aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Wowi

Profiled in the Times today, gay Berlin Mayor, Symbol of Openness, Has National Appeal:

Charming, sociable and openly gay, Klaus Wowereit (pronounced vo-vuh-rite) is the newest star in the German political firmament. It is a firmament short on stars. After his victory, the mass-market newspaper Bild ran a front-page headline asking, “Will Wowi Be the First Gay Chancellor?”

“Why not?” Mr. Wowereit said in an interview this week, when asked whether Germans were ready for a homosexual leader.

Clinton & Wallace & Presidential Courage

I was bored by Clinton on The Daily Show; God knows I won’t be bored tomorrow. I really dislike Chris Wallace so I hope Clinton gets him good. And I won’t resist taking this opportunity to recall my favorite Chris Wallace quote.

During a February 2005 Booknotes appearance it became crystal clear that Wallace hadn’t written his book (ironically titled, given tomorrow’s show, Character: Profiles in Presidential Courage, I assume it was ghostwritten). He could hardly bring himself to talk about it. When asked how long ago he had the idea for the book, this was the answer:

[I]t was a kind of collaborative effort. My—a fellow, an agent, Bill Adler (ph), came up—called me up and said, Have you ever thought of writing a book? And I said, yes, but I never have had an idea.

He got that right!

AFTERWARD: “I thought it was a fair, balanced and not especially inflammatory question,” Wallace said yesterday in recounting his “Fox News Sunday” sit-down with Clinton. “I even said, ‘I know hindsight is 20/20.’ But he went off. And once he went off, there was no bringing him back. He wanted to talk about it in detail. He wanted to conjure up right-wingers and conservative hit jobs and a theory involving Rupert Murdoch that I still don’t understand.”