Manic Monday

August 27th, 2007 11:47 pm · 0 comments

It’s getting to be that time of year, but today was dense one by any standard:

1. Dubya “reluctantly accepts,” the resignation of his pathetically overmatched attorney general, continuing a glorious tradition of patronage and cronyism gone horrifically bad. (See today’s other post, headlined “Gonzo”)

2. Michael Vick formerly enters his plea, then makes a reasonably effective apology statement. I got one e-mail from the Humane Society of the United States, containing this, literally minutes if not seconds after the plea.

Again just minutes after Vick’s statement, I got another e-mail from the Humane Society, including this statement from its president, Wayne Pacelle:

- Michael Vick just made a live, direct statement to the public regarding his circumstance. What he said today was spot on.
  I felt real sympathy for Vick in watching him speak. I saw a man whose life has been turned upside down. No one can feel good about seeing someone take this kind of fall. It’s tragic.
  I deplore what he did. Many animals experienced immense and sustained suffering at the hands of men who used their power in the wrong way. There’s no defense for it, and Vick offered no excuse for it today. I am heartened that Michael Vick spoke about his mistakes and took responsibility for his actions, calling dogfighting “terrible” and indicating “I reject it.”
  I also was very pleased that Michael Vick noted how he failed America’s young people. He apologized to them. Michael Vick now can tell a powerful, personal story and show young people that you must take responsibility for your actions and that dogfighting is not a benign hobby, but a sickening, barbaric and criminal action. The practice has been surging in urban centers around the nation, so that message is timely and relevant. This from a guy and an organization that, as you’d guess, has been brutally tough on Vick.

We witnessed a media orgasm (or, mediagasm) today. But it’ll die down now. The lawyers are about to take over.
3. Here’s the thing about baseball you can’t be reminded of enough: You play it every day. Remember how bleak things looked for the Phillies 48 hours ago? Twenty-three runs and one triumphant Chase Utley return later, hope springs…. until tomorrow.
Utley can still win the MVP, by the way.
4. Before too much times passes, I wanted to rip Tiger Woods for not playing in the Barclay’s, the first event in the tour’s new playoff system, because his “body was spent.”
Tiger played at Firestone three weeks ago, then the PGA, then took a week off, which brings us to the Barclay’s. How many other guys played that same schedule, like 50? And we all know Tiger’s fitter and stronger than any of them.
And Tiger wasn’t too spent to fly to North Carolina a few days after the PGA to christen a golf-course project. And Tiger probably had a hand in, or at the very least signed off on, this half-baked playoff system. The least he could do is show up for it.