Karl RoveAnd the challenger--she's sexy! She's sassy! She is the nine-time Grammy winning American blues rock singer, guitarist, bassist, and songwriter! Every Day is a Winding Road for her--Sheryl Crow:
Sheryl CrowThey are in the Smackdown Ring now! And here is the bell!
Let's start with this New York Times article here:
WASHINGTON, April 22 — Put celebrity environmental activists in a room with top Bush administration officials and a meeting of the minds could result. At least that is a theoretical possibility.
The more likely outcome is that an argument will break out, as it did at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday night between Karl Rove, the president’s deputy chief of staff, and the singer Sheryl Crow and Laurie David, a major Democratic donor and a producer of the global warming documentary featuring Al Gore, “An Inconvenient Truth.”
Ms. Crow and Ms. David, who have been visiting campuses in an event billed as the Stop Global Warming College Tour, approached Mr. Rove to urge him to take “a fresh look” at global warming, they said later.
[....]
Ms. Crow was at the dinner as a guest of Bloomberg News. Ms. David and her husband, Larry David, a creator of “Seinfeld,” were guests of CNN. Mr. Rove was a guest of The New York Times.
The one thing all three parties agree on is that the conversation quickly became heated.
As Ms. Crow and Ms. David described it on the Huffington Post Web site on Sunday, when Mr. Rove turned toward his table, Ms. Crow touched his arm and “Karl swung around and spat, ‘Don’t touch me.’ ”
Oh what a spat! I guess the last thing you would want to do is place a sassy celebrity environmental activist with the Turdblossom himself. What is even more amazing is how Rove didn't want to be touched by Crow. What would have happened if someone as sassy and sexy as Sheryl Crow touched Karl Rove's arm--would Karl Rove's arm have burst into flaming conflagration, thus consuming Bush's Brain into the fiery depths of Hell? Come to think of it, Sheryl Crow can touch me anytime she wants!
But let's get back to our Smackdown! According to the NY Times:
Both sides agreed that Ms. Crow told him, “You can’t speak to us like that, you work for us,” to which Mr. Rove responded, “I don’t work for you, I work for the American people.” Ms. Crow and Ms. David wrote that Ms. Crow shot back, “We are the American people.”
OUCH! That left hook sent the Turdblossom down on the mat! Is Sheryl Crow an American citizen? According to Sheryl Crow's biography on her website, she was born in Missouri--that's about as country of a country gal that you can get! There are even more details in a Wikipedia biography on Crow's early life:
Crow was born Sheryl Suzanne Crow in Kennett, Missouri. Her parents were members of a local big band in which her father, an attorney, played trumpet. The family was very musical and owned three pianos. In school, she was active in the school choir, athletics, and school plays. She was a drum majorette, a member of the Pep Club, the National Honor Society, the Future Farmers of America, she was the Freshman Maid, the Senior Maid, and the Paperdoll Queen. She was a perfectionist who strove to please her parents. When her prom date was later questioned about her fame, he said that at the time he thought she "would be a doctor's wife someday". She graduated in 1984 from the University of Missouri, where she majored in music education with a concentration in piano and was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta, Sigma Alpha Iota, and Omicron Delta Kappa.
Looks to me like Sheryl Crow is an American citizen. And since Crow is not a convicted felon, that would mean that she is also an American voter. So Karl Rove does work for Sheryl Crow--that is, unless Rove has decided to embark on career change as rapper MC Rove. And Karl Rove certainly is a public servant. A July 11, 2006 National Journal article lists Rove's White House employment position as Assistant to the President, Deputy Chief of Staff & Senior adviser, drawing a salary of $165,200. I don't think the Republican National Committee paid for Rove's salary here--you, me, Sheryl Crown, and the rest of the American taxpayers are paying for Rove's employment. So Karl--you do work for Sheryl Crow here! And Ms. Crow has every right to criticize you and the Bush administration's failed policy on global warming. But it is obvious that you only want to listen to the 30-36 percent of Kool-aid drinking Bush supporters, Big Oil and Corporate interests--and not the rest of the American people that you supposedly claim to work for.
And our Monday Afternoon Smackdown winner is....Sheryl Crow!
But we've got more on our post-smackdown analysis. Here's the Bush White House PR-spin on our smackdown event:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Karl Rove, political strategist to President George W. Bush, just wanted to have fun at a weekend black-tie dinner, rather than debate global warming with singer Sheryl Crow, the White House said on Monday.
"I think Karl Rove just wanted to have some fun on Saturday night. And I think he wasn't the only one," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, in an apparent reference to lyrics of Crow's signature hit, "All I Wanna Do (is have some fun)."
Did Rove leave the dinner early in a huff over the confrontation? "Rove left to get in the motorcade to go home. That's what we all have to do if we're in the motorcade," she said.
"The president's record on climate change is very strong, Perino said.
Environmentalists have long assailed Bush, a former Texas oilman with close support in the industry, saying he failed to take climate change seriously.
I guess that somebody was a bad spoiled-sport here. Karl Rove just wanted to have fun, but apparently he couldn't handle a spirited debate on the Bush administration's own failed global warming policy. Not only does Rove reject the idea that he doesn't work for 2/3rds of the American public, but he stomps off as a sore loser while having the Bush White House spin another lie that Rove just wanted to go home. In fact, Karl Rove doesn't even give a quote or a comment to the press on this smackdown--the Bush White House has to provide the PR-spin. Then again, what did you expect from the Bush administration.
And as for the post-smackdown analysis from Sheryl Crow and Laurie David, let's go to The Huffington Post:
Last night Thelma and Louise drove the bus off the cliff or at least into the White House Correspondents Dinner. The "highlight" of the evening had to be when we were introduced to Karl Rove. How excited were we to have our first opportunity ever to talk directly to the Bush Administration about global warming.
We asked Mr. Rove if he would consider taking a fresh look at the science of global warming. Much to our dismay, he immediately got combative. And it went downhill from there.
We reminded the senior White House advisor that the US leads the world in global warming pollution and we are doing the least about it. Anger flaring, Mr. Rove immediately regurgitated the official Administration position on global warming which is that the US spends more on researching the causes than any other country.
We felt compelled to remind him that the research is done and the results are in (www.IPCC.ch). Mr. Rove exploded with even more venom. Like a spoiled child throwing a tantrum, Mr. Rove launched into a series of illogical arguments regarding China not doing enough thus neither should we. (Since when do we follow China's lead?)
At some point during his ramblings, we became heartbroken to think that the President of the United States and his top advisers have partially built a career on global warming not being real. We have been telling college students across the country for the past two weeks that government does not change until people demand it... well, listen up folks, everyone had better get a lot louder because the message clearly is not getting through.
In his attempt to dismiss us, Mr. Rove turned to head toward his table, but as soon as he did so, Sheryl reached out to touch his arm. Karl swung around and spat, "Don't touch me." How hardened and removed from reality must a person be to refuse to be touched by Sheryl Crow? Unfazed, Sheryl abruptly responded, "You can't speak to us like that, you work for us." Karl then quipped, "I don't work for you, I work for the American people." To which Sheryl promptly reminded him, "We are the American people."
At that point Mr. Rove apparently decided he had had enough. Like a groundhog fearful of his own shadow, he scurried to his table in an attempt to hibernate for another year from his responsibility to address global warming. Drama aside, you would expect as an American citizen to be able to engage in a civil discussion with a public official. Instead, Mr. Rove was dismissive, condescending, and quite frankly a bully.
Ultimately, we were left wondering what on Earth Mr. Rove was talking about when he said "the American people." If more than 60% of American voters, the Supreme Court, over 400 cities, the US National Academy of Sciences, numerous major US corporations, and others don't constitute the American people, then what does? The truth is, if this administration cared one iota about the American people, they would have addressed this problem long ago, and the sad reality is that this problem has been left to us, all of us, since the current administration has abandoned this issue entirely. In the absence of true leadership, we must guide ourselves. We can solve this, but we had better act fast.
That is it for Monday Afternoon Smackdown. Join us next time for another exciting episode!
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