by Molly Ivors
I gather Sofia Coppola has become quite a good writer and director (not being allowed to go out to movies, or even watch anything that's not kid-friendly (though we define that term more broadly than a lot of people), interferes with direct assessment of this general sense), which is good, because she wasn't much of an actress. Take, for example, her star turn as the bemused victim in Godfather 3, whose appalling performance was wrapped up with the shot-in-the-chest "Dad? Dad?" bestowal of guilt on Michael Corleone. (Seriously, take it. Please.) She, apparently, was the last to know dad was a gangster.
Today, Maureen has her "Dad? Dad?" moment.
Following the lead of Bushian shill Michael Gerson, MoDo has decided that John McCain is a Good Man Done Wrong by eeeeeeeevil advisers and whatnot, particularly the disciple of Karl Rovemort himself: Steve Schmidt.
In the end, “The Bullet,” or “Sarge,” as McCain calls his replacement campaign manager Steve Schmidt, was the one who did the shackling, turning the vibrant and respected McCain into a shell of his former self.
Schmidt abruptly cut off the oxygen supply to McCain’s brain. No more of the oldest established, permanent floating crap game of press confabs. No more audiences that weren’t vetted for friendliness. No more of McCain’s trademark insouciant mocking the process even as he participated in it.
Whether it was the five years he spent in a hole in Hanoi or just his gregarious makeup, McCain seemed to feed off of the company of people who interested him, be it reporters, voters or the pols in his posse, like Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham.
Unlike Obama, He Who Walks Alone, McCain always rejected the solitary in favor of the social. But ever since Sergeant Schmidt put Captain McCain into a sterile brig on the trail, the candidate has become a question mark.
See? It's that Steve Schmidt's fault! McCain himself could never do anything wrong! I believe that right up until I get shot!
Just a point, Maureen: when you hire an exterminator, don't be surprised if all your mice end up dead, even the pet ones. That's what he's there for.
UPDATE: