That's Rich

Regular readers know that I have never been the biggest fan of Frank Rich, but he is much better at reading the moment, in this piece, than the people who he observes are not able to.

Such, for me at least, was the takeaway from the scene that unfolded at the September 21 premiere of the new opera inspired by Michael Chabon’s Holocaust-haunted novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. In keeping with tradition, the company’s general manager, Peter Gelb, appeared in front of the curtain before it went up to deliver a few welcoming remarks — albeit this time spiked with an impassioned paean to artistic freedom that drew a standing ovation. Once he finished, an unexpected player popped out of the wings: Chuck Schumer, the most powerful Democrat in Washington and the most durable lion of Democratic politics in New York. Why was he there? Not for the opera. He breezed on- and offstage with the casual affect of someone dropping by before a round of pickleball. He had come to pander to the mishpocheh on the safe turf of the Upper West Side. In his brief remarks, he gave the same vow to protect artistic freedom Gelb just had, name-checking Jimmy Kimmel for good measure. But this time the audience did not cheer. “Do something about it!” shouted a heckler from a perch on high. Waves of boos followed, drowning out some light applause and implicitly giving Schumer the hook.

Not a single word he said was in any way objectionable. The jeers were for the messenger, not the message.

Not Schumer's biggest fan, either, but I still give him credit for being a politician who actually likes to go out and greet the people, even if he talks more than he listens.