Not-yet Mario and No-longer-the-same-old Newt have teamed up to, you know, um, elevate the motherfucking political discourse.


I usually try not to go the ultra-snarky Atrios road in my limited blogging, aiming instead to rise to the serene discursive heights of TPM or the American Prospect. But this shit is ridiculous.

No media trope is more shop-worn than the old chestnut of bipartisan cooperation to save country's from flaming extremists. Maybe it started with Gramm-Rudman, maybe when Truman went to Vandenburg and Taft to tell them what was what in re: the commies, but the sanctification of 'bipartisanship' has become clearly central to any media narrative of DC politics. No matter the self-importance of the participants, the structural significance of their policy reforms, the political value of their proposals; any initiative put forward with the janus face of bipartisanship stands a decent chance of getting some valuable MSM ink.

Yet with this Gingrich-Cuomo business, the shark has clearly been jumped (poor shark; i wonder if they got his credit cards too...). Shit, I love Mario Cuomo, and I mean love him. He was the patron saint of my liberal anti-Clinton family, his '84 convention speech one of the first things I ever searched for on youtube. But his kid is a goddamn pain in the ass. Andrew has mucked up his various efforts at electoral office in New York, despite the pull of a near-sainted three-term ex-Governor father. He's like Mark Green; he's probably pretty decent if you ever had to talk to him, but on camera, in public, and in print he comes off as an obnoxious knucklehead who you'd steer clear of quicker than the Mormon at the office party.

And as for Newt... while his faux-presidential campaign continues, and his speaking fees rise marginally, I can only imagine he'll come out with this shit on the regular. Who knows what we'll have the pleasure of seeing over the coming months... Gingrich-Coelho on campaign finance reform; Newt-Zell on the dangers Allah poses to American national security (answer: targeted assasination of all foreign deities); Newt-Joe Liebs on getting the guns out of video games, and into Iraq.... Who knows where the fun will end?