Maureen Dowd, "Ain’t Nothin’ Like a Dame": Imagine

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today

- John Lennon, "Imagine," 1971

Now, if I could only imagine a politician who actually gives a damn about people other than himself/herself. And if I could only imagine an electorate that could vote for someone because he/she is a decent caring human being, and not because of his/her religion, skin color or genital organs.

In her latest New York Times op-ed entitled "Ain’t Nothin’ Like a Dame" (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/11/opinion/dowd-aint-nothin-like-a-dame.html?_r=0), Maureen Dowd fantasizes about John Boehner dining with Senators Richard Burr and Saxby Chambliss and Congressman Tom Latham at Trattoria Alberto. (When I fantasize, it is not in this direction.) Analogizing this foursome to Sinatra's Rat Pack (Frank, Dean, Peter and Sammy would turn over in their graves), Dowd observes the Republicans' need to win over women in future elections. Dowd's concludes by having Boehner remark:

“And altar boy Paul Ryan and these 18-karat idiots trying to curb birth control? Birth control makes the world go round, baby. We don’t want to be leading a party that’s against sex. That’s a sure way to go home alone. Sex is popular. We can get away with saying no to a lot of things. No means no. But saying no to sex leads to bombsville.

“The way we run things, we should have been tossed out long ago, since most of the country thinks we’re living in the past. And it’s not a cool, crazy, swingin’ past. It’s a square, uptight, Mother Superior past.

“Speaking of Mother Superior, we’ve got to get the broads back in line before Hillary runs. That’s real woman trouble there.

“Any questions? Good. Let’s do it my way.”

Hillary? Is she a woman or just another self-serving politician? Remarkable how is she is avoiding taking any position on the Affordable Care Act or Obama's recent agreement with Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei as she is professionally preened for 2016.

Republicans? Democrats? In fact, there is very little difference. Narcissists to a man/woman.

As the Bee Gees sang in "Staying Alive," 1977:

Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk,
I'm a woman's man, no time to talk.
Music loud and women warm.
I've been kicked around since I was born.
And now it's all right, it's O.K.
And you may look the other way.
We can try to understand
The New York Times' effect on man.
Whether you're a brother
Or whether you're a mother,
You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.

The New York Times' effect on man or woman? Little if any, these days. The Grey Lady, which long ago forgot the meaning of journalistic ethics and serves at the beck and call of the president, has one foot in the grave. Meanwhile, I, too, am just stayin' alive . . .