In her subscription-required New York Times column of this morning, Dowd desperately seeks to associate herself with Sacha Baron Cohen, the brilliant British comic who Thursday took DC by storm.
First in his HBO series 'Ali G' and now on the big screen, Cohen has brought to life 'Borat,' his racist, anti-Semitic, misogynistic, sex-mad alter ego from Kazakhstan. Borat's MO is to lure unsuspecting people into his bigotry, as when in an infamous Ali G episode he induced Arizona bar patrons to applaud and even join in his rendition of the supposedly Kazakh song 'Throw the Jew Down the Well.' On the occasion of this week's meeting between Pres. Bush and Kazakhstan's president, Borat turned up at the White House gates to extend his invitation to a private screening of his new movie, 'Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,' to be followed by a reception at Hooters.
So deep has Cohen penetrated under the skin of Kazakhstan's leaders that the country recently spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a four-page ad spread in the New York Times to refute his unflattering depiction of their homeland. There were even reports that the Kazakh president might broach the issue with President Bush.
OK, back to Mo. Seeking to ride the wave of Borat-mania - and finding any occasion a good one to bash the Bush administration - Dowd put her sacroiliac in serious danger of dislocation, straining for these analogies:
- Borat likes to wrestle guys naked. Karl liked to show W. his battery-powered “Redneck Horn,” blasting obscenities and insults like “Hey, hogneck, who taught you how to drive?” in a Southern drawl.
- Family values in Borat’s comic portrait of Kazakhstan are reflected by his sister, an incestuous hooker, the town rapist, a cow in the bedroom, and the annual Pamplona-like “Running of the Jew.” Mr. Woodward writes about Bush family values, or the “Running of the WASP.”
- Borat had a fantasy life in which he would bag — literally — Pamela Anderson and yoke her happily ever after to a plow on his farm. Dick Cheney had a fantasy life in which he would bag Saddam’s W.M.D.
- Borat thinks Pamela is silly to object to animal torture, just as Vice thinks the press is silly to object to prisoner torture.
- After much chaos, Borat gives up on Pamela and marries a prostitute. After much chaos, and even though Laura wants Rummy out, W. sticks with him at Vice’s insistence.
Maureen would be well-advised to leave the humor - and the analogies - to the professionals. I doubt she'll listen. What's next? Dowd in the new HBO laff-riot . . . 'Ali-She'?
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Finkelstein lives in the liberal haven of Ithaca, NY. View webcasts of Mark's award-winning TV show 'Right Angle' here. Contact Mark at mark@gunhill.net
