The current issue of New York magazine features a terrific bio piece on contributing RP Krystal Ball’s unique trajectory from phony-scandal plagued congressional candidate to current media star. Here’s an excerpt:
Krystal Ball was talking to retirees in rural Virginia when her congressional campaign got weird.
She had just given her stump speech and completed a Q&A. “I looked at my phone, and I had a text message from my husband. And he said, ‘Everything’s fine. But after you’re done there, don’t talk to anyone, don’t check your e-mail, don’t call anyone, just call me immediately. And you may want to be alone. Like, not even with your staffers.’”
This did not sound to Ball like everything was fine. She wrapped up the event, went outside, and called her husband.
“He says, ‘Everything really is fine, but there’s some pictures that came out. Do you remember a party that you went to — ’ and he starts describing them.”
The photos showed Ball wearing a Santa hat with a black bustier at the age of 22.
In her hands were a festive Solo cup and a leash attached to a young man, who wore antlers on his head and a Rudolph-red dildo on his nose. In some of the especially hilarious photos, Ball and her companions fellated the dildo nose.
When her husband texted, the pictures were only on a local conservative blog, but it seemed unlikely they would stay there for long.
Ball’s campaign had always been a long shot: She was a 28-year-old Democrat running against a Republican incumbent in Virginia’s conservative-leaning first district. And if it hadn’t been for those “XXX-Mas” party photos, she might have remained a 2010 congressional also-ran, waiting in obscurity for the next election year. Instead, the photos made their way into the national media — and Ball responded forcefully, acknowledging the pictures anddenouncing sexual double standards. She ended up with regular guest spots on Fox News and MSNBC, and now, two years later, she’s one of four co-hosts on MSNBC’s new daytime show The Cycle.
Sex and scandals sell, particularly when the subjects are young and attractive — this is not news. But what makes Ball’s story interesting is that it demonstrates the power of transparency. She’s staked her career on the belief that personal disclosures aren’t incompatible with professional legitimacy.
“I find it so astonishing how poorly a lot of politicians handle negative whatever in the press,” she says. “You have to just get it all out there. You have to be totally, uncomfortably honest.”
By John Y. Brown III, on Wed Oct 3, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Trying to wake up but don’t have any coffee?
Here’s an eye-opener that just might do the trick for you…..
One of my favorite lines from the movie My Dinner with Andre.
ANDRÉ:
You see, Wally, the trouble with always being active and doing things is that it’s quite possible to do all sorts of things and at the same time be completely dead inside.
I mean, you’re doing all these things, but are you doing them because you really feel an impulse to do them, or are you doing them mechanically, as we were saying before?
Because I do believe that if you’re just living mechanically, then you have to change your life. I mean, you know, when you’re young, you go out on dates all the time, you go dance or something, you’re floating free, and then one day you find yourself in a relationship, and suddenly everything freezes. And this can be true in your work as well.
And I mean, as long as you’re really alive inside, then of course there’s no problem. I mean, you know, if you’re living with someone in one little room, and there’s a life going on between you and the person you’re living with, well then, you know, a whole adventure can be going on right in that room.
But there’s always that danger that things can go dead. And then I think you really do have to kind of become a hobo or something, you know, like Kerouac, and go out on the road. I really believe that. I mean, it’s not that wonderful to spend your life on the road. I mean, my own overwhelming preference is to stay in that room if you can!
Now, of course, if you live with somebody for a long time, people are constantly saying, “Well, of course it’s not as great as it used to be, but that’s only natural. The first blush of a romance goes, you know, and that’s the way it has to be.” Now, I totally disagree with that. But I do think you have to constantly ask yourself the question, with total frankness, is your marriage still a marriage? Is the sacramental element still there?
Just as you have to ask about the sacramental element of your work—is it still there?
And I mean, it’s a very frightening thing to have to realize suddenly that, my God, I thought I was living my life, but in fact I haven’t been a human being. I’ve been a performer. I haven’t been living. I’ve been acting. I’ve acted the role of the father. I’ve acted the role of the husband. I’ve acted the role of the friend. I’ve acted the role of the writer or director or whatever. I’ve lived in the same room with this person, but I haven’t really seen them. I haven’t really heard them. I haven’t really been with them.
The colorful, pivotal Missouri Senate race has had something for everyone — especially political junkies and poker fans. And there’s still time for at least one more twist.
First there was Democrat Senator Claire McCaskill’s unusual participation in the Republican Senate primary. Armed with poll numbers indicating Representative Todd Akin would be her weakest opponent in November, she ran anti-GOP ads that were actually designed to stroke right-wing erogenous zones by dubbing Akin a “pro-family … true conservative.” Her strategy, akin to keeping a poker opponent with a weak hand from folding, worked beautifully. Akin won the primary.
Then, after Akin’s infamous “legitimate rape” comments prompted calls from the GOP Establishment that he step down, he called the bluff of the National Republican Senatorial Committee by staying in the race. That tactic worked as well — Republican endorsements and funding came flooding back after the deadline for Akin’s withdrawal passed.
Now, with 35 days left until the election, it may be time for McCaskill to deploy one final gambit: ads that subtly promote the Libertarian candidate, a heavily tattooed personal trainer named Jonathan Dine.
Dine, who sports “Legalize Marijuana” ink across his chest, has more than a little electoral baggage, especially two felony convictions for marijuana possession and identity theft. He is actually ineligible to hold state office in Missouri, but could still play spoiler in the Senate race. At a three-candidate debate last week, he got in the last word: “I promise to keep Republicans out of your bedroom and the Democrats out of your wallet.”
Read the rest of… Jeff Smith: Why Claire McCaskill Should Promote a Tattooed Felon to Defeat Todd Akin
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Oct 2, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Always question assumptions.
For a successful life.
And to avoid motion sickness.
“Ok. I am serious about finally getting some balance in my life,” he said—as he had been saying fairly regularly and unsuccessfully for the past 30 years.
You had to admit he was a persistent fella–especially about things he didn’t seem very committed to. Like getting balance in his life.
And then he had an epiphany:
“People who have really honed their ability to balance themselves end up being professional tight rope walkers and travel with a circus troupe and have to carry a long thin balancing bar with them everywhere.”
“Yuck!” He thought to himself. “What was I thinking? I have severe motion sickness and would struggle trying to make a living with a traveling circus show.”
And at that precise moment, John decided to quite trying to be a professional tight rope walker. Embraced his imperfections and native gifts for creating imbalance in his life almost as effortlessly as the young Mozart wrote beautiful music.
And he lived happily, for the most part, ever after.
And never experienced guilt -or motion sickness again.
By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Oct 1, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
An unsuspected gift from fate that impressed a son and grandson. And surprised William F Buckley Jr .
You know the old Groucho Marx joke, “I’d never want to belong to any club that would have me for a member.”
I think most of us feel that way about our families–at least in the sense that we don’t believe they are all that special. And that’s a good thing–mostly. We see them as they are–their faults and foibles, their best and worst and most ordinary.
(I remember meeting Ed Prichard’s wife Lucy shortly after Prich had died. I was awed by Ed Prichard and peppered Lucy with eager questions about her husband’s greatness. Until she resignedly said, “I knew him warts and all.”)
JYB Sr., JYB Jr. and JYB III circa 1972
Other people, by contrast, are seen as they’d like for us to see them. And that’s an unfair comparison–but it’s the best our brains can do.
This past weekend when I was alone with my son and we were talking about Big John (my father; his grandfather), Johnny was astounded to hear Big John was once a guest on Firing Line, the uber-erudite political talk show hosted by the eloquent sesquipedalian William F Buckley Jr.
(I’ve never gotten to use that word before –meaning a person who uses big words—-and not about to pass it up now!)
I remember when I heard about this show and had the same reaction as Johnny, namely: “I know Big John is smart and has a lot of common sense but I doubt he can hold his own on with William F Buckley.” Few can.
But it didn’t matter anyway because as I explained to Johnny I had tried for about 25 years to get a video or transcript from the 1981 show and had never been successful.
Until we got to our hotel room and found to our amazement it was available for free online.
And then found to our astonishment, that the plain spoken, quick witted family member of ours known more for horse sense than book sense, went toe-to-toe with Mr Buckley and…..Well, put it this way… For those watching who just saw Gov Brown for how he wanted to be seen (and weren’t biased family members), he held his own.
And even the two fellas who knew better than to think such nonsense had to admit they were awfully proud.
Here’s the transcript (click this link). I doubt anyone will be interested but you never know…. It just might inspire you to realize you are much more capable than you think. We all probably are….We just don’t get he chance to prove it often enough.
Rick Perlstein, a elegant and perceptive left leaning writer, wrote a breathtaking account of sixties era polarization called “Nixonland”, which he marred only at the end by weirdly inquiring whether American ideological opposites secretly wish to kill each other. The answer is emphatically no, but based on the two most infamous “gaffes” of this cycle—Mitt Romney on the untaxed lower and working class and Barack Obama on the parentage of successful businesses—the truth might be that they would just happily tax the hell out of the other side.
In fairness, which inadvertent coining of a catch phrase, “the 47 percent”, or “You didn’t build that” lives on as a classic terminal wound, and which ends up being peripheral noise, is entirely unclear at week’s end: Gallup’s tracking poll still shows the race deadlocked; on the other hand, a flurry of other state by state polls this week showed more good news than not for Barack Obama, who leads in every large swing state even as a battery of smaller state polls remain in a statistical tie. And there is a lot of fog in this race, more than usual even by the standard of instant, all-day news and Twitter.
But it is striking that this year’s verbal blunders are different in kind and nature from their ancestors in prior races: John McCain’s “the economy is fundamentally sound” during the week Lehman Brothers capsized; John Kerry’s “I voted for it before I voted against it”, George W. Bush’s “do they think Social Security is some kind of federal program?” ranged from the inarticulate to the clumsy, to the horribly timed, but not one of them seemed to reflect any footprints around a larger ideological perspective. Rather than being hints of a future program, they were backfires from notably uneloquent politicians trying to riff their way through a lull in their prepared texts.
By John Y. Brown III, on Fri Sep 28, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
I rarely ever lose my cool. And even when I do, it usually goes unnoticed.
But that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate someone who can “lose it” easily—and really put it to impressive uses.
Here is one of my all time favorite “losing it” scenes from one of my all-time favorite movies about the mindset of criminals.
And the consequences of provoking their sometimes hair trigger temper. Unforgettably played by Dustin Hoffman.
Oh, and let me forewarn you, I once had a college counselor 30 years ago suggest to me that I had a “low frustration tolerance threshold.” He may have been trying to tell me that one day I could be capable of doing this too.
As I predicted when Rep. Todd Akin’s ignorant comments first broke, the anti-gambling zealot was going to call the party’s bluff. And despite the fact that the Republican Party’s reversal is an embarrassing sign of the party’s captivity to its lunatic fringe, yes, East Coast establishment, he could actually win.
Before explaining why, it’s worth noting that the NRSC’s about-face is also a story of personal ambition: Sen. John Cornyn understands that he’ll never become Whip (or ultimately, Majority Leader) if he blows his second chance to retake the chamber. With Massachusetts, Hawaii, and Connecticut especially difficult in a presidential year; North Dakota, Montana, and Indiana unexpectedly difficult in a presidential year; and Virginia, Wisconsin and Nevada all trending poorly, Cornyn realizes that any Senate majority goes through Missouri And given the specter of Ken Buck, Sharron Angle, and Christine O’Donnell, Cornyn also knows that there won’t be much forgiveness in his caucus if he blows it again courtesy of a nominee who could’ve been avoided had the primary field been limited to two.
So, how could Akin win? Since 2008, Missouri has swung as hard to the right as has any state in the country. First there are long term demographic shifts at play – not exactly a new trend, but an accelerating one. In a nutshell, ascendant conservative Republican legislators have repelled gays, immigrants, and young, mobile progressives, just as the continuing growth of Branson, Mo. (the live music capital of the world) and the conservative Springfield metro area have attracted hordes of conservative evangelicals and retirees. It was a vicious cycle: the more retrograde the political debate, the more progressives left Missouri or avoided it in the first place. And the more progressives disappeared, the more conservative the electorate became, and the more reactionary the debate. The burgeoning strength of grassroots conservatives in Missouri became apparent in 2010 when Republicans rode the wave to legislative majorities of 106-57 and 26-8 in the state House and Senate, respectively.
Read the rest of… Jeff Smith: Why Todd Akin Could Win
By John Y. Brown III, on Thu Sep 27, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
If you are in an urban area and need to buy an outfit and see a store called Urban Outfitters, you’d think your problem was almost solved, right?
Not necessarily.
I took my son in and strode up and down several rows of men’s clothing. Or it could have been boy clothing. Or man/boy. Or maybe unisex or genderless.
The point is that I liked it but none seemed really to work. A few shirts made me look like a skateboarder. Another like a Native American celebrating his cultural heritage.
Another just made me very uncomfortable because it was tight in all the wrong places.
And so finally, I gave up and decided to leave.
At the door was a young lady greeting customers and I said,
“Excuse me….What age range does Urban Outfitters cater to?”
“We cater to 16-24 year olds,” she said.
“Hmm.” I wasn’t sure whether to pretend I was there to shop just for my son or fess up.
I said, “Do any of the clothes work for people slightly over age 24?”
“Oh, yes.”
“How about all the way up to, say, 49?”
“Absolutely! We sure do.” She cheerfully encouraged.
I laughed and thanked her and said she didn’t have to exaggerate Urban Outfitters target market to make me feel better, but I appreciated it.
But I’m not sure I did.
I thought to myself, I am ready to accept my age being off for some hip clothing stores.
Even by 25 years. But not ready to have young people lie to me about age issues to avoid hurting my feelings.
Tomorrow I may go back and buy something just to make a point that I don’t want anyone’s sympathy.
And if you see me in an multi-colored Native American designed shirt next week…. I’m not wearing it because of my culture. But because I can!
By John Y. Brown III, on Wed Sep 26, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Idea for bookstores to save the world.
Yesterday in Barnes & Noble book store I browsed three different sections.
Politics section. It seemed like every book title was about blaming somebody or some group or some thing for all of our problems.
Self-help section. All the titles seemed in this section seemed to be about taking responsibility for yourself and not blaming others and making the most of your life.
Humor section. Just fun and frivolous titles that make a mockery of our day-to-day world and help lighten my day and restore my perspective.
So, here’s my big idea to save the world.
Take the Self-help books and place them in the Political section. That way we will help end the blame game and start thinking about what we each can do to make things better.
Take all the books in the Humor section and place them in the Self-Help section. Frankly, having a good laugh or two each day is better than buying and reading an entire new book we won’t act on anyway.
And, finally, place all the books from the Political section in the Humor Section. Those books will then be properly categorized and are frankly a lot funnier than most the books in that section anyway when you take them at face value. And they will stop being confused for books that teach or inform us—and finally serve some useful purpose.
Krystal Ball was talking to retirees in rural Virginia when her congressional campaign got weird.
