Random Thoughts, Notes, & Incidents

Last week, at the Golden Globes, George Clooney slipped a little political joke into his acceptance speech. Clooney "thanked" convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and then added, "Who would name their kid Jack with the last words 'off' at the end of your last name? No wonder that guy is screwed up."

But that's not the end of the story. Jack's elderly father, Frank Abramoff, didn't like the joke. Little Jack, it turns out, is named for Frank's father. So, Frank wrote a two page letter to Clooney (which somehow wound up on every conservative newspaper editor's desk) with some choice insults (not worth repeating), going on to say:

"You want to make fun. You can do that, but you don't make fun of someone else's hardships and misery. ... But... When you see something like that on a show for 500 million people, it was not only a slap in my son's face but in my father's." Not only that, but Clooney's joke made Jack's 12-year-old daughter cry.

Without getting into whether or not the Golden Globes is the correct venue for such jokes, I just want to ask, isn't Frank's anger just a little misplaced?

Maybe his open letter should have been addressed to his son, Jack Abramoff. It was Jack's confessed crimes that was not only a slap in the face to Frank's father, but an embarrassment to our nation. It was Jack's confessed crimes that made him into a public figure that would be deservedly open to ridicule, causing the daughter to cry.

Sorry, Frank, but I'm not buying the outrage. This is a non-story designed to take the focus off the corrupt Republican administration in our Capitol and try to put the focus on those heartless Hollywood liberals. Nice try, but no sale.