Robin Abcarian, snarling, aging girl assassin at the Los Angeles Times, waved her hatchet above her sleepy hair this morning, and where she landed her freshly sharpened chopper, why even a slow-thinking child could guess with precision.
According to the non-partisan gods of political correctness, California’s two most prominent office-seekers committed gaffes last week, one knowingly, one in a gotcha situation.
From the darkest hollows of Kentucky to the densest woods in northwest Canada, even vaguely attentive political observers have been reminded, almost hourly, that U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina, unbeknownst to her, was caught backstage on an open microphone speaking cattily about the frowsy hair of her opponent, Sen. Barbara Boxer.
It was petty, puerile and dumb, but slightly less serious than murder.
Meanwhile, gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown, a retread who has held every state office except dogcatcher, called his opponent, Meg Whitman, a Nazi, comparing her expensive avalanche of advertising against her Republican opponent in last week’s primary election to Hitler’s notorious Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels.
Via the website patterico.com, we have a direct account of a San Francisco radio reporter’s interview with Mr. Brown.
According to Doug Sovern of KCBS, Mr. Brown told him: “‘You know, by the time she’s done with me, two months from now, I’ll be a child-molesting…’ He let the line trail off. ‘She’ll have people believing whatever she wants about me.’ Then he went off on a riff I didn’t expect.
“‘It’s like Goebbels,’ referring to Hitler’s notorious Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels. ‘Goebbels invented this kind of propaganda. He took control of the whole world. She wants to be President. That’s her ambition, the first woman President. That’s what this is all about.’”
Both comments obviously qualify as gaffes, even if Mr. Brown’s was intentional(!) and Ms. Fiorina’s was accidental – naughty, but hardly worthy of being rated even a hiccup.
And so the lovely Ms. Abcarian wheeled into action this morning, eyes ablaze as they typically are when she holds a hatchet in one hand, a computer in the other and a Republican as her prey.
Ms. Abcarian hates Republicans with the sizzling little-girl-scorned discipline as two of her Times teammates — Kathy (Gad, How I Loathe Conservatives) Hennessey has for the Tea Party and Annie Gorman has for legal immigrants.
Together, Robbie, Kath and Annie could star in a horror film with enough meanness left over to have Osama for lunch. These fulltime fuming broads.
I digress.
Ms. Abcarian wrote a section-cover story this morning around the tame enough theme that major statewide candidates could not wait for last week’s primary election to end so they could make foolish statements.
30 to 1 Odds — Fair at the Times
Since she wrote an ethically lopsided 34-paragraph story — 30 dealing with Ms. Fiorina against one vague sentence mentioning Mr. Brown — need I tell you that Mr. Brown is a Democrat and Ms. Fiorina a dreaded Republican?
Since our liberal friends at the L.A. Times and elsewhere throughout the media still are reminding us — years later — that Rush Limbaugh once called someone a Nazi, you would think that the same odious act by Mr. Brown, the state’s best or second-best known politician, would be worthy of at least a tap on the wrist several days later.
Yet the only mention last week in the Times was at the bottom of page 29 last Friday, five snappy paragraphs.
Ms. Abcarian this morning excoriated Ms. Fiorina with such venom that I thought the Republican had deliberately run over a nun.
For gosh sakes, Ms. Fiorina overcame — as far as we know — Stage 2 breast cancer last year. After making her ill-timed crack about the hairdo of Ms. Boxer, possibly the most acerbic member of the Senate, Ms. Fiorina had the self-effacing grace to mention, wittily, how she had gone bald after the crack about her opponent. That would be worthy of commendation for fair-minded reporters, not Ms. Abcarian.
Attack them until their breathing becomes labored is Ms. Abcarian’s strategy toward Republicans she writes about.
Looking Back
Hardly a historian, Ms. Abcarian failed to mention that three-term Ms. Boxer bounced into office in 1992 on the wings of a dirty trick.
Going into the weekend before the November election, Republican Bruce Hershenson either was in a deadlock with Ms. Boxer or slightly ahead, as I recall.
Enter Bob Mulholland, possibly the dirtiest player in California politics, a hulking figure in the state Democrat party. You would not want to meet him in an alley or a bar. He floated a story at the weekend to eager liberal journalists that Mr. Hershenson, a bachelor — not that it matters — was “seen” at a newsstand in the Fairfax District inspecting a “pornographic” magazine.
This was deemed a horrid breach that was the moral equivalent of a massive felony. Eighteen years later, we have been saddled with the disgusting policies and filthy mouth of Ms. Boxer for three terms.
Hopefully, the courageous Ms. Fiorina will defeat both Ms. Boxer and her regrettable hair in November while playing the Sisyphus game with the Times.
