I’m not sure which part of this I find the most simultaneously entertaining and depressing:
Is it the tell-tale sign where (0:19 mark) Mike Bost, trying hard to appear so out of control that he’s throwing things around, briefly stops to adjust the microphone to make sure it’s picking him up for the Illinois version of a CSPAN camera? Is it how premeditated it looks when he throws his papers up? Or when, right after that, he realizes he has erred by just giving them a gentle toss and punches them on the way down to make up for it? Is it the way everyone around him is looking bored in kind of a “sheesh, is this clown doing the ‘I’m ranting for the people’ thing again?” Is it the “Whitest Guy At The Elks Lodge” using the “Let my people go!” line about state pension reform?
Regardless, this obviously and cynically staged “real and edgy” photo-op is everything I both hate and love about modern political theatre rolled into one delectable 1:32-long video clip.
I’m not which is most telling, the faux rant of Mr. Bost or the very genuine disinterest displayed by his colleges. From their expressions he might as well not have even been in the room.
What good is authority without recognition?Report
Er, “colleagues”. Damn spellcheck…Report
Oh, I’m quite sure the colleges have no interest in him either.Report
Everything I’ve ever felt about American democracy has already been said by Kent Brockman.Report
That gives me a very, very shaky excuse to post this:
Report
Behaviour like that would get you ejected from the House in New Zealand, which is one way of making sure people don’t do it.Report
See, in America I could see this same guy staging it so that he could post videos of himself being ejected.Report
This.Report
Ah yes, but the Speaker rules Parliament with an iron fist and can order no video be published. That would be more problematic in the US of course.Report
In Taiwan this is just par for the course. Ah the good old days when the old line GuoMingDong guys had “interns” who whipped out the GungFu on each other. Not quite as good as the dueling among our politicians we had here 200 yrs ago, but close enough. Personally I’d love to see them bring back dueling (and the honor that went with it) but that alas is too much to hope for.Report
Yes, the honor of murdering another person!Report
I was about to mention Taiwan, so you beat me to it, but I can add this supercut video with inspiring soundtrack.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZ-hNVfTZqwReport