Hard to Make a Stand?

This weekend's New York Times and other papers reported of an argument between White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove and rockstar Sheryl Crow. According to the Times, Ms Crow had approached Mr Rove at a social dinner to discuss global warming. Crow had touched Rove's arm to talk to him about climate change, and Rove had spat back ("Don't touch me"); the argument had escalated from there.

Karl Rove got very mad at Sheryl Crow this weekend, but was Mr Rove perhaps just envious of Ms Crow's stage presence?

Exhibit A: Here's Ms Crow performing Hard to Make a Stand in summer 2006.
We got loud guitars and big suspicions,
Great big guns and small ambitions,
And we still argue over who is God
And I say, "Hey there Miscreation,
Bring a flower, time is wasting"
"Hey there Miscreation,
We all need a celebration"
And it's hard to make a stand

Exhibit B: Mr Rove recently attended the Radio-Television Correspondents Association dinner. Mr Rove joined a group of comedians in rapping on stage.

That was truly terrible. But wait... Mr Rove's performance is strangely reminiscent of a few previous hair-raising moments in home video history. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer loved his company a few years ago, and he really out-of-breath loved it.

Ballmer is really, really frightening. But Karl Rove may also have been inspired by the Bank of America guys. We've seen this before, and it's almost too much to bear.

Now, I'm a non-native speaker, so when a White House spokesperson called Ms Crow's meeting with Karl Rove "Hollywood histrionics" I, for one, actually had to check the dictionary for "histrionics." It means "theatrical performance." Ms Crow's moment with Mr Rove was "a theatrical performance"? Compared to Mr Rove's look-I-can-laugh-at-myself rap? No comment. Men -- can anyone imagine a woman doing anything like Rove/Ballmer/BofA? Nope. No way. Never. If a woman does this, she won't be the President's right-hand woman or the CEO of the largest software company in the world. She's probably taken to - that's right, people - rehab.

Exhibit C: Britney Spears... Britney Spears went bald/ballistic/ballmer earlier this spring, and was admitted to a place called Promises.

Okay, so Sheryl Crow herself may be the first to admit it's hard to make a climate-saving stand at a White House Correspondents' Association dinner, but for what it's worth, in this video below, rocking with Mick Jagger, even Sheryl Crow's jeans make a greater political stand than Rove/Ballmer/BofA probably ever could ("we want to be rockstars" -- no, guys, but you have a lot in common in the silliness department!!!)

(This entry owes YouTube a huge debt of gratitude... Thank yous go out to all those YouTube posters out there posting these great clips...)