Script never dies: Bruni's brain!

MONDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2011

We knew that someone would say it: It’s always amazing to see the way the “minds” of these life-forms work.

Yesterday morning, Frank Bruni was thundering loudly. And then, in a truly amazing display, the gentleman gave the world this:

BRUNI (12/4/11): Couple [Gingrich’s] showy scholarship with his grandiose streak and you get pomposity on a scale that would make a French monarch blanch. Last week, in an electronic book published by Politico and Random House, it was revealed that he had compared the attempts to retool his initially beleaguered campaign with the founding of Wal-Mart by Sam Walton and of McDonald’s by Ray Kroc.

In a Fox News interview he one-upped any of Al Gore’s long-ago claims about “Love Story,” Love Canal or the invention of the Internet.

“I helped Ronald Reagan and Jack Kemp develop supply-side economics,” he boasted.

We’ll admit it. When we first saw those quoted statements by Gingrich, we knew that someone would create the link to Candidate Gore. But if we might borrow from Don Corleone:

Until that very morning, we didn’t know it would be Bruni!

It’s a fact about these life-forms: Once they get a script in their heads, nothing can ever dislodge it. That three-part script about Candidate Gore was endlessly repeated from December 1999 on; rather plainly, that three-headed script sent Bush to the White House. This past week, “Panchito” was ready to type it again, twelve years to the month after his colleagues created it.

How amazing is Frank Bruni? In the case of Gore’s first “claim,” he has actually had fourteen years to learn the facts which follow:

What did Gore “claim” about Love Story? Bruni has no idea. Gore’s fleeting remarks were made late at night, in a rambling two-hour conversation with two reporters during a plane ride. There is no tape of transcript of his remarks—and both reporters derided the notion that Gore said something noteworthy. Karen Tumulty aggressively did so in real time, in December 1997 ( click here), then did so again in September 2000. Richard Berke followed suit, when finally asked, in the fall of 2000.

Bruni doesn’t know what Gore “claimed;” he has had fourteen years to learn this fact. The two reporters who heard what Gore said each said it was no big deal—and no one has ever shown that Gore said something inaccurate. But life-forms like Bruni never quit! Once a script gets into their programming, nothing can ever erase it.

Regarding Love Canal, Bruni’s comment is even sadder. We will be telling that full story in chapter 6 of How He Got There, which we will post when the new year begins. The full story involves astounding misconduct by Bruni’s far-flung colleagues. This explains why no one has ever told the full story till now.

Final point: Societies which tolerate this kind of “journalism” are destined for the junk heap. We live in that sort of society, in part because so many major “liberals” and major career players were involved in the war against Gore.

Protecting Rich, Dowd, Kelly and Connolly comes first. For that reason, their scripts never die.