Posted on 11/04/2004 6:49:27 AM PST by Liz
BACKSTORY Posted on FR
In an effort to galvanize the message Kerry wants to deliver in the time remaining, he convened a powerful roster of journalists and columnists in the New York City apartment of Al Franken.....
The gathering could not properly be called a meeting or a luncheon.
It was a trial.
The journalists served as prosecuting attorneys, jury and judge. The crowd I joined in Franken’s living room was comprised of: Al Franken and his wife Franni; Rick Hertzberg, senior editor for the New Yorker; David Remnick, editor for the New Yorker; Jim Kelly, managing editor for Time Magazine; Howard Fineman, chief political correspondent for Newsweek; Jeff Greenfield, senior correspondent and analyst for CNN; Frank Rich, columnist for the New York Times; Eric Alterman, author and columnist for MSNBC and the Nation; Art Spiegelman, Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist/author of ‘Maus’; Richard Cohen, columnist for the Washington Post; Fred Kaplan, columnist for Slate; Jacob Weisberg, editor of Slate and author; Jonathan Alter, senior editor and columnist for Newsweek; Philip Gourevitch, columnist for the New Yorker; Calvin Trillin, freelance writer and author; Edward Jay Epstein, investigative reporter and author; Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., who needs no introduction.
We sat in a circle around Kerry and grilled him for two long hours.
In an age of retail politicians who avoid substance the way vampires avoid sunlight, in an age when the sitting President flounders like a gaffed fish whenever he must speak to reporters without a script, Kerry’s decision to open himself to the slings and arrows of this group was bold and impressive.
He was fresh from two remarkable speeches – one lambasting the Patriot Act, another outlining his foreign policy ideals while eviscerating the Bush record – and had his game face on.
He needed it, because Eric Alterman lit into him immediately on the all-important issue of his vote for the Iraq War Resolution. The prosecution had begun.
"And what became of Al and Franni's children ?"
Late term abortion...years after they were born? Isn't that a constititional right?
Kerry "opened" himself to the slings and arrows of a group of media sycophants?
How bold.
The short-sightedness of the group is amazing. They actually believed that they would be able to "put Kerry on trial" in order to toughen him for the campaign? They are all in bed with him. If they were serious, they would have invited some true conservatives to share the meeting. But, no, they did not because they don't really know any conservatives, do they? They believe everyone feels exactly like they do.
The short-sightedness of the group is amazing. They actually believed that they would be able to "put Kerry on trial" in order to toughen him for the campaign? They are all in bed with him. If they were serious, they would have invited some true conservatives to share the meeting. But, no, they did not because they don't really know any conservatives, do they? They believe everyone feels exactly like they do.
FReeper ALWAYS RIGHT is creating a ping list about the Spectre intiative.
Everybody should get on it and keep informed of every detail.
We ran this way back when it happened.
No one else touched it.
Disgusting
Yeah but he was opposed to it before he supported it.
sounds like it could have been a "cabal"...lol
Frannie Frankin????
They may well know some conservatives - but they certainly wouldn't have them sitting on their furniture. Not without plastic covers. And even if they know them, they don't respect their intelligence. It's occured to me more than once lately that self-described Liberals, aren't.
What do you call a meeting like this? An al-Qaeda opportunity. (Bad Larry, bad, bad Larry).
We shouldn't be so judgemental. After all, this is the way they insure their invitations to A-list parties, to Hampton weekends, and those pre-show reservations at top-rated Zagat restaurants.
And these are the very people who want the destruction of Israel. They may be "Joos" but they aren't Jews.
Yes... an opportunity to raise funds.
The pitiful thing is that compared to all of those swelling-headed reporters, any one of us here could have done a better job of asking Kerry the questions that a majority of Americans want to ask him. Truly pitiful!
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