By RP Staff, on Tue May 10, 2011 at 5:00 PM ET Hope you had some fun today with Nell Minow, the WWGs, and the Jew-ish Gentiles. As you can tell, the RP is having WAY too much fun with this site.
Tomorrow we lead off with our 17th contributing RP, a nationally-respected former GOP Congressman, a proud Republican who is taking on the extremes in his party on a critical issue.
And after a few fits and starts, we’ll finally read Jeff Smith’s update on the redistricting brouhaha in Missouri that has long term implications for the rest of the nation.
See you on Wednesday!
By Jonathan Miller, on Tue May 10, 2011 at 11:15 AM ET Regular RP readers know that I’m quite taken with aping Nick Hornby and serving up my own pop culture Top Five lists (See, e.g., my Five Favorite Breakup Songs and my Five Favorite Hoops Books).
But today, I venture off on a mission implausible that risks alienation, if not excommunication, by my co-religionists at the Anti-Defamation League and the Global Zionist Conspiracy.
So, please allow me a brief expository digression…
Five years ago, when I launched my national tour for The Compassionate Community — the book in which I discuss my political career as a devout Jew living in an inner notch of the Bible Belt — I ventured often into the rural hills and hollers of my home state, speaking to audiences in which I was the only one present who lights the Sabbath candles. I’d speak passionately about my Jewish faith, quote the Talmud and the Rabbis; but, inevitably, there would be someone who’d come up to me afterwards to proclaim: “You are such a good Christian!”
I’m confident that each time this occured, the well-intentioned speaker was using a secular definition of “Christian” (along the lines of “someone who tries to emulate Christ”) as opposed to making a religious statement. (And I’m certain that they were NOT comparing me to the unholy hoopster “Christian“.) So I took it as a hopeful complement.
 Flashback to my college dorm room two decades earlier. My then-roommate (and current Friend of RP) Ron Granieri, came to campus with an encyclopedic knowledge of my faith, customs and moral code, quite impressive for a Roman Catholic from upstate New York. And because he was a compassionate soul with a wicked sense of humor, our other roommate — a future rabbi, natch — annointed him as Jew-ish, since he was still technically not a Jew. (Ron was unwilling to go through the formal conversion process, which not only would have required him to renounce his own devout beliefs; but much worse, to endure a ritual circumcision.)
So in honor of our un-cut and non-kosher, but still quite Jew-ish Ron, I hereby consecrate the following list of the Five Most Jew-ish Gentiles in Pop Culture:
– – – – – – – –
  5. (tie) Tina Fey and Liz Lemon
Her dark eyes, Semitic features, the bookish specs, her ascerbic wit, the close association with the media elite in New York City…How could it be possible that Tina Fey isn’t actually Jewish? And her alter ego, Liz Lemon, takes it a step further –Liz’s inexhaustible self-deprecating neuroses identify her as the modern-day Woody Allen. But alas, Fey is Greek Orthodox; and Lemon, when asked about her faith, replied: “I pretty much just do whatever Oprah tells me to.” Jewish boys and girls are just going to have to wait even longer to finally find a Jewish role model in the world of comedy.
 4. Bruce Springsteen
If his New Jersey roots, passion for social justice and 70’s-era matching Jew-fro and Hassidic beard weren’t enough, his surname is Springsteen, for Chri…uh… Moses’ sake! But sorry… the Boss was raised in a very devout Catholic household. (The fact that “Mary” is the name of the woman in every other Springsteen song should have given it away.) It is no coincidence that I learned that the Boss was not one of us precisely at the same time as when my Christian friends were apprised that Santa Claus wasn’t really coming to town.
 3. Batman
Batman (Secret identity: Bruce Wayne) was the ultimate Jew-ish superhero. He lived in Gotham, an unsubtle proxy for the city with the world’s largest Jewish population. He was a wealthy industrialist, yet felt apart from the rest of society, much like many successful Jews in the mid-20th century. Most significantly, unlike his fellow comrades in the Superfriends Justice League of America, Batman did not slay his foes using any extra-human, Christ-like powers — Instead, he used his bookish cunning and wile. Yet, there is never any mention of Wayne’s Semitic affiliation in any DC comic book. Unfortunately as well, the experts deem him either a lapsed Catholic or a lapsed Episcopalian. There is good news, however, Hebraic Bat Fans: The new Batwoman is Jewish. And a lesbian. Holy Sephardic Sapphism, Batman!
Read the rest of…
The RP: The Five Most Jew-ish Gentiles in Pop Culture
By RP Staff, on Mon May 9, 2011 at 5:00 PM ET We are going to have some fun on Tuesday.
We will begin the day with an RPTV Fifteen Minutes of Fame with Nell Minow, a true Renaissance woman — a nationally influential expert on corporate governance AND a popular family film reviewerm, known as the “Movie Mom.” She also comes from a very well-known family: You will love her answer when asked what makes her proudest to be a Minow.
The RP will weigh in with another top five list around lunchtime. You are going to have to wait on the topic: to describe it tersely could wind up in a misunderstanding of international consequences.
Catch you tomorrow!
By Jonathan Miller, on Mon May 9, 2011 at 9:15 AM ET Thanks for making Friday’s Kentucky Derby posting the most popular non-Jeff Smith piece in the history of The Recovering Politician!
In the spirit of “You get what you pay for,” out of the 20 RP contributors who offered their handicapping skills…and among the 13 different horses predicted by these same contributors…and including the more than a dozen commentors here at the RP and on the RP’s Facebook page…not a single person correctly picked Animal Kingdom to win the Run for the Roses.
Bad news: I lost my shirt at the Derby. (It only cost $5.) Good news: I don’t have to buy anybody any mint julep mix for winning our prediction contest!
I know one person who actually picked the winner. And on Thursday, we will feature her as brand new Friend of RP. Of course, she’s a month shy of 15 years old. You will have to stay tuned to read her wisdom.
Until then, if you want some good laughs, re-read our KY Derby post. And stay to the very end to read the prediction of the winner of a box of chocolate bourbon balls for the funniest one-liner.
Written by Jeff Smith, of course.
By RP Staff, on Fri May 6, 2011 at 5:00 PM ET Beginning Monday, we will introduce the final set of inaugural contributing RPs. While more will join us in the future, next week’s Big 3 will round out our Sweet Eighteen — the first, the proud, the literary.
Next week’s gang will include two former Congressman, one GOP and one Democrat. On Monday, you will meet someone who held the most powerful position in the land (at least in the RP’s household): State Treasurer. He has no regrets of leaving politics, and he talks about how easy his recovery has been.
On Tuesday, we have a particularly fun RPTV Fifteen Minutes of Fame, featuring a real Renaissance Woman, both a nationally-respected advocate for corporate governance and a popular family movie critic. And she’s got a great sense of humor.
So enjoy your Derby weekend. And remember, if you are looing for a good pick — or at least a good laugh, read what 20 RP contributors have to say about the Run for the Roses.
By Jonathan Miller, on Fri May 6, 2011 at 2:15 PM ET Tomorrow is a quasi-religious holiday in my home state — the one day we put aside our obsession with college basketball, and focus on something truly spiritual: a two-minute race, involving about 20 three-year-old thoroughbred horses and a bunch of vertically-challenged guys riding on top of them.
Wherever you are, you might have an opportunity to place a small wager on the race, or to select a horse’s name on a piece of paper from a punch bowl at a Derby party. Because The Recovering Politician‘s mission is to serve our readers with critical information at timely moments like this, our Contributing RPs, the Friends of RP, and even the RP staff have been asked to share their expertise and give you their recommended picks.
(OK, they’ve been bribed: Winning entries from the RP team will receive a bottle of mint julep mix; the funniest pick wins a box of delicious chocolate bourbon balls.)
So, with all the obvious disclaimers (adults only; gamble in moderation; if you wager at a track, consider your bet a contribution to Kentucky’s struggling horse industry; picking a horse by its color or name is often as effective as studying the Daily Racing Form; females, be sure to wear an outrageous hat to your Derby party–see an example to the right), here is the deeply-educated, passionately-considered handicapping of the RP team:
The RP: My brother-in-law, Clark Mandel, is a chiropractor who works with horses, and a very serious handicapper. His picks are in this order: Archarcharch, Pants On Fire, and Soldat. I will follow his advice, putting my big money ($5) on Pants On Fire because of Jeff Smith’s comment at the bottom of this post.
John Roach: If the track is dry, I like Mucho Macho Man and Nehro. For longshot plays, I like Twice the Appeal and Master of the Hounds.
Grant Smith (RP Staff): I’m going with Twice the Appeal. Not only is Calvin Borel the jockey, the horse’s position at Gate 3 only increases the odds that Calvin “Bo Rail” will be able to pull off his famous rail-riding antics all the way to victory.
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend: I am going with Twinspired…I like the cleverness of the name…and I have two sets of twins as nieces and nephews, and they inspire me with their grace and ability!
Kristen Hamilton (RP Staff): I love Calvin Borel, but if I were to pick one based on a name, it would be Archarcharch, because that is exactly what I said after taking finals. :/
Andrei Cherny: I say Mucho Macho Man in honor of Arizona’s Hispanic heritage.
Stephanie Doctrow (RP Staff): My favorite Derby horse has to be Stay Thirsty… I don’t know much about the horses this year, but as an upperclassman at a Big Ten university, I feel obligated to pick the one with that name!
Loranne Ausley: I was going to go with Watch Me Go as a Florida bred with a female trainer (only 2 female trainers tomorrow making them the 14th and 15th in history of Derby), but I am going with Pants on Fire. Not Florida bred, but ridden by a female jockey…..if they win, Rosie Napravnik would be first woman jockey to win the Derby! Only 5 previous female jockeys in the history of the race. Here is a link to a story in the St. Pete Times Politifact (yes, Politifact has opined on this because “Pants on Fire” is a term of art in their political fact checking world!)
 Antics in the Derby infield Zack Adams (RP Staff): Twice the Appeal. I’m betting on Calvin Bo-rail, winner of 3 of the last 4 Derbys.
Steven Schulman (Who attended the Derby infield with the RP while in high school): From personal experience, I can’t say there are horses at the Derby. But I will pick Mucho Macho Man. Of course.
Carte Goodwin: When I was living in Atlanta, a radio station used to periodically have a contest called Rock Band or Racehorse. The DJs would read a name, and callers would have to identify it — say Veruca Salt as a band, or Unbridled as a horse. So in honor of that contest, Santiva sounds like a good band name (or at least better than Pants on Fire.)
By RP Staff, on Fri May 6, 2011 at 9:30 AM ET Because we at The Recovering Politician care about providing you with pertinent information on timely issues, today at 2:15 PM EDT, the RP, the Contributing RPs, the Friends of RP, and even the RP Staff will be providing you with their picks for the Kentucky Derby, to be run tomorrow.
If you are a sports fan, or if you simply are looking to make a contribution to Kentucky’s struggling horse industry, be sure to tune back here at 2:15 PM.
Don’t say that we didn’t warn you.
By Jonathan Miller, on Thu May 5, 2011 at 5:00 PM ET Friday we have some big doin’s at The Recovering Politician.
First, at 8:30 AM, we debut our 15th (15th!) contributing RP. He was a longtime, very popular statewide officeholder, who came from a political dynasty in his state. He shot twice for higher office, but each time lost narrowly in the primary, once to someone named Barack Obama. He will share his expertise on today’s economy, and his reflections on his once rival, now friend, the President of the United States.
Later, since Carte Goodwin’s piece on his four month tour of the United States Senate proved so popular, Friday’s Video Flashback will focus on his first week in office. Watch what you read about on Friday.
Finally, Jeff Smith will update his Wednesday piece on redistricting with some breaking news on the controversy in Missouri.
And of course, Weekly Web Gems…Whew!
See you tomorrow. And if you celebrate Cinquo de Maio, don’t sleep in too late so as to not miss all the fun.
By John Johnson, on Thu May 5, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET  I would be the first to admit it – I am not a patient person. For example, I’ve owned 5 different cell phones in the last 3 years. Why? Because I get impatient whenever a new feature comes out that my phone doesn’t have! If you want to torture me, ask me to wait in the grocery check-out line. On my birthday, we open gifts at 7 AM. Waiting a few minutes at the coffee shop for a friend running late tests my patience. Yet, in my professional career, it has been my lack of patience that actually changed the entire course I have taken.
I am an economist who specializes in crunching giant datasets to figure out what patterns exist in the data and how to rigorously test hypotheses. After a very short stint as an academic after graduate school (again, impatient!), I began a career at one of the top economic litigation consulting firms in 2001. My job the past decade has been to provide expert witness testimony in antitrust and labor and employment litigation matters.
About three years ago, during a performance evaluation, one of my bosses tried to pay me a compliment when he told me I had been a “superstar” at the firm, but sometimes being so successful so quickly meant people didn’t exactly know what to do with me. Then he gave me some advice which I will never forget– I just needed to be patient because I was a big part of the future of the firm.
You can probably guess that I didn’t take that advice so well. Something about the discussion crystallized for me that to be truly satisfied in my professional career, I was going to have to shake things up and venture out on my own. So, after nine years, I decided to leave the security of a large firm to venture out on my own (in the worst recession of the last few years).
Thus, in September 2009, Edgeworth Economics was born.
 Francis Edgeworth I quickly realized that I had a certain vision for the firm that would have my name on it. But, as you probably noticed, my name is Johnson, not Edgeworth! That was actually the point. Francis Edgeworth was a 19th century economist who developed, amongst other things, a model of trade called pareto optimality. The theory of Edgeworth’s model is that gains from trade can be made to the point at which everyone has been made better off, and no one is made worse off. We have used this concept to guide decisions at our firm from the beginning: a belief in a culture that serving clients can be done and a work environment can be created in which we all can flourish by putting the needs of the firm above those of ourselves.
Our firm started with six of us in what quickly became a very cramped temporary office space in Washington, DC. At times it has felt like Art Linkletter might be hiding in the office waiting to jump out and say “this is your life…”. Our recruiting efforts have brought a group together from all different parts of my life: my two co-founders were both colleagues from my former firm who I have known for almost a decade. Our HR Director was my best undergraduate student from Illinois. Our COO is my former research assistant who was finishing an MBA as we started the firm. One of our senior PhD economists was my daughter’s first babysitter. And even my wife jumped in to the mix—handling all sorts of crazy tasks for us whenever we needed her help.
About 19 months later, and having run out of people I know, we are about to hire our 22nd employee and once again find ourselves expanding our office space to fit all of our staff. One of the best parts of this experience for me has come from the ability to create a unique culture of professionalism, shared sacrifice, and working together for the benefit of the entire firm. Our client base is varied—but the hallmark of our firm has been great attention to our clients and providing rigorous, objective analysis. In many respects, we are academic in our approach. My firm specializes in teaching our clients, attorneys, judges, and juries. And in some respect, that is how my career has gone full circle from my short stint at a professor.
Every day, I try to teach my employees – leading by example, building our culture, pushing our potential, and sharing this experience.
Every day, I attempt to teach my clients – what does all this economics analysis mean, how it is relevant to their case, and what the implications are.
And not a day goes by that I don’t learn something from my colleagues and my clients – either about myself, about running a business, or about life in general.
 Being The Boss can be very rewarding. My experience at Edgeworth Economics has been one of the most exciting and rewarding of my professional life. I never knew what it was like to love going to work every day. In addition to the great rewards that have come from professional successes, the true meaning of Edgeworth for me has been creating a little corner of the world that reflects the values of myself and my colleagues. I doubt I’ll ever be able to work for someone else again, but in some respects, that was the whole point in starting Edgeworth Economics.
Being my own boss fits me well. In this job, I get to be impatient everyday, which fits my entrepreneurial side well, and it has been most rewarding. It is something I hope I never recover from.
By Jonathan Miller, on Wed May 4, 2011 at 5:00 PM ET Happy Star Wars day to all of our readers-who-need-to-get-a-life! Enjoy an evening of fake lasers and bad James Earl Jones imitations.
Thursday is the debut of a new Friend of RP who has made the journey from academia to entrepreneurship. He has some valuable lessons to share about patience and recovery.
And as always, plenty of Weekly Web Gems, featuring links to some of the best civil dialogue on the Internet.
See you tomorrow!
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