Heathers Against Howard

[WilliamPitt]

Short but amusing...

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/dean/articles/2004/01/11/heathers_against_howard/

Heathers against Howard
By Joshua Glenn
Globe Staff, 1/11/2004

WHEN A REGULAR at Dean Nation, the oldest and most popular Howard Dean weblog, complained recently about Dean-bashing by liberal pundits Joshua Micah Marshall, Matthew Yglesias, and George Stephanopoulos, among others, he caused the digital equivalent of a firestorm by concluding, "All you Heathers, get out of town." Yglesias, writing on his own blog, claimed to welcome the moniker. But many Democrats online claim that the "Deaniacs" have gone too far this time.

The term "Heather" is apparently derived from the 1989 movie of that title starring Winona Ryder as a high-schooler oppressed by a clique of alpha females, all named Heather. In 2003, along with the more descriptive "Beltway Heathers," the term was frequently used online -- by the popular political blogger Atrios and Slate.com's Mickey Kaus, for example -- to castigate members of the Washington press corps, not for being anti-Dean but for being cliquish. What Heathers have in common, according to one Dean Nation visitor, "is a self-serving, careerist conviction that it's uncool to be too liberal or too Democratic."

...more, but only one paragraph...

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Alas, Babylon ...

Well, I don't think it's that bad.

You know, I wouldn't have a bit of trouble supporting any of the Magnificent Nine. (OK, maybe Lieberman, but Joe, too, has managed to tear Bush a few new orifices over the past year.)

Most voters are not going to vote based on "Heatherological" forces. They'll vote vis-a-vis Our Wise and Courageous Commander, Maximum Christian Bush. I think that's the real dynamic -- and that the in-fighting among Democrats is a side-issue that will probably be forgotten by the time the Easter Bunny does his Pagan egg-thing in celebration of the Resurrection of Our Lord.

We Americans are a schiozid bunch in both religion and politics. Thankfully, we're monotheistic -- at least, we follow the rule of One God Per Political Party.

--bkl
F**k me gently with a chainsaw!

[dsc]

2. It is even more fitting given this

MR. BRODER: I saw the same kind of contrast when I was out there earlier this week. Gephardt gave a pep talk to about 175 union business agents and staff people who’d come in from around the country. I’d say it was about 98 percent male and the median size of these guys, about 6’3”, 250 pounds. Then I went over to...

MR. RUSSERT: My kind of guy.

MR. BRODER: Then I went over to the Dean headquarters, they’re young, they’re female, they’re gay, and they’re small. And I thought to myself, I hope those Gephardt guys don’t run into the Dean people. You know it would be a bad scene.

The above is from MTP today.

One of murders in the movie was of a couple of guys who humilated the main character by making him say he was gay and ask to suck dick in front of a group of guys. The anti gay bigotry by head Heather Broder fits all to well in this analogy.

[anti-bush]

6. Geez.

Broder was not being anti-gay. He said that there were gays that were supporting Dean. He said there were females supporting Dean. He said there were young people supporting Dean. He said there were small people (comparing them to the larger Labor Union folks like Gephardts supporters) supporting Dean.

Where is the anti-gay bigotry/

[w13rd0]

7. You are joking, right?

Alluding to violence if the "small, queer, female, sandal-wearing, latte-drinking, Volvo driving Dean supporters" cross paths with "Russert's kind of men, 6'5" bear-men"? Ok, sure.

Come on, Russert and Broder are jackasses, and it's irresponsible to consider them "journalists" in any way. When do we get to put these sons a bitches on trial?

[anti-bush]

8. No, I'm not

If you actually had WATCHED this, as I did, you would probably realize what I am saying. "Small", "Gay", "Female" were not all adjectives describing ONE person. It was obvious by his voice inflection that he was talking about a group consisting of Females, Gays, and Smaller People. The smaller was in response to a comment that Gephardt's supporters tended to be large burly men who are generally in a labor (machinery, industrial, farming) type job.


After the comparisons were done, they asked if there was going to be any physical intimidation going on in the caucuses, and they were joking about it. They were not serious at all.

People are making a big deal out of absolutely nothing here.

[joefree1]

3. Gotta admit I'm getting a kick out of their continuing astonishment

Should the Wanshington Press Corp be made to eat a shoe cake if Dean wins? I pitch in to have it baked (or cook their goose).


Images from Dean Rocks the House of Blues, Hollywood
From wtmusic http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=919849
From Joefree1 http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=921300

[Melinda]

4. "liberal pundits...George Stephanopoulos" Bwhahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Clark Can WIN]

5. I can't figure out just who the vicitm is supposed to be in this story

Dean? Or the "Heathers"?


looks like a slow newsday at the Boston Globe.

[salin]

9. bwahahahaha "The DC Heathers"

remove the references to Dean... apply it to all the chasing after whitewater innuendo and Clinton Bashing in the media... apply it to the dc beltway media talking heads tendency to talk about democratic candidate's clothes and hair and avoidance of policy talk - while rarely discussing anything negative about the GOP... or about a cbs morning piece I saw yesterday about the "Great Economic News on JObs" I heard that went on and on... but didn't mention that there was only a net of 1,000 jobs... and with no mention of how many jobs have been lost under bush and how many net-new jobs would have to be added - just to regain all of the jobs lost...

I think the DC Heathers... cliqueish and superficial... is a great term for the current cache of DC media pundits! Place a figure like Candi Crowley or Cici (whatever her last name is from wapo) and bingo... demonstrates the point.

[NashVegas]

16. Gene Lyons Recently Used the Term

"The point is that Dean didn’t merely insist upon the folly of invading Iraq, he’s still holding firm. His apostasy recently drew a stern rebuke in a Washington Post editorial tellingly titled, "Beyond the Mainstream." Only Dean, the newspaper complained, "omitted democracy from his goals for Iraq and the Middle East." And only Mr. Dean made the extraordinary argument that the capture for talking back to Washington’s insufferable punditocracy. (Reporters are leery of Dean, the Post’s Howard Kurtz writes, because he never asks personal questions about them.) Resentment of the capital’s self-important" Heathers "(from the film satirizing high school cliques) runs strong on Democrat-oriented Web sites."

[windansea]

10. amusing...hey Will???

OT but am curious

Josh had a blurb on his blog about ARG NH Poll posting something about senior voter intimidation;

"Over the past 2 days of calling, a number of older respondents registered as undeclared voters have reported that they have received telephone calls from a campaign informing them that they will not be allowed to vote in the Democratic primary because they missed the deadline to switch parties. A respondent discovered, however, that when she told the caller that she was thinking about voting for Howard Dean, the caller told her that she would be eligible to vote.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/

I wrote to Josh but his email was overloaded

Heard anything??

[WilliamPitt]

11. New to me

[windansea]

12. hopefully the truth will out n/t

[jonnyblitz]

13. you sound like you are salivating for some dirt.

I am sure your "above it all" candidate would approve. :eyes:

[windansea]

14. believe me

if my candidate or ANY candidate is intimidating senior voters I will condemn it.

I don't like puke style politics

sorry Will don't mean to hijack your thread!

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

15. well, fuck me gently with a chainsaw

If you want to fuck with the eagles, you better learn to fly.