Agreed, the (apparent) wig worn by the woman in that GOP parody bore little resemblance to Rachel Maddow's actual hair. But the parody's skewering of Maddow's hypocrisy was right on target.
MSNBC's ever-chirpy Maddow responded last night to a National Republican Congressional Committee ad mocking the MSNBC "Lean Forward" promo featuring a hardhat-adorned Maddow at the Hoover Dam. (video after page break)
Maddow said she was "very flattered" by the "rare and special honor of being the new face" of the NRCC, then showed the ad nearly in its entirety. Not surprisingly, the line most unflattering to Maddow was edited out.
In Maddow's original promo, she said this --
MADDOW: When you are this close to Hoover Dam, it makes you realize how small a human is in relation to this as a human project. You can't be the guy who builds this. You can't be the town who builds this. You can't even be the state who builds this. You have to be the country that builds something like this. This is a national project. This is a project of national significance. We've got those projects on the menu right now. And we've got to figure out whether or not we are still a country that can think this big.
The parody hewed close to the original, except to make its point --
FAKE MADDOW: When you are this close to Hoover Dam, it makes you realize how small a human is in relation to this as a human project. You can't be the state who builds this. You can't even be the town who builds this. But you can be the guy that stops something like this. This is an energy infrastructure project. It's got national significance. (Fake Maddow then shown standing beside exposed underground "Keystone Pipeline"). We've got a project like this waiting for the president's go-ahead, supported by Republicans and Democrats, labor unions. It'd provide energy security and up to 130,000 jobs. We've got to figure out why the president thinks we're not a country that can think this big. ("Lean Backwards" slogan shown at end)
That "we" can, Ms. Maddow. It's not the projects that have gotten small, it's you and the president. Maddow's response to the NRCC parody came on the same day Obama announced he was shelving Keystone for now, seeing how this is an election year and pious tree-huggers are a key part of his base.
While I'm on the subject, two other things laughable about that Maddow promo.
First, the suggestion that Maddow would ever support any project comparable in scale to the Hoover Dam, at least not where amoeba may be displaced. And second, that Maddow filmed the spot at a dam named for a man she belittles as a do-nothing president.
Anyone familiar with Maddow knows she can't utter the word "infrastructure" without reaching for smelling salts. Providing it's infrastructure already built.
