President Obama’s speech to the nation Monday night, August 1st:

“My fellow Americans.  Tonight I have signed an order raising the debt ceiling for the next two years.  I have taken this extraordinary step because I had no other choice.  My duties under our Constitution include being commander-in-chief of our armed forces.  Our forces are presently engaged in two long wars as well as hostilities in North Africa.  I have taken a solemn oath to ‘preserve, protect, and defend’ our Constitution.  To jeopardize in any way the well being of our troops, especially while in conflict, to endanger their pay and the housing and care of their families, to place in doubt our ability to pay for the care of the wounded, to place in doubt all the logistical support armies in the field depend on, would not only be unconscionable, it would be unconstitutional.

…

“This must be made clear: I do not support any notion of what some have called an ‘imperial presidency’ or executive authority that unbalances our Constitutional balance of powers.  But when Congress cannot or will not act, and when the lives of our forces in conflict are at stake, I must exercise the full responsibilities of the office I have undertaken to execute.  I simply have no other choice.  And I fully expect those Justices of our Supreme Court who have previously defended extraordinary executive power to understand and appreciate the necessity of this action in our nation’s security interest.

“No American is more confident than I in our elected representatives resuming  their legislative responsibilities.  When extreme passions are spent, and angers and frustrations at our purposefully convoluted democratic process run their inevitable course, Congress will once again do its duty.  And to all those in various movements and the media who find it convenient to blame ‘Washington’ for our troubles, let me remind you that the President and everyone in Congress were elected by a majority of the voters in the nation or in their respective States and districts.  We are you.  And you are us.  We are here because you sent us here.  And neither a  single individual nor small group of zealots should or will dominate our process or dictate the national interest.  No single group should or will have its way. …

(Or, if you don’t like this hypothetical approach, Nobel laureate Paul Krugman had a few other ideas about how this entire debate could have been avoided).

There is no reason why the issue of deficit reduction should be tied to the debt ceiling: at its most basic level the reason why we have debt (thus the reason why we must frequently lift the limit on how much debt we are allowed to procure) is because our government decides to spend money. Often the money spent is not for the poster-boy strawmen of the GOP (the tithes to the welfare queens) but are instead on programs/initiatives that serve a purpose for our general welfare. No, none of the legislation passed for these things were via usurped power or fascism; instead, they were done through the votes of officials elected by you and I.

All of this only means that it is even more ridiculous that there are those on the right who fail to understandwhy debt grows in the nation. The obligations we are paying are commitments we as a nation have already made. For our nation to pass laws and then not pay for them is to directly undermine the authority of past congresses; to tie “the full faith and credit” of the nation’s obligations to the long-term engineering of where we would like to take our country (the actual budgeting period) is not only unprecedented but naive. The entire debate of the last month has been one tying the actions of the past to our course for the future while praying that the latter has the power to erase the former.

It just doesn’t work that way and we as progressives should have to make this point clear. We also need to be ready to call out those responsible for this mess even when it means that we’re calling out our own.

Now that the president has once again caved in to the expectations of the right we can now expect the rest of his term to be one of marred promises, passivity and giving in to the demands of the fringe. It was as early as a week ago that Obama made it clear that any deficit reduction deal would have to include revenue increases; and what happened? The man caved – just like he did on healthcare – even as national polls made it pretty clear that not only were the public behind him (apparently there are at least 19 polls proving this) but even a majority of Republicans (65%)  support some increase in revenue.

It’s already clear that for being such a great orator the president will never get the title of “The Great Communicator” or “The Great Negotiator.” It’s more likely that his legacy will be cementing Clinton’s centrist “New Democrats” as the new norm. I fear that the only hope progressives within the Democratic Party have now is to lobby for a strong voice to sit in the “super congress” and make it clear that Grover Norquist will not be drowning our government in the bathtub any time soon.

(Who’s ready to print up some “Sanders for Super Congress” buttons?)

To leave this on one last pessimistic note: even if we were to get a progressive to sit in the congress, the single greatest contribution to the deficit – the Bush Tax cuts – are already being taken off the table according to the administration. We should have known that “everything on the table” actually means “not really.”

In this very special nostalgia edition of Stunt Granny Audio, Eric is joined by Dan (zourah) to discuss the recently re-released autobiography, “My Life in Wrestling… With a Little Help From My Friends” by long-time wrestling personality “Playboy” Gary Hart. The guys discuss various aspects of this lengthy but hugely informative book, in its second printing due to (well-earned) popular demand. Dan and Eric join Hart in the Dallas territory during its formative years, in the Carolinas as he developed certain important characters, and behind the booking desk and the managerial curtain as he guided stables and rosters of wrestlers to greatness, only to feel disrespected, then leave, and then see his hard work fall apart without him there to pick up the pieces. A fantastic read, and a fun audio. (Also, the guys talk about the upcoming George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame inductions and what they’re looking forward to when they attend.)

Stunt Granny Nostalgia Audio: “Playboy” Gary Hart

The French big shot, known as DSK, has swapped nobility for notoriety after being charged in the US and France with sexual misdeeds. The US case appears to be unraveling but new charges by a French novelist in Paris will postpone for some time any restoration of his reputation or political career.

In news reports here last week, it was heartening to see key French women finally speak out against DSK and France’s bad-boy behavior. As Sylvie Kauffmann, the first female editor of Le Monde, told The New York Times: “I think he’s damaged so badly now, he won’t be able to recover in the minds of voters, especially women voters. I wouldn’t vote for him now, but I would have before. Even if DSK manages to come back and run, it will be part of the discussion. He’s still a guy who had a sexual encounter with a maid at noon in a luxury suite before having lunch with his daughter and flying back to his wife.”

His ordeal, and others, have been of service to newspaper readers everywhere by providing relief from dire economic and political events around the world. In France and Europe, DSK all but knocked Greece’s ledge-crawl out of the banner headlines. As the Euro wobbles, along with approval ratings toward the EU itself, the continent’s voters could at least be amused or angered by the sex saga.

U.K. shenanigans

Similarly, a scandal across the channel knocked bad news off the page by aiming against a traditional British pastime which is Fleet Street’s immoral pursuit of salacious stories. Like DSK, this was de rigueur but finally went too far.

The British tabloids have always been populated by hacks who will deploy pocketbook journalism, bug phones, eavesdrop, pay paparazzi to indulge in high-speed car chases and now, it turns out, even hack the phones of a murdered school girl.

The target of this issue is the odious News of the World. It has been accused of journalistic malpractice and has netted a government inquiry, firings and impending criminal charges against a handful of its journos and newspaper execs. This media mayhem has also given the News of the World‘s rivals an excuse to pillory its proprietor, and the media mogul Britons love to hate, Rupert Murdoch.

Canada too

Even last week, Canada came across with headlines to lurch our attention away from economic catastrophe elsewhere. Our very own media mogul, and convicted fraudster, Conrad Black was re-sentenced last week. This was no doubt aggravated by his remorseless and condescending statement to “the court”. He strangely cited Rudyard Kipling’s famous “If” poem to tell his fans “from every continent except Antarctica” that he was going to soldier through this Elba-like ordeal.

Interestingly, he, like Strauss-Kahn, met his Waterloo in the United States. Otherwise bright, Conrad and DSK simply did not understand the US culture or legal system. Both men, used to privilege, had even been specifically warned by colleagues to behave differently in the US.

But rich boys will be rich boys.

The two men will now have plenty of time to plot returns to respectability. For Conrad, it will continue to be journalism and books out of a quiet town house in the United Kingdom after he’s denied re-entry to Canada. For DSK, there will be years more court and legal hassles involving much more serious crimes. At best, he could become another Bill Clinton and his rehab model involve launching a non-profit foundation, with his wife’s money, and helping his wife, with her money, launch her own political career.

Meanwhile, the IMF is in more capable and safer hands, female hands, in the form of Christine Legarde. In an interview with me in January she described DSK, who appeared to be headed to become President of France, as a “good friend”. Now she has his job and, in my opinion, will be twice as effective as DSK ever was. And the IMF will be too. She and all employees must now receive ethics training and adhere to a new, stricter code of conduct which includes avoiding “even the appearance of impropriety in your conduct”.

The consensus used to be that the sexual prowess of presidents had no effect on their performance: Jefferson was a major contributor to the Bill of Rights, Roosevelt enacted sweeping social reforms, Kennedy’s support of the space program landed a man on the moon, and his signing of the nuclear test ban treaty was seen as a step toward world peace.

On the other hand, another cheating husband, Harding, is considered a poor president. According to biographer George Bain, his ineptitude had nothing to do with the fact that he “fornicated in a clothes closet.” Instead Bain says Harding was a poor president because he selected corrupt administration officials and because “he was, as H.L. Menken called him, ‘Gamaliel the Stonehead.’”

Bain concluded his observation of the relationship between sexual behavior and presidential performance by writing this:

We do not inquire into the sex life of surgeons who operate on us, bankers who keep our money, or editors on whom we rely for our information needs. Surely some relevance to something must be established to say we should in the case of politicians.

So why did the Gary Hart episode set a new standard for politicians’ behavior?

Some say the shift in attitude actually started with Watergate, a scandal that made people take a closer look at ethics in the White House. Said Kenneth Thompson, author of Ten Presidents and the Press, of President Kennedy’s affairs:

In the pre-Watergate days of Camelot, most reporters on the White House beat, I believe, thought that what a president did in his spare time was his own business … provided his extracurricular activities did not impair his effectiveness as chief executive.

A new value crept into politics: trust. George Reedy, press secretary to Lyndon Johnson, expressed the argument in the following terms:

Here you have a man who is asking you to trust him with your bank account, your children, your life, and your country for four years. If his own wife can’t trust him, what does that say?

Another reason could be a shift in attitudes toward marriage. In earlier times, unhappily married politicians often turned to extramarital affairs because of prevailing negative views of divorce. Elliot Roosevelt wrote that career considerations played a major role in his father’s decision to give up his long-time mistress and stay with Eleanor because “to be divorced would mean political suicide for a man who was already being talked about by a handful of people as a future president.”

The election of Ronald Reagan, divorced from actress Jane Wyman, testified to the change in attitudes concerning divorce. With men free to divorce their wives, philandering became a larger crime.

Yet another theory is that the media created the Hart scandal. Newsweek hinted that Hart’s 1984 campaign was “haunted by rumors of womanizing,” setting in print the idea that possible affairs were a campaign issue in 1988. Even though Hart’s wife – to whom he is still married – supported his claim that his relationships with certain young women were innocent, a simple picture in the National Enquirer of Hart sitting on a yacht with a fully clothed Donna Rice on his lap effectively ended his campaign.

But another theory is that womanizing is an issue of judgment. In Hart’s case, for example, anyone “haunted by rumors of womanizing” should have the good sense to avoid the appearance of impropriety. Also, he had established his ability to repair his previously faltering marriage as a virtue, opening up his marriage as a campaign issue.

After another political sex scandal – Rep. Gary Condit admitting to an affair with intern Chandra Levy – Gallup released a poll showing that 89 percent of Americans thought it was morally unacceptable for a married person to have an affair.

By 2009, when Sen. John Ensign of Nevada and Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina resigned after admitting affairs, those Gallup numbers were up to 92 percent, and infidelity was the only related issue where public condemnation didn’t decrease in the subsequent annual survey of values and beliefs:

Percentage of people saying the item is morally wrong. Source: Gallup.com

In 1998, after the biggest of all sex scandals, 75 percent of Americans polled by Gallup said that President Bill Clinton’s actions were no worse than the behavior of previous presidents. Another 65 percent said they did not need to know about a candidate’s sexual affairs. Only 31 percent said it was vital for a president to conduct his personal life with high moral standards.

But the public is still divided on whether the issue is relevant to public office. In 2007, 54 percent of Americans said that knowing a presidential candidate committed adultery would bother them moderately or significantly. The remainder said it would bother them “not much” if at all.

Bottom line: Politicians and their sexually scandalous ways haven’t changed. Only American attitudes have.

The Greatest Cage Matches of All Time
Three-Disc Set
Released: June 28, 2011
DISC ONE

Josh Mathews is our host for the program. He thinks this is the first collection of cage matches on one DVD set, but then makes up for that comment by actually telling us when the first cage match was held unlike on the Bloodbath DVD set when Jonathan Coachman said that nobody knew when the first cage match took place. Well, Josh tells us that it happened on June 25, 1937 in Atlanta Georgia between Jack Bloomfield and Count Petro Rossi in what was described at the time as a ‘chicken wire’ match, simply meaning that the first cage was made from chicken wire instead of the cold unforgiving steel that is used today. It’s amazing what you can do by taking at the most of ten seconds to see what Google can find for you, Coach.

• WWF World Heavyweight Champion Bob Backlund (w/Arnold Skaaland) vs. Pat Patterson – Cage Match (9/24/79, Madison Square Garden)

This was on the Bloodbath set, but almost four minutes was cut. Now we get this match in full. Backlund goes right to work on Patterson to start and throws him into the cage a couple times. There’s loads of dramatic near-escape attempts through the door and over the cage wall. In between attempts, they brawl to the point of Backlund getting busted open. Backlund makes his comeback and starts throwing Patterson into the cage a few times, but ends up throwing him one time too many as Backlund eats the steel. Patterson starts to climb out, but Backlund intercepts and hits the RUNNING ATOMIC DROP. That won’t be enough though as Patterson meets Backlund at the top of the cage with his taped knux. Backlund ducks the shot and elbows Patterson back into the ring as they both tumble back inside. Backlund lucks out with an easy opening to make it through the door. He crawls towards the door, but Patterson of course tries to stop him. Backlund kicks him back and uses the kick to launch himself outside the door for the win. (16:43) My original rating still stands. I just don’t get why people seemed to flip out for this match. It’s pretty good, but just lots of standard cage stuff. I mean, it’s not a MOTYC by any means. BLOOD COUNT: Bob Backlund, Pat Patterson. **½

• WWF World Heavyweight Champion Bob Backlund vs. Jimmy Snuka – Cage Match (6/28/82, Madison Square Garden)
  

Once again, they give us the wrong date. It’s always shown as May 19 1980 on these sets, but that’s the date of the awesome Backlund-Patera Texas Death match. Snuka sells the importance of this match as he makes Backlund play the waiting game from ringside. Backlund has to pull Snuka inside to get this thing going and starts punching away on him. Snuka goes to the throat and takes over with fist drops and such. Backlund stops Snuka from walking out the door, so Snuka throws him into the cage as he falls down in between the ropes. Snuka punishes Backlund with a fist drop from the second ropes and tries to leave again. Once more, Backlund prevents him from walking out and sends Snuka into the cage to bust him open. A catapult into the cage just makes matters worse for Snuka. Backlund heads for the door, but Snuka grabs him by the leg and mule kicks Backlund back inside. Knee drop connects. Snuka hits a suplex and starts to climb out the cage. Oh, but he can’t resist! He tries to finish off Backlund for good with a SUPERFLY SPLASH FROM THE TOP OF THE CAGE. Sucks for Snuka because Backlund rolls away and crawls out the door just in time to win the match. (11:19) Much like Snuka’s match with Muraco a year later, they are just known for that one spot. However, what a SPOT it was. No one had jumped off the top of a cage before. These famous Snuka dives were a big influence on a lot of New Yorkers at the time. BLOOD COUNT: Jimmy Snuka. ***

• Bruno Sammartino (w/Arnold Skaaland) vs. Larry Zbyszko – Cage Match (8/9/80, Shea Stadium)

We finally get this one in full as well. Since there was no original commentary, Josh Mathews and Matt Striker join us in the booth. They don’t really say a whole lot that you probably don’t already know. This is the blowoff to the angle where Zbyszko turned on his mentor Bruno Sammartino in order to carve his own legacy in the WWF. It’s also pretty much the final hurrah for either man in the WWF, but only the beginning for Larry Z. Bruno beats the holy heck out of Zbyszko to start. Larry Z resorts to a low blow to get him to quit it. He tries to leave on several occasions, but keeps having to come back and dish out more cage violence on Sammartino. Larry Z punches Bruno in the left arm a whole bunch, which I’m sure has some meaning that alludes me right now. I’m assuming he just wants to avoid the bearhug. Sammartino comes back again and slams Zbyszko off the top turnbuckle when he tries to climb out. Larry Z goes back to pounding the arm. You don’t normally see someone beating an arm as much as wrenching it. Eventually it gets so bad that Bruno blades his deltoid. He makes one last comeback and throws Larry Z into the cage a whole bunch, which gets him busted open as he sells each toss like death every time. The door opens and Bruno easily walks out with his back towards Zbyszko. Afterwards, Sammartino punches Zbyszko until he raises Bruno’s hand in victory. YOU WILL RESPECT ME! Awesome. (13:59) Not the greatest match, but it was all about the angle here. This was Sammartino getting Larry Zbyszko alone and getting revenge for disrespecting him. BLOOD COUNT: Bruno Sammartino and Larry Zbyszko.**

Josh Mathews makes a big deal out of Sammartino-Zbyszko following Hogan-Andre, but doesn’t seem to realize its 1980 when nobody knew who Hogan was and not 1987 when it was completely different. Mathews brings up how Texas wrestling was always filled with chaos and that World Class promoter Fritz Von Erich was well aware of cage matches as he competed in an Indian death match inside a cage in Ohio against Don Eagle back in 1960. Whoa, there’s no way that Vince Russo was booking back then, could he? An Indian death match inside a cage! Now twenty years later, one of his boys looks to take the NWA world title in a cage match of their own.

• NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs. Kerry Von Erich – Cage Match (Special Referee: Michael Hayes) (Dallas, TX 12/25/82)

Ric Flair and Kerry Von Erich had met back in August in a CLASSIC 2/3 falls match to set this cage match up. The Freebirds were clearly fan favorites going into this match since Michael Hayes was “voted by the fans” to be the special referee. He appoints fellow Freebird Terry Gordy to stand outside the door as the gatekeeper. However, there’s your standard World Class referee David Manning and then there’s Michael Hayes, which is kind of odd. Flair plays the mind games to start, but Kerry has no mind, so they have no effect. He goes right for the knee of the champ. Flair escapes and chops Von Erich in the corner, but he fights out with right hands as Flair Flops to the mat. Flair goes low and snapmares Kerry for the Rolling Knee Drop. Flair ties Von Erich up in the ropes to get in some open shots, but Michael Hayes steps in and enforces the rules. Once Von Erich corners Flair, Hayes pushes Kerry back to confuse the crowd. Next up, Von Erich flips out of a suplex and grabs a sleeper. Real smooth transition there. Flair escapes with a back suplex, but Kerry maintains control with a fist drop off the top rope. He knee drops Flair, which gets him RILED up. A couple wild swings and Von Erich trips Flair up for a series of punches to the head to set up for the CLAW, but Flair knees him away. He starts choking Kerry in the ropes, which causes Hayes to get physically involved. They trade advantages on an ab stretch and when Flair hiptosses out, he misses an elbow drop. HERE COMES KERRY! He sends Flair face-first into the cage a couple times and then grates his forehead on the mesh. Flair is a bloody mess, but he kicks at the knee and begins to take Von Erich to school. Hayes pulls Flair off Kerry by his hair, which of course Flair doesn’t like too much. Von Erich kicks away the FIGURE-FOUR a few times and then tosses Flair into the cage. He tries a knee drop of course using the worked-over knee, but misses. NOW~! Flair hooks on the FIGURE-FOUR with no problem. Eventually, Von Erich reverses the hold and wrenches on Flair’s knee. He finds the cage is much more effective as Kerry grates Flair’s face on the mesh some more. Flair goes low again and heads up top, but flies down into the CLAW! Once Von Erich has Flair down on the mat, he counts 1-2-NO! Hayes notices that Flair reached the bottom rope with his foot, but that’s enough to satisfy a break of the three-count. Since he can’t reason with David Manning, Hayes physically has to break the CLAW himself. As Kerry gets all up in his face, Hayes tries to explain that Flair got his foot on the bottom rope to cause a break of the hold. That’s a key moment in any great feud: the fans should be able to easily defend both sides of the angle for both parties involved. With Kerry’s back turned, Flair runs up and knees him into Hayes. When Hayes tries to get Flair off Von Erich when he’s stuck in the corner and can’t, Hayes ends up cleaning Flair’s clock with a right hand. With Flair down and out, he tells Von Erich to cover the world champ. Being a competitor and not wanting to win fair and square, Kerry refuses to take the win like that. YOU IDIOT! Hayes says screw you and walks out on this match. As Hayes starts to come out the door with Von Erich right behind him, Flair runs over and knees Von Erich into Hayes to knock him down to the floor. Oops! Since it appeared to Gordy that Von Erich shoved Hayes out, Gordy slams the cage door on Von Erich! Gordy helps Hayes back inside the cage. Hayes throws David Manning away and counts the pinfall on Von Erich even though he kicked out at two. Now he’s just being a prick, but at least now it appears he has just cause. Again, that’s a KEY element in any great feud. The Freebirds give up on the match for good this time as they walk out and head to the locker room to a chorus of boos. The match continues. Flair stalks Von Erich all over the ring beating him senseless. That is until Kerry fights back and uses the last of his energy to KO Flair with a DISCUS PUNCH. Von Erich collapses and apparently can’t continue, so David Manning calls for the bell to award Flair the victory while he remains flat on his back. (24:03) After the match, David and Kevin Von Erich check on their brother Kerry and vow revenge on the Freebirds. Dang, that was AWESOME drama near the end. While I liked the 2/3 falls match better, this is still really good overall and a truly important match in the history of World Class as the Von Erichs-Freebirds feud begins and completely turns the promotion around. BLOOD COUNT: Ric Flair and Kerry Von Erich. ****

• NWA World Tag Team Champions Ivan & Nikita Koloff (w/Khrusher Khrushchev) vs. The Rock N Roll Express (w/Don Kernodle) – Cage Match (NWA Starrcade 1985)

From my original Starrcade review. Nikita starts off naturally over-powering Morton. Once Morton uses his speed, he catches Nikita off-guard with a dropkick. Nikita wisely slows the pace down and hammers Morton to the mat. Ivan tags in, but he lets Morton run around. Morton nails him with a crossbody for a close near-fall. Morton grabs a headlock, but then Ivan crotches him on the top rope. Morton blocks a cage shot, and pounds Ivan back to his corner so he can tag in Gibson. The Express make frequent tags dominating the weaker and smaller Ivan Koloff, gaining several near-falls in the process. They also make sure Ivan tastes plenty of steel and busts him open. Ivan finally seizes the moment and tags in Nikita. Gibson tries to control Nikita by using his speed, but he runs right into a bearhug. Nikita takes full advantage of the cage and drives Gibson’s face right into it, several times. Morton has had enough and comes in to try and save, but that just causes a double-team on Gibson from the Koloffs. Yep, Gibson is bleeding now. Ivan tags in and takes Gibson to the steel for two. Gibson catches Ivan ducking low off a whip, but he can’t make the tag. Nikita tags in and rules Gibson and then taunts at Morton to bring him in to cause another double-team on Gibson for two as Morton makes the save. Ivan goes for the Russian Straddle, but Gibson moves out of the way! Ivan gets right back on top and backs Gibson into his corner for a double-team beatdown. Ivan hits a leg drop for two. He tries another one, but Gibson avoids it. He still can’t seem to make the tag as Nikita comes in and hooks on a chinlock. Gibson pounds and knees out of it, but Ivan tags in and cuts Gibson off from Morton. Ivan pounds Gibson to the mat and covers for two, as Gibson gets his foot on the bottom rope. Gibson fires back, but Nikita tags in and runs Gibson face-first into the cage. Nikita covers for two, but Morton comes in for the save. Ivan tags in and misses a clothesline, allowing Gibson to dropkick Ivan into the ref. Gibson covers and as Morton comes in, he gets blasted with a RUSSIAN SICKLE! Gibson stands back up and he takes a RUSSIAN SICKLE. Nikita places Ivan on top of Gibson, but referee Earl Hebner takes too long to make the count. Gibson makes a blind tag to Morton, who comes in and rolls up Ivan for the win to regain their NWA World tag titles as the crowd freakin’ EXPLODES! (12:22) Afterwards, Nikita pushes Morton over the cage wall when he tries to escape another severe beating. That leaves Gibson to take a DOUBLE RUSSIAN SICKLE. Ivan whips Gibson with his chain until Sam Houston and Ron Bass finally head out for the save. Pretty decent match, which ends their feud and sets the stage perfectly to continue the RnR Express/Midnight Express feud in 1986. ***¼

• The Road Warriors (w/Paul Ellering) vs. The Freebirds – Cage Match (AWA WrestleRock, 4/20/86)

The Freebirds ended up costing the Road Warriors the AWA world tag titles back in September 1985, and they are just now getting them in a cage in the Road Warriors final appearance for the AWA before working strictly for the NWA. Hayes struts and goes for a piledriver on Hawk right off the bat, but YOU CAN’T GIVE HAWK A PILEDRIVER. He of course stands right back up and sends Hayes into the cage before giving him a press slam. Hayes wants to tag out, but Garvin doesn’t want anything to do with the Road Warriors. Since Garvin won’t tag, Hayes tries to climb out the cage which means nothing outside the WWF. Hayes sneaks over and tags Garvin when he isn’t looking. Hawk gives Garvin a Canadian backbreaker and drops to his knees. OUCH. Tag to Animal, he delivers his beautiful powerslam on Garvin for two. Garvin takes a gorilla press slam and tries to tag out, but this time Hayes walks away from the tag. Garvin has to resort to a low blow to slow down Animal. Now there’s an easy tag to Hayes. Animal catches Hayes with a back elbow and tags in Hawk. He gets cornered and worked over by the Freebirds. Hayes applies a figure-four, which seems ill-advised. Hawk reverses the hold and reverses a suplex into one of his own. Tag to Animal, he stomps a mudhole in Garvin. Garvin punches out of the corner as Hayes brings out some taped knux. He comes off the top turnbuckle, but Hayes nails Garvin by mistake. Animal covers Garvin for the 1-2-3. (7:19) Afterwards, Hawk has a little added fun with the taped knux. Not a great match by any means, but I guess it served its purpose of the Road Warriors getting some revenge. **

Josh Mathews credits Bruiser Brody and Abdullah the Butcher as the main inspiration for the hardcore style we would see popularized in the 1990s.

• Bruiser Brody vs. Abdullah the Butcher (w/Gary Hart) – Cage Match (Special Referee: Fritz Von Erich) (Cotton Bowl Extravaganza, 10/12/86)

Well this looks like it’ll be a mess. Fritz checks all over Abdullah’s massive body for foreign objects. Everything short of a full body scan, which would regrettably have been the only effective measure here. Lots of headbutts. Lots of choking. Lots of kicks. Abdullah blades. You know the drill. Abdullah pulls out a fork and jabs Brody. Fritz takes the object away and when Abdullah tries to take it back, Fritz starts JABBING HIM WITH IT! Yeah, Abdullah is finished. Fritz helps Bruiser over to cover Abdullah for the 1-2-3. (8:03) Simply a short attraction match. This was during a tough time for World Class as these Cotton Bowl shows just kept drawing less and less people every time out until Fritz Von Erich sold out to Jerry Jarrett in 1988. ¾*

• AWA World Tag Team Champions Buddy Rose & Doug Somers (w/Sherri Martel) vs. The Midnight Rockers – Cage Match (Brawl in St. Paul, 12/25/86)
  

Apparently this is non-title. You’ll see why at the end. Like any good cage match, it starts out with the faces bouncing the heels off the cage. Thanks to the STEEL mesh, Rose and Somers get to bleeding real quick fast and in a hurry. This is ALL Rockers for the first ten minutes as they hardly break a sweat making these two bleed. Somers goes low on Michaels to FINALLY turn the tide as commentator Rod Trongard takes fifteen seconds to describe what Somers just did. It’s just what the Rod does. Rose tags in and catapults Shawn into the cage to bust him WIDE open. After he sends Shawn into the cage a bunch, Rose DDTs Shawn for 1-2-NO! We look to the audience to see one person wearing a Nixon mask and another is wearing a Reagan mask. Why hasn’t their been a Nixon mask -Reagan mask tag team? Seems like a CHIKARA thing. Call them the Ruthless Republicans or something. I don’t know. That was just off the top of my head. The name has to use alliteration though. It just does. Moving on. Rose and Somers continue to use the cage against Shawn Michaels. Meanwhile, a fan apparently has thrown a drink all over Sherri. Haha, why not. Even after being in total control, Somers and Rose can’t keep Shawn’s shoulders down for three. Shawn finally fires back and knee lifts Somers to set up a HOT TAG TO JANNETTY! The tag is just too hot though as Rose gives up and tries to climb out. Jannetty pulls Rose back up onto the rim of the cage before punching him down to the mat. As Jannetty climbs down onto the top turnbuckle, Shawn superkicks Somers into a Flying Bodypress from Jannetty for the 1-2-3! (17:48) Like I said, this must have been non-title because this is before the Rockers tag titles switch and after Rose and Somers won the straps. After the match, Rose and Somers see that Jannetty isn’t busted open, so Shawn gets kicked out the cage while Sherri keeps the door shut. Rose and Somers get their wish though as they grate Jannetty’s forehead across the cage. Shawn eventually overpowers Sherri and breaks inside to clean house. Dang, Jannetty looks BAD. Just a brutal fight with tons of blood. They’ve had better matches before this one, but this is definitely worth a look. BLOOD COUNT: Buddy Rose, Doug Somers, Shawn Michaels, and Marty Jannetty. ***½

• Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant (w/Bobby Heenan) – Cage Match (WrestleFest, 7/31/88)
  

From my original WrestleFest review. This needs no introduction. Lots of choking with Hulk’s shirt to start. Andre ties Hogan’s neck to the cage using the shirt and starts to walk out, but ripping shirts is Hulk’s specialty. Hulk breaks free and prevents Andre from escaping the cage. Andre stops Hogan from climbing out and drops an elbow for good measure. Hogan keeps Andre from walking out the cage door, but can’t keep Andre from pulling off the turnbuckle pad. Superstar Graham asks a perfectly logical question: why do you need to expose the turnbuckle to hurt your opponent when you’re surrounded by steel already? Andre finally gets it off while fighting off Hogan at the same time. Hogan gets his head rammed into the exposed buckle, thus calling for a blade job. Andre headbutts and smashes Hulk’s cut forehead on the steel bars. Hulk stops Andre from walking out the door again and easily sidesteps a big boot to come back with a clothesline. Hogan beats the Giant down and hits a LEGDROP. Meanwhile on the floor, Bobby Heenan KO’s the ref and gets inside the cage to keep Hulk from climbing out, but it’s no use. Heenan gets nailed, Hogan grabs Heenan’s taped knux from his jacket, KO’s Andre, tosses Heenan into the cage wall, and climbs out because climbing out is the spectacular way to win a cage match as opposed to just walking through the door. Yeah, Hulk’s all about the RAZZLE DAZZLE! He wakes up the ref Joey Marella to signal for the bell. (10:03) Aside from the SummerSlam main event, this was the end as far as big time matches go with Hogan vs. Andre headlining the card. After SummerSlam, Andre went on to feud with Jake Roberts and turned face at WrestleMania 6 before wrapping up his career. BLOOD COUNT: Hulk Hogan. ½*

Final Thoughts: They tried to avoid repeats where possible and gave us a varied mix of some of the major territories of the 1980s that they now own the video libraries to. What we didn’t get in full length on the Bloodbath DVD, we got it here. With disc one, what’s bad is pretty short and the good is worth seeing like the historic Flair-Von Erich match, the bloody Rockers match, and the dramatic to the end RNR Express-Koloffs match. The WWF stuff was pretty fun too. On with discs two and three!

I pinched this video for the blog after a NSC poster put it up over there (I think it was his Mum, but glad she did it anyway LOL). This video was apparently shown at Harty’s testimonial dinner and has never been shown in public before

I forgot how good some of OGH’s goals were, he will always have a place in the heart of every true Albionite, truly a club legend.

Of course there is also the Ethics Violations of Charlie Rangle and the Swept under the rug Case of Maxine Waters.  Hmmm, what ever did happen to the Maxine Waters Case?  Hmmmm?  Kinda just makes ya go Hmmmm, doesn’t it?

In all actuality it seems the entire Democratic Party has lost their MOJO.  The last two years of the Bush Administration is when we saw the Democrats come to power in both the House and the Senate.  We have all watched as these Corrupted Career Politicians began to wield that power in a most destructive way from a total collapse of our economy to regulation upon regulation to the point where today our House and Senate are in a total state of dysfunction and our beloved Country is on the brink of a second Depression.

To all you Liberal Democrats and Republicans I can only say one thing……you’re never going to get your MOJO back. Not now, not ever. We the People have learned our lesson and we’ve learned it well.

NO MO….. MO-JO in 2012

Related articles

• The Scandalous Democrat’s History of Disgrace (votingamerican.wordpress.com)
• Rangel: Weiner should focus on ‘keeping his wife and family together’ (thehill.com)
• Post-Weiner names circulate (politico.com)
• Weiner faces calls to resign on both sides (macleans.ca)
• Pelosi & Reid Love That Weiner! (shortlittlerebel.wordpress.com)
• Reid & Pelosi Love That Weiner! (rantsandrage.com)
• Report: Rep. Weiner’s wife is pregnant (thehill.com)

Image via Wikipedia

The drumbeat of news of errant politicians from both parties goes on: Schwartzenegger (R), Clinton (D), Gary Hart (D), Bob Packwood (R), John Ensign (R), Mark Sanford (R), John Edwards (D)…the list goes on and on. I found one site that listed 53 sex scandals dating back to Founding Father (and I mean that in every way) Thomas Jefferson.

Today’s news about Anthony Weiner is almost tame by comparison. He’s (so far) only guilty of sexting not actually committing sex acts but what makes him think his penis is so interesting? This is a sad, sad story but only the latest in a long parade of boys behaving badly. Guys…get a grip.*

Update 6/12: Great op-ed piece in New York Times about this exact topic. Read “When it comes to scandals, girl’s won’t be boys”

* Is there nothing we can say right now that isn’t a double entendre?

Related articles

• WALK OF SHAME: Top 5 Scandalous Political Press Conferences (In The Last 4 Years!) (businessinsider.com)
• Anthony Weiner: What the hell was that? (salon.com)
• An Excruciating Confession from Anthony Weiner (thedailybeast.com)
• 9 Ways to Survive a Sex Scandal (thedailybeast.com)
• If Weiner is ‘deviant’ then maybe we all are (cnn.com)
• Anthony Weiner Photo Scandal Survivable, Political History Shows (huffingtonpost.com)
• What is it with these sleazy men? (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Politics: It’s amateur hour in sex scandal land (annettefarmer.wordpress.com)

Muta didn’t do the moonsault in this match, but he did enough athletically impressive stuff that it blew lots of people’s minds who saw this match on their television sets. It didn’t hurt matters that you had Gary Hart (who not only was great, but managed the Great Kabuki in World Class, so he knew exactly what to say to get Muta over immediately) out cutting promos for Muta. Props to Cougar Jay as well, who made Muta look awesome and took a killer bump over the top rope and to the floor before Muta busted out his pescado.

To see this match in its entirety, please click under the cut!

-TOM. 

Sorry for the delay. I hate to always have the same old story for being SO incredibly late with these things: school, work, and trying to have a life in between those two all getting in the way. And we begin!

• Kevin & Mike Von Erich vs. The Dingo Warrior & Rick Rood (w/Raven) – (WCWA 10/12/86)

Why is the Dingo Warrior billed from QUEENS? Do I really need to go into how ridiculous that is if your name is the DINGO Warrior? In case I do, dingoes are AUSTRALIAN CANINE. Also, Scott Levy was one time a blonde valet for World Class? Who knew! But seriously, it is interesting to see Rick Rude and Ultimate Warrior team up years before they would fight over the WWF World and Intercontinental titles. Rood doesn’t take kindly to all the “Go Kevin Go” chants, so he aims to do something about it with a test of strength. That doesn’t work too well as Kevin walks up the ropes to gain the leverage to armdrag Rood away. Rood complains of hair-pulling, but those Von Erich boys would never possibly cheat. The Von Erich boys take turns working over the arm until Kevin whips Rood in the corner to tag in the Dingo Warrior. He grabs a bearhug on Kevin and wears him out. Back over to Rood, he cheats using the tights during an ab stretch, but Kevin hiptosses him away. Instead of tagging his little brother, Kevin tries to be a hero and ends up getting stuck on the wrong side of town. Naturally, he fights back and clamps the IRON CLAW on Rood. Before Rood’s arm drops for the third time, he punches the ref away for the DQ. (8:35) Afterwards, Dingo Warrior turns babyface and CHOKE LIFTS Rood on the outside. He doesn’t like cheaters, but didn’t seem to mind the double-teaming earlier. Rude and Warrior make an interesting tag team combination if nothing else. In the weeks to follow, the Dingo Warrior would win the WCWA tag belts with the one Von Erich who basically killed the territory off for good when everybody found out that he wasn’t a Von Erich. *

• WCWA World Heavyweight Champion Kerry Von Erich vs. AWA World Heavyweight Champion Jerry Lawler – Title Unification Match (WCWA 10/1/88)

This all started because of a kayfabe “open door policy” that World Class implemented to say that any and all challengers could come and show them what they got against their best wrestlers. Also, the date is two years behind considering Kerry had his motorcycle accident in June 1986 and Nick Bockwinkel was still the AWA world champ in 1986. This is one of many WCWA-AWA world title unification matches as well. Not to spoil the ending because it’s a TWENTY-TWO YEAR OLD match, but the belts were finally unified at the AWA show Super Clash III in December 1988. Moving on. After a few tie-ups, Lawler catches Kerry with a bunch of clotheslines and struts all around the ring. Von Erich gets dumped, but he slingshot splashes back in onto Lawler’s knees as we take a commercial break. When we return, Kerry can’t hiptoss Lawler out of the corner, so Lawler reverses and gives Kerry a hiptoss and a dropkick. Strange considering that’s a babyface spot anywhere else and we’re in the Dallas Sportatorium for crying out loud. Lawler throws a punch, which means he gets it back THREE TIMES as bad. After some stalling from Lawler, he challenges Von Erich to a boxing match. Lawler gets knocked onto his back side and cries for a DQ because closed fists are illegal. HA! Quick small package by Lawler gets two. He yells at the ref that it was three, which allows Kerry to come back with a big right hand to score a nearfall and set up another commercial break. When we return, Von Erich has locked on the IRON CLAW, but Lawler is in the ropes. Lawler hits a PILEDRIVER and Fargo struts away, but doesn’t see that Kerry has ROAD WARRIOR HAWK’D the piledriver. Kerry pounds Lawler in the corner and hits him with the DISCUS PUNCH. Down comes the strap. Oh man, Lawler is PISSED. He dares Kerry to punch him in the jaw, but blocks the blow and fires back. While these two are trading punches, the ref gets pushed aside by both men. Eventually, they punch him down together and that’s a double-DQ if I ever saw one. (13:36 shown) The locker room empties out to get these two separated. One of the WCWA figureheads Frank Dusek announces that under WCWA rules, titles change hands on a DQ, which means BOTH guys lose their belts. Entertaining enough, but you could tell about half way through that there wasn’t going to be any real title unification. It felt like it was just another match and not the big deal it was intended to be. **¼

• WWF World Champion Randy Savage vs. Ric Flair (w/Mr. Perfect) – (Prime Time Wrestling, 9/14/92)

Somehow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen this match before. Good pick! It’s the only WWF world title change I haven’t reviewed from Hogan to Diesel because I mean what’s the point in reviewing the Diesel-Backlund match. Just a quick recap: if you’ll recall at SummerSlam, Ric Flair beat Randy Savage’s knee with a steel chair to get him all banged up for this title match. And you can pretty much figure out the story here for this match. Flair has only one thing on his mind and that’s to work the leg for all its worth while Savage does anything he can to keep Flair away from his knee. Perfect plays an awesome distraction constantly grabbing under the bottom rope to get at Savage. After Flair kicks at the knee, Savage gets a desperate press slam. He applies an ab stretch, but that exposes his knee for Flair to pound on it. Flair delivers the stalling suplex and hits the Rolling Knee Drop. In a cool spot, Savage rides the ropes into the corner and pulls off an inside cradle for 1-2-NO! Flair tosses Savage to the floor to jar his knee as we go to commercial. When we come back, Savage meets Flair as he crawls back into the ring to string a few moves together. They head back outside where Savage whips Flair into the guardrail and threatens Perfect with a steel chair. Flair walks into a backdrop on the floor and we go back inside as Savage delivers the Flying Double Sledge, which is of course hard on your knees. Razor Ramon heads down to ringside. Perfect distracts Savage while Flair dropkicks Randy to the floor! WHAT. While the ref is with Flair, Razor comes by, kicks on Savage’s knee, and then heads back to the locker room. Back inside, Flair locks in the FIGURE-FOUR. Savage puts up a great fight and lasts in the hold for nearly THREE minutes until his shoulders are pinned to the mat for the 1-2-3. (15:57 shown) Ladies and gentlemen, Ric Flair has regained WWF gold. Not the greatest wrestling match in the world, but they told a great story with Flair, Perfect, and Razor bullying Savage to the point where he had to lose the title. ***¼

• Sting vs. Steve Austin (w/Col. Robert Parker) – (WCW Saturday Night, 4/8/95)

After WCW Commissioner Lloyd Bridges err…Nick Bockwinkel stripped Vader of the US title, a tournament was started, but first there must be a match to find who gets the #1 seed. LOADS of mat work to start with mostly Sting getting the better of Austin. A splash off the ropes from Sting hits knees. Go figure, amirite? Austin works the ribs and then locks in a Boston crab to work over both sides. He uses the ropes for a little leverage, but doesn’t PULLING on the ropes in a Boston crab reduce your leverage? Anyways, Sting fights back and hooks on a sleeper that takes them both on the floor. Austin eats the ringpost, but avoids a flying splash. What’s funny about that is, so does Austin. Sting wins a multiple tombstone reversal battle for 1-2-NO! Austin baits Sting out to the floor and back inside, but comes off the ropes into a backdrop. With Austin doubled over, Sting secures an Oklahoma roll for the 1-2-3. (12:58 shown) Of course, Sting would go on to defeat Meng in the U.S. title tournament finals while Steve Austin would lose to Randy Savage in the second round and then get fired by Eric Bischoff via Fed Ex. **½

• NWA World Television Champion Great Muta vs. Arn Anderson – (NWA Power Hour, 1/12/90)

Jim Ross and Jim Cornette are on commentary. I could listen to them call NWA matches all day long. Muta had just suffered his first pinfall loss at the hands of Ric Flair at Starrcade. Now he goes up against fellow Horsemen member who recently returned from the WWF. This is during the two-month long period when the Horsemen were acting like babyfaces to sucker Sting into a mega huge beatdown, which was a great angle. Very tentative start. They trade wristlocks, leading to Arn being tempted to stomping Muta in the balls. Here comes the rest of Muta’s J-Tex Corporation buddies: Buzz Sawyer and the Dragon Master. Buzz is a nut. That’s all you need to know. Muta rakes the eyes on Arn, but misses a spin kick and receives a suplex for his error. Crowd wants Sting, as Arn clamps on a headlock. The camera takes a look at the Dragon Master and JR says, “Are there any nice looking oriental guys?” WHAT. Now JR takes a shot at the WWF. Muta gets another kick caught, but readjusts himself with a mule kick. Powerdrive Elbow connects. Muta takes Arn to the floor for some guardrail action. Back in, Muta hits a HUGE flying double ax handle. Muta lands the Handspring Elbow and then hooks on CATTLE MUTILATION~! Arn manages to power and shoulder butt out. From there, he mounts Muta and unloads! Oh, but then Muta nails Arn with a jumping back kick. Muta proceeds to ravage Arn in the corner for a while. He climbs up in the corner to pound on Arn, but he brings Muta out with an inverted atomic drop. Arn gives him one more atomic drop for good measure. Hammerlock Slam! Off an Arn Anderson ab stretch, they tumble over the top rope to the floor. Muta whips Arn into the guardrail while Dragon and Sawyer laugh at him. Inside the ring, Muta telegraphs a backdrop and gets his face raked across AA’s boot laces. Spinebuster to Muta! Dragon Master distracts the ref and Arn while Buzz flies in and lowers the boom on Arn. Cover by Muta, 1-2-NO! When that doesn’t finish off Arn, the MOONSAULT will. Too bad Muta hits knees. With Muta doubled over, Arn nails him with the DDT! Cover, 1-2-3! (13:10) Arn wins his second TV title. Match had so much heat, you could fry an egg. Muta would hang around in the state for about another month before heading back to revolutionize New Japan. ***½

• Bret Hart vs. Tiger Mask II – (Tokyo Dome 4/13/90)

Yes, Tiger Mask II is Mitsuharu Misawa towards the end of his tenure as an incarnation of the Tiger Mask character. Seems like it would be a pretty rare thing to have any gaijin (in this case, Bret) to have wrestled both Tiger Mask I and Tiger Mask II. Early on, Tiger Mask works the arm a lot. Bret slips out of an armbar, but takes a dropkick to the floor. The crowd thinks it is time for a suicide dive from Tiger Mask, but he totally fakes them out and lands on the apron. Back to the arm for Tiger Mask. During this segment of the match, Striker actually mentions how Misawa went on to create his own wrestling company known as Pro Wrestling NOAH! WHAT! Not only that, but he encourages people to CHECK OUT Mitsuharu Misawa on the internet! Such blasphemy! Bret backs Tiger Mask into the corner. Tiger Mask tries a crossbody out of the corner, but Bret rolls through for a two-count. Bret gets a chance to grab a chinlock. Tiger Mask escapes a headlock and makes Bret whiff a dropkick. He follows up with a catapult in the corner, but then chills out with a wristlock. Tiger Mask wants a crucifix, but Bret puts a stop to it and falls back on him. Tiger Mask escapes another chinlock and sends Bret to the floor to him with a plancha! Back in the ring, Tiger Mask grabs a cross armbreaker. Bret makes the ropes, but gets stuck in the armbar again. Bret feigns a knee injury off a leapfrog and then runs Tiger Mask over with a clothesline. Backbreaker gets two. Bret continues to knock Tiger Mask around before dumping him out to the floor so he can pose without interruption. Back inside, Bret hits a Russian Legsweep for two. Back to the chinlock. Tiger Mask comes back with a quick slam, but then Bret gives him a NASTY atomic drop. Suplex gets two. Another chinlock by Bret. When that doesn’t get the submission Bret wants, he changes over to an abdominal stretch. Tiger Mask reverses, but Bret takes him over with a hiptoss. Tiger Mask runs into a boot, but avoids a flying elbow drop from Bret. Tiger Mask climbs up top and hits a flying bodypress for 1-2-NO! The sternum-first bump earns Tiger Mask another nearfall as the time limit expires. (20:15) This one had a slow build, but never really picked up to anything all that special like it should have. It had the feel of a short time-limit draw. Still, we got some interesting commentary to make the match more interesting than it was. **¾

• The Natural Disasters (w/Jimmy Hart) vs. The Rockers – (WWF Wrestling Challenge, 11/3/91)

Boy, talk about a mismatch. Typhoon and Shawn start us off. Shawn uses his speed advantage to thwart an attack, but he leapfrogs into a bearhug. Shawn BITES out and the Rockers do a little schoolboy move on Typhoon to take him off his feet. Tag to Marty, and the Rockers make-a-wish. Marty gets cornered in the ND corner, but again uses his speed to screw around with the Earthquake. Jannetty misses a corner charge (yeah, really) and receives a powerslam. Here comes the EARTHQUAKE SQUASH, but Shawn grabs a leg from the floor to stop him and allow Marty to get back to his feet. Typhoon tries one too many elbow drops, which allows Marty to roll past him for the HOT TAG TO SHAWN! It takes both Shawn and Marty to deliver the Double Noggin Knocker. Marty hits a flying bodypress off a cornered Typhoon, but gets caught. Shawn comes by with the assist to knock Jannetty over on top of Earthquake for 1-2-NO! With Shawn taking care of Earthquake in the corner, Marty tries to stop Typhoon by giving the guy a dropkick INTO Shawn, which sandwiches Michaels in between ND. Oops. Jimmy Hart gets on the apron to bait Jannetty all the way backstage. IDIOT. Meanwhile in the ring, the EARTHQUAKE SQUASH followed by a RUNNING SPLASH by Typhoon scores the pinfall on Michaels. (4:36) And the seeds are planted for the worst predicament to come to any tag team – betrayal. People try and help Shawn afterwards, but he throws a tantrum and refuses any kind of medical assistance. Short, fun match. *½

• Bret Hart vs. Dean Malenko – (WCW Monday Nitro, 11/23/98)

Off topic, but I believe this is the night where Kevin Nash KILLED Wrath. The nWo beat the heck out of the Four Horsemen earlier in the show and since the attack resulted in Malenko injuring his knee, the jerk Eric Bischoff made this match after the fact knowing Bret’s game plan is usually to dissect legs. I don’t know, maybe I’m giving WCW late ’98 too much credit. Anyways, it is a sort of technical dream match to many fans. Immediately, Bret does what we all expect and that’s work on the knee. Dean gets a little fired up and fights back, but his knee is HURTING, folks. Some awkward wrestling ensues including a rolling leglock, and Bret hits the floor. Commercials! When we return, Malenko is in control with a ten-count corner punch. He hits a suplex, but that jars his injured knee. Delayed cover gets two. Bret tries a slam, but Malenko shifts his weight and falls on top for two. Bret attempts a suplex, but Malenko counters *that* into a small package. Jackknife rollup gets two from Malenko. Alright? Bret chokes Malenko to get him to stop all those random nearfalls. Backbreaker connects, but Bret misses the elbow drop. Meanwhile, Tony tries to correct Tenay over some Four Horsemen trivia concerning Barry Windham and still gets it wrong. Malenko grabs a sleeper and stays adamant with it even after a back suplex from Bret. Okay, an eye rake will break that up. After Bret heads to the floor, Malenko follows him back in and corners him for a beatdown, but that’s just to sucker Dean as Bret kicks him in the knee and we’re back in business. Malenko stops all that with an enziguri and sets Bret up top for a superplex, but forearms him to the floor instead. Back in, Malenko hits the Jumping Leg Lariat – ignores the pain – and applies the TEXAS CLOVERLEAF. Bret makes the ropes and fights off another Cloverleaf attempt with a poke to the eyes. A chair gets brought into the ring. While Bret and ref Charles Robinson play tug-of-war, Malenko flies in with a missile dropkick. Slow cover gets 1-2-NO! As Malenko tries a leapfrog off a whip, Bret doesn’t duck and Malenko falls down funny on his leg. Bret posts the leg real good and then delivers the DIAMOND CUTTER on the chair for the DQ. (13:39 shown) He goes to do more damage to Malenko, but here comes DIAMOND DALLAS PAGE for the save. Lucky for him, Bret escapes just before he gets BANGED. DDP dares him to get back in the ring with him, but Bret decides to keep walking while DDP calls him a wuss from fifty feet away. OH SNAP. Yeah, Bret would beat DDP the following week thanks to the Giant to win back his U.S. strap. As for this Bret-Malenko match though, just a weird match with no chemistry at all. **

• WWE Undisputed Champion The Undertaker vs. Randy Orton – (Smackdown, 5/30/02)

It’s amazing at how much of a VIRGIN Randy Orton looks like here with only half a dozen or so tattoos. Why is UT giving this virtual unknown rookie and all around good kid (HA!) a WWE undisputed title shot? It’s his duty (huhuhuh) to demonstrate why the WWE is the ‘land of opportunity’. Dang, this wasn’t that long ago, but it just FEELS old. Randy Orton a rookie, UT a biker, and Teddy Long still just a referee, playa. They shake hands at the bell. Pretty basic start with headlocks and shoulderblocks. Out of nowhere, Orton delivers a hiptoss, an armdrag, and a BAAAACK BODY DROP all in succession. With UT up against the ropes, Orton clotheslines him out only for Taker to land on his feet. With UT nonetheless still staggered, Orton dives out with a pescado! Back in, Orton flips out of a suplex and rolling leg cradles UT for 1-2-NO! UT shuts Orton down with a clothesline and goes over to untie a top turnbuckle. He throws Orton some soupbones, but Orton fires back and hits a pair of dropkicks. Orton wants another backdrop, but UT sees it coming and counters with the Running DDT! Cover, 1-2-NO! Uh oh, Taker lifts him off the mat at two. He takes Orton back over to the corner to screw with him only for Orton to reverse the whip into the exposed corner! Orton hits the OVERDRIVE, but Taker kicks out at one. Now he’s pissed. Snake Eyes sets up the Big Boot for 1-2-NO! Orton kicks out on his own that time. As UT walks away to scold the ref, Orton sneaks up behind with a schoolboy for 1-2-NO! Now UT whips Orton into the ropes and gives him a HUGE Chokeslam for the 1-2-3. (5:22) After the match, Triple H comes down and beats up the Undertaker before challenging him for the Undisputed title at the King of the Ring in another BAD Undisputed title match in a long string of them. I’ve watched enough wrestling to know when a match is going to be bigger and better than they are letting on and this was one of those moments. **½

• NWA World Television Champion Arn Anderson vs. Dusty Rhodes – (NWA Pro, 9/9/86)

I would love to have me some NWA Pro shows from 1986 and 1987. Seems like there was a bunch of forgotten title matches on that show. In his own way, Johnny Weaver explains the backstory here as to why Dusty Rhodes is going after each individual member of the Horsemen. The Horsemen injured Dusty’s leg, so he injured Ole’s leg. Now he’s going to take something away from AA. Headlocks and shoulderblocks to start. Arn sells a shoulderblock from Dusty like he might have suffered a concussion. Sunset flip fails as Dusty punches AA and sends him retreating to the floor. Where’s JJ Dillon at? Back in, Dusty goes after AA’s leg. Again, AA heads to the floor to end any and all momentum. Back in again, AA grabs an armbar and yanks Dusty down to the mat by his tights. One of many simple things you should be able to do to incite the crowd. While AA stays on the arm, we take a commercial break. AND WE’RE BACK! Arn has changed over to concentrating on the knee. Even Dusty resorts to illegal stuff here as he pokes Arn in the eye to get him off his knee. Arn tries a spinning toe hold, but Dusty elbows him back. Dusty thinks it would be cute to lock in the Figure-Four on one of the Horsemen, but that’s hard on his knee. Arn goes right back to the knee until Dusty kicks him away and throws him through the ropes. We see some guardrail action, but Dusty knee drops Arn, which is a STUPID thing to do. Back in, Dusty catches Arn coming off the top rope with a clothesline for 1-2-NO! The ref gets bumped and Arn finds himself a nice shiny chair. He misses a swing on Dusty’s knee and instead takes a DDT right onto the chair. Out goes the chair and Dusty covers Arn for the 1-2-3 to regain the TV title. (10:16 shown) Pretty standard Dusty Rhodes match with Arn selling like crazy. *½

How about one MORE TV title change!

• NWA World Television Champion Tully Blanchard (w/JJ Dillon) vs. Nikita Koloff – (NWA Pro, 8/29/87)

Nikita is ALL over the champ to start. How else can I explain it? Commercials! When we return, Nikita is mauling Tully while he’s got him in a hammerlock. Blanchard backs Nikita into the corner and gets a hand from JJ as he grabs hold of Nikita’s tights to keep him where he’s at. That’s not enough though as Nikita fires back. Tully heads out and baits Nikita back into the ring, but he ends up in a bearhug. Blanchard eye rakes his way, but gets caught in the Russian Hammer. Now Nikita tries the RUSSIAN SICKLE, but Tully hits the mat and Nikita goes flying to the floor. That gives JJ a chance to get in a swift kick to the gut. Back inside, Nikita hits the RUSSIAN SICKLE. Lucky for Tully, JJ has the ref’s attention. Always a pro. Delayed count gets 1-2-NO! Nikita continues to pound away as we take another break. When we come back, Nikita is fighting out with a chinlock only to be dumped out to the floor. Tully beats on him pretty good and brings Nikita back inside for a two-count. Headlock takedown into the backslide ensues as Nikita scores a nearfall. Nikita delivers an atomic drop followed by a suplex for two. Tully buries a knee and starts firing away, but Nikita begins to NO-SELL and absorbs Blanchard’s attempt at the Russian Sickle. Hilarious. Man, ANOTHER commercial break. When we return, JJ Dillon crawls into the ring and pokes Nikita in the eye to break up a figure-four. Nikita delivers another atomic drop and as Tully reaches under the ropes, JJ Dillon gets pulled in for a Double Noggin Knocker. Back suplex by Nikita knocks ref Earl Hebner over in a terribly contrived spot. Wait a sec, Arn Anderson is out and he hands Tully some taped knux. BAM! Nikita goes down and Tully covers, but Barry Windham comes in out of nowhere and slides underneath the count to chat with Hebner. AA comes over and yanks Barry out. Meanwhile, Nikita nails JJ with the RUSSIAN SICKLE, retrieves the taped knux, and blasts Tully for the win and the TV title. (16:54 shown) Tully is just like Arn in that he’ll sell like crazy to put those babyfaces over the top. It’s that simple cooperation in the ring that’s sorely lacking in wrestling today because it’s all about getting your moves in and nobody knowing how to draw heat. It’s a sad state of affairs. ***

• WWF World Champion Bob Backlund vs. Greg Valentine – (MSG, 10/19/81)

This is kind of an infamous match and you’ll see why at the end. In February 1979, Greg Valentine took the WWWF champ Bob Backlund to the limit in MSG in a 60-minute draw. A month later, Backlund defeated Valentine in the rematch and Valentine hadn’t received a WWF title shot in MSG ever since. Here we are over two years later and now Greg Valentine is back for another shot at the still WWF champ Bob Backlund. Valentine gets off some basic moves to start, but Backlund fires back with the same and gets a backslide that ends up in the ropes. Valentine hammers on the champ which pisses him off, so he shoulder butts Valentine while they’re up against the ropes. Valentine knees Backlund down during a knucklelock and elbows the head. With Backlund down, Valentine locks in a half crab to wrench on the knee. Backlund manages an escape and monkey flips Valentine away. That’s not enough to get Valentine off his game plan though as he starts twisting the knee. Backlund rolls away from the pressure, but Valentine keeps him close with an ab stretch. He reverses, but an ab stretch leaves Backlund’s knee vulnerable. Valentine threatens the FIGURE-FOUR, so Backlund kicks him away. Once they’re both to their feet, they trade forearm shots. Backlund hits Valentine so hard with a headbutt, they both simultaneously timber over to the mat! AWESOME. Backlund tries a slam, but his knee gives and Valentine falls on top. Could we see the FIGURE-FOUR? Nope. Backlund kicks him away, but Valentine hammers down on Backlund anyway. Here comes the FIGURE-FOUR again, but Backlund counters to an inside cradle for 1-2-NO! Valentine tosses Backlund out, which gives his knee a real bad time. Back in, Backlund catches Valentine with a right hand to trigger the Valentine Flop. Backlund tries to dish out a little payback while working on Valentine’s knee, but Valentine comes out of the corner exploding with forearm shots. Backlund nails Valentine coming off the ropes for 1-2-NO! Valentine hits a suplex, but Backlund counters with a stalling suplex of his own. Delayed cover gets two. Valentine goes back to the knee, but the FIGURE-FOUR ends up in the ropes. Out of nowhere, Backlund delivers a desperation PILEDRIVER. He misses a legdrop, but kicks away the FIGURE-FOUR again. Valentine whiffs on an elbow drop from the second rope. After they trade headbutts, Backlund teases the RUNNING ATOMIC DROP and delivers the back suplex instead. Valentine catches Backlund coming out of the corner in an airplane spin which knocks down the ref. As Backlund shifts his weight up on Valentine’s shoulders, Valentine collapses with Backlund on top for the 1-2-3. (19:33) Here’s what they are trying to sell: since the ref was all dazed from getting kicked in the head from the airplane spin and both men were wearing black tights and Valentine stood up first with his hands raised trying to convince the ref that he scored the pinfall, the ref awards Valentine the WWF world title since Backlund was shifted in such a way that the ref couldn’t see his face either. Valentine knows the truth and gets the heck out of town with the WWF title before any decision can be changed. Pretty stupid swerve if I do say so myself. After much discussion amongst the refs and anger shown by Backlund, Howard Finkel announces that the NY State Athletic Commission and the WWF will have to meet before any title change can be decided. Therefore, this match is ruled a no contest and the WWF title belt will be held up until a decision is made on what to do next. If I’m not mistaken, this “title change” only affected the NYC crowd as Backlund continued on as the champ in all the other towns. Anyways, this would all be straightened out in the Backlund-Valentine MSG rematch the next month. **½

And that is all for today. I’m still planning on doing some WCW Saturday Night episodes from the site, so be on the lookout for that. Until next time, hope you guys enjoyed this edition of WWECLASSICS Showcase!

Farewell old chum, my arse misses you already

Brighton and Hove Albion 2 – 3 Huddersfield Town. That result will be forgotten quite quickly here on the south coast, but the date 30th April 2011 won’t, not because it was such a memorable day’s events, but it signalled a momentous day in the turbulent history of the Albion.

A mate in the pub afterwards summed it up perfectly “I feel like I didn’t really give the occasion the attention it deserved, I couldn’t really get into it. We won the league weeks ago, so the party atmosphere has been dragged out a bit.” I agree (although I missed the fucker), we won it too early. But just as Oh Gary Hart missed a tap-in in his last ever home game yesterday to cement his cult status forever with Albionites – the fairy tale season had a bit of a damp squib ending, you can’t have it all. Football isn’t like the movies, unless you’re a Manc (a red one, not an Arabian blue). So, we had our last day at the Theatre of Trees, and instead of reflecting on and celebrating the most successful stadium in the long history of BHAFC, yesterday the sell-out crowd was there to deliver a collective sigh of relief that we’re finally moving out of the place.

I’ll not cover the match, two players impressed – Craig Noone for his industry, and Marcos Painter for the most commanding defensive display I’ve seen in ages on any pitch. I’m sure even the onlooking Player of the Year Adam El Abd appreciated it, Gus Poyet definitely did and his “we’re not worthy” bowing, after Painter embarassed a Town forward with a Bobby Moore tackle, was the best comedy moment. Painter was my man of the match. But the day belonged to Harty, and every free kick, attacking move, and even defensive pass was greeted with “Give it to Harty!” from the stands. In true “ledge” style though, Gary came close, but ultimately failed. Never has such a squad player received such warm reception from his fans. That’s down to his loyalty and ordinariness, he’s an anachronism in these days of mercenary slag footballers with their off the field antics, and demands for squillions of pounds each week. And I will miss this ditty, my favourite Albion terrace chant of all time:

Oh Posh Spice is a slapper

She is a fucking tart

And when she’s shagging Beckham

She thinks of Gary Hart

OH GARY HART, OH GARY, GARY, GARY HART

For those readers who are unfortunate enough not to be Albion fans, that’s sung to the tune of “My Old Man’s a Dustman”.

So, it’s gone now, the old bleachers will be ripped up and Withdean will go back to hosting athletics in front of two old boys and a dog. It’s legacy will be as one of the worst football stadiums in the football league, but it’s also been one of the most formidable places to visit. I firmly believe that time will produce a fondness for it in the minds of all those who sat and got soaked in the open stands, miles from the pitch action. It will never compete with the Goldstone for the affections of the faithful, but Falmer has a hard act to follow in terms of footballing success, and yes some great games. Rest In Peace.

]]> http://fulcrumpublishing.wordpress.com/2011/04/25/in-the-bluff-a-blog-from-wisconsins-west-coast/ Mon, 25 Apr 2011 17:35:24 +0000 fulcrumpublishing http://fulcrumpublishing.wordpress.com/2011/04/25/in-the-bluff-a-blog-from-wisconsins-west-coast/ (the opinions expressed in this blog are the opinions of the author only, and do not represent the opinions of the company or its employees)

“…and to the Republic for which it stands…”

I just read the newest post by former senator Gary Hart on his “Matters of Principle” blog. In it, he reminds us that our Founders (whose words and works are so often misinterpreted and misused these days, especially by those who seek to divide rather than unite us) created our United States as a republic and not a democracy, enumerating not only rights but also entailing responsibilities of its citizens. It is a must-read.

Senator Hart was very much on my mind this weekend, as a new report issued by the American Security Project, of which he is the chair, hit the news recently. Its report “Pay Now, Pay Later” (available at www.secureamericanfuture.org/pay-now-pay-later) explores the impact of climate change on the economies of each of the fifty states, and is essential reading for all citizens. It brings the issue of climate change to a local level and underscores the importance of facing this issue in the twenty-first century. I for one was very surprised by what is projected for Wisconsin, and how our economic foundation of agriculture and tourism may be altered.

I have worked with Senator Hart on three books, the latest his political memoir The Thunder and the Sunshine: Four Seasons in a Burnished Life. He is one of the most thoughtful and intelligent people I have had the pleasure of knowing, and a great contributor to the national dialogue. Reading the senator is like taking an upper level class in civics and history from your favorite professor. While I would encourage you to read all three of his Fulcrum books (God and Caesar in America; Under the Eagle’s Wing; and The Thunder and the Sunshine), I would recommend Thunder for the first-time reader. In it, the senator takes the reader through a four-decade review of his public career, in the process telling the greater story of America during this critical period. He also touches on the principles of the Founders and how they continue to shape our nation.

A review of Then Everything Changed: Stunning Alternate Histories of American Politics, JFK, RFK, Carter, Ford, Reagan, by Jeff Greenfield

@@@@@ (5 out of 5)

There is a subspecies of the human race that is afflicted, usually from birth, with an insatiable thirst for politics. This book was written for them — and, to this political junkie, what a book it is!

Here we see one perspective on what might have happened had a little known but all too real would-be-assassin succeeded in killing John F. Kennedy in 1960, after the election but even before the Electoral College met to certify his winning the Presidency. With Lyndon Johnson ascending to the White House three years earlier than in reality, we can ponder how different the 60s might have been.

Here, too, we can journey with Robert F. Kennedy through the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel the night in June 1968 when he won the California primary — as his brother-in-law tackled Sirhan Sirhan, saving the Senator’s life and giving him a powerful boost in his face-off for the presidential nomination against Hubert Humphrey.

In a third venture into alternate history, we view the changes wrought when President Gerald Ford quickly corrects his historic gaffe denying that Eastern Europe is under Soviet control — and proceeds to win the 1976 election against Jimmy Carter. Ford’s Presidency leads us willy-nilly into the disorienting world of 1980, as Senator Gary Hart jumps into a race against Ronald Reagan . . . and wins.

In Then Everything Changed, we glimpse the past-that-might-have-been through the eyes of Jeff Greenfield, a shrewd political pro turned journalist, whose resume includes a stint as speechwriter for Robert F. Kennedy. Both as an insider and as a journalist, Greenfield has had a front-row seat on politics at the highest level in the land for nearly half a century. His speculations are solidly based on the historical record — he researched this book with with impressive thoroughness — and, in many cases, on the thoughts and opinions of key players at the time.

Even the acknowledgements in this book are well worth reading, because it’s there that Greenfield reveals the sources he relied on — and shows just how closely he hewed to the historical record.

© Stewart Weir 1998

The rebels are also going on strike against the ravages of capitalism — skyrocketing food prices and massive unemployment — demanding jobs.

Unfortunately these courageous workers and youth will wind up with the same capitalist system that has produced this mass poverty and fascist conditions. What leadership that does exist is not fighting for workers’ power — communism — which would destroy the profit system and its ruling bosses. This only highlights the necessity to build the Progressive Labor Party to develop the kind of leadership that would make a fundamental change, a real revolution that would toss out the old ruling class and put the working class in power.

However, the U.S. may very well be playing both sides. While the rebellions oppose dictators backed by the U.S., their replacements might be U.S.-backed also. Some student rebels have been trained by CIA front groups on a 2008 organizing conference at Columbia University in NYC) as well as a union movement trained by the AFL-CIA.

Significantly these struggles are raging in and near the heart of U.S. rulers’ energy-based global empire, raising big questions: Will pro- or anti-U.S. bosses gain long-term advantage from the conflicts? And now that many Arab lands are, or could be, under shaky new management, how can Exxon Mobil and its Big Oil buddies hang on to critical oil fields and shipping routes?

Iran’s ayatollahs made their opportunistic aims clear by sending a pair of warships through embroiled Egypt’s Suez Canal into the Mediterranean, long controlled by the U.S. Sixth Fleet. Meanwhile, Obama & Co.’s response involves expanding the scope of liberal President Jimmy Carter oil “Doctrine”:

“An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force. (Carter’s 1980 State of the Union Address)

Today’s revolts could spread to Carter’s obvious focus, Saudi Arabia, U.S. imperialism’s most vital energy interest. So Obama’s actual and possible combat theater protecting U.S. bosses’ “vital interests” now stretches from the mountains of Pakistan across the Gulf to the North African coast. And now the U.S. military has admitted its Afghan strategy is failing, and is withdrawing from strategic areas in that country. (NY Times, 2/25)

Liberal Bosses Want 20,000 Troops for Libyan Bloodbath

Libya, where dictator Qaddafi’s thugs have killed hundreds, and Exxon and U.S. ally BP have had to suspend drilling for crude oil, is especially worrisome to U.S. rulers. The NY Times summed up these risks: “The worst-case scenario, should the rebellion topple him,…is…a failed state where Al Qaeda or other radical groups could exploit the chaos and operate with impunity.” (2/27)

Michael O’Hanlon, military expert at the liberal Brookings Institution, urged the Pentagon to prepare a ground force, contrasting Libya with U.S. inaction in the 1994 crisis in Rwanda: “It would have taken closer to 20,000 troops, or more, to do the job right. There could well be a similar requirement here.” (Brookings website, 2/25) Obama booster O’Hanlon even provides the outlines of a body count: “We could lose one of our soldiers or Marines for every 10 enemy fighters we had to take down. If Qadhafi loyalists numbered in the thousands…we could lose hundreds of U.S. troops.” O’Hanlon would no doubt recommend the same treatment for al Qaeda sympathizers in Libya.

But Saudi Arabia, as the world’s greatest petroleum source and ExxonMobil’s biggest supplier, poses far graver concerns for U.S. bosses — so grave, in fact, that they resort to code to speak about it publicly. Michael Levi, a fellow at the influential Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), funded by Rockefeller, Exxon and J.P. Morgan Chase, wrote: “If unrest actually migrated to the desert kingdom…Riyadh [Saudi’s capital] would probably impress on the world that it needed support if they didn’t want to see prices get out of control. That would be a credible threat, and could result in a very concrete set of responses”(CFR website, 2/25/11).

“Concrete response” means “invasion.” Two main groups seek to benefit from Saudi regime change: swelling ranks of unemployed youth and those capitalists not part of Saudi’s royal family, shut out of the fabulously lucrative oil racket. Osama bin Laden, a member of the latter, has united elements of both into the anti-U.S. al Qaeda.

Interestingly, Saudi’s ruling king, fearing an uprising, and to calm oil interests, just allotted $36 billion for reforms in his kingdom. But rather than “calming” the situation, those oil interests see his concerns as evidence of a further threat to the region and can very well provoke even more oil price hikes.

Top U.S. Warlord Visits Big Oil States and U.S. Bases

To hammer home the U.S. invasion vow, Admiral Mike Mullen, the U.S.’s top military chief, recently visited Kuwait on the pretense of commemorating the 20th anniversary of Desert Storm. In 1991, a U.S.-led coalition of 750,000 soldiers ousted Iraqi invaders from Kuwait. But the display of U.S. and allied firepower demonstrates Obama’s promise of a repeat performance to defend Saudi Arabia.

Covering the February 26 celebration, Stars and Stripes, the U.S. brass’s mouthpiece for GIs gushed:

“Tanks, troops, armored vehicles, helicopters and barrel-rolling [combat maneuver to elude adversaries] fighter jets…passed in formation before Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen and other dignitaries including Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs in 1991, and Spain’s King Juan Carlos. It was a spectacle rarely seen in the world today. Saudi, Kuwaiti, French, British, and other troops joined the relatively small contingent of roughly 175 Americans thundering down the road.”

Saudi Arabia’s participation indicated its coming turn for potential U.S. invasion.

Powell’s presence signaled the future use of his “overwhelming force Doctrine.”  The Spanish, French and British showing demonstrates that Obama, more like the Bush, Sr. than Bush, Jr., understands the U.S. need for broad military coalitions.

Mullen landed in Kuwait after a five-day Gulf tour of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Djibouti and Bahrain. These seven states either produce vast amounts of oil or house major U.S. military bases that defend the U.S. strategic stranglehold on its distribution. A Mullen spokesman reassured Saudi king Abdullah that Obama intends to keep him on his throne:  “The aim of the 1991 Gulf War was not to democratize Kuwait.” (Agencie French Press, 2/25)

But where would U.S. rulers find the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of troops needed for a Saudi invasion that would probably draw in Iran? Restoring the draft in present circumstances remains unthinkable. Gary Hart, a leading imperialist strategist, thinks the solution for U.S. imperialists lies in tying the liberal side of the fight over workers’ rights now centered in Wisconsin to a patriotic movement that would back U.S. rulers’ war plans.

Hart was co-chairman of Clinton’s 1999 Hart-Rudman Commission that drew up blueprints for a centralized U.S. police state, while both fearing and welcoming a terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Hart figures this could galvanize mass U.S. support for a Saudi invasion, just as it did for the eventual invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, the latter war now the longest in U.S. history. (See box)

Opportunities to Build the PLP

The uprisings and U.S. rulers’ reactions to them offer many valuable political lessons, about which we will write in coming issues. But for now we point to the first and foremost: Don’t trust the liberal bosses.

Meanwhile, PLP members and friends must back solidarity with — participate in — any rising working-class struggles, to be in position to guide them towards the goal of workers’ power and away from the liberals’ dead-end war aims. Recent anti-government working-class resistance to ruling-class attacks, both in the U.S. and abroad, show that politics are increasingly motivating workers. This can be advanced to demonstrate the need for a communist party, the PLP, a central role for our Party in the immediate period.

Liberal Gary Hart Seeks to Turn Wisconsin Protests to U.S. War Aims

Writing about Tea Partiers trumping U.S. imperialist policy from Madison to Tripoli, imperialist strategist Hart says, “There are lessons to be learned meanwhile about the limits of …American power. The struggle here is whether we will return to a pre-New Deal America with many fewer ladders of opportunity, safety nets for the poor and elderly, and regulatory protections for consumers, workers, and the environment.” (Hart’s weblog, 2/21) Hart wants a new New Deal, with even more ladders and nets. He understands U.S. rulers’ need to somehow recreate Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. FDR ran an alphabet soup of social programs, from the militaristic CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) to the job-creating (though slave wage) WPA (Works Progress Administration). It was these, along with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, that helped overcome Tea Party-style 1930s isolationism by luring workers into the arms of a war-making government.

Now, Then, Today: Former President Richard Nixon (middle) set the standard for political scandal in the modern era. Former President Bill Clinton (left) opened the flood gates on political sex scandal reporting, while John Edwards (right) ruined his political future. (Photos courtesy creativecommons.org, illustrations by Sam Miller.)

Former President Bill Clinton helped redefine the ground rules of political reporting when he emphatically said he did not have sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky.

According to some journalism and political experts, Clinton’s denial and subsequent admission of having an affair validated that reporting on sex scandals was a part of journalism in America. Whether it is because reporters were disintrested or the scandals less newsworthy, politicians’ sexual transgressions have interested media outlets more in the last few decades than ever before.

“I think the decision to do more reporting on sex lives of politicians [that started] in the U.S. in the 1970s had more to do with exposing hypocrisy rather than increasing readership,” said Dotty Lynch, a journalism professor at American University.

Happy Birthday, Mr. President: Former President John F. Kennedy was rumored to have many different affairs while in the public eye. Partly because of a mum press corps, not much of this was widely reported. (Courtesy Creative Commons

There are historical examples to back up that statement. President John F. Kennedy was widely rumored to be having an affair with a number of different women, including Marilyn Monroe and mobster Sam Giancana’s girlfriend. The rumors never stuck though, partly because they were never widely reported. The same is true for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The president’s affair with his wife’s social secretary Lucy Mercer has been widely discussed in books since Roosevelt’s death. However, the rumors, which were substantiated by love letters between Roosevelt and Mercer, went unreported while the four-term president was in the White House.

It wasn’t just Watergate that led journalism to more salacious reporting.

“It is generational,” said Richard Benedetto, former White House correspondent for USA Today and American University professor. Benedetto believes that as groups of reporters change, so do their views on government, sexuality and morality. While reporters in the 1950s were often World War II veterans, reporters in the ’80s grew up in the ’60s.

The personal became political after Watergate. “Covering up a politician’s personal transgressions became unacceptable,” Lynch said.

“Their attitudes towards reporting was different and their attitude towards sex was different. I would say it is generational more than it was Watergate itself,” Benedetto said.

The Lewinsky scandal was different than Watergate. There was visible evidence of Clinton’s transgressions and with the rise of the Internet, information on his affair with Monica Lewinsky was available 24 hours a day.

When Newsweek decided not to run a story by Mike Isikoff on Clinton’s affair with Lewinsky, The Drudge Report decided to run it after being tipped off that it existed. The story was published on Jan. 17, 1998, and was further substantiated by a Jan. 21 report in the Washington Post.

A History of Sex and Politics: Former senator Edward Kennedy (top) became wrapped up in his own sex scandal after his Chapaquidick car accident. Nixon (bottom left) and Edwards (bottom right). (Courtesy creativecommons.org, illustrations courtesy Sam Miller)

“Once that story was out there, a lot of publications were under pressure to go with the story and there was a sort of bandwagon effect,” said Jane Hall, a professor at American University. Even though some editors said they shouldn’t run with the story just because it was out there, said Hall, “it snowballed and became a legitimate story.”

Though cable ratings during the Lewinsky scandal did go up — it is hard to find anyone who doesn’t know of President Clinton’s transgressions — the president’s overall approval ratings went up as well.

According to Washington Post/ABC News polling data in August of 1998, Clinton’s overall rating was at 66 percent, just below his all-time high. While overall, his numbers were up, people did lose trust in the President. “Americans continue to see President Clinton as a strong leader in touch with their problems,” said the Washington Post article. “Even as a growing majority express doubts about his honesty, integrity and moral character.”

That disparity in the American public’s approval begs the question: Can the American public separate a president’s ability to do his job with his morals and integrity?

“There were two factors working for Clinton,” Benedetto said.  ”First the economy was very good. Had the economy been bad, similar to the economy right now, I think Clinton would have been gone.”

Benedetto also said that Republicans overplayed their hand. They tried to impeach the president, a difficult task, when they could have censured him instead. “That caused a backlash from people who believed the Republicans went too far,” said Benedetto.

Clinton and Lewinsky’s relationship was far from the first political sex scandal to be widely reported.

Monkey Business: Former Colorado Sen. Gary Hart's affair with Donna Rice derailed his candidacy for president in 1988. A picutre of he and Rice on a boat named "Monkey Business," was published by the Miami Herald. (Courtesy creativecommons.org)

Ted Kennedy’s incident at Chappaquiddick became one of the first political sex scandals after the initial crime story turned into a salacious expose of Kennedy’s relationship with Mary Jo Kepechne, Lynch said. Benedetto points to presidential-hopeful Gary Hart’s scandal with Donna Rice, a scandal published in the Miami Herald that knocked him out of contention in the 1988 presidential race, as the first large-scale political sex scandal.

To Benedetto, it is not surprising that journalists report on these scandals. His reason — people care about the sex lives of politicians.

“If there is a story, they want you to report it,” said Benedetto. “Yes, they care. They will make their own judgment but they want the information.”

Though recent political sex scandals have not reached the level of the president recently, the American public has certainly not been deprived of salacious reporting. John Edwards was knocked out of public life in 2008 because of a sex scandal. Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford was forced to resign his position as head of the Republican Governors Association and was censured as governor because of an affair with an Argentine woman. U.S. Senator John Ensign (D-Nev.) was investigated after having an affair with his chief of staff’s wife and paying her to keep quiet.

The list goes on, and while these have all garnered a lot of attention, nothing compares to the mix of sex, money and power that was seen during the Lewinsky scandal, Lynch said.

“The media may be putting a bit more perspective on the average affair but when it comes to presidential politics and when money and sex are combined, I think sex scandals will still be, as Karl Rove might phrase it, ‘fair game.’”