Thursday, July 29, 2004

Spicy

Great moments in punditry, courtesy of Chris Matthews:

MATTHEWS: Let me go to Richard Holbrooke.

You have dealt with a lot of different cultures in the world. You know our own. Do you think the American people have an appetite for a spicy woman of a Latin background from Africa?

...


MATTHEWS: Well, I have to tell you, I personally—of course, I don‘t mind saying it. I find her very attractive. She‘s a European film star in the Jeanne Moreau mode or Anouk Aimee.

But I don‘t think everybody likes foreign movies like I love do. I

love the fact she paid tribute to the Peace Corps, especially where I was

in the Peace Corps right next to her country while she was still there in

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: ... and right next to Mozambique. I love the fact she went to Witwatersrand, a liberal university, and fought against apartheid. It‘s all great stuff.

But coffee—you remember your first cup of coffee, how it was bitter. And then after a couple months, you go, I really can‘t live without this stuff. Is she an acquired taste?

...

HOLBROOKE: Kati came from Europe. My parents from Russia and Hitler‘s Germany.

MARTON: With nothing.

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: Your actual parents, not your grandparents?

HOLBROOKE: No, no, my parents. My father was a refugee from communism, my mother from Hitler.

MATTHEWS: I thought you were kind of a Waspy guy. I didn‘t know this