THE PLANK FEBRUARY 16, 2009
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As if it weren't already apparent, Eric Cantor--or someone on his staff--has a thing for ginning up cheesy web videos. But while I too am astounded by the AFSCME and Aerosmith bits, for its combination of wonkery, inexplicable plot, and bad acting, nothing beats this 2007 gem, made when Cantor was leading the defense against higher taxes on private equity firms.
--Clay Risen
4 comments
The AFSCME one is funny, though. I remember finding it a year ago or so - it's a pretty old YouTube classic - and LMAO, as they say. Fw:d it to my lefty father too, who enjoyed it no less.
Of course Cantor's coming at this from a different angle, and boo to him for that; but the video itself is hilarious, his use of it can't change that.
- jobeek2
February 16, 2009 at 6:38pm
Hahaha, that's hysterical! I know one of the interns that vid, he's now a senior at GW. Looks like they all had a bit of fun saying nonsense. Good practice for the Hill.
- rozenson
February 16, 2009 at 10:08pm
Why is it always kids that seem to pop up everywhere on political videos these days?
I am assuming of course that everything they know about the world around them was garnered from the kids they watched on all the other videos.
Which might explain why many of them are often brimming over with self-righteous indignation regarding those who were not indoctrinated to understand the words the way they must be understood---as a kid would.
I wonder at times just how far removed these immature acolytes are from the Ayn Randroids I once interacted with. As soon as you introduce them to words they can't nail down objectively they start hemming and hawing about The Word.
Which is always just a hop, step and a jump away from The Way.
george
- iambiguous
February 16, 2009 at 11:48pm
The AFSCME video is legendary among AFSCME staffers; it was made for a staff party in the 1970s and since then has been a regular part of union lore, rarely shown to outsiders. Until a copy was posted to YouTube circa 2006, when it went public. Ultimately, you can tell that neither Cantor nor any Republican had anything to do with making the AFSCME video: On the one hand, the production values are pitch-perfect to the 1970s, right down to the inflections of the narrator's now-extinct accent; and it's one of the funniest things ever put on film. The GOP attack machine is neither competent nor clever enough to have produced such a gem.
- rhubarbs
February 17, 2009 at 7:26am