Karen Heller: On this GOP reality show, vote the moderator off the island

December 07, 2011|By Karen Heller, Inquirer Columnist

If we stop mentioning D***** T****, will he go away? Can we fire him?

The developer, whom the late Spy magazine dubbed a "short-fingered vulgarian," trends more nouveau than riche. Prone to gold-encrusted kitsch and Barnum-like theatrics, he plans to moderate a Dec. 27 GOP debate.

First problem: The word moderate, emphasis on the first syllable, is not in T****'s lexicon.

He's Sideshow D**, his hair a feat of improbable architecture. (Not to brag or anything, but I've touched that fiery meringue.) His reality show/casino floorshow makes a belated Christmas present for Democrats, Jon Stewart, and reporters while, understandably, sending serious Republicans into apoplectic fits.

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Karl Rove said, "We've got a guy who is not only saying 'I'm going to make a decision about who I'm gonna endorse shortly after this debate and I'm already leaning some way - and I may run myself,' and we expect him to be the impartial moderator of the debate?" Former Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer said T**** "risks making a carnival out of a serious presidential campaign."

To which we ask, is Fleischer following the same GOP race we are?

The one that manages to combine the worst aspects of every reality show. I'm already wistful for that early period when The Amazing Race resembled The Bachelor, with GOP leadership pining for Mitch Daniels, Chris Christie, Haley Barbour, and John Thune only to have the rose rejected.

Remember the months of What Will Sarah Do? Palin suffers from celebrity Attention Deficit Disorder, requiring that all attention focus on her and her family. She's the political equivalent of Kate Gosselin.

The bloviating hotelier also suffers from pronounced celebrity ADD. And Rove is wrong: T**** will never run for office because he'd have to disclose his true financial worth instead of promoting the fiction of his billions. Hence, he wants to control the debate: all the posturing with few facts.

You'll be shocked to learn that T**** is between shows but not books. On Monday, the Trollope of monetary self-help tomes published It's Time to Get Tough: Making America #1 Again. By the way, that's his advice. Get tough! It's time!

If only Herman Cain had run a few weeks longer! He could flaunt his intellectual mastery of Libya, Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan and the Pokemon oeuvre.

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