Smile

I was watching the HBO documentary on the great newspaperman Ben Bradlee when my ex-wife Suze called from Minneapolis all breathless and happy to tell me that Doug Jones had kicked Judge Roy Moore’s cracker ass down in Alabama. 

It was apropos that I was watching the Bradlee doc because when he ran the Washington Post he was instrumental in bringing down Nixon.

The night Obama got elected the first time, I wept in joy and relief. Last night, I cheered. No tears now. I’m still smiling as I write this. I think the political gods were smiling yesterday, too. As the old song lyrics go, this could be the start of something big. Mark December 12 as a very significant day in America’s variegated history.

The way you lose is at least as important as how you win. Doug Jones was

every inch the gracious winner on his 25^th wedding anniversary, thanking everybody in sight – especially African-American and Hispanic voters – and reminded Alabama and America that his victory was about respect and dignity and the rule of law, virtues that have been sorely lacking in the Donald Trump presidency and in American politics since this fraud took office.

Judge Roy Moore – I love the way they call him “Judge” down there even though he got kicked off the Alabama supreme court twice – in his crappy brown suit was every inch the sore and stupid loser, vowing a groundless recount and calling on God to straighten out this evident miscarriage. Then he quoted some dismal Bible verse that barely made sense and took his big-haired wife in her crappy white dress and went offstage, probably to shoot the horse that he had rode in on. Paybacks are a motherfucker, right, Judge?

When I lived in Narberth outside Philly I’d see Charles Barkley running on City Line Avenue when he played for the Sixers and I’d see him in Atlantic City at the fights, too. Chuck was totally accessible, waving to everyone on his runs and posing for pictures and signing autographs galore at the fights.

He did himself proud in his home state of Alabama, campaigning tirelessly for Doug Jones and doubtless responsible for some of the amazing turnout of African-American voters, especially the women, who flocked to the polls to put the kibosh on the criminally pedophile “judge.” 

When Jake Tapper on CNN asked Chuck what Doug Jones’ victory meant for Donald Trump, Chuck didn’t even bother with Trump but said that the Democrats had to get their act really together now and that the state of Alabama, despite its “rednecks and ignorant people” was still a very good place. Bless him.

Trump at first tweeted a weak-ass congratulations to Doug Jones and then this morning congratulated himself for saying that Roy Moore wasn’t going to win in the first place.

He forgot to mention that he let himself be conned into endorsing Moore by his own personal Darth Vader, Steve Bannon, whose political stock is now in the same toilet as Roy Moore.

I hope it’s a big toilet because Roy and Steve are going to have a lot of company there. Is there such a thing as a presidential toilet?

One final comment: SMILE!