GOP: Priebus steps into the spotlight (Politico)

(Now, hopefully his next step won't be a foot in his mouth)

Perhaps the man who had helped Steele take the chair of the conservative GOP in 2009 can serve as more of a guide and chairman, and less of a media target, as the exiting chair. For that to happen, it will also require certain media segments to act like professionals and not gossips, of course. But it will be up to Chairman Reince Priebus to opine with clarity all the time, not fire one-offs that miss the mark, as Steele had done. Several times.

POLITICO: The diminutive chairman of the Wisconsin GOP vanquished Steele to become national chairman.  
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/47644.html

"Priebus often jokes about the pronunciation of his Greek name. The name is Rhine with a hard 's' at the end and pree-bus. After winning a hard-fought contest, he still pronounced his name carefully for reporters at a hastily convened press conference....

Priebus's mother, Dimitra, said in an interview that her son started volunteering for Republican causes when he was 10 years old by putting signs in people's yards. His father, Roula, was once a union electrician and now works in real estate...."

- jR

Related articles

• Priebus steps into the spotlight (politico.com)
• GOP Picks Priebus to Head Party (abcnews.go.com)
• Meet Reince Priebus, The New RNC Chair (npr.org)

Republicans in Hollywood feel bullied

Rabid liberality?

Republicans in Hollywood feel bullied

One "Big Hollywood" blogger is Andrew Klavan, an accomplished novelist-screenwriter who made a splash with a Wall Street Journal article comparing Batman and the "The Dark Knight" to President Bush and the war on terror.

"It's not easy being different," he said. "The liberals aren't all that liberal. We think they're wrong, but they think we're evil, and they behave like it."

Klavan said a producer, worried that Klavan's political reputation had become common knowledge, asked recently whether he could pitch something Klavan wrote but under an assumed name. Klavan declined.

"I don't want to be the Dalton Trumbo of the right," he said, referring to a notable screenwriter who fell victim to Hollywood's blacklist during the anti-communist hysteria of the 1940s and 1950s.

If you lean right, pitch to those who are sympathetic, or at least tolerant of conservative viewpoints, Klavan said. Mel Gibson, Jerry Bruckheimer and Joel Surnow come to mind.

Klavan also said liberalism seeps into too much Hollywood content nowadays and offers as proof the several anti-Iraq war movies that have been boxoffice bombs.

"These aren't even movies about the war on terror," he said. "They're Vietnam War movies, made by people who sit around at Skybar discussing their pacifist world view."

TV also is too one-sided, he said. "They don't even make fun of Barack Obama," he noted. "How is that possible? The guy's hilarious."

Another "Big Hollywood" blogger is Evan Sayet, whose writing credits include "Win Ben Stein's Money" and "Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher."

Six years ago, while a staff writer for a popular talk show, Sayet said, "I was informed I could not write jokes about ebonics, global warming or any other cause coming from the left."