Tuesday, May 03, 2005
The Princeton filibuster continues...
After watching the TigerHawk daughter throw some wicked strikes...
...I wandered over to the Princeton filibuster in front of the Frist Campus Center (previously reported here). It was into its 177th hour, a performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream:
There wasn't anybody around at 7:05 pm, I learned, because they were all off watching themselves on Hardball, which had been out that afternoon filming. I, of course, drove home at breakneck speed in order to catch the coverage. I missed the first few minutes, but I did manage to get the TiVo on at about 7:15. Chris Matthews was torturing a pair of undergraduates, including this guy, Asheesh Siddique.
Siddique acquitted himself well -- he was less nervous than the young Republican in trotted out to speak for the anti-filibuster side -- but he was also more evasive.
Matthews: "Asheesh, are you a Democrat?"
Siddique: "I'm actually an independant, I would consider myself a progressive. But there are many Republicans who take very principaled positions that I admire, including John McCain who supports the right of the minority to filibuster."
Matthews: "I couldn't hear you -- are you a Democrat?"
Siddique: "I'm an independant -- I'm [hesitates and stammers] actually registered as an independant -- I'm not [uh, uh, etc.] a member of any political party."
Matthews: "Why are you so political on this issue and not political on registration? If you're so interested in politics, why haven't you identified with one of the parties?"
Siddique: "I don't believe that - that politics should operate within the sort of discourse of political parties. I think that politics is really sort of a vocation, a way of engaging with certain ideals. I come to it from a more philosophical orientation."
Matthews: "Ashish, who'd you vote for for President last November?"
Siddique: "I'd rather not say."
Matthews: "Why?"
Siddique: "Because I [stutters] just think the whole issue of parties..."
Matthews: "OK. Let's try to get some candor here from the other side..."
If Matthews were a little more prepared for his interview, he would have known that Siddique posts on the Princeton Progressive Review blog. Had Matthews scrolled back to a random day last fall -- say, November 2 -- he would have seen this post, in which Siddique wrote:
"In particular, if we were asked to make a single judgment on the presidency of George W. Bush, it would be this:
I think we know who Siddique voted against. If Matthews had been prepped to his rep, he would have trotted out that post.
That having been said, both students acquitted themselves better than I would have at that age. Both were more articulate and argued their points at least as eloquently as experienced professional spinners would have. Indeed, the Princeton "filibuster" is itself a civil and very creative demonstration. My hat's off to them.
...I wandered over to the Princeton filibuster in front of the Frist Campus Center (previously reported here). It was into its 177th hour, a performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream:
There wasn't anybody around at 7:05 pm, I learned, because they were all off watching themselves on Hardball, which had been out that afternoon filming. I, of course, drove home at breakneck speed in order to catch the coverage. I missed the first few minutes, but I did manage to get the TiVo on at about 7:15. Chris Matthews was torturing a pair of undergraduates, including this guy, Asheesh Siddique.
Siddique acquitted himself well -- he was less nervous than the young Republican in trotted out to speak for the anti-filibuster side -- but he was also more evasive.
Matthews: "Asheesh, are you a Democrat?"
Siddique: "I'm actually an independant, I would consider myself a progressive. But there are many Republicans who take very principaled positions that I admire, including John McCain who supports the right of the minority to filibuster."
Matthews: "I couldn't hear you -- are you a Democrat?"
Siddique: "I'm an independant -- I'm [hesitates and stammers] actually registered as an independant -- I'm not [uh, uh, etc.] a member of any political party."
Matthews: "Why are you so political on this issue and not political on registration? If you're so interested in politics, why haven't you identified with one of the parties?"
Siddique: "I don't believe that - that politics should operate within the sort of discourse of political parties. I think that politics is really sort of a vocation, a way of engaging with certain ideals. I come to it from a more philosophical orientation."
Matthews: "Ashish, who'd you vote for for President last November?"
Siddique: "I'd rather not say."
Matthews: "Why?"
Siddique: "Because I [stutters] just think the whole issue of parties..."
Matthews: "OK. Let's try to get some candor here from the other side..."
If Matthews were a little more prepared for his interview, he would have known that Siddique posts on the Princeton Progressive Review blog. Had Matthews scrolled back to a random day last fall -- say, November 2 -- he would have seen this post, in which Siddique wrote:
"In particular, if we were asked to make a single judgment on the presidency of George W. Bush, it would be this:
George W. Bush was the worst president
in the history of the United States of America."
I think we know who Siddique voted against. If Matthews had been prepped to his rep, he would have trotted out that post.
That having been said, both students acquitted themselves better than I would have at that age. Both were more articulate and argued their points at least as eloquently as experienced professional spinners would have. Indeed, the Princeton "filibuster" is itself a civil and very creative demonstration. My hat's off to them.
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