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| How Did ‘Access Hollywood’ Become a G.O.P. Pep Talk? | |
| (about 20 hours later) | |
| I wasn’t surprised in the least by an allegation this week that Herschel Walker, who has advocated a no-exceptions ban on abortions, once paid for a girlfriend to have one. Walker has adamantly denied the claim, which appeared in an article in The Daily Beast, and The Times hasn’t confirmed it. But if true, it’s hardly the first example of Republican hypocrisy along these lines. And his background has been an inexhaustible mine for opposition research. There’s dirt everywhere you dig. | I wasn’t surprised in the least by an allegation this week that Herschel Walker, who has advocated a no-exceptions ban on abortions, once paid for a girlfriend to have one. Walker has adamantly denied the claim, which appeared in an article in The Daily Beast, and The Times hasn’t confirmed it. But if true, it’s hardly the first example of Republican hypocrisy along these lines. And his background has been an inexhaustible mine for opposition research. There’s dirt everywhere you dig. |
| What did throw me was what some Republicans said publicly to defend Walker and to assure others in the party that all of this was inconsequential to his effort to defeat Senator Raphael Warnock, an incumbent Democrat, in the midterm election in Georgia next month. | What did throw me was what some Republicans said publicly to defend Walker and to assure others in the party that all of this was inconsequential to his effort to defeat Senator Raphael Warnock, an incumbent Democrat, in the midterm election in Georgia next month. |
| They took a jaunty trip down memory lane to … October 2016, Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign and the surfacing of the “Access Hollywood” tape. | They took a jaunty trip down memory lane to … October 2016, Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign and the surfacing of the “Access Hollywood” tape. |
| According to an article by Shane Goldmacher, Maya King and Lisa Lerer in The Times, the conservative Christian leader Ralph Reed compared the timing of The Daily Beast article “to that of the ‘Access Hollywood’ recording that threatened Mr. Trump’s bid in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign. ‘We’ve seen this movie before,’ Mr. Reed said. ‘They’re trying to take down a good man.’” | According to an article by Shane Goldmacher, Maya King and Lisa Lerer in The Times, the conservative Christian leader Ralph Reed compared the timing of The Daily Beast article “to that of the ‘Access Hollywood’ recording that threatened Mr. Trump’s bid in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign. ‘We’ve seen this movie before,’ Mr. Reed said. ‘They’re trying to take down a good man.’” |
| Gabby Orr of CNN reported that Walker’s campaign manager, Scott Paradise, rallied campaign workers by reminding them of the “Access Hollywood” recording and telling them: “Trump still made it to the White House.” | Gabby Orr of CNN reported that Walker’s campaign manager, Scott Paradise, rallied campaign workers by reminding them of the “Access Hollywood” recording and telling them: “Trump still made it to the White House.” |
| Is this the new G.O.P. pep talk? Buck up, folks, if we could propel a professed and proud groper of women’s genitals across the finish line, we can rescue any ethical delinquent! | Is this the new G.O.P. pep talk? Buck up, folks, if we could propel a professed and proud groper of women’s genitals across the finish line, we can rescue any ethical delinquent! |
| In this telling, the sole meaning and salient moral of the “Access Hollywood” tape, whose legitimacy was never in doubt, is that desperate Democrats will do anything to try to destroy a Republican candidate but won’t necessarily succeed. It has traveled a perverse arc from source of shame to badge of honor, from bombshell to balm. Its actual contents — Trump boasting about sexually assaulting women — are peripheral piffle. | In this telling, the sole meaning and salient moral of the “Access Hollywood” tape, whose legitimacy was never in doubt, is that desperate Democrats will do anything to try to destroy a Republican candidate but won’t necessarily succeed. It has traveled a perverse arc from source of shame to badge of honor, from bombshell to balm. Its actual contents — Trump boasting about sexually assaulting women — are peripheral piffle. |
| The “good man” part also stunned me. I have not met Walker and Reed has. But I’ve read widely about Walker, and Reed perhaps hasn’t. Walker may be his man, in the sense that Walker carries the banner of the party that Reed promotes in an era when many partisans make only two judgments about a candidate: Are you in my tribe, and can you win? | The “good man” part also stunned me. I have not met Walker and Reed has. But I’ve read widely about Walker, and Reed perhaps hasn’t. Walker may be his man, in the sense that Walker carries the banner of the party that Reed promotes in an era when many partisans make only two judgments about a candidate: Are you in my tribe, and can you win? |
| But “good” is a stretch, at least if I apply the standards that the G.O.P. once disingenuously did, back in the pre-Trump days when its leaders fretted theatrically and speciously about traditional values and character. As John Branch noted in a long article in The Times last weekend, Walker “has been found to be a purveyor of fiction and misdirection about basic résumé facts, such as graduating from Georgia (he did not) in the top 1 percent of his class (no); about the size, scope and success of his companies (all exaggerated); about working in law enforcement, including the F.B.I. (he has not); and about his number of children.” | But “good” is a stretch, at least if I apply the standards that the G.O.P. once disingenuously did, back in the pre-Trump days when its leaders fretted theatrically and speciously about traditional values and character. As John Branch noted in a long article in The Times last weekend, Walker “has been found to be a purveyor of fiction and misdirection about basic résumé facts, such as graduating from Georgia (he did not) in the top 1 percent of his class (no); about the size, scope and success of his companies (all exaggerated); about working in law enforcement, including the F.B.I. (he has not); and about his number of children.” |
| On Tuesday, his son Christian Walker posted two videos that excoriated his father. “Family values, people?” Christian Walker said in one of them, mocking his father’s campaign pitches. “He has four kids, four different women, wasn’t in the house raising one of them. He was out having sex with other women.” How will Reed and Paradise spin that one? Buck up, folks, he’s got tons of energy! | On Tuesday, his son Christian Walker posted two videos that excoriated his father. “Family values, people?” Christian Walker said in one of them, mocking his father’s campaign pitches. “He has four kids, four different women, wasn’t in the house raising one of them. He was out having sex with other women.” How will Reed and Paradise spin that one? Buck up, folks, he’s got tons of energy! |
| Following the abortion allegation, Walker visited the First Baptist Church of Atlanta and “was greeted with a standing ovation,” according to The Times. I understand holding any judgment about this recent claim in reserve. I believe in redemption, forgiveness, mercy. But are those the principles that brought congregants to their feet, or were they just closing ranks around a political ally, no matter his transgressions, because that alliance is all that matters? | Following the abortion allegation, Walker visited the First Baptist Church of Atlanta and “was greeted with a standing ovation,” according to The Times. I understand holding any judgment about this recent claim in reserve. I believe in redemption, forgiveness, mercy. But are those the principles that brought congregants to their feet, or were they just closing ranks around a political ally, no matter his transgressions, because that alliance is all that matters? |
| At a moment when the “Access Hollywood” tape is repurposed as inspirational, I think the answer is obvious. | At a moment when the “Access Hollywood” tape is repurposed as inspirational, I think the answer is obvious. |
| I’m going to cheat today. But it’s cheating in the service of a larger point. I’m going to present not just one or two tired locutions in need of retirement but a whole glossary of them, because these expressions are all mainstays of political analysis that speak in aggregate to the prevalence — the tyranny, really — of a kind of political cant. Just as political analysts (self included!) too often think the way a school of fish moves, we too often talk and write in that fashion as well, darting en masse toward a yummy new metaphor and nibbling on it long past the point at which it has turned stale. | I’m going to cheat today. But it’s cheating in the service of a larger point. I’m going to present not just one or two tired locutions in need of retirement but a whole glossary of them, because these expressions are all mainstays of political analysis that speak in aggregate to the prevalence — the tyranny, really — of a kind of political cant. Just as political analysts (self included!) too often think the way a school of fish moves, we too often talk and write in that fashion as well, darting en masse toward a yummy new metaphor and nibbling on it long past the point at which it has turned stale. |
| The examples that follow are merely representative (and, with apologies to other glossaries, are in no particular order). I’m happy to do a Part II sometime later this year or early next. | The examples that follow are merely representative (and, with apologies to other glossaries, are in no particular order). I’m happy to do a Part II sometime later this year or early next. |
| Deep dive. It’s as if we political analysts wear scuba gear. We’re forever announcing our intention to travel far below the surface, toward some sunken trove of dazzling insights that we never do seem to reach. Additionally, as Candace Sage, a newsletter reader from Carlsbad, Calif., pointed out in an email to me, “I wonder what users of this phrase imagine a ‘shallow dive’ to be?” | Deep dive. It’s as if we political analysts wear scuba gear. We’re forever announcing our intention to travel far below the surface, toward some sunken trove of dazzling insights that we never do seem to reach. Additionally, as Candace Sage, a newsletter reader from Carlsbad, Calif., pointed out in an email to me, “I wonder what users of this phrase imagine a ‘shallow dive’ to be?” |
| Wake-up call. To go by us, the world is just one enormous hotel switchboard, ringing various people’s and political parties’ rooms incessantly. “It’s truly an anachronism,” noted Ron Rowan of Sacramento. “Who gets wake-up calls these days? We all have cellphones with alarms that do a fine job of waking us up.” | Wake-up call. To go by us, the world is just one enormous hotel switchboard, ringing various people’s and political parties’ rooms incessantly. “It’s truly an anachronism,” noted Ron Rowan of Sacramento. “Who gets wake-up calls these days? We all have cellphones with alarms that do a fine job of waking us up.” |
| Herding cats. A reference to the hopelessness of imposing order on an unruly group — and, in its overexposure, an insult to livestock and felines alike. | Herding cats. A reference to the hopelessness of imposing order on an unruly group — and, in its overexposure, an insult to livestock and felines alike. |
| Under the bus. It’s where anyone being jettisoned or scapegoated is thrown. At this point, the bus is teetering atop an Everest of the unliving. (Thanks to Ellen Wolff of Goleta, Calif., and Steve Bellaire of New Orleans, among others, for flagging this phrase.) | Under the bus. It’s where anyone being jettisoned or scapegoated is thrown. At this point, the bus is teetering atop an Everest of the unliving. (Thanks to Ellen Wolff of Goleta, Calif., and Steve Bellaire of New Orleans, among others, for flagging this phrase.) |
| Choosing or staying in one’s lane. Relevant to politicians who have not yet been thrown under the bus, these locutions have much too much mileage on them. | Choosing or staying in one’s lane. Relevant to politicians who have not yet been thrown under the bus, these locutions have much too much mileage on them. |
| Unforced error. Doesn’t the second of those two words sort of cover the first? Are other errors forced? | Unforced error. Doesn’t the second of those two words sort of cover the first? Are other errors forced? |
| Inflection point. “I asked on Facebook when this pretentious term had begun to take over from ‘turning point’ and a dear nephew responded with charts and formulae to show why inflection point was superior,” wrote Mary Jo Powell of Austin, Texas. “Because I like him, I decided not to point out that he had made my point for me — the term is pretentious.” | Inflection point. “I asked on Facebook when this pretentious term had begun to take over from ‘turning point’ and a dear nephew responded with charts and formulae to show why inflection point was superior,” wrote Mary Jo Powell of Austin, Texas. “Because I like him, I decided not to point out that he had made my point for me — the term is pretentious.” |
| Double down. Not just ubiquitous but arithmetically off; the people described as doing this are typically tripling, quadrupling or quintupling down. (Roger Rubinstein, Rochester, N.Y., and Ruth Kennedy of Newton, Mass., among others) | Double down. Not just ubiquitous but arithmetically off; the people described as doing this are typically tripling, quadrupling or quintupling down. (Roger Rubinstein, Rochester, N.Y., and Ruth Kennedy of Newton, Mass., among others) |
| Uncharted territory. Wherein candidates or political parties trying something novel are suddenly Meriwether Lewis heading west. If only they had his undaunted courage. (Philip Greenspun, East Brunswick, N.J.) | Uncharted territory. Wherein candidates or political parties trying something novel are suddenly Meriwether Lewis heading west. If only they had his undaunted courage. (Philip Greenspun, East Brunswick, N.J.) |
| “Words Worth Sidelining” will appear every month or so, at least for a while. To suggest a term or phrase, please email me here, put “Words Worth Sidelining” in the subject line and include your name and place of residence. | “Words Worth Sidelining” will appear every month or so, at least for a while. To suggest a term or phrase, please email me here, put “Words Worth Sidelining” in the subject line and include your name and place of residence. |
| The recent sentence that made the largest number of you swoon appeared in The Times, in Joe Klein’s review of “Confidence Man,” Maggie Haberman’s just-published book about Trump: “He peddled products like Trump wine and Trump Steaks, and scams like Trump University, to a gullible public seeking gilt by association.” (Thanks to Peter J. Comerford of Providence, R.I., and Alfred Reid of Durham, N.C., among many, many others, for nominating it.) | The recent sentence that made the largest number of you swoon appeared in The Times, in Joe Klein’s review of “Confidence Man,” Maggie Haberman’s just-published book about Trump: “He peddled products like Trump wine and Trump Steaks, and scams like Trump University, to a gullible public seeking gilt by association.” (Thanks to Peter J. Comerford of Providence, R.I., and Alfred Reid of Durham, N.C., among many, many others, for nominating it.) |
| Sticking with The Times for a bit, here’s Tom Friedman on a global tragedy: “Putin’s North Koreanization of Russia is turning a country that once gave the world some of its most renowned authors, composers, musicians and scientists into a nation more adept at making potato chips than microchips, more famous for its poisoned underwear than its haute couture and more focused on unlocking its underground reservoirs of gas and oil than on its aboveground reservoirs of human genius and creativity. The whole world is diminished by Putin’s diminishing of Russia.” (Larry Hyer, Miami Beach, Fla.) | Sticking with The Times for a bit, here’s Tom Friedman on a global tragedy: “Putin’s North Koreanization of Russia is turning a country that once gave the world some of its most renowned authors, composers, musicians and scientists into a nation more adept at making potato chips than microchips, more famous for its poisoned underwear than its haute couture and more focused on unlocking its underground reservoirs of gas and oil than on its aboveground reservoirs of human genius and creativity. The whole world is diminished by Putin’s diminishing of Russia.” (Larry Hyer, Miami Beach, Fla.) |
| Jesse Green on a new member of the “Funny Girl” cast: “Tovah Feldshuh, having replaced the zany Jane Lynch as Fanny’s mother, is so gritty and salty she could turn ice into slush.” (Jacquelyn Kiszewski, Morris Plains, N.J.) | Jesse Green on a new member of the “Funny Girl” cast: “Tovah Feldshuh, having replaced the zany Jane Lynch as Fanny’s mother, is so gritty and salty she could turn ice into slush.” (Jacquelyn Kiszewski, Morris Plains, N.J.) |
| In Air Mail, George Pendle checked in on Italy, with its dysfunctionally rapid churn of prime ministers, and Giorgia Meloni, the first woman elected to that post: “Cheering for Meloni’s success in the traditionally male-dominated arena of Italian politics feels like cheering for Lizzie Borden’s success in the traditionally male-dominated arena of domestic murder.” (Shauna Grob, Manhattan) | In Air Mail, George Pendle checked in on Italy, with its dysfunctionally rapid churn of prime ministers, and Giorgia Meloni, the first woman elected to that post: “Cheering for Meloni’s success in the traditionally male-dominated arena of Italian politics feels like cheering for Lizzie Borden’s success in the traditionally male-dominated arena of domestic murder.” (Shauna Grob, Manhattan) |
| “We all know what a hurricane looks like,” Vinay Menon wrote in The Toronto Star, adding that “watching reporters wade around like sea turtles in the swelling surge” and clutch palm trees “as their legs flap in the wind is not educational — it’s storm porn.” He later added: “By flinging a reporter outside during a storm, are you not sending the public a dangerous message? I can imagine many viewers in Florida watching coverage this week and thinking: ‘That dang fool on CNN is still out there and still alive. Why can’t I body surf down to 7-Eleven and grab a six-pack of Bud Light?’” (Jean Bernard, Strathroy, Ontario) | “We all know what a hurricane looks like,” Vinay Menon wrote in The Toronto Star, adding that “watching reporters wade around like sea turtles in the swelling surge” and clutch palm trees “as their legs flap in the wind is not educational — it’s storm porn.” He later added: “By flinging a reporter outside during a storm, are you not sending the public a dangerous message? I can imagine many viewers in Florida watching coverage this week and thinking: ‘That dang fool on CNN is still out there and still alive. Why can’t I body surf down to 7-Eleven and grab a six-pack of Bud Light?’” (Jean Bernard, Strathroy, Ontario) |
| In The Atlantic, Ed Yong worried about a premature pivot away from anxiety about Covid: “Things have undoubtedly improved since the peak of the crisis, but calling the pandemic ‘over’ is like calling a fight ‘finished’ because your opponent is punching you in the ribs instead of the face.” (Doris McInnes, Greenwood, S.C.) | In The Atlantic, Ed Yong worried about a premature pivot away from anxiety about Covid: “Things have undoubtedly improved since the peak of the crisis, but calling the pandemic ‘over’ is like calling a fight ‘finished’ because your opponent is punching you in the ribs instead of the face.” (Doris McInnes, Greenwood, S.C.) |
| In The New Yorker, Anthony Lane described a scene in “Blonde,” a new film about Marilyn Monroe written and directed by Andrew Dominik. Her mother, Gladys, drives her “toward a wildfire that everyone else is eager to flee. “‘This is a city of sand and nothing will endure,’ Gladys says. (Dominik’s script, as far as I can gauge, was doctored by the prophet Jeremiah.)” (Anne Melanson, Manhattan) | In The New Yorker, Anthony Lane described a scene in “Blonde,” a new film about Marilyn Monroe written and directed by Andrew Dominik. Her mother, Gladys, drives her “toward a wildfire that everyone else is eager to flee. “‘This is a city of sand and nothing will endure,’ Gladys says. (Dominik’s script, as far as I can gauge, was doctored by the prophet Jeremiah.)” (Anne Melanson, Manhattan) |
| In The Washington Post, Eugene Robinson observed: “Hubris has taken Trump far in life. As the ancient Greeks knew, however, it’s not a very good long-term plan.” (Leonard Davenport, Bridgehampton, N.Y., and Keith Raffel, Cambridge, Mass.) | In The Washington Post, Eugene Robinson observed: “Hubris has taken Trump far in life. As the ancient Greeks knew, however, it’s not a very good long-term plan.” (Leonard Davenport, Bridgehampton, N.Y., and Keith Raffel, Cambridge, Mass.) |
| And Alexandra Petri had marvelous fun treating the proposition of having one’s cake and eating it, too, as a legal question, approached differently in different eras and texts. In the New Testament, she wrote, “Jesus dodges the question entirely by just multiplying any grain products that are in front of him.” She later added: “Throughout most of the Renaissance, cake law continued remarkably unaltered, although the stealing of small cakes was regarded as a tort.” (Linda La Paz, Tampa, Fla.) | And Alexandra Petri had marvelous fun treating the proposition of having one’s cake and eating it, too, as a legal question, approached differently in different eras and texts. In the New Testament, she wrote, “Jesus dodges the question entirely by just multiplying any grain products that are in front of him.” She later added: “Throughout most of the Renaissance, cake law continued remarkably unaltered, although the stealing of small cakes was regarded as a tort.” (Linda La Paz, Tampa, Fla.) |
| To nominate favorite bits of recent writing from The Times or other publications to be mentioned in “For the Love of Sentences,” please email me here, put “Sentences” in the subject line and include your name and place of residence. | To nominate favorite bits of recent writing from The Times or other publications to be mentioned in “For the Love of Sentences,” please email me here, put “Sentences” in the subject line and include your name and place of residence. |
| I was terrified when I arrived at The Times in 1995, at the age of 30, and my fears quickly found a focal point: Al Siegal, an assistant managing editor who was the newspaper’s official arbiter of writing that passed muster and writing that didn’t. | I was terrified when I arrived at The Times in 1995, at the age of 30, and my fears quickly found a focal point: Al Siegal, an assistant managing editor who was the newspaper’s official arbiter of writing that passed muster and writing that didn’t. |
| He presented examples of each in a daily collection of stapled sheets that were distributed throughout the newsroom and that showed him to be “capable of withering criticism,” as Todd Purdum, a Times alumnus, recently wrote in an obituary of Al, who retired in 2006 and died last month at 82. | He presented examples of each in a daily collection of stapled sheets that were distributed throughout the newsroom and that showed him to be “capable of withering criticism,” as Todd Purdum, a Times alumnus, recently wrote in an obituary of Al, who retired in 2006 and died last month at 82. |
| “His post-mortem critiques to subordinate editors and reporters — written in precise penmanship with a green felt-tip pen (known as “greenies” among the staff, they showed up well against black-and-white newsprint, he found) — could be as terse as ‘Ugh!’ ‘How, please?’ ‘Name names’ and ‘Absurd!’,” Todd wrote. | “His post-mortem critiques to subordinate editors and reporters — written in precise penmanship with a green felt-tip pen (known as “greenies” among the staff, they showed up well against black-and-white newsprint, he found) — could be as terse as ‘Ugh!’ ‘How, please?’ ‘Name names’ and ‘Absurd!’,” Todd wrote. |
| Did I ever get an “Ugh!”? I can’t recall. I’m sure I deserved many. But I remember this: His discerning gaze, which I could sense even when he was nowhere near, made me and so many other young journalists push ourselves harder and doubt ourselves more. That kind of doubt is good. It’s constructive. | Did I ever get an “Ugh!”? I can’t recall. I’m sure I deserved many. But I remember this: His discerning gaze, which I could sense even when he was nowhere near, made me and so many other young journalists push ourselves harder and doubt ourselves more. That kind of doubt is good. It’s constructive. |
| There’s much talk these days about making the workplace more nurturing. That’s largely for the best. But nurturing comes in many forms. It can be admonishment as well as applause. Al’s post-mortems were peppered with just enough praise to make clear that he was rooting for us even when he was reprimanding us. Or, rather, that he was reprimanding us because he was rooting for us. | There’s much talk these days about making the workplace more nurturing. That’s largely for the best. But nurturing comes in many forms. It can be admonishment as well as applause. Al’s post-mortems were peppered with just enough praise to make clear that he was rooting for us even when he was reprimanding us. Or, rather, that he was reprimanding us because he was rooting for us. |
| Thanks for that, Al. And thanks for your description of good writing, which Todd included in the obituary and which Deborah Paulus-Jagric of Landvetter, Sweden, rightly urged me to showcase: | Thanks for that, Al. And thanks for your description of good writing, which Todd included in the obituary and which Deborah Paulus-Jagric of Landvetter, Sweden, rightly urged me to showcase: |
| “The best of style relies on reporters’ ears and eyesight, and on simplicity — the unpretentious language of a letter to an urbane and literate friend. In that setting, the sudden glimmer of an unusual word, a syncopation or a swerve in logic lets the reader know that here is something richer than an hourly bulletin.” | “The best of style relies on reporters’ ears and eyesight, and on simplicity — the unpretentious language of a letter to an urbane and literate friend. In that setting, the sudden glimmer of an unusual word, a syncopation or a swerve in logic lets the reader know that here is something richer than an hourly bulletin.” |