I predicted about a week ago that the media will get increasingly nasty, petulant, and downright stupid in their coverage of Romney as the campaign continues and the poll numbers get more favorable. Now, in the aftermath of Wisconsin Governor Walker’s triumph over Barrett and the unions, on the heels of the news that Romney is ahead of Obama in true-blue Michigan, of all places, the New York Times has published a real beauty of partisan hackery.
You see, there’s a perfectly good reason why they’re ignoring their former golden boy Brett Kimberlin’s assault on the First Amendment: all of their crack reporters are busy digging up the really important news, those valiant efforts from whence comes this breathless story about the Romneys as seen through the eyes of their also (but perhaps not quite as) rich neighbors in San Diego.
This story is worth reading for the sheer comedic value; it’s not long and has all of the “right” messages. Note how “diverse” Romney’s poor, beleaguered neighbors are:
ON Dunemere Drive, it seems as if just about everyone has a gripe against the owners of No. 311.
The elderly woman next door complains that her car is constantly boxed into her driveway. A few houses over, a gay couple grumbles that their beloved ocean views are in jeopardy. And down the street, a widow grouses that her children’s favorite dog-walking route has been disrupted.
For the love of all that is holy, fetch the smelling salts! Romney represses the elderly! Romney endangers gays! Romney inconveniences widowed mothers and their children! Romney hates dogs!
Does anyone like Romney’s presence? We must find someone to preserve the facade of balance in this ridiculous article! Oh, look! Here’s someone:
There are those who seem pleased by Mr. Romney’s presence here, which real estate agents have whispered could raise home values by 10 percent. “Personally, I’m glad it’s people who have a little bit of money and taste living there,” said Susan Coll, who lives three houses away.
Got that? Only distasteful, snooty people like Romney, because of <gasp, shudder> monetary benefits! And note also that Ms. Coll isn’t identified as being elderly, or a widow, or a mother, or gay–nothing to possibly incite any feelings of camaraderie among the “protected” classes identified at the beginning of the article.
Of course, money’s perfectly okay when the “right” people have it and use it to “educate” Mr. Romney on the error of his thinking:
Mr. Clark, an accountant, is trying to organize a campaign fund-raiser at his home for President Obama and hopes to bump into Mr. Romney on the street, so he can explain, “in a neighborly way,” why he thinks his relationship with Mr. Maddox deserves the same rights and status as the marriage between Mr. Romney and his wife, Ann.
A few houses up on Dunemere are Michael Duddy and his partner, James Geiger, who make no secret of their discomfort with some of Mr. Romney’s politics. Chatting with Mr. Maddox and Mr. Clark a few weekends ago, Mr. Geiger playfully proposed hanging a gay-pride flag from the Italian stone pine tree in his yard “so that Romney’s motorcade has to drive under it.”
And we mustn’t forget the youth, no we mustn’t, precious:
A young man in town recalled that Mr. Romney confronted him as he smoked marijuana and drank on the beach last summer, demanding that he stop.
The issue appears to be a recurring nuisance for the Romneys. Mr. Quint, who lives on the waterfront near Mr. Romney, said that a police officer had asked him, on a weekend when the candidate was in town, to report any pot smoking on the beach. The officer explained to him that “your neighbors have complained,” Mr. Quint recalled. “He was pretty clear that it was the Romneys.”
Oh, man! That Romney’s such a square, man! Not hip and cool like Barack “Choom Gang” Obama, man! How dare he expect such an inconvenient, uncool thing like the law to be upheld, man!
And, break out the violins, because those poor, unfortunate neighbors have no recourse from Romney’s fellow Republicans….at the federal level…..but they’re from the general area so they must be able to do something, right? Right???
Local lawmakers are largely unmoved by the neighbors’ complaints, especially those with long memories. Darrell Issa, the Republican congressman who represents parts of San Diego County, can still recall when President Nixon, during his first year in office, purchased a waterfront mansion in nearby San Clemente, Calif. La Casa Pacifica, as Nixon called it, was quickly rechristened the Western White House.
Aaaah! They invoked the name of Nixon! And there’s Issa, who’s persecuting that poor, black Attorney General Holder! Romney’s Republicans are sooooo mean and heartless!!! Ah, swoon….
The Fellowship of the Perpetually Aggrieved 