chefmike
05-11-2007, 01:52 AM
The GOP Hopes For a Hollywood Ending
Robert J. Elisberg
A few weeks back, the Los Angeles Times reported how George Clooney was interested in supporting Barack Obama, but has been keeping it low key, to not tarnish the senator with a "Hollywood" connection.
After all, as we know, Republicans hate Hollywood and the Hollywood Elite and Hollywood Morals and Hollywood Actors and Hollywood Hollywood Hollywood.
Republicans despise everything about Hollywood. Everything.
Except mining it for candidates.
One of the big political stories today is how dissatisfied Republicans are with their current crop of candidates. And so to save themselves, they are looking to... Hollywood.
Fred Thompson is the name mentioned to rescue the party. Now, to be fair, Mr. Thompson has an impressive resume, most notably as D.A. of New York City. Okay, so it's a fictional job on a TV show, but still... It's a good, fictional job, and his fictional conviction rate is strong.
Okay, okay, yes, Fred Thompson really does have a good resume. After all, he was a United States Senator, White House Chief of Staff, director of the CIA, an FBI agent, and a Rear Admiral. He's a licensed physician and ran both RJR/Nabisco and Los Angeles International Airport. And he was president already.
Oh, wait, sorry, those are all fictional jobs, too. But he did do them well -- except for running LAX which would have been a disaster if it wasn't for Bruce Willis.
Now, yes, Thompson was a real senator, as well as a fiction one, and was the real minority counsel during the 1974 Watergate Hearings, so he does have credentials. But it's hard to imagine that any Republicans are pushing a former, eight-year senator to come out of retirement and save their party from defeat, if it wasn't for him being on a TV show.
By the way, when he was elected senator, he'd been a well-known actor for nine years at that point. (With 31 credits.) And anybody who thinks Fred Thompson is a warm, fuzzy Homespun Man of the People, here's a hint: someone writes those cracker-barrel lines for him.
But here's the thing: Fred Thompson is not close to the only Hollywood actor who Republicans have recruited to breath life into their party and save them. Time and time again, they've gone to the Hollywood casting couch.
Look at them fawning over Arnold Schwartzenegger as an example of how Republicans should learn how to govern and bridge the gap between parties. Never mind that he's as quintessential a Hollywood creation as any actor ever. Never mind that he's not "bridging the gap" at all, but rather saw his poll numbers plummet disastrously and started tossing Democratic proposals onto the liberal California table to save himself from certain defeat. Never mind, too, that he's married into the Kennedy family. Republicans hilariously point to Hollywood's "The Terminator" as their poster boy of what a politician should be.
But that's nothing compared to the greatest savior of all of the Republican Party. Ronald Reagan. Indeed its current patron saint. Few actors are more Hollywood than "The Gipper." Reagan wasn't just an actor for a quarter century -- he was president of the Screen Actors Guild! A divorced, union head, Hollywood actor... and this is who Republicans genuflect to.
And it's not limited to even this. The GOP has a long history of anointing Hollywood candidates.
The only Hollywood actor ever elected to the U.S. Senate was a Republican, song-and-dance man George Murphy. He made 45 movies and appeared in four Broadway shows. Incidentally, not only was he (like Ronald Reagan) a former president of the Screen Actors Guild, he was elected SAG head twice.
"Gopher" on the Love Boat, Fred Grandy, was a Republican Congressman from Iowa. Sonny Bono was the Republican mayor of Palm Springs. Clint Eastwood was elected the Republican mayor of Carmel.
(And of course, as honorable mention, let us not forget arguably the icon of Hollywood, Shirley Temple, who Richard Nixon appointed a delegate to the United Nations. Republicans kept her in the diplomatic corps for 20 years.)
The point is simple and clear: while Republicans loudly deride the evils of Hollywood from one side of their mouths, the GOP ravenously embraces Hollywood actors as candidates -- and, in many cases, as candidates to save the party from itself.
Don't even think the Republican Party hates Hollywood. They make more religious pilgrimages to Tinsel Town than Teen Beat magazine.
Let an actor rear a Democratic head, and Republicans will find the nearest photo op to decry Hollywood Morality. Let the GOP need a candidate, and they will be happy to make sweet love nightly in the altar of the Silver Screen.
And now, once again, the Republican Party finds itself in mortal danger. Tied to the tracks. Hanging onto a cliff. And once again, they look to Hollywood for salvation. Who knew that when they called themselves the party of Law and Order, they meant the TV show.
Robert J. Elisberg
A few weeks back, the Los Angeles Times reported how George Clooney was interested in supporting Barack Obama, but has been keeping it low key, to not tarnish the senator with a "Hollywood" connection.
After all, as we know, Republicans hate Hollywood and the Hollywood Elite and Hollywood Morals and Hollywood Actors and Hollywood Hollywood Hollywood.
Republicans despise everything about Hollywood. Everything.
Except mining it for candidates.
One of the big political stories today is how dissatisfied Republicans are with their current crop of candidates. And so to save themselves, they are looking to... Hollywood.
Fred Thompson is the name mentioned to rescue the party. Now, to be fair, Mr. Thompson has an impressive resume, most notably as D.A. of New York City. Okay, so it's a fictional job on a TV show, but still... It's a good, fictional job, and his fictional conviction rate is strong.
Okay, okay, yes, Fred Thompson really does have a good resume. After all, he was a United States Senator, White House Chief of Staff, director of the CIA, an FBI agent, and a Rear Admiral. He's a licensed physician and ran both RJR/Nabisco and Los Angeles International Airport. And he was president already.
Oh, wait, sorry, those are all fictional jobs, too. But he did do them well -- except for running LAX which would have been a disaster if it wasn't for Bruce Willis.
Now, yes, Thompson was a real senator, as well as a fiction one, and was the real minority counsel during the 1974 Watergate Hearings, so he does have credentials. But it's hard to imagine that any Republicans are pushing a former, eight-year senator to come out of retirement and save their party from defeat, if it wasn't for him being on a TV show.
By the way, when he was elected senator, he'd been a well-known actor for nine years at that point. (With 31 credits.) And anybody who thinks Fred Thompson is a warm, fuzzy Homespun Man of the People, here's a hint: someone writes those cracker-barrel lines for him.
But here's the thing: Fred Thompson is not close to the only Hollywood actor who Republicans have recruited to breath life into their party and save them. Time and time again, they've gone to the Hollywood casting couch.
Look at them fawning over Arnold Schwartzenegger as an example of how Republicans should learn how to govern and bridge the gap between parties. Never mind that he's as quintessential a Hollywood creation as any actor ever. Never mind that he's not "bridging the gap" at all, but rather saw his poll numbers plummet disastrously and started tossing Democratic proposals onto the liberal California table to save himself from certain defeat. Never mind, too, that he's married into the Kennedy family. Republicans hilariously point to Hollywood's "The Terminator" as their poster boy of what a politician should be.
But that's nothing compared to the greatest savior of all of the Republican Party. Ronald Reagan. Indeed its current patron saint. Few actors are more Hollywood than "The Gipper." Reagan wasn't just an actor for a quarter century -- he was president of the Screen Actors Guild! A divorced, union head, Hollywood actor... and this is who Republicans genuflect to.
And it's not limited to even this. The GOP has a long history of anointing Hollywood candidates.
The only Hollywood actor ever elected to the U.S. Senate was a Republican, song-and-dance man George Murphy. He made 45 movies and appeared in four Broadway shows. Incidentally, not only was he (like Ronald Reagan) a former president of the Screen Actors Guild, he was elected SAG head twice.
"Gopher" on the Love Boat, Fred Grandy, was a Republican Congressman from Iowa. Sonny Bono was the Republican mayor of Palm Springs. Clint Eastwood was elected the Republican mayor of Carmel.
(And of course, as honorable mention, let us not forget arguably the icon of Hollywood, Shirley Temple, who Richard Nixon appointed a delegate to the United Nations. Republicans kept her in the diplomatic corps for 20 years.)
The point is simple and clear: while Republicans loudly deride the evils of Hollywood from one side of their mouths, the GOP ravenously embraces Hollywood actors as candidates -- and, in many cases, as candidates to save the party from itself.
Don't even think the Republican Party hates Hollywood. They make more religious pilgrimages to Tinsel Town than Teen Beat magazine.
Let an actor rear a Democratic head, and Republicans will find the nearest photo op to decry Hollywood Morality. Let the GOP need a candidate, and they will be happy to make sweet love nightly in the altar of the Silver Screen.
And now, once again, the Republican Party finds itself in mortal danger. Tied to the tracks. Hanging onto a cliff. And once again, they look to Hollywood for salvation. Who knew that when they called themselves the party of Law and Order, they meant the TV show.