Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Chutzpah Denied?

So Truthdig has reported (with video to verify) that today Representative Pete Stark apologized, from the House floor, "to Bush, his family, the troops and his congressional colleagues." Does this mean that his Chutzpah of the Week award needs to be recalled? What if Stark was actually pulling a postmodern sucker punch on his fellow Representatives? The thing is that, having "done the right thing by the offended parties," Stark then concluded his speech by hoping that he could now go back to being "as insignificant as I should be;" and I would like to take this phrase as a hoisting (albeit at bit cryptic) of his true colors. The adjective "insignificant" can be read as an act of resistance (in the postmodern sense of this word) against a Congress whose normative practices undermine the democratic foundation that the Constitution tried to lay down for it. Perhaps I am being too generous to the man, but I would say that Stark took his lumps by giving out a few of his own! His award still stands, even if he may now have to hide it in a closet!

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