**Welcome to the readers from The Corner at NRO!!**
After much deliberation, we at GayPatriot are pleased to announce that Dan Rather has been selected to be the first recipient of the prestigious James Earl Carter Bitter Old Man Award (JEC BOMA). Named in honor of the nation’s thirty-ninth president, the JEC BOMA honors those men over 70 who, in their dotage, by the very bitterness of their manner, follow in the footsteps of the nation’s worst president.
We have selected Mr. Carter’s name to go on the (yet to be designed trophy) for his nearly twenty-seven years of sour grapes. Having not gotten over his 1980 landslide loss to Ronald Reagan, Carter has become a perpetual critic of his successors and shown such little grace in his retirement that the only times he appears in the media, he seems to be criticizing his own nation (and its leaders) while praising its adversaries (particularly the most vicious). Ostensibly committed to human rights, Mr. Carter seems to find that only the United States and its allies violate them, while blaming other nations’ violations on the policies of the United States (and its allies).
Through the better part of his public actions since voters in 44 states rejected him, this sourpuss has helped redefine the term Bitter Old Man. In order to honor that achievement, we have named this prestigious award in his honor.
We have considered several candidates for the award. While Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid has shown many of the qualities of his party’s one-time standard bearer, we realized that he was not qualified for the award, having not yet reached the age of 70. One blog reader nominated his Arizona colleague John McCain who did meet the age requirement, but we had to exclude him because he was still pursuing Mr. Carter’s old job. (Unfortunately, we could not factor in his chances of winning into the equation for the rules only refer to “announced” candidates for the White House and don’t make exceptions for “doomed” ones.)
Despite what would otherwise have been stiff competition from these worthy adversaries, Dan Rather was a near-unanimous choice for the first ever James Earl Carter Bitter Old Man Award. He seems to delight in grousing against nearly the exact same people whose very success (and just plain presence on the national stage) makes Mr. Carter so unhappy. But, what really sealed the deal for the Awards Committee was Mr. Rather’s recent lambasting of Katie Couric, his successor at CBS News. The committee found this particular attack showed Mr. Rather to be a bitter old man in the same spirit as Mr. Carter, attacking his successor(s) in order to deflect attention from his own failings.
“This is not just the pot calling the kettle black,” said one of the judges, “This is the old pot, long since unusable, calling the new kettle black because of its first burn mark.” Another remarked, “Like Carter, Rather just doesn’t want to recognize his own failings and seems to think that by attacking his successor, he’ll make people forget his own dismal record.”
Congratulations, Mr. Rather, for leaving CBS and continuing to grouse about your successors, you are truly living up to the man whose bitterness defines this award.
