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Gary Wollberg's avatar

Cutting! Also, accurate. No wonder none of the networks invite Mr. Fallows on air anymore.

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Ed Goldstick's avatar

That's a fine setup, Jim, and I am going to watch on C-Span just as I imagine you will, too. I was listening to some of the other media outlets but was quickly tired of their preemptive arguments.

Your reference to so-called professional wrestling resonated for me in a sense that might surprise you: I am increasingly conscious of the subsequent rise of relatively serious if still "entertaining" mixed martial arts competitions in which the theatrical chaos of Pro Wresting is replaced by the highly regulated if still brutal confrontation of young men and women in refereed combat.

From that I would simply suggest that the former has always had its parallel in our national politics but that the latter has existed as well, but the 'rules' and 'norms' of political combat have almost always been maintained by the principal competitors for political power whether individuals candidates or the parties they represented (which is not to say that ordinary people and specific communities were saved from harm).

In our political life - and perhaps in our national life - these distinctions are at great risk. I have now listened to Representatives Thompson and Cheney and am both impressed by what I have heard and am hopeful that the committee will be heard loudly and clearly.

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