Stupid Tuesday Questions, Enrico Pallazzo edition

This has been one humdinger of a political season, no?  As we approached the denouement, my thoughts ran along the lines of “This can’t possibly really be happening.  Is this happening?  This is happening!  This can’t possibly be happening.”  Rinse, repeat.

As of my writing this, it’s still not clear if the much-awaited deal will even pass in either the House or the Senate.  (Here’s hoping that question will be settled by the time this actually posts.)  From where I sit now, there’s still the possibility that Congress will give the finger to the bond markets, the US economy, and what remains of America’s tattered world standing.

Which brings me to today’s Stupid Tuesday Question.  If you could think of one character or person (real or fictional) to serve as a symbolic stand-in for the United States Congress, who would it be?  Who embodies in one individual the collective ass-hattedness of our esteemed national leaders?  Whose behavior, demeanor, intellect, perspicacity, suavity, probity, decorum or good sense makes them an ideal representation of our legislative branch?

For me, there is but one answer.  One character whose blinkered self-assurance and beatific obliviousness/indifference in the face of unyielding reality brought him repeatedly to mind as I read news report after news report about every single collapsed deal, false start, blow-up and snit.  My friends, our Congress is Sergeant Lt. Frank Drebin.  (Wikipedia steered me wrong on his rank.)

Russell Saunders

Russell Saunders is the ridiculously flimsy pseudonym of a pediatrician in New England. He has a husband, three sons, daughter, cat and dog, though not in that order. He enjoys reading, running and cooking. He can be contacted at blindeddoc using his Gmail account. Twitter types can follow him @russellsaunder1.

7 Comments

  1. Walter Sobchak from the Big Lebowski. Because he’s stupid AND extremely opinionated.

    • Hm. Walter Sobchak, for all his many faults, did have fundamentally good intentions and a good heart. He stuck by his friends and his dedication to Judaism was, if unthinkingly obstinate, also a tribute to the love he still held for his wife. I don’t know that the same charitable excuses can be said, collectively, about our Congress.

  2. Just off the top of my head, I’ll suggest Major Major Major Major from Catch-22. Advanced to a position of considerable but not commanding authority with no particular insight as to how he got there nor any particular indicia of having earned the distinction; overweening ego coupled with middling abilities; competent, if at all, through the machinations of chance rather than the exercise of ability; and insistent upon being respected without having done what is necessary to earn that respect.

  3. Didn’t Drebin always win?

    Let’s get it out of the way early:
    Martin Wuttke from Inglourious Basterds.

  4. I write primarily to state the less than interesting personal tidbit that I in fact once knew a person named Enrico Pallazzo (the spelling was different, though).

    But since I’m here, I’ll admit that I’m having a hard time coming up with a better character than Walter Sobchak, though as Burt points out, the comparison is unfair to Walter.

    Hmmmm….I think the answer to this question has to exist in a Mel Brooks movie. Maybe President Skroob from Spaceballs?

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