ustxtxb_obs_2004_09_24_50_00027-00000_000.pdf

Milagros, Retablos and Arte Popular FOLK ART & OTHER TREASURES FROM AROUND THE WORLD 209 CONGRESS AVEAlthIN 512/479-8377 OPEN DAILY 10-6, FREE PARKING BEHIND THE STORE www.tesoros.com He may not be far wrong. Once a lug man,’ then an unremarkable Texas legislator known as “Hot Tub Tom,” Tom DeLay is now the most powerful man in the United States Congress. How did it happen? Two of Texas’s top reporters, Lou Dubose and Jan Reid, have followed DeLay from his early days. In this lively, hard-hitting narrative, they explain exactly how the inflammatory “Hammer” rose to the top of American politicsand why it’s time voters start taking at how he did it, and what he wants now that he’s there. Lou Dubose & Jan Reid IN STOCK, ALWAYS www.publicaffairsbooks.com sion, one audience member asked Don Hall, the film’s executive producer, what he thought about Senator John Kerry’s service in Vietnam. “Four months to receive that much metal?” responded Hall. “It’s preposterous. I think he’s a charlatan, a fake.” Meanwhile, in the lobby, representatives of a conservative radio station handed out “Beat Kerry” paddles attached to a ball on a string. A would-be producer tried to sell his pilot for a conservative reality-TV show in which, among other gags, he goes around placing outsized “government warning labels” onget this!government buildings. Nearby, a volunteer handed out information about the documentary with the best name at the festival: Beyond the Passion of the Christ. Over the course of the weekend, there were a smattering of Kerry jokes, lots of hissing anytime Bill or Hillary Clinton appeared on screen, and plenty of misgivings about the Hollywood Axis of Evilalso known as Barbara Streisand, Bruce Springsteen, and Janeane Garofalo. But most of the venom was directed at Moore. On Saturday night, conservative commentator Larry Elder presented Michael & Me, a rambling rebuttal to Moore’s Bowling for Columbine. The film, which focuses on the societal benefits of gun ownership, fails to deliver much screen time with Moore. Elder manages a single ambush interview that lasts for the better part of a minute. To make up for his lack of face-to-face time with Moore, Elder employs an animated fantasy sequence to grill a cartoon version of his nemesis. Bloated, scruffy, and sporting an anti-NRA baseball cap, the cartoon Moore wilts under Elder’s rapidfire questions. The cartoon Moore turns green, vomits, and shrinks to half his size. Finally he pulls out a handgun and starts firing at Elder. A security guard swoops in and carries Moore away while he squeals helplessly, “Shame on you Mr. Bush; shame on you.” Felix Gillette is busy pondering the big question: Ronald Reagan or Fandango Guy? 9/24/04 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 27