Cheers to Joe Biden
for not pulling rank to get tickets to a sold out movie. His gentlemanly behavior is in stark contrast to that of former veep Al Gore. He once sent his secret service detail to "ask" a friend of mine to leave his seat at a movie in D.C. "because you are sitting where the vice-president would like to sit." For all you residents of the D.C. area, the proper response to a request like that is "well, then, the vice-president can just come over and ask me himself."
Another mensch: Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I once stood behind her waiting to be seated at a local theater production. She didn't try to cut the line, didn't have especially good seats, and otherwise didn't act like she was entitled to special treatment because of her position.
--kospuppets
But seriously, aren't these the types of things that Hwd publicists let leak out?
As for the Cato people, it's good to know that at least two people from there did one good thing once.
It means that you're a "nudnik."
Not, "I like sitting next to her to, but he made his choice when he married Tipper"?
"Good human being" in Yiddish.
Literally it means a man, which is why someone correctly noted Ruth Bader Ginsberg is not a mensch. But in Yiddish it is used to connote a person of integrity and honor.
Obviously false story. Real CATO guys would have asked Gore to buy the seats from them, and then weighed their own internal value for watching the movie against Gore's market-based bid for their seats. They may also have opened up bidding to adjacent movie-goers.
Did the secret service detail claim that Gore had sent them, or do you just assume it?
In agreement with a poster above, I can easily imagine a secret service detail walking into a movie theater, picking a good spot, and asking the patron to move, all without Gore knowing the first thing about it.
Of course, if it happened on Gore's watch, he's in some way morally responsible regardless. And Gore, having learned of this event, must now expressly disavow it. Why has he not done so?!?
After displaying, though not brandishing, their concealed weapons.
Also, when I was a teenager at a Flyers-Rangers game, I had the privilege of sitting next to the gorgeous Carol Alt, who was married to a Rangers' play (Ron Greschner) at the time. I got many offers for my seat. I turned them all down because it isn't everyday you get to sit next to the woman whose poster you have on your wall.
One other thing. You know that NFL Network commercial, where Marissa Miller looks over that guy's shoulder to see what he is watching on his laptop and he turns his body so she can't see it or look over his shoulder? There isn't enough money in circulation that I would accept to look like that big of a jackass on TV.
I thought the post was fairly straightforward and understandable. What "point" do you require beyond "I have a blog and a thought I wanted to share, so I hit 'post'"?
I totally thought that's where the story was going.
Come on we know that all DB wants to do is blog Israel/Gaza 24/7
Surely someone has a theater disturbance story that can bring this posting back to Gaza? e.g., "when we went to see The Unbearable Lightness of Being our customary seats were taken, when the usher refused to move the occupying force, we were left to fling popcorn in their direction. I don't understand why they hit me in the face? It spilled diet coke all over the kids next to us."
I'm surprised John "Do You Know Who I Am?" Kerry's snowboarding adventures haven't come up.
Though as far as Ruth Bader Ginsburg is concerned, most people who weren't either lawyers or political junkies would have said 'Ruth who? if she'd tried to ask someone for their seat.
That said, I'd have given my seat up to either one of them as long as I was paid back the $8 I spent for my ticket.
I disagree for three main reasons:
1. The form in which Bernstein poses the response is impolite. The diction "just come over and ask me himself" is rude. Instead, given that the request itself was phrased politely, the response should be phrase politely too, like: "Would it be possible for the Vice President to ask me personally?" or something along those lines.
2. As a practical matter, it is awkward to ask the Vice President himself to make the request personally. Doing so would require he come down with a contingent of Secret Service, creating considerable disruption if he were, for example, in his car at the time. And if the request were denied, tremendous extra hassle, and some public embarrassment to him would be caused as well. Obviously, it is reasonable and efficient for the Secret Service first to ask if the request can be accommodated before doing the full security sweep that a "Yes" response would entail.
3. The realities of the nature of the job of the Vice President - namely his huge security requirements and complex schedule, may mean that it is difficult for him to make reservations ahead of time.
I believe the fact that the Secret Service makes such a request argues that a citizen ought to, but need not, accede if acceding is reasonably possible. I believe this is a mark of respect to principles of common courtesy, to the office of the Executive, and to the pragmatics of being Vice President.
In sum, acting as Bernstein suggests would be discourteous, inefficient, and disrespectful.
Hymie - what does "nudnik" mean?
I believe I'm going to see this attitude a trillion times more often over the next four years than I have over the last eight.
The form in which Bernstein poses the response is impolite. The diction "just come over and ask me himself" is rude. Instead, given that the request itself was phrased politely, the response should be phrase politely too, like: "Would it be possible for the Vice President to ask me personally?" or something along those lines.
How do you feel about Important People who have their assistants call you and greet you with, "I have Mister Important Person on the line -- please hold!"?
Consider this: The request for Mr. Gore to ask the question himself can be viewed as an opportunity for Mr. Gore, the agent, and you to consider how intrinsically rude the request was.
As a practical matter, it is awkward to ask the Vice President himself to make the request personally. Doing so would require he come down with a contingent of Secret Service, creating considerable disruption if he were, for example, in his car at the time. And if the request were denied, tremendous extra hassle, and some public embarrassment to him would be caused as well. Obviously, it is reasonable and efficient for the Secret Service first to ask if the request can be accommodated before doing the full security sweep that a "Yes" response would entail.
Don't you think a full security sweep and seating for a contingent of Secret Service agents would be disruptive in itself? For Mr. Gore to have occupied that seat would have inconvenienced a significant number of theater patrons. And for what? The convenience of one man in his recreational activities?
I'm kind of fond of a particular phrase from Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution: "No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States" ... which seems to have been forgotten by quite a few self-impressed politicians. As Terry Pratchett wrote, such people are full of "constipated importance."
Here on the planet Earth, and more particularly in the republic in which we still live, most people of sense would regard the request itself to have been rudely presumptuous. Only someone with an overweening sense of entitlement, and a lack of respect for his fellow citizens, would send his flunkey on such an errand. Would you consider acceding to such a request if it were made by a private citizen who happened to like your seat? If not, then why is does this self-important grandee deserve better? The correct response to such an assinine request is: "If you don't go away I'm going to call the usher and have you ejected."
I believe the proper response is "get f---ed".
It was extremely impolite to even ask the question. Coming from the secret service, it has an element of coercion to it. Has anyone here ever asked someone to move just because they wanted the seats in question?
I seldom go to movie theaters anymore because of the boorish behavior of the other patrons.
This guy walks into a restaurant and sees Frank Sinatra sitting down. He goes over to Frank and says, "Mr. Sinatra, I'm a big fan of yours. I'm going to be eating with some friends - I'll be at that table over there - I wonder if you could come over and say 'Hi Joe' when my friends arrive? Here's $500 for your trouble." Frank says OK, and when Joe's friends sit down, Sinatra goes over to the table and says, "Hi Joe, how are ya?" Joe replies, "Fuck off, Frank."
That's what I thought DB had in mind with the Gore parable.
My approach is very simple. I will not ask for any special treatment. I will answer truthfully if asked my occupation ("I am a prosecutor" versus "I am an attorney"). I do carry my official identification in the same window sleeve in my wallet as my driver's license. If the officer asks what that is, I tell him. Otherwise I do not.
If the officer decides to give me a ticket, I politely accept it. If he doesn't, I thank him and go on my way.
Rather than ask patrons to exhibit common courtesy, I'd prefer a VP who had the common sense to send an intern down to the theater to stand in line like the rest of us. Think Gore has sufficient respect for the American people to give up his seat for me if I asked.
I take it you mean the ones who enforce your interpretation of the constitution?
On the subject of bad behavior in move theaters, the theater adjacent to the Verizon Center in DC is a total loss. Someone's cell phone rings or blares speakerphone noise every few minutes and the usual hip-hop jerks apparently can't enjoy themselves without doing something loud and stupid for the entirety of the movie.
I take it you mean the ones who enforce your interpretation of the constitution?
I was wondering how he decides which one of the four is "enforcing the Constitution" when they disagree with each other, as they frequently do.
If the Secret Service agent came up and said, "Excuse me, but Mr. Gore has a ticket for this showing, and for security reasons, your seat would be the best, so would you mind switching?" that would be one thing. But "The vice president would like to sit here, so please switch," is just rude, and it's compounded by the fact that it was done through a flunkie rather than personally.
In any case, DB told us the "proper" response to the request, but he didn't tell us what his friend actually said...
Even Vice-President Cheney?
When I was a 1L in DC, one of my fellow students was very late to Contracts. As he related to us after class, he flipped off some morotcade on his way into class. I claimed that the Secret Service stopped him and interrogated him, especially after he answered them in a Spanish accent (he's from Argentina)
The questions, in addition to the particulars of who he was and where he was going apparently included the very clever combo of:
"Do you love America?"
"Do you REALLY love America?"
See, it's that second one that'll get ya.
Personally, I have my doubts about the story, but I thought I’d relay it, since no one owes Orin a beer anyhow.]
Either way, it doesn't really have much to do with a D.C. movie theater, so it doesn't change your point.
Nixon was assaulted by protesters when he visited Venezuela while he was vice president, but I don't know that it was an attempt to assassinate him, and it also doesn't change your point.
I think the evolving role of the Vice President as Senior Uber Advisor to the President (starting with Walter Mondale) and his attractiveness as a potential target makes him worthy of a full Secret Service detail.
I would note that John Wilkes Booth's 1865 plot included a plan to assassinate then Vice President Andrew Johnson--and I suspect that if George Atzerodt had not gotten drunk and fumbled his assignment, the simultaneous assassination of both the President and Vice President would have had wide-ranging repercussions.
If you're from the south, it may help to know that Bill Clinton once said that the word Bubba is just southern for mensch.
My personal favorite boorish politician anecdote, however, is the time I watched then-Senator Alan Simpson get into an argument with a flight attendant on a very full DCA to LGA shuttle because he wanted all 3 of the last-row seats to himself (fortunately for the Senator, this was looong before 9-11; today you try that, you'd be dragged off the plane in handcuffs, no matter HOW important you think you are).
2. In 1969 at the tender age of 10, I was waiting in a rope line at a Nixon rally, having been positioned there strategically by my mom so as to get to shake hands with the presidential candidate. After waiting a heck of a long time on a hot afternoon, he arrived and began working the rope line towards the podium. He reached right over my head to shake hands with an older person who could actually vote for him. I laughed when he resigned in '74.
At least then we would not have been brdened with that putz Andrew Johnson, (yiddishism watch)
It is a drag to be sold out of the movie of your choice (especially if you are with children).
Many years ago I saw a court hearing in the aftermath of an attempt by a Federal (but non-DOJ) attorney who also happened to a Army Reserve officer to badge his way out of a moving violation with the U.S. Park Police. Turns out USPP actually arrested the guy. To make a long story short: this poor sucker lost both his day job and his reserve commission, and had to plead guilty to some fairly nasty misdemeanors to avoid outright felony charges and the probable loss of his law license.
Real Federal LEO's like FBI, BATF, etc., on the other hand, reportedly do get professional courtesy from their local colleagues. Or so the rumor goes. But you didn't hear that from me. That's above my pay grade...
Very true. I was a lowly intern in the Clerk's office and he always took time to chat with me.