Monday, October 16, 2006

Frank Rich and Moliere's "The Miser"

Frank Rich had a great piece in Sunday's Times about the gay-bashing in the GOP, and made very clever use of a reference to Moliere to help define the farcical nature of the Republican party.

An excerpt:

The Republicans, unlike most Democrats (Joe Lieberman always excepted), can’t stop advertising their “family values,” which is why their pitfalls are as irresistible as a Molière farce. It was entertaining enough to learn that the former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed wanted to go “humping in corporate accounts” with the corrupt gambling lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The only way that comic setup could be topped was by the news that Mr. Foley was chairman of the Missing and Exploited Children’s Caucus. It beggars the imagination that he wasn’t also entrusted with No Child Left Behind.


Made me remember an amazing performance by the Berkeley Rep of "The Miser," about a rich old man so miserly that the rain fell in through his roof and his entire family feared and, therefore, despised him. No doubt he was a Republican.

More on this later. Bookmarked while it's on my mind.