Kastelbaum's Lament

Airport bars. Never open late enough, but always there for you first thing in the morning.

Kastelbaum and I downed cups of coffee and bloody mary's two at a time. He looked at me with tired, jealous eyes. Ah, the life of a salaried News man. I had spent the week milling about the blog room and laying the venerable Maureen Dowd. She dumped me this morning, via text message no less, and that was that. What happens at the DNC stays at the DNC.

Kastelbaum was all over the place. His mind warped into a nebula of Obama-mania and McCain Veepstakery. Politics, politics, politics. But somewhere, in that twisted nest of neuroses, he was tapping into something very interesting.

"The point that's got me going from the speech last night were the bits about personal responsibility that Obama threw in. See, I really liked when he hammered it home to his own people about being better parents, fathers specifically, earlier during the campaign. But, the whole personal responsibility thing has been co-opted by Republicans and pretty well mangled. And, what finally made sense to me last night, was how the Democrats can finally reclaim those two words as their own." He stopped and looked up at me. He'd been addressing the entire monologue, thus far, to an empty pint glass lined with tomato seeds and horse raddish flakes. His eyes were splattered with red veins. He put two fingers in the air in the general direction of the bar and continued. "See, Bill, the difference is, when Republicans talk about personal responsibility they talk about what is mine: this is my income, how dare you tax it, this is my community, how dare you tell us what we can and cannot do. And on. What Obama was talking about last night, for me, was the idea of what is ours. You have a responsibility to raise your kids right and have the right to have government support in doing so because it's better for all of us. So, yeah, your tax dollars are going to pay for a lot of services you never see, but if it's done right, then you will see the benefits. And that's about being responsible to the nation as a whole. Mine versus ours. If I take care of me, then I will be ok versus if I take care of me and support a government, that is not going away anytime soon by the way, in supporting others, then the overall effects help me. It's more work for everyone, which has always been a problem."

The drinks finally arrived. Kastelbaum paused and stared at the mural of the Rocky Mountains framing the Dunkin Donuts across the walkway. I didn't know what to make of his little monologue. Morty's a bit of a mystery. One question did immediately leap.

"Morty, why do you work for Fox News?"

"They pay better."

Enough said.