Saturday, September 3, 2005

The Ray Bolger Award

I’m starting a new blog award in honor of dancer and actor Ray Bolger (1904-1987), whose most famous role was that of the strawman, The Scarecrow, in that 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz.

The qualifications for this dubious honor go to a member of the Bush administration or the right-wing Amen corner that follows it, including bloggers and pundits, for coming up with the best strawman excuse to explain away the reasons why they should not be held accountable for any of their mistakes and turn the issue around on a completely irrelevant or false point to use as a weapon against their accuser. For example:

  • “We had to invade Iraq because Bill Clinton didn’t take out Osama bin Laden when he had the chance!”
  • “Cindy Sheehan was a bad mother because she let her son join the military!”
  • “Karl Rove leaked Valerie Plame’s name to Bob Novak because her husband lied to the Senate Intelligence Committee!”
  • “We weren’t prepared for Hurricane Katrina because the Democrats in Congress switched the cable TV from The Weather Channel to Bravo to watch The West Wing marathon!”

    You get the idea. By “best” I mean the strawman that sounds the most outrageous yet said or written with apparent sincerity and a straight face.

    Submit your nominations with appropriate links, and I’ll take your nominations from now until I stop getting them. I’ll then post the five best (assuming I get five nominations) and let you decide the winner. First prize will be a $10 donation in your name to the hurricane relief fund of your choice.

    Let the fun begin…