February 12, 2015

"He was very, very polite and very well dressed. I remember him in his three-piece suits... It was like teaching Alex P. Keaton."

Said a Marquette polisci professor, about Scott Walker, quoted in a Boston Globe article titled "Scott Walker’s political ambitions fostered at Marquette" (not to be confused with the Washington Post article about Scott Walker's college days, titled "As Scott Walker mulls White House bid, questions linger over college exit," blogged yesterday here).

So the professor likened young Scott Walker to the character on the 80s TV show "Family Ties," and — as we also saw in the WaPo article — another student called him "Niedermeyer," a character in the 1978 movie "Animal House."

Niedermeyer had lines like: "And most recently of all, a 'Roman Toga Party' was held from which we have received more than two dozen reports of individual acts of perversion SO profound and disgusting that decorum prohibits listing them here." And: "You're all worthless and weak! Now drop and give me twenty!"

Here's the whole script of "Animal House." The movie ends with freeze frames and a caption telling us what happened to each of the college boys in later life, and the final word on Douglas C. Niedermeyer is: "KILLED IN VIETNAM BY HIS OWN TROOPS." That got big laughter and applause in its day.

Why did fellow students call Scott Walker "Niedermeyer?
Elected as a student senator during his freshman year, Walker quickly made a mark. During Homecoming weekend, a group of more than a dozen students charged the student government account nearly $1,000 for a limousine, flowers, and dinner -- including champagne -- at the Pfister Hotel.

Just two months after he stepped onto campus, Walker was tapped to lead the investigation into his peers, a scandal that became known as “Pfister-gate” and dominated campus headlines at the time.

“Those were stormy waters for a campus,” said Dave Sullivan, who was and remains friends with Walker. “To jump into that and have the fortitude to take that on, a lot of 40 year olds would have a problem with it. He was 18.”

Several student leaders resigned their positions. But even after the money had been repaid, Walker continued pushing to impeach others. Supporters say it showed his doggedness, opponents say it showed vindictiveness.

“It would have been very easy to drop the proceedings and he didn’t,” said Glen Barry, who was among those Walker sought to impeach but was later cleared. “It was grandstanding. It was creating a crisis in order to benefit and gain power.”

Barry and others came up with a derisive nickname for Walker, calling him Niedermeyer, after a character in the movie Animal House who was an overly aggressive ROTC leader.
In American presidential elections, there's always a lot of attention to the "character" question. I'm trying to picture how the "character" question would play out in a contest between Scott Walker and Hillary Clinton.

78 comments:

tim maguire said...

We need to start tracking the pop culture characters Walker is compared to. Should be good for a laugh when we look at them all together.

So many stories about Walker's ancient history. Looks like the reporters digging through Palin's trash AND the reports digging through Romney's high school records have a new purpose in life.

Still waiting to hear about the results of the investigation into Obama's past. There must be so much material that that crack team of reporters just can't seem to get to the bottom of it.

But one day...I'm sure of it...because they're professional reporters, and that means unbiased.

Jake said...

I remember Alex Keaton being fairly well-loved as a character. I think I'd take that as a compliment.

tim in vermont said...

I remember reading about Family Ties and how it was written and they supposedly had a standing slot in their sitcom format for "Alex Apologizes." You know, because Alex was always wrong. Except it just made Alex look like the reasonable open minded one of the bunch. Go ahead and google it and watch the liberals try to wrap their heads around why people liked Alex.

Here's a good one from the New York Times

It's easy to forget, looking back, that the essential monstrousness of Alex Keaton's proclaimed values would have made him impossible to watch if Michael J. Fox had not been so, miraculously, cuddly.

What's the matter with America? Why do they *like* Alex? It must be because those rubes just like a pretty face!

One example of Alex's "monsterousness" given was that he was concerned for his pregnant mother traveling. This was, of course, an example of he irredeemable sexism.

Incidentally, Modern Family ought to be called Modern Family Ties, except the Alex character Her name is actually Alex, is a girl.

Hmmm...

Robert Cook said...

I would certainly never vote for Scott Walker for President, but I would never vote for Hillary Clinton, either. As to the question of Walker's character as compared with Clinton's...can anyone point to Walker's political career and behavior and find anything as appalling as this?

In this comparison, I'd say Walker is Alex Keaton while Clinton is Niedermeyer, (to say the least!).

sane_voter said...

The two characters on Family Ties that were funny were Alex and Mallory. The parents were insufferable.

So Hillary would be the mom Elyse.

Robert Cook said...

@sane_voter:

You're being far too kind to Hillary, far, far too kind.

tim in vermont said...

Robert, Everybody knows Clinton is a warmonger. Not only that, but an incompetent one. What does it say about the Democrat party that everybody is afraid of her and that she is locking up all of the money?

What do you have to back her up? An affirmative action cheat who denies getting into Harvard based on claiming to be an Indian, but has the lowest credentials of any member of the faculty, and Harvard bragged about having an Indian on the law faculty, and yet refuses to name her, or I guess conceivably, him.

Phil 314 said...

to be far I recall a comparison of our president to Urkel.

Heartless Aztec said...

At the time I thought Animal House a documentary. It was twenty years before I realized it was comedy...

Writ Small said...

It is so uncool to hold accountable elected people who spend public funds on themselves.

By contrast, Hillary Clinton has parlayed here career in government to become fabulously wealthy. How cool is that?

Brando said...

Alex, like Archie ten years earlier, was the unintentional hero of the show. To their credit, the liberal writers of "All in the Family" and "Family Ties" humanized them and made them relatable. What surprised them was that their politics struck a chord with conservative viewers who didn't have a lot of fictional TV role models at the time.

It's hard to see Alex P Keaton as an insult--he was smart, driven, and popular, and jokes about him centered on how overdriven he was, but he was usually the one delivering punch lines.

Niedermeyer of course was a bully--pushing around Flounder, who just wanted to get through ROTC to help pay his way through Faber College!

Brando said...

Seeing the lameness of these recent "hit pieces" has me thinking. If I were a campaign manager, I'd plant some "weak dirt" to get out at my candidate, which would goad the media into reporting on some non-scandals and readers will think "if this is the worst there is on this guy, then he must be pretty clean" and they may even sympathize with my candidate because the media is trying so hard to take him down.

The worst they seem to have on Walker is "politically ambitious" and "was relentless about nailing some people who misappropriated funds". Eek! Keep that guy out of the seat of power! Put Hillary in, who is clean as the driven snow!

Anonymous said...

It takes a lot to make a stew,
When it comes to Marquette U--
A fancy feed to add some spice,
A limousine to make it nice, and you've got:

Too many crooks (too many crooks),
Too many crooks....

Darrell said...

Why did they compare him to Niedermeyer? Because they didn't. Wapo just found garage to interview. Or a comrade just like him.

Ann Althouse said...

"We need to start tracking the pop culture characters Walker is compared to."

1. Hitler...

Clyde said...

Given the amount of dung that will need to be cleaned out of the Augean stables that is Washington come 2017, the description of Walker's "dogged determination" to root out corruption at the college level sounds like a feature, not a bug.

Tom from Virginia said...

Prediction: long after it can do Barack Obama and this generation of Democrats any harm, all will be known. I hope I am alive in 2042. It will be fascinating.

Michael Fitzgerald said...

These same "journalists" have reported and repeated the lie that Obama was editor of the Harvard Law Review. And that is the entirety of their reporting of Hussein's college career. Of course, they are abetted in their deceit by a comprehensive omerta imposed by the university and sustained by its loyally leftist faculty. Progressive demands for "diversity" do not include political opinions that differ from democrat party demagoguery.

tim maguire said...

Phil 3:14 said...
to be far I recall a comparison of our president to Urkel.


And Chauncey Gardner. Which I think is dead on.

Hagar said...

When officers got "fragged" in Viet Nam - or other wars - it was not because of their excessive zeal - the guys will put up with that - but stupidity, foolishness, and general incompetence that could get their men killed for no good reason.

tim maguire said...

i Ann Althouse said...
"We need to start tracking the pop culture characters Walker is compared to."

1. Hitler.../i

They used to say a fascist is someone who tells a hippie to do something he doesn't want to do. Similarly today, Hitler is anyone in the way of a liberal activist.

tim in vermont said...

What is funny is that iconic shows like Family Ties and All In the Family were created as simple minded morality plays to lead the rubes in the proper direction. Had they actually played out on the level on which they were conceive, none of them would have been renewed after the first season.

Maybe if My Mother the Car had made one of the characters a despicable conservative, the show would have had legs.

Michael K said...

"find anything as appalling as this?"

I think you have a point. The most disgusting thing in the Clintons' record, however, is Haiti.

Gaddafi was about British and French oil leases. Haiti was just about money.

It's tempting to try to forget about all the misery that Bill and Hillary Clinton and their Democrat friends have inflicted on Haiti. But like perpetrators who cannot resist the urge to return to the scene of the crime, the Clintons keep reminding us.

At an Iowa "steak fry" last week, Mr. Clinton bragged about his Haiti record. That was strange: Two decades after using the U.S. military to restore deposed Haitian tyrant Jean Bertrand Aristide to power, five years after becoming the U.N.'s special Haiti envoy, and three years after taking charge of the post-earthquake Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, Mr. Clinton is persona non grata in much of the country due to the dismal results of his involvement.

Yet bringing up Haiti now, even in such an unlikely venue, may come to serve a purpose. Mr. Aristide was put under house arrest in Port-au-Prince earlier this month in connection with an investigation into allegations of money laundering and corruption. If he decides to talk and remembers things differently than Mr. Clinton, the former U.S. president will be out in front with his version of events.


If the Haitians have anything to do with it, this may come out next year. It is corruption on an industrial scale.

But "we did it and no shot was fired. Nobody got hurt."

That's some tale. But as any Haitian knows, it was Mr. Aristide who championed Haitian "necklacing," aka "Père Lebrun" after a domestic tire merchant. Governing a democracy with a national assembly was more difficult than he had anticipated and he urged his followers to give Père Lebrun to his opponents, as an Oct. 1993 Congressional Research Service report documented.

On Sept. 29, 1991, the military stepped in and kicked him out. It employed its own paramilitary, which also practiced repression—but guns, not necklacing, were its weapon of choice.

Mr. Aristide fled to Washington, where President George H.W. Bush released Haiti's international telephone and airline revenues to him as the government-in-exile. There was never any accounting for those funds but they reportedly topped $50 million. Mr. Aristide lived the high life in Georgetown and mounted an aggressive and costly lobbying campaign for U.S. military intervention to restore his presidency.

Once Mr. Clinton put Mr. Aristide back in the palace in Port-au-Prince, his supporters picked up where they had left off. Opponents were hacked with machetes, set on fire and gunned down. Money disappeared.


George HW Bush has some responsibility for this but, like Fannie and Freddie, this is a mostly Democrat story. Not 100% but 80 our 90 %. And Hillary is in it up to her ample hips.

MayBee said...

Do you remember the Harvard Law Article about how his professors thought Obama was really too special to have to do his work?

Obama was coddled and Walker was earnest. And Walker is the one who is kinda being smarmed. (new word alert)

Larry J said...

I wouldn't recommend anyone hold their breath while waiting for the Press to closely examine the background of Democrats like Obama or Hillary Clinton. Even after all the years, has anyone seriously tried to examine what Obama did in college, which classes he took, or what grades he earned. He seems to guard his transcripts more closely than state secrets. All Republican candidates know for certain that they'll will get the Media Anal Exam. Democrats get thrown softballs.

garage mahal said...

In regards to Walker's character, the guy has none. He's a career politician who would run over his own mother if it gained him an inch politically. I feel sorry for his kids.

tim in vermont said...

He's a career politician who would run over his own mother if it gained him an inch politically.

Judging by your persona here garage, so would you.

Tom said...

I can see him standing at the podium, facing off against Hillary, and saying, "I began my political career, way back in college, taking on government leaders who mistook the people's money for their own and I believe that experience prepared me well for where I stand today." And then look right at Hillary.

MadisonMan said...

That got big laughter and applause in its day.

As I recall, the biggest laughter came for the guy who became a gynecologist.

Robert Cook said...

"What do you have to back her up? An affirmative action cheat who denies getting into Harvard based on claiming to be an Indian, but has the lowest credentials of any member of the faculty, and Harvard bragged about having an Indian on the law faculty, and yet refuses to name her, or I guess conceivably, him."

Tim in Vermont: what are you on about? How does your rant have any bearing on the discussion of Walker and Clinton?

Anonymous said...

the guy who is constantly whining about being the target of a "witch hunt" ran his own witch hunt while in college government?

Buwhahahahaha! His hypocrisy know no bounds.

As for why they called him "Niedermeyer" it is probably because he is kind of dumb yet still likes to take charge. You know, the kind of guy who would go to England and make a reference to American football, which ends up making it sound as if he is seeking out the services of a prostitute.

Robert Cook said...

"When officers got "fragged" in Viet Nam - or other wars - it was not because of their excessive zeal - the guys will put up with that - but stupidity, foolishness, and general incompetence that could get their men killed for no good reason."

I think this describes the Niedermeyer character fairly well. His mouth-foaming zeal and bullying nature--as a college student in ROTC!--can be inferred to be a mask for an incomptent egotist and glory hound, a martinet.

robother said...

These articles are a window into how popular media shapes the political battleground (quite consciously in the case of Hollywood producers): it provides easily identifiable caricatures who have been pre-packaged to be seen as the uncool, bigoted uptight ones. Student government types partying hearty on the student's nickel: lovable Blutos. Scott Walker the investigator: the fascist Niedermier. Even (supposedly) sophisticated University professors are incapable of seeing Walker other than through the lens of these pop caricatures.

MadisonMan said...

I've complained in the past about stunningly mediocre choices for President that are foisted onto voters (2008, anyone?).

I think Walker v. Clinton might eclipse all of them.

Perhaps Walker will improve as a campaigner with time, but he is making a lot of unforced errors.

Robert Cook said...

@Michael K.

Your reminder of the Clintons and Haiti is appreciated, and makes ever clearer how execrable the Clintons are.

Achilles said...

garage mahal said...
"In regards to Walker's character, the guy has none. He's a career politician who would run over his own mother if it gained him an inch politically. I feel sorry for his kids."

Projection in an unusually pure form.

Achilles said...

madisonfella said...
"the guy who is constantly whining about being the target of a "witch hunt" ran his own witch hunt while in college government?

Buwhahahahaha! His hypocrisy know no bounds."

The nature of bias is that the self proclaimed (progressive)centrist doesn't recognize their (lack of) perspective.

Laslo Spatula said...

The closest character I can think of that resembles Hillary is the shark from "Jaws 3".

Not the shark from the original "Jaws," which actually had a sense of purpose and some flair -- not unlike Bill Clinton -- or even the shark from "Jaws 2," which had appreciable less of both but still was important enough for Roy Schneider to stick around and impeach.

The shark in "Jaws 3" through was just phoning it in, like we were expected to be impressed because, well, it was time for "Jaws 3" and she was next in line.

Furthermore, "Jaws 3" was originally filmed in 3-D: to make this work they had to keep the shark motionless as it was pushed at the camera like a corn-dog on a stick: no appreciable momentum of its own, no purpose to exist except money.

But it DID still have lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eye.


I am Laslo.

JPS said...

Madisonfella:

"[Walker] he is kind of dumb yet still likes to take charge."

Where do you get that he's kind of dumb? I keep seeing this, but I'm not sure of the basis for it. And I'm suspicious because too many people mix up "dumb" and "not highly educated." (I know some not-especially-bright Ph.D.s and lots of guys who are smart as hell but never went beyond high school.)

JPS said...

Laslo, that is the cruelest appraisal of a politician I've ever read. That's much meaner than Boris Johnson's "sadistic nurse in a mental hospital." I salute you.

Anonymous said...

Where do you get that he's kind of dumb?

Go overseas and make a reference to American football, while also using the slang word for someone who pays women for sex.

Have numerous "drafting errors" and "oversights" in your proposed budget, and blame it all on aides.

Hire someone for a job only to fire them two days later because you didn't do a background check.

Blatantly lie about political endorsements you have received.

Make up a story about a child getting killed with a bow and arrow while discussing gun control.

Do all that, and more, and you too will be labeled "dumb" regardless of how much or how little formal education you have.

tim in vermont said...

Tim in Vermont: what are you on about?

So why are we talking about Clinton then? Because you brought her up. Why are we talking about the affirmative action cheat? Because I brought her up. See how it works? You don't get to dictate the conversation. ARM thinks the same thing, that he can set the bounds of a debate.

BTW, has anybody hear from ARM since Chapel Hill?

Wince said...

The key Niedermeyer quote is from Dean Wormer:

"Put Niedermeyer on it. He's a sneaky little shit just like you, right?"

Now, how long before the media replace Dean Wormer vis-a-vis Walker with the Koch brothers?

garage mahal said...

Do all that, and more, and you too will be labeled "dumb" regardless of how much or how little formal education you have.

Turn down 220 million dollars from a private entity to build the Bucks arena. Even slavishly devoted right wing radio is turning on Walker. So fun to watch.

Jim said...

Speaking of Animal House, you know Dean Wormer's wife was raped. She clearly was inebriated and incapable of consent. I think all references to Animal House should be shamed as insensitive to rape victims. Seriously, it requires all sorts of trigger warnings.

tim in vermont said...

madisonfella, garage,

A big part of being persuasive is to have the ability to appear persuadable. I think Dale Carnegie said that.

garage mahal said...

A big part of being persuasive is to have the ability to appear persuadable

Persuade me on how turning down 220 million dollars from a private entity to build a new arena is a good idea.

Big Mike said...

I'm trying to picture how the "character" question would play out in a contest between Scott Walker and Hillary Clinton.

The media have to go all the way back to Walker's college days to find something that offends only liberals. Hillary Clinton couldn't even hire a translator who could spell "reset" in Russian. (FYI, it's "сброс.")

Quaestor said...

With a little imagination (and some revised spelling) Neidermeyer in Dutch means lower or subordinate ant, i.e. worker ant. That's fits the movie character, since he loves to do Dean Wormer's bidding. Doesn't fit Gov. Walker, though.

Laura said...

Ask Ron Brown, C. Victor Raiser II, Hershel Friday, Ed Willey, and Shelly Kelly how their lives would be affected if they were impeached on the order of Scott Walker.

Oh wait...never mind.

But while on the subject of flights and impact, Santa and his reindeer have at least one more Christmas Eve to exercise "veto" power while Granny runs.

Thorley Winston said...

During Homecoming weekend, a group of more than a dozen students charged the student government account nearly $1,000 for a limousine, flowers, and dinner -- including champagne -- at the Pfister Hotel.


Isn't that the sort of thing that should warrant expulsion from the university rather than impeachment from student government?


Big Mike said...

@garage, somehow, reading between the lines, I get that perhaps you don't like Governor Walker. I don't know why I say that; it's just an overall impression. Perhaps I'm mistaken.

Charlie Currie said...

"Persuade me on how turning down 220 million dollars from a private entity to build a new arena is a good idea."

Only those who see the abundant opportunities for graft would think this was a bad idea.

Charlie Currie said...

Walker quit school to take a job.

I believe Walker has more college credits than Bill Gates.

Anonymous said...

The media have to go all the way back to Walker's college days to find something that offends only liberals

Plenty of stuff, like lying about political endorsements and promising to "divide and conquer" the workers in the state, occurred long after he dropped out of college.

Thorley Winston said...

I’m going to assume that every negative thing madisonfella writes about Scott Walker is a lie unless and until proven otherwise.

Mitch H. said...

I've never gotten the cult of Animal House, especially after the director, John Landis, got an adult and two child actors killed on-set in an act of depraved indifference to safety, the law, and basic common sense. Even if Jonah Goldberg insists on quoting the damn movie extensively.

mccullough said...

Walker was among the first group of college students in Wisconsin who were subject to the 21-year-old drinking age. He missed being grandfathered in to the 19-year-old drinking age by a few months.

Fucking Reagan and his law coercing the state's to raise their drinking age to 21 to get highway funds.

Walker needs a Sister Souljah movement by lambasting Reagan for this and promising to let the state's decide the drinking age. He should also push to lower Wisconsin's back to 19 or even 18.

Robert Cook said...

Tim in Vermont asked and answered, (incorrectly):

"So why are we talking about Clinton then? Because you brought her up."

No, I did not. The final paragraph of the blog post reads:

"In American presidential elections, there's always a lot of attention to the "character" question. I'm trying to picture how the 'character' question would play out in a contest between Scott Walker and Hillary Clinton."

Can't you even be bothered to read the blog post upon which you presume to comment?

RonF said...

"Persuade me on how turning down 220 million dollars from a private entity to build a new arena is a good idea."

Did they demand any kind of tax breaks?

How much public infrastructure expenditure would have been necessary for it's construction? How much expense would there be to maintain that infrastructure?

What has been the history of other such projects, especially with regards to projected vs. actual public expenditures?

I don't know. But I bet Gov. Walker does.

paminwi said...

"Persuade me on how turning down 220 million dollars from a private entity to build a new arena is a good idea."

Maybe he turned down this money because it really doesn't exist. It is only a possibility that they will have this money. It sure as hell is not sitting in a checking account just waiting to be turned over to the state.

Even the State Journal says if something looks to good to be true, it probably is.

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/opinion/editorial/scott-walker-wise-to-stick-with-casino-rejection/article_734cc10a-df65-5730-9807-62a6e6ddd982.html

mccullough said...

The Bucks suck. The NBA needs to fold some franchises.

cubanbob said...

RonF said...
"Persuade me on how turning down 220 million dollars from a private entity to build a new arena is a good idea."

Did they demand any kind of tax breaks?

How much public infrastructure expenditure would have been necessary for it's construction? How much expense would there be to maintain that infrastructure?

What has been the history of other such projects, especially with regards to projected vs. actual public expenditures?

I don't know. But I bet Gov. Walker does.

2/12/15, 11:18 AM"

I suspect our boy Garage doesn't. Where I live that has always been the pattern, the city/county/state doesn't kick in this muni bond or that tax break and we won't put in X amount for that whatever that is going to generate a lot of money for that private party. Unless the governmental entity isn't first in line to get it's money plus interest before anyone else I don't see the need to be a partner in the loss without the potential to be first in line for the profit.

Bilwick said...

With Obama as Dean Wormer: "When it comes to liberty, the time has come for someone to put his foot down--and that foot is me!"

Bill said...

sane_voter said...The two characters on Family Ties that were funny were Alex and Mallory. The parents were insufferable.

Well, Michael Gross went on to play Burt Gummer in Tremors, so cut him some slack.

tim in vermont said...

Tim in Vermont asked and answered, (incorrectly):

You caught be Robert. I'm guilty. My earlier point about Elizabeth Warren stand, she is widely seen as the backup for Hillary. Hillary is not viable, as you yourself partially showed with your link from Counterpunch.

How discussing alternatives to Hillary is off topic I don't know. I know you seem to crave a strong leader with lots of rules to tell people how to live, work, and discuss stuff.

William said...

Walker supporters are whistling past the graveyard. Check out the back of Walker's head. The man is going bald. Worse yet, he's not going bald in the manly, intellectual way that Adlai Stevenson went bald--from the forehead back. Walker is going bald from the back forward. He looks like one of those tonsured monks who tortured heretics during the Spanish Inquisition. Does America really want the Grand Inquisitor as its president? As we have seen with Rubio, there's no place in our politics for a man who reaches for water in an awkward manner. I think all fair minded people will agree that Walker's baldness is a far greater offense than Rubio's clumsiness.

Brando said...

"Persuade me on how turning down 220 million dollars from a private entity to build a new arena is a good idea."

I don't know if you can be persuaded because it sounds like your mind is made up, but it's a good idea when that money comes with strings attached that make the money not worth it.

If I offer you $1000, which you can accept as long as you use it (plus whatever other money you have) to buy a car to drive me around, you may well decide that the obligation and expense of buying a car (which costs more than $1000) and driving me around with it aren't worth it. Sure, you'd be turning down $1K, but only a fool would think you were an idiot to turn it down.

Brando said...

And it is well known that cities and states often lose money on these stadium deals--they have to offer such tax breaks or pick up such infrastructure obligations themselves that it becomes far more expensive to build the arena, etc. than it would have been to turn down the deal.

If the sports team is such a great deal for the city/state economically, then they shouldn't have to subsidize it. These deals sound increasingly like the publishing companies that require the author to front the money for hte first printing.

Saint Croix said...

President of Delta House (whathisname with the pipe) = John Kerry.

Otter = Bill Clinton

Bluto = Ted Kennedy

Kevin Bacon = Orrin Hatch ("Thank you sir may I have another!")

Neidermeyer = Goldwater ("Pledge pin!")

That's an A+ movie. I also really dig P.C.U., a vastly underrated attack on PC culture. That's the Animal House for our generation. Very funny flick.

RichardJohnson said...

garage mahal said...
"In regards to Walker's character, the guy has none. He's a career politician who would run over his own mother if it gained him an inch politically. I feel sorry for his kids."

Is that your take on career politician? Such as Joe Biden,Bill Clinton, Barack Obama.......
Just wondering.

Anonymous said...

I loved Alex; he was a way to lampoon some of my teachers at the time. The caricature of the hippie teacher in Beevis and Butthead was also refreshing for its time as well as Sapphie in Absolutely Fabulous. It was overdue for that sensibility take a comedic hit, and Alex may have been the first to do it from a child-of-boomers POV. Portlandia still does it, from the left.

But the '80s were a long time ago and some things don't age that well. IIRC, in real life, it was actually the actress that played Jennifer who didn't fit in. Socially, Michael J. Fox and Justine Batemen got along very well with their onset "parents."

wildswan said...

How can Walker be compared to the most evil figures that ever lived? Not easily

Attila the Hun invaded Russia - Walker attacked the teacher's unions

serial killers often wear bullet proof vests - Walker wore a bullet proof vest due to threats from the teachers union supporters

A hater - Walker supports the Green Bay Packers meaning he is against all the other teams in the AFL and the NFL and so he hates football and also almost all football fans in America.

A Farve supporter - What is his position on evolution? Who cares. What is his position on Farve? this what I want to know. Why is this being covered up?

Douglas B. Levene said...

Someone up above wrote, "These same 'journalists' have reported and repeated the lie that Obama was editor of the Harvard Law Review." Well, I didn't go to Harvard Law School, but I have met and talked one of the lawyers who was on the Review the year ahead of Obama (this lawyer was my outside counsel), and he said he voted for Obama to be president of the Review (HLR presidents are elected by the outgoing board of editors) because he thought Obama would be able to bridge the then very large and ugly gap between the Marxist radicals (the Critical Legal Studies gang) and the conservatives (the Federalist Society gang). In other words, he was elected because of his perceived interpersonal skills, not because of his legal brilliance. But he was elected, and he did serve as President of the HLR.

Anonymous said...

garage mahal said...

Persuade me on how turning down 220 million dollars from a private entity to build a new arena is a good idea.

No garage, how about YOU try to persuade us that it's would actually be a good idea to build that stadium.

zefal said...

Ronald Reagan was asked by a reporter (don't remember who) what his favorite TV show was and he answered Family Ties. Obviously, Reagan liked the show because of the Alex character and his mocking of his mid-aged hippie parents.

Family Ties was the second ranked show in the country at the time and the number one show was The Cosby Show. Well Tom Shales of wapo was aghast that Reagan would say his favorite was the white second ranked Family Ties show while the black Cosby Show was the number one ranked show! How could he do this? Just the multiple plethora of things in wapo that would show me the phoniness of leftist progs as a teenager.

PS Family Ties always had a higher share of the audience but a lower rating as a result of lesser number of people watching at 8:00 vs 8:30. Split those two shows up (which the networks would always do with the thinking they could use both as anchors on different nights) and The Cosby Show would sink out of the top ten imo. I think Brandon Tartikoff thought this way too and smartly never tried that with The Cosby Show.

Anonymous said...

Animal House has a script?

richard mcenroe said...

Ivy League grad JFK and his ghost-written books gave us Bay of pigs and Vietnam...

Rhodes Scholar Bill Clinton ignored a chance to take bin Laden and gave us the end of the rule of law in America.

Ivy League Grad (with grades lower than George W. Bush's) John Kerry gave us Swiftboating and is busy giving Iran a nuclear weapon.

Hillary Clinton, with her degrees in poltical science from Wellesley and her law degree from Harvard gave us the bloodbath in the Libya than led to the implosion of the Middle East.

And Barack Obama, Harvard Wunderkind Graduate (no, really, they say he is) who desgtroyed our healthsystem, saddled us with unprecendented debt, crippled our military and turned millions of people over to the rule of monsters...

Maybe it's time for someone American higher education HASN'T had a chance to "finish". Scott Walker looks pretty good next to all these mental and moral cripples.