by Steve Finefrock – [scriptwriter]

The senior senator accuses is own state’s young Jefferson Smith in Frank Capra’s “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington” with traitorous words drawn from a massive scheme of institutionalized establishmentarians of the local Taylor political machine, constructed with rage and directed to crush the young upstart:

Senator Joseph Paine: I wish to ask my distinguished colleague, has he one scrap of evidence to add now to the defense he did not give and could not give at that same hearing?

Jefferson Smith: I have no defense against forged papers!

And who does?

A classic film, if a bit farfetched – such naivete would not be ushered into such a den of dangerous patrons of power – and a cause of grief for Capra, as he was virtually run out of town when it premiered in the nation’s capitol, many members of both chambers stalking out of the theatre before it was done. Also, its portrayal of the braying hyenas of the media got him a black eye with the self-adoring Fourth Estate. Broadcast on Turner Classic Movies this past Wednesday, Capra’s signature movie comes to mind reviewing the events arising in the week between Sarah Palin’s unforeseen ascendancy and that film’s telecast.

TCM put on a trinity of “Smith” with “Advise and Consent” preceding it, and followed by “The Farmer’s Daughter” – a week earlier, on the night of Palin’s speech, TCM gave us another triad of distraction from her appearance before the convention, most distinctly “The Candidate” as a taste of politically-themed movies that may come in greater numbers as November approaches.

“The Farmer’s Daughter” gives us a true waif, a fine and idealistic maid of immigrant stock who finds love and displays depths of political presence, to everyone’s surprise, and wins a seat to Congress. Along the very bumpy pathway she ultimately benefits from her own employing family finally standing up for her in the face of horrific mistreatment of the heroine. For “Mr. Smith” the salvation came only when his senior senator attempts suicide, and spills the truth in time for a glorious and cathartic ending.

Along the way, Smith first is made a boob by the press, ridiculed on the Senate floor, thus seeing and chasing one errant master of the “first draft of history” into the National Press Club, where he’s restrained upon accusing them of lies, and given a stern lecture as how the press is more honest, less tainted by the need to satisfy voters with promises. “What have you done of merit” is the essence of the media’s condemnation of the folksy fellow. Thus begins Jeff Smith’s tortuous journey, to draft a bill of merit, and coming square against his own senior senator’s corrupt bargains with the home state’s political czar. No such lecture has ever been visited on Barack Obama, thus no such risky legislation uttered from his lips or pen.

In these films are threads of truth, and revelation of the way Hollywood thinks – freshness and newcomer status is OK if personified by Bill McKay’s “there’s got to be a better way” mantra in “The Candidate” – with no concern for his ascension directly to the U.S. Senate, with previous experience limited to that as, well, a Community Organizer. Straight to the U.S. House for the farmer’s daughter, whose challenge to the czars while she’s a mere maid is cute and cinematically satisfying.

However, with Sarah Palin, the same folks are suddenly apoplectic. They swoon and swarm, from among the media or the movie world, at the thought that someone who’s not dripping with their definition of experience might ascend in politics. Never mind that JFK was a lousy president, he did first begin his second term as Massachusetts’ junior senator before grabbing the Oval ring. A VP nominee with merely her third term in the lower house, in Geraldine Ferrarro, was nifty and neat and swell, since she was a democrat liberal.

Today’s Mr. Smith is Mrs. Palin – or as the liberal media insists, Ms. Smith – whose story is being as distorted as was Jimmy Stewart’s character. The machine against her is akin to that in “Farmer’s Daughter” and “Mr. Smith…” with relentless disregard for context. Yes, context – the matter so precious if needed by a lefty, demonstrated when the media bent over like a pretzel to show how the lipstick-on-pig had been used often by McCain and others. Every network gave us “context” in order to bail out Barack. A whole flock of fluffy helpers, like they were all staffers for “The View” – which gals flocked and flakked Mac like hens going for fresh barley corn on the farmyard gravel.

Fortunately for Mrs. Palin, she has alternate media. Unlike the roasting and toasting of Goldwater, and Quayle, and a host of others, she has allies. The media is still strong, and still biased, and still determined to deflect the natural inclination of the nation to turn rightward. Witness “Reliable Sources” failing to note the true nature of the so-called Bush Doctrine, not even a reference to Krauthammer’s excellent elaboration – and this is the best of media ‘watch’ organizations available to the regular watcher.

But, they ain’t got a monopoly. As Mr. Smith was skewered, and rescued only by a belated ethical pain by Senator Paine, our gal has something more penetrating at her side: alternate media. The collective senior senators and Taylor machine mechanics are at Palin’s throat, but a mere screenwriter’s Deus ex machina isn’t what will save her bacon. It will be OUR GUYS – and gals – on the right.

Her only available defense against forged papers is our own media. Imagine what Reagan could have done in today’s alternative-rich atmosphere. Mr. Smith’s local news protectors were the boy rangers, a scant fly on the hindquarters of the Taylor machine, his message rubbed out of public consciousness in an instant.

Forged papers – phony newspaper ‘investigations’ and imbalanced examination of the two sides is nothing new. You’d think it would tame them, make them take notice, over there in the Fourth and Fifth Estates. Instead, it only makes them more determined to rig the game even further. Thus, the war begins anew.

This time, the Taylor machine has met its match. We don’t need no stinkin’ screenwriter to write our ending. We got our own media, and the fun will get only nastier with each setback they suffer. Logarithmic measurement is required from now on, of their increasing efforts to put Palin in her place. As Vice-President Palin, she will arrive at media manipulation levels of warp twelve: Warping the truth, seeking ‘context’ only to serve the left. But we’re up to it.

Hang on, Mr. Smith, er, Mrs. Sarah – the cavalry is coming in full force. ExileStreet

copyright 2008 Steve Finefrock

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 at 12:07 am and is filed under Finefrock. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.