January 30, 2007 will forever be remembered as the day the laughter died. Why? It’s when John Kelso decided to chime in about Gategate, Jennifer Kim’s airport kerfluffle. As if there wasn’t enough quasi-sexist dribble floating around out there, The Bearded One devotes the entirety of his column to crowns and tiaras. C’mon Gramps, there’s enough dumb-assery here to go around; let’s not fall back on gender. (Just ageism.) At least he didn’t swipe my material about those vegan firefighters and the BBQ fire. I thought for sure the tofu jokes would be spilling off Tuesday’s metro section.
A local political handicapper writes in on the broader significance and orchestration of the PR disaster: “Right About Now would be the time that potential 2008 opponents would be sizing up their options. What perfect timing for an effort to make Jennifer into a local joke? Next year, you’re going to be talking to Place 3 candidates, and someone’s gonna say “I was on the fence, but that airport business was the last straw.” Indeed, the only Place 3 candidate we knew about recently confirmed they were out, but we’ll soon see who’s drawn out by the blood in the water (or in this case, on the tarmac).
This article appears in January 26 • 2007.