This week's installment of Ask Chuck's G is a two-fer. Apparently The Chuck and Rachel aren't the only ones rocketing to stardom. A good deal of the questions we've been getting lately have been asking Chuck's G how she's handling her newfound online adulation.
Ask Chuck's G is a Q&A format column published weekly where Chuck Todd's Grandmother will answer reader's questions. send your questions here Be inquisitive, funny and courteous - it is Chuck's G after all.
We've always liked the cut of this man's jib; so by getting some props from him about Viva Chuck Todd and Chuckolyte.com makes us downright giddy. Check out his blog if you haven't done so already. It should be on your daily reading list.
Again, thanks for the shout-out Andrew. Your honorary Chuckolyte membership card is in the mail.
The crew over here at the Viva Chuck Todd offices can't but help feel proud that someone we've been a big fan of for a while finally got her shot.
It was announced today that starting September 8th, Rachel Maddow will debut her own show at 9:00pm est/6:00pm pst replacing Verdict with Dan Abrams. MSNBC network president, Phil Griffin said it best, "This just completes our prime-time lineup. Our lineup makes sense now." Griffin went on to dispel the assumptions by some that Rachel's show would have a significant left-leaning bias, "We’re hiring Rachel because she’s a smart person. Rachel goes far beyond politics. She’s an expert on military affairs. She was a Rhodes scholar."
We challenge Roger Ailes to get behind a microphone and laud the academic credentials of his prime-time lineup.
Radar magazine is a favorite employee lounge read over here at the Viva Chuck Todd offices, so we were very pleased to see that they were giving it up for not only (#1) The Chuck, but (#3) Rachel Maddow and (#4) Scarborough as well. Whatever the hell Mike Huckabee and Gore 2000 saboteur Donna Brasile were doing on the same list we'll never know. But it was nice to see that a mainstream publication with a hilarious mean streak sees the pundit world the same way we do over here at VCT.
On the flipside of who's not hot, it was slightly sad to see Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews on the list, but you could definitely understand where Radar writer, Nick Curran was coming from. Olbermann could do nicely to finally lay-off the tired and borderline batsh*t crazy O'Reilly schtick and sweet jeezus, we too cannot wait for Matthews to start his Major Kong missile ride of a Pennsylvania senate run in 2010.
So The Chuck let David Gregory enjoy his chair this past Sunday on Meet The Press, where he was also joined by the always lovely Andrea Mitchell and Joshua "Batman-kinda intense" Green from The Atlantic. It was all quite boilerplate and nothing new really. The Chuck set the tone by discussing his electoral map containing the "lean states" that Obama is "putting away" and the states that McCain is just holding onto. The round table discussion soon moved to the topic the pending VP announcements from both campaigns; Obama's presumably coming first. The group seemed to lean Biden. What say you?
Since Chuckolytes are some of the most politically astute individuals in America, we thought we'd get your choice for Obama's upcoming pick. This poll will run till the announcement:
First off, welcome to all the new Chuckolytes who found their way here via the fantastic article on The Chuck in the Los Angeles Times. We hope you like what we've done with the place. Secondly, existing Chuckolytes, if you haven't seen it already, go get yourself a copy or read it here.
Frankly, we at the Viva Chuck Todd Weekend Desk are just glad our boss Paul didn't embarrass us in the article. And because of that fact, Monday should be a real treat listening to him go on blah, blah, blah on how he was quoted in the L.A. Times. It's not like he didn't do any damage. In the space of one paragraph he most likely got us chopped off of Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann's Christmas card list. Nice going boss, nice going.
It's been a little quiet on The Chuck front, so we thought it was a perfect time to roll out one of our new spin-off products that we're pretty proud of: Viva Rachel Maddow e-cards.
Just like The Chuck's e-cards, they're free, sassy and look great on the iPhone. If you love Rachel as much as we do, start sending out the cards declaring your appreciation for the Wonder Woman to The Chuck's Superman(yeah, we know that was a tad over the top).
Our man Willie Geist apparently squeezed in a couple of human interest segments before he and Scarborough shot off to Guatemala to do the lord's work during their Olympics hiatus. The only complaint the girls (and some of the boys) here at the Viva Chuck Todd offices had was that this darling little piece didn't have Willie squeezing into a darling little piece called a wrestling singlet.
"By my calculation, her chances at the nomination were less than 25 percent. And after Feb. 19, those odds dropped to around 10 percent."
That's the money quote from a marvelous article penned by The Chuck on the cacophony of speculation surrounding Hillary and her nomination victory in a parallel universe. More specifically, former Clinton campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson's bombastic claim that Clinton would have the nomination if Edwards peccadilloes came to light earlier this year.
The Chuck calls foul and draws an ingenious parallel to a certain "other" southern gentleman's indiscretions that if examined next to Edwards, could've possibly spelled doom for her campaign much, much earlier. Never let it be said that we think The Chuck is anything but neutral, but you have to laugh at how much The Chuck might've enjoyed writing this article when you consider how much The Chuck "respects" Wolfson and his keen political intellect. Who can forget the palatable restraint The Chuck showed while sitting next to Wolfson for a segment during the Democratic Rules Committee meeting in May. You could see The Chuck was a hair's breadth from screaming "bull$#!" at Wolfson and summoning security to have him removed.
In a web-only segment on MSNBC.com, The Chuck brings his wisdom in discussing VP picks. Apparently The Chuck is enjoying his summer in the fact that he decided to dispense with the tie. Our fashion correspondent, Devon O'Toole says to go with a v-neck undershirt next time the tie is thrown aside with reckless abandon. A crew neck undershirt with no tie looks like you're doing the walk of shame.
Let's hear it for John Edwards for selflessly giving us something to talk about while Obama's in Hawaii and McCain is having his pudding. Unfortunately, The Chuck thought he'd at least have one morning to sleep in. No such luck thanks to the former presidential candidate pretty boy, Senator itchy-pants. And with that amazing segue, we give you today's Viva Chuck Todd Lexicon Watch word: Blog Fodder
BLOG FODDER ˈblȯgˈfä-dər Function: noun Usage: colloquial Etymology: Modern English - a synthesis of the contraction for a personalized online journal and expendable targets; here used in a literary context. First coined by Charles (Chuck) Todd circa early-21st century
1 a: A term used to describe a sensational story that will be voraciously consumed by bloggers and dismissed by conventional media 1 b: A photograph or video featuring a drunken starlet exiting a vehicle wearing no underwear.
The Chuck is in the running for Fishbowl DC'sHottest Media Types: Male on-air.
He's currently getting smoked by some local DC DJ and another guy. Obviously they've alerted their tiny little fanbase to vote, now it's our turn to show them all how it's done.
Chuckolytes the world over were treated to a special day Tuesday. Not only was The Chuck on Morning Joe. Not only was he on Hardball; but he also anchored the 3pm EST/12pm PST Super Tuesday slot on MSNBC.
At 12:02pm EST, The Chuck dove head first into a one-on-one with DNC Chairman Howard Dean. We're not going to suck up and say it went smooth as glass. But we're also not going to tell you that there appeared to be a bug up Chairman Dean's ass that made him a cranky and combative interview subject. Maybe it was the laughably fake backdrop with the nondescript books or the fact that he was being interviewed by the one cat who was not going to succumb to his bombast. Either way, The Chuck showed a wonderful combination of journalistic aggression and congeniality that served him well.
After Dean, The Chuck hit his stride and jockeyed between passing it off for news breaks and continuing his Super Tuesday coverage that included Mr. Personality, Grover Norquist and a threadbare segment about women voters; especially those over 65 who are still bitter over Hillary and leaning towards McCain (yawn).
But, a gold star needs to be put on the paper belonging to the individual responsible for having The Chuck interview Frank Newport, Editor-in-Chief of the Gallup Poll. Those that follow The Chuck are well aware of his oft repeated phrase "live by the daily Gallup tracking poll, die by the daily Gallup tracking poll". So the fact that the one guy who could communicate to The Chuck to cease the bad-mouthing of his daily tracking poll squandered the opportunity and morphed into The Chuck's prison bride and was submissive and complimentary throughout the whole interview. The Chuck's raw power shone as he requested a custom three and five day average tracking poll report, and Newport practically pulled out his laptop and made The Chuck one right there. The appropriate response would have been a sassy, "Kiss my tracking poll Todd! You'll take what we give you and like it!". But The Chuck now calls the shots and that's a sweet sight indeed.
The next segment was with Dan Balz of the Washinton Post, Dotty Lynch of the American University School of Communication and Mike Allen of Politico.com. Pretty standard fare in this segment and The Chuck was cruising comfortably on impulse power. But the most notable thing about this segment was not anything of particular profundity but strangely it came from Mike Allen's schizoid ensemble consisting of a dapper dark suit coat and tie paired oh so adventurously with light-colored casual pants and sensible black shoes that looked like orthotics. Hats off to the production person who assured Mikey that he'd just be shot from the waist up.
All in all The Chuck performed masterfully. Very quickly the hour became a confident presentation humming with The Chuck's personal energy and cool excitement. We're looking forward to seeing The Chuck manning the con more often. At the very least it'll give us a chance to dust off the Chuck Todd-y drinking game and make an early evening of it.
The 4th Chair at the Morning Joe table has seen it's regulars. But given a choice, who would you want to see next to our man Willie indefinitely? You've got your regulars like the irascible, yet lovable Ol' Man Barnacle, Harold "Chuckles" Ford (the man wouldn't even crack a smile when Triumph, the insult comic dog was on), the foppish Jonathan Capehart, poster boy for the phrase "still waters run deep", David Schuster and Tiki "Ambien" Barber. Of course, you may have your favorite, so feel free to write it in that little gray box under "other". And don't hold back on putting in a fantasy choice either. Here at the office, we're trying to decide who would pop a blood vessel in Scarborough's head first: Keith Olbermann or Michael Moore.
CABLE CATNIP ˈkā-bəl kat-nip Function: noun Usage: colloquial Etymology: Modern English - Synthesis of transmission method for non-airborne television signal and strong-scented perennial mint that causes great attraction amongst felines. First coined by Charles (Chuck) Todd circa early-21st century
1 a: A term used to describe a political advertisement that is as devoid of fact as it is rich in sensational claims or imagery making it highly attractive to television news organizations desperate to fill a 24-hour news cycle 1 b: Soft-core porn shown on Cinemax that is easily accessible by 13-year-old boys.
A man's tie knot is not supposed to pulsate wildly. One is to master a classic knot and let the fabrics speak for him opposed to letting the knot itself take center stage. If an individual cannot do this, then it is our recommendation to wear a cravat. In the case of Master Capehart, his tie knot has assumed many personalities throughout the last week and it's becoming somewhat distracting. Could this be a case of fashion fickleness or is he merely being uppity or dare we say, elitist in the face of Scarborough who seems challenged by a clip-on?
filed by Viva Chuck Todd Fashion Correspondent - Devon O'Toole
This morning's Meet The Press was pretty standard fare for all of us political junkies who are adrift in these Horse Latitudes of the election season; no Veep pick, conventions are off in the distance, the candidates are about a hair's breadth from T.P.-ing each other's house, etc.
So you try to pull together a group to talk about something until the Olympics get here. The Chuck worked with what he had. Mike Murphy let loose the most unfortunate of Freudian slips replacing Chappaquiddick for Chappaqua. The Chuck hit him with a rock while he swung in the wind by saying, "You Republicans are programmed (unitelligible)." We believe we heard The Chuck say, "You Republicans are programmed with that story as children to make you fear getting in cars with Senators and/or strangers."
But somewhere in all this snooziness Judy Woodruff was not buying what The Chuck was selling. We here at the Viva Chuck Todd offices challenge anyone out there to review the broadcast and let us know if Woodruff looked at The Chuck more than two times. We believe that lady doesn't like The Chuck. She tried to undermine The Chuck's historical argument of citing the 1988 general election where Lloyd Bentsen outclassed Dukakis and Dan Quayle kept asking Bush Sr. if he could go pee-pee. Illustrating that a VP choice can seriously affect perception if gravitas or experience levels are seriously out-of-whack. Woodruff debated that point by saying even though Bentsen "cleaned Dan Quayle's clock" it made no difference. She also referenced Spiro Agnew as another bad choice that didn't effect the general election. She almost had us until she torpedoed her own argument by referencing LBJ bringing in Texas for JFK. The Chuck piled on by referencing Al Gore bringing Tennessee for Clinton.
We believe The Chuck was making the argument in the context of 2008, where the Vice Presidency has been elevated to a much more powerful and high profile office where the candidates are now more than appendages and funeral goers. Obama is, well, Obama so that needs a whole new vetting matrix and McCain needs to cast for understudies like a Broadway producer in 1996 who has a show with George Burns headlining.
With that said, the Viva Judy Woodruff domain is now for sale if anyone wants it.
