Interviewing KMBZ conservative talker Darla Jaye for this week's cover story naturally involved arguing with her. That's what she does for a living, after all, and when it comes to politics, she's completely wrong about everything ever, so we were bound to get feisty.
(Note to the Darla-heads who seem astonished that my piece was not a gotcha hit job: The above sentence has a joke in it.)
Perhaps our most spirited exchange came when I presented the closest I had to gotchas, my principal criticisms of her show. One of the biggest: her habit of getting sputteringly mad about things that don't seem to me in the least bit important.
That's when I discovered for myself what many callers, including my father, had already learned. Arguing with Jaye ain't easy. Even when you think you're getting somewhere, she always has another subject-changing outrage to throw at you. I count three sudden changes of subject in the little playlet below. See if you can spot how her attempts to Jedi Mind Trick the liberal into a different discussion.
The Pitch: "Sometimes, you get just as worked up about something insignificant as you would about something important. The week Obama flew to Copenhagen to make his Olympics pitch, you were outraged that Michelle Obama described the trip as a 'sacrifice.'"
Jaye rolls her eyes.
The Pitch: "You leapt from that to saying, 'No, it's the soldiers in Afghanistan who are sacrificing.' You raised your voice and said, 'How dare she? How dare she?'"
Jaye: "I find her arrogant, and I find him incredibly arrogant. Obama had the report from General McChrystal by that point for 60 days, and she calls it a sacrifice to fly overseas to bring the Olympics to their hometown so everyone they know can make a buttload of money? Bullshit."
The Pitch: "But you're putting so much on just one word choice."
Jaye: "I get e-mails from soldiers saying they can't even buy toilet paper because the PX's are empty. Day after day, people are dying, and going to Copenhagen is a sacrifice? It's not."
The Pitch: "Why is the shoddy treatment of our soldiers Michelle Obama's fault? Remember, it was the Democrats who were upset at the conditions at Walter Reed Hospital."
Jaye: "That was an outrage. Anyone who served this country should not be treated that way. But it has been a year since Obama won the presidency, and every time someone gets mad at him the immediate liberal response is 'George Bush.' You've done it four times since we've been talking."
The Pitch: I'm not passing blame to Bush. I'm saying that you get madder at things under Obama than you would under Bush.
Jaye: I was outraged when Bush worked with [Senator Ted] Kennedy to pas the education bill. There was outrage at the prescription drug bill.
The Pitch: But not like there has been toward Obama on cap and trade or this health-care bill. You used the word "abomination" earlier about this administration.
Jaye: I liked George Bush, but I don't think he was a great president, and I disagreed with him on several things. I wish he would have taken care of Afghanistan so it isn't back to where it was. I'm glad Saddam Hussein's not in power. Was that the right thing to do at that time? I would say maybe not. But I'm so proud of our military, and I honor them. For anybody to say that war was a waste--"
Understanding that this will go on for a while, The Pitch reporter gives up, wondering when he had ever suggested that the war was a waste or that our soldiers didn't deserve honor. Also, he sends silent props to his kick-ass brother in the Air Force.
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I am a die hard conservative. Find the most conservative person you know of and I will make him look like a liberal. Having said that, all talk show hosts are like that on both sides. On the right, climate change due to our adding CO2 is a myth. fact ... yes and no. On the Democrat side. It's carbon emiisions and were causing global warming. fact... again yes and no. Here ARE the facts on both sides. Yes, we are changing the climate. No, it's not carbon emissions, it's what we are doing to our worlds #1 and #2 co2 emissions shock absorbers. We have and are raising the Ph levels of our oceans through various pollutants that is killing of phyto-plankton. #2, were destroying the amazon rain forests. And lastly, to shut up any liberal mush brain speech about co2, in the last 100years, the human race has put out enough co2 emissions to barely equal 1/1000th of the emissions put out by a single volcanic eruption. But just try talking about that single issue to either side.
Darla is ridiculous. Every time a caller comes CLOSE to making a valid point that would deflate her argument, she cuts them off and hangs up on them. That's why they moved her to a time slot where half the year, nobody can hear her, due to the cut in transmission power at sunset. I've never listened to a more insufferable shrew on the radio in my life. And she certainly has a face for radio, doesn't she? Shanin and Parks will at least engage in discourse, and allow you to get one sentence out of your mouth.
Well, I don't like to argue, but I think perhaps I do like this Darla chick, whoever she is.
Pretty funny when the term, "Fair and Balanced," can apply to The Pitch. Nice work, Alan. Nice work Darla.
As a fiscal conservative (Gooooo, Free Market!!), and a social liberal (Gooooo, Gay Marriage!!), you both made it easy for me to love and hate you both, or more should I say certain aspects of your politics. Maybe this is what happens when reasonable people with opposing viewpoints, but mutual respect for their right to express them, get together. A shame we don�t have more (any?) of this in Washington.
This is my favorite follow-up thus far, as this is not how I remember the conversation. (of course Alan did tape this)
We had a much longer dicussion about poor Michelle Obama and what a sacrifice it was for her to fly to Europe to try to sell Chicago for the Olympics. I merely was trying to explain what a REAL acrifice was.
A real acrifice is Alan's Air Force brother heading to Iraq twice and to Afghanistan twice.
That being said, I do love to argue, and will always defend what I believe. There's nothing wrong with standing up for what you believe.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Darla Jaye
This grade-school-level verbal shell game is exactly why Darla is laughable as 1) a thoughtful talk show host*, and 2) a candidate for any political post outside of dog-catcher.**
As the man said, this isn't the (type of) intelligence you're looking for�
* Yes yes yes; perfectly aware of inherent irony.
** Though I would I give great odds that she could/would politicize the job within a month.
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