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COLUMNISTS
TODAY'S STORIES
04.12.2008
Obama and Ros-Lehtinen's Bad Connection

 Obama is finding out that bipartisan cooperation will be tougher than he originally thought.

"GOP Congresswoman hangs up on Obama-Twice"

Clearly Ros-Lehtinen has been scarred by the Palin radio prank

--Michelle Cottle

Posted: Thursday, December 04, 2008 9:46 AM with 7 comment(s)

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icarusr said:

Yeah, last week, I hung up on my boss twice.  When called on it, I used the "Palin call prank" excuse.  Works like a charm; she seemed utterly fool-, I mean, convinced by it.

On an unrelated note, my boss asked me a couple of days ago to go on a mission to Tuktoyaktuk, from whence I write this missive.

December 4, 2008 10:05 AM

GSpinks said:

It seems like a perfectly reasonable misunderstanding; radio DJs play this kind of prank every single day, and she has no "real" reason to expect Obama to be calling her about something. Amusing, none-the-less.

December 4, 2008 11:32 AM

Rhubarbs said:

I have some sympathy for the poor congresswoman. Then again, another way to frame this is that she answered the phone, believed it was a call from one of her constituents instead of from the future president, and hung up on him. Only when satisfactorily assured with means far beyond the reasonable that the caller was in fact the future president, and not some pissant constituent, would she deign to answer the phone. Makes me glad she doesn't represent me.

Personally, I would hope to be represented in Congress by someone who does not think so little of her own abilities and accomplishments, or of the importance of her own district and constituents, as to regard a call from the president as beyond belief. Whatever humiliation Palin suffered was not because the call was a prank, but because of the stupid things she said while under the assumption she was speaking to the president of France. The danger is never that the call is a prank; the danger is that one does not believe one is capable of holding a conversation, real or false, without making a fool of oneself.

December 4, 2008 12:09 PM

cspencef said:

Ros-Lehtinen is your standard Repug a-hole.  Personally I have no sympathy and I'm not buying it for a second.

December 4, 2008 1:07 PM

williamyard said:

For all of us, even for ourselves, we are not who we say we are. We look in the mirror: truth fails us.

So whether or not Obama was on the phone, Obama was not on the phone--not the Obama we all don't know and love, or don't know and hate. I'm not a President, but I play one in your ear, on your Internets.

It's like Dame Edna noting that the act of a man dressing up in women's clothing is "repulsive."

I'd love to chat more, but in reality my name is Scarlett Johansson, or Franz Kafka, and I have to catch a plane to Chicago.

December 4, 2008 2:10 PM

satyendra said:

Apart from the lack of screening of the "Sarkozy" to Palin call, Palin missed out on numerous indications that the callers were jokers.  Straight off the bat, "Sarkozy" refers to the other guy as his "special asst. Johnny Hallyday."  Hallyday is some aging crooner with so many face lifts I thought he was half-Vietnamese and 30 years younger.

I digressed. It's not a badge of ignorance if one doesn't know who Hallyday is, however, there were so many other cues, like the banter about Joe the Plumber being her husband, her edgy bio in Hustler, etc.

December 4, 2008 4:46 PM

JEFF FREY said:

Tuktuyaktuk? Say hello to the Beaufort Sea, icarusr. And in December!  And you say it is unrelated? That'll teach you to hang up on your boss!

December 4, 2008 11:45 PM