Friday, May 2, 2008

A Miss South Carolina analogue that actually matters

Various patch-mates have reported enjoying the video in which Miss Teen South Carolina melts down under intense questioning. I personally find the Miss SC video so painful as to be unwatchable. However, the video of Lurita Doan's testimony before the house, where she is shown to have been in clear violation of the Hatch Act, and where the best she can muster is a stuttering "I don't recall" defense (elevated to an art form by another distinguished Bush appointee), is at once painful and pleasing. It's ten minutes instead of fifty seconds, but worth watching.

1 comment:

sjn said...

I didn't find Miss Teen SC's response too painful to watch, probably because I don't think she felt discomfort beyond the panic of someone mired in a bad performance. I.e., "bad answer" to her felt like "I dropped the baton" or "I tripped and fell on stage". I'm usually made much more uncomfortable when the target is an unwitting victim of whatever's afoot, like in Borat.

To be sure, choking while performing is a painful thing to do and to see, but it's part of what performers sign up for. Her particular bad luck was to have her verbal spew so memorably model a dumb American bad at geography (and, face it, constructing a sentence) - it all made the clip just to perfect to miss. That said, I am sorry she has suffered humiliation after the fact. What I've seen of her after the event suggests she's more capable than what she demonstrated during the meltdown, and I'd certainly hate to have my worst public moment enshrined on youtube.

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Regarding Lurita Doan, I did get some satisfaction watching her twist a bit under direct questioning. It makes me seethe to watch those tools trot out the "I don't recall" responses, so I do enjoy seeing a little discomfort aimed at them. Overall, I'm saddened that more appointees of this administration (the ex-AG especially) haven't felt more heat and humiliation. They deserve it.