At first glance, President Obama and FOX pundit Bill O'Reilly don't
seem to have much in common.
Politically, you wouldn't mistake one's opinions for the others.
Stylistically, one is cool and aloof, the other more bombastic.
One is the most powerful politician in the world, the other, an
influential broadcaster. You would never confuse one for the other.
But yet, there are some similarities there. Both are ivy-league,
Harvard graduates. Both have a pretty good-sized ego...you might
say they possess an arrogance located somewhere north of the
border of self-confidence. Both seem to feel that all this country
really needs is for them to tell us the right thing to do.
One of them is in the position of actually being able to tell us what we
should do; the other can merely suggest what he would like us to do
(God, that must be frustrating for him!).
In fact, they are so much alike, we should call them the "O'Breillys".
And the problem with Washington isn't that there are so many
Republicans and Democrats, it's that there are so many O'Breillys.
Washington is crawling with O'Breillys...and that leads to "The
O'Breilly Factor" in Capital politics...ego trumps results...perception
trumps reality.
So, in order to keep egos in check, I modestly propose a new
game based on life in Washington, D.C., called "Pun-dentry",
where language is defined by political behavior.
For example, Ron Paul is always railing against the Fed and
against foreign aid...we call that "a-Paul-ing behavior".
If a chairman of a banking committee holds a hearing to shake down
bankers for political contributions, we could call it "Dodd-ering".
When your eyes glaze over listening to a politician go on and on, you've
been "Pelosi-tized".
When John Boehner starts crying, he's "going Boeh-nal".
When Vallerie Jarrett goes skulking around the White House, she's
being the "Val-dictorian".
When a politician strong-arms banks to make home loans to people
who can't afford them, and then denies he had anything to do with
a housing crisis, we call that the "Barney Frank-ing privilege".
And of course, there's Anthony "Weiner-izing".
Finally, when a politician tells an epic lie over and over, and then
denies that he meant what he said, you call that "telling Obam-ers".
Feel free to come up with your own personal examples of
"Pun-dentry". Don't worry about hurt feelings.
They'll just be happy to have something named after them.
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