ....click for more

Whether Johnson truly rated the Army's third-highest combat award seen on his official portrait is a question his biographers have long debated.

"The most you can say about Lyndon Johnson and his Silver Star is that it is surely one of the most undeserved Silver Stars in history," Caro said. "Because if you accept everything that he said, he was still in action for no more than 13 minutes and only as an observer. Men who flew many missions, brave men, never got a Silver Star."

[Farmer Dean]

People like Cavett are part of the social loading of a free society.Free to be totally irrevelent and live a great life while folks like you and me do the heavy lifting required to maintain the Republic.

[Bommer]

Cavett is nothing more than a name dropping, celebrity smoozing whore. No talent and has amounted to nothing. His interviewing style was uber snobish which attracked Libs to his show. Johnny Carson still killed him.

[Blind Eye Jones]

Cavett would probably say that culture is profounder than the state, which deals with men's bodily needs and degenerates into mere economy. The state is not a form where man can act without deforming himself. This is why in better circles it seems in poor taste to speak of love of country.

[Veto!]

Dickie is a twerp. I met him in New Orleans at a publishing conference years ago. So very impressed with himself, he added very little to the conference. It’s me me me with him all the time.