I once heard a political cartoonist remark that the darkest day for his profession was that of Nixon's resignation. The ski nose, the beady eyes, the 5 o'clock shadow, the V sign, all the physical manifestations of a monumentally soulless corruption--gone. Tricky Dick's White House exit may have been salubrious for the body politic, he said, but it was a disaster for cartoonists.
So it might have been for "the mainstream liberal media" in the unsettling wake of Michele Bachmann's forced retirement, which the, ahem, congresswoman says will be subject to the aforementioned scribblers' "detrimental spin." And it's true, some may be shortsighted enough to celebrate her departure, oblivious to the darkness of a merry imbecility lost.
But Bachmann's exit, devastating as it is, will leave behind a joyous vault of Bachmannesque vapidity, due in no small part to Bachmann's influential presence. She soon may be gone, but she'll keep on giving. Those crazed, fiery eyes, in search of unAmerican colleagues; those whacko lips, exhorting us to rise in furious revolt against energy-efficient lightbulbs; those Ed Wood productions of her demented addresses to the nation--yes, they'll be gone in body, but they'll be with us in spirit. For we'll always have Michele's tea partyism.
So I salute you, Congresswoman Bachmann. You may have darkened this day--this particular day--but tomorrow, endless tomorrows remain ablaze with the spectre of your flakiness.