Katherine Harris is Drunk

by Kieran Healy on August 10, 2005

Totally. “See for yourself”:http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/08/09.html#a4385. Also disturbing in a chest-thrusting, cheesecake-grin kind of way, too. Brrr.

{ 53 comments }

1

Timothy Burke 08.10.05 at 1:56 pm

Geezus.

2

Timothy Burke 08.10.05 at 1:58 pm

I also like that she calls herself the “conservative progressive who is in the mainstream of Florida.” What the hell is that?

3

josh 08.10.05 at 6:15 pm

Yeesh. That’s just painful.
I never thought it’d be possible for me to feel sorry for Katherine Harris. But then life is full of surprises …

4

Daniel 08.10.05 at 6:39 pm

Who was that fat tool with the Jay Leno haircut trying to do an obsequious interview with her?

5

MQ 08.10.05 at 7:39 pm

This is like a Congresswomen Gone Wild video. She is even weirdly hot in that slutty frat girl GGW sort of way.

6

KCinDC 08.10.05 at 8:04 pm

We really ought to lay off her for several more months. Don’t want her candidacy to implode too quickly and leave room for a replacement.

7

carter 08.11.05 at 12:45 am

Good for her. I happen to like getting drunk too. I suspect if she were a Democratic politician high on marijuana you Leftists would be defending her.

8

dsquared 08.11.05 at 4:14 am

yes carter, as long as you are allowed to decide what we probably would have said, we will end up looking like total hypocrites.

By the way, I suspect that if someone shot five Mexicans dead on the border, you would be defending them. Don’t you think that’s a bit racist?

9

abb1 08.11.05 at 4:17 am

I kinda agree with Carter, I liked the video. A bit creepy, yes, but we need more politicians that look human. Other than being a Republican politician (which I agree is a serious offense), is there any evidence that she is unusually bad and/or corrupt? I don’t remember if she did anything particularly outrageous during the 2000 Florida recount incident.

10

abb1 08.11.05 at 4:21 am

PS. Sorry, just to clarify: by ‘human’ I mean ‘not totally rehearsed and scripted’.

11

resistor 08.11.05 at 7:45 am

Yeh, but she looks like she’d be hot stuff in bed. Can Jeb Bush shed any lght on the matter?

12

lemuel pitkin 08.11.05 at 8:20 am

She is even weirdly hot in that slutty frat girl GGW sort of way.

I recall reading somewhere that in college she was well-known for being able to fit her entire fist into her mouth.

13

RS 08.11.05 at 8:32 am

14

Iron Lungfish 08.11.05 at 9:01 am

I liked the video because (1) I hate Katherine Harris, (2) it made her look horrible, and (3) I want Republicans to lose. Keep it up, Kat.

15

Iron Lungfish 08.11.05 at 9:04 am

I recall reading somewhere that in college she was well-known for being able to fit her entire fist into her mouth.

I can do that; not that difficult. It’s only when women do it that it’s assumed to be an indicator of sluttiness (and for that matter, it’s only in women that “sluttiness” is seen as a negative).

16

abb1 08.11.05 at 9:30 am

Whoa, what’s there to hate? Come on.

17

phil 08.11.05 at 9:57 am

I have a big mouth, but there’s no way I could fit my fist in it.

18

Randy Paul 08.11.05 at 10:07 am

I suspect if she were a Democratic politician high on marijuana you Leftists would be defending her.

And if she were a former cocaine user and/or dry drunk, you righties would want her to be president.

19

Miracle Max 08.11.05 at 10:38 am

You’re being unfair. In media training, they tell you to stand or sit up straight, not slouch, and to present something more interesting than just motionlessly facing the camera directly like a statue.

As far as the camera frame including her from waist up, that’s the teevee’s decision, not hers, and if you’re a director, why wouldn’t you show a picture that would hold some people’s attention.

Personally, I was like a deer in the headlights.

20

Steve Burton 08.11.05 at 12:16 pm

Back in grad school, in the early ’90’s, I had to attend a “teacher’s training” course which consisted almost entirely in PC browbeating. Teams of radical lesbians would come in and go on about how our jobs were on the line if we didn’t search out and destroy any lingering signs of homophobia among our students – that sort of thing.

If anything was ever made clear to us, it was that gratuitous comments about a woman’s appearance were absolutely *verboten*. That was sexual harassment and grounds for dismissal.

How far the left has come in the last ten years!

I guess we have Bill Clinton to thank for this. Now we can talk about Katherine Harris’s “chest” all we want to – heck, we’re even allowed (one) attempted grab before anyone can complain.

Praise be unto his name for ever and ever.

21

Kieran Healy 08.11.05 at 12:26 pm

If anything was ever made clear to us, it was that gratuitous comments about a woman’s appearance were absolutely verboten. That was sexual harassment and grounds for dismissal.

I just checked my roster and I don’t think Katherine Harris is a student of mine this semester. Perhaps this is a relevant fact.

22

Matt McGrattan 08.11.05 at 12:49 pm

“And if she were a former cocaine user and/or dry drunk, you righties would want her to be president.”

I’m mystified why either of these should really matter. Now I personally think Bush is just about the worst possible choice for President of the US [but since I’m British I don’t have any choice in the matter].

But why should a past history of drug use or present status as ‘dry drunk’ make any difference?

Indeed, as a Brit and therefore someone more or less ignorant of the whole AA cult, I had no idea what a ‘dry drunk’ was until it was mentioned in descriptions of Bush and I had to look it up.

Now there may be a name for not-drinking-but-not-buying-into-the-whole-12-step-cult , but I don’t see why that ought to be any kind of bar to political office.

23

Ted 08.11.05 at 1:07 pm

“Teams of radical lesbians….”

Teams, I tell you. TEAMS! “Team Radical Lesbian”, they were called. Ten feet tall if they were an inch. Such skills at carpentry, why, they could…

Sorry, I fell asleep. Get Uncle Steve another bourbon, would you?

24

Morat 08.11.05 at 1:35 pm

Teams of radical lesbians, eh? I’m a bit torn — there’s the obvious sports references, then you go to the less-obvious jokes based on chemistry.

But really, you’ve got to wonder — were they wearing a “Radical Lesbian” T-shirt? Did they have a flag?

25

Barry Freed 08.11.05 at 1:36 pm

Teams, I tell you. TEAMS! “Team Radical Lesbian”, they were called. Ten feet tall if they were an inch. Such skills at carpentry, why, they could…

I think he was talking about the field hockey teams.

26

Steve Burton 08.11.05 at 1:36 pm

Oh, no, Kieran (if I may) – the prohibition was not limited to our students. I mean, c’mon – we hardly needed guest lecturers to tell us that it probably wasn’t the best idea to mention a student’s boobs in class. The rule applied to *any* unnecessary mention of *any* aspect of the physical appearance of *any* woman.

“Hostile climate,” you know.

But we shouldn’t quarrel. I’m delighted that you feel free to draw attention to the “thrusting” of Ms. Harris’s breasts. And I trust you will extend similar latitude to those on the right who want to dispute about the comeliness of Hillary Clinton’s posterior, what she’d be like in bed, etc. etc. etc., during the 2008 campaign.

27

Steve Burton 08.11.05 at 2:16 pm

ted, morat, barry freed: you think I jest?

Alas, no.

One of these reeducation sessions was run by a team of three lesbian activists. The head of the team, and the one who did all the talking, was a Maoist lesbian separatist – quite a well-known figure on campus, as you might imagine.

She was in an awful state of frustration because a bunch of female Korean math & science T.A.’s were a bit unresponsive, and one of them eventually got up the courage to say that she just didn’t think that homophobia had much to do with her field…and that’s when things really got ugly.

Afterwards, I went up to the “moderator” and told her that, speaking as a gay man, I was more scared by her than I had ever been by any right-wing homophobe.

Strange but true.

28

Daniel 08.11.05 at 2:27 pm

I once caught a river trout that was like four feet from nose to tail. Straight up, I shit you not.

29

Randy Paul 08.11.05 at 2:34 pm

But why should a past history of drug use or present status as ‘dry drunk’ make any difference?

I don’t either. My bringing it up is more a glass houses and stones issue than anything else.

30

Doctor Slack 08.11.05 at 2:51 pm

I happen to like getting drunk too.

“I happen to like getting drunk too”? That’s it?

Come on, Carter, you can do better than that. Your freeper playbook should have made your steps in this situation perfectly clear:

1) Claim Harris was just joking around and being fun,

2) Lament about how “liberals” have no sense of humour,

3) Either a) find a way to blame her behaviour on Bill Clinton, or b) change the subject to bullshitting about Michael Moore or Ward Churchill or MoveOn or something.

It’s time-tested and fun for the whole family, and it has the added bonus that if someone actually tries to explain to you that the title of the post was probably in jest, you’ve got proof positive of how they have no sense of humour.

Plus, you can fisk them! Something along the lines of: “It doesn’t make sense for Healey to use the word ‘totally’ if he wasn’t joking about Harris being literally drunk. So either he’s just making the whole ‘drinking’ thing up, or liberals don’t know the first thing about communicating. Personally, I think it’s just more proof of how far the anti-life Democrats will go with their partisan hate speech.” That sort of thing.

You have all the tools you need. Get it together, man! America is counting on you!

I suspect if she were a Democratic politician high on marijuana you Leftists would be defending her.

See, this is a bit more like it. Humorlessly and pre-emptively accuse the “leftists” of a hypocrisy your average movementarian displays in abundance (at least when it’s about prescription drugs), and try to invoke some of those old shop-worn but still serviceable Berkeley-in-the-Sixties cliches. That’s some quality freeping.

31

Steve Burton 08.11.05 at 3:51 pm

daniel: in Ann Arbor in 1992, there were many queerer fish to be found than a four foot river trout.

One got used to it after a while.

32

Neil the Ethical Werewolf 08.11.05 at 4:24 pm

If that was all I knew of her, I’d like her pretty well. Really, it irritates me when men criticize women for acting mildly sexual in public.

33

matt weiner 08.11.05 at 6:14 pm

we hardly needed guest lecturers to tell us that it probably wasn’t the best idea to mention a student’s boobs in class.

I just checked Kieran’s schedule and guess what–this isn’t his class, either!

34

lemuel pitkin 08.11.05 at 6:38 pm

men criticize women for acting mildly sexual in public.

neil- have you watched the video? She’s quite obviously drunk. That’s what we’re mocking (not criticizing — there’s a difference) her for. Really, watch it.

And yes, I like to drink a bit too. But not when I’m being interviewed on tv.

35

Steve Burton 08.11.05 at 7:12 pm

matt weiner: sorry, I forgot to list among my various “any’s”:

*…at any time, in class or out.*

Of course, we didn’t have blogs then. But if we had, they would not have escaped her notice. She was harsh.

36

dm 08.11.05 at 8:21 pm

The video was embarassing to watch, but I do think the gender-based abuse heaped on the poor woman is a bit much (even when about someone who worked hard to steal an election). I expect this sort of base behavior at Atrios’ blog, but it’s disappointing to see it spread to Crooked Timber.

37

Neil the Ethical Werewolf 08.11.05 at 9:35 pm

I’ve seen it, Lemuel, and I was responding to the chest-thrusting-out strain of criticism — it seemed that people meant it to have force independent from the drunkenness strain.

I stand by my positive review. If drunk politicians on TV are this effervescent, we should change the presidential debate format to mandate 3 shots of vodka before opening statements. (Once we we don’t have any ex-alcoholics competing, of course.)

38

carter 08.11.05 at 9:53 pm

Dear Mr. Slack:

I’m not in possession of this ‘Freeper Playbook’ to which you refer. Perhaps you can mail me a copy? I have no need to “blame her behaviour” on anyone, as I am in favor of public drunkeness. It’s why I didn’t bring up the hypocrisy of Leftists condeming Harris for being a lush despite having supported Teddy Kennedy all those years when he was an inebriate, because I consider Teddy’s boozing to have been his only worthwhile quality.

39

MQ 08.11.05 at 11:37 pm

Kennedy is one of the smart drunks, like Churchill. Harris is a mindless hack for a nasty and destructive political party, so it’s open season here in the CT comments.

I also just wanted to say that this is a really fun comments thread. Keep it up, you guys.

40

Barry Freed 08.12.05 at 1:06 am

Kennedy is one of the smart drunks, like Churchill. Harris is a mindless hack for a nasty and destructive political party, so it’s open season here in the CT comments.

Oh, oh, which kind would you say Hitchens is then?

41

Doctor Slack 08.12.05 at 1:54 am

I’m not in possession of this ‘Freeper Playbook’ to which you refer.

Not to worry, you can find some of the basic source documentation right here. Don’t say I never did nothin’ for ya.

I am in favor of public drunkeness.

Oh, well, good for you then. I hope you can write this sentiment in to a few Republican candidates. I for one would pay real money to see a completely shitfaced Cheney campaigning in a “Punk in Drublic” t-shirt in ’08.

42

Doctor Slack 08.12.05 at 1:56 am

the basic source documentation right here

Which is to say, right here. Sorry, I was drinking in public when I posted that.

43

Doctor Slack 08.12.05 at 1:56 am

I’m not in possession of this ‘Freeper Playbook’ to which you refer.

Not to worry, you can find some of the basic source documentation right here. Don’t say I never did nothin’ for ya.

I am in favor of public drunkeness.

Oh, well, good for you then. I hope you can write this sentiment in to a few Republican candidates. I for one would pay real money to see a completely shitfaced Cheney campaigning in a “Punk in Drublic” t-shirt in ’08.

44

Doctor Slack 08.12.05 at 2:03 am

Damn you, Johnnie Walker.

45

kate 08.12.05 at 3:33 am

While I am more of fan of Stuart Maconie, I don’t understand this hostility to a radio 2 DJ, doctor slack.

46

josh 08.12.05 at 8:04 am

Come on, is it really fair to beat up on Harris for being drunk on TV? (And are you sure she was drunk? She might have been hopped-up on some sort of meds — or INSANE!)? After all, it appears she’s been pretty much dumped by the Bush clan, after all she did for them, and is now having to deal with the humiliation of trying to deny this and be upbeat about her candidacy in public. And, in the addition of all that humiliation, she was having to talk to Sean Hannity. I know I’d be driven to drink in that situation. As for the, um, chest-thrusting, I took that as a sign of nervousness, and possibly unsteady posture; again, though, wouldn’t you be fidgety in a situation like that? Ok, so she happened to be fidgety in a sort of unfortunately sexual way. Still.
And while I don’t think making fun of KH is necessarily sexist, you must admit, one would never be having this sort of discussion about a man who, say, kept shifting around in his seat on TV.

47

KCinDC 08.12.05 at 8:40 am

I don’t think this ridicule is sexist. If a male politician appeared drunk in an interview and was “acting mildly sexual in public” — I don’t know, maybe displaying his muscles and adopting a macho persona (as opposed to Harris’s prom queen / Tori Spelling impression) — I feel confident he would receive similar treatment. In fact, I seem to remember an incident with an aircraft carrier a few years back.

48

jlw 08.12.05 at 12:34 pm

American football legend Joe Namath was interviewed on the sidelines while “blitzed” last season. If I remember correctly, at least twice during the interview, he asked the attractive female interviewer for a kiss.

As I watched this, I felt as if I were watching a car wreck.

I forget exactly what happened to him after that–some apology and the loss of an endorcement deal, I believe.

49

Marcus Stanley 08.12.05 at 2:16 pm

“If a male politician appeared drunk in an interview and was “acting mildly sexual in public”—I don’t know, maybe displaying his muscles and adopting a macho persona — I feel confident he would receive similar treatment.”

I think Schwarzenegger should try this. It really could work.

50

abb1 08.12.05 at 4:15 pm

Um, I dunno, did you see this?

51

Marcus Stanley 08.12.05 at 5:27 pm

Looks like he got out of action movies and into politics just in time. Smart move.

52

chuchundra 08.13.05 at 11:00 am

Where is that picture from? It looks a bit like Photoshop work to me.

53

abb1 08.13.05 at 12:14 pm

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