“Weird Mail” is our project to share with you the strange pleas for attention that we routinely receive at Spectator. This week, our pen pals got political.
"Seinfeld" is, without doubt, America's most famous show about nothing (not counting "Keeping up with the Kardashians," which is about nobodies). And while you might think that, almost 15 years after the show went off the air, its cultural cachet is diminishing, you couldn't be more wrong.
Or at least, that's how author Bruce Ticker sees it. His new e-book, George Costanza Goes to Washington, was the subject of an email we received at Spectator last week. Ticker attributes all that's wrong in politics today to "the Costanza style" of governing.
In the scene Ticker draws from, Jerry and George are in discussions with NBC for their own sitcom pilot. George messes up the negotiations and the pair are forced to settle for less than they had originally been offered. Says a frustrated Jerry to Costanza, "This is how they negotiate in bizarro world!" And Ticker's book was born.
George Costanza Goes to Washington aims to explain political problems in Washington as the result of bungled negotiations, placing the blame on Democrats such as Sen. Harry Reid for failing to press their cases in legislative battles. Unfortunately, the email didn't include a copy of the e-book, so we can only imagine how Ticker extends his metaphor to book-length. Some possibilities:
