Howard Fineman was very impressed when the president changed his attire (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 12/10/01). He seemed to take it as a sign that The Dub was just right for the office:

If you’re rational, you may be surprised to see such meaningless conduct used as a signal of Bush’s great mastery. After all, who doesn’t wear dressy clothes to some events, and less formal clothing to others? Indeed, even a casual reader of Fineman’s prose might suspect that he’s reading the work of a courtier. And let’s make it clear—it surely isn’t Bush’s fault that Fineman would engage in such risible pandering. No, our observer wouldn’t dog Bush for this piece; it’s Fineman whom he’d mock as a toady.

But if you followed press coverage of the last election, you know that there’s more to this tale. In that election, pundits repeatedly used pointless observations about utter trivia to offer sweeping conclusions about candidates’ character. One example? The clothing of the various hopefuls was endlessly mined for deep meaning. In particular, pundits routinely used Gore’s clothes to demonstrate the veep’s complete lack of character. Which brings us back to Howard Fineman, and his changing thoughts about changes of attire.

It’s strange that Bush’s "changes of attire" are a sign of the president’s "comfort." Because, back in 1999, Fineman cited this very same conduct as a sure sign that Gore was a nut. Gore, like Bush—like everyone on earth—would sometimes dress in suit and tie, and would sometimes wear less formal clothing. And when he did, there was Fineman, always prepared to tell Chris or Brian that the conduct made Gore a big nut.

Let’s start with the vacuous Brian Williams, obsessed with Al Gore’s polo shirts. As early as September 27, 1999, E.J. Dionne had begun to notice the fashion trashing which Gore was receiving. "If he wears a suit, he’s a stiff guy in a suit," Dionne said, in his Post op-ed column. "If he wears an open shirt, he’s a stiff guy in a suit faking it." And no one was more obsessed with Gore’s clothing than the vacuous Williams. Gore was "wearing polo shirts twenty-four hours a day," he complained on his October 6 MSNBC program. (Williams anchored a nightly, hour-long, misnamed show, The News with Brian Williams). The polo shirts "don’t always look natural on him," he grumbled two nights later. On and on the grousing went. Plainly, Williams thought Gore was wearing the shirts in some sort of effort to fool female voters; he repeatedly asked his guests when Gore’s clever strategy would "all start becoming so transparent [that] no one is fooled" (October 6) or (October 8) whether the strategy would "become absolutely transparent when they go out into the hinterlands and try to sell it?" Incredibly, Williams raised the question of Gore’s polo shirts on five separate occasions in one week alone, from October 4 through October 11 (see today’s "Daily update"). And on that last date, Howard Fineman was there—eager to play a helpful role in the utterly dim-witted trashing:

Fineman was right there on-message:

That doesn’t sound like a compliment, does it? Hang on as things get much, much worse.

By November 1, the Naomi Wolf flap had started, and Fineman was quickly assuring the world that somethin’ was bad wrong with Gore. And how could you tell that something was wrong? Easy—because of the way Gore would change his attire. On November 1—the first full day of the remarkable flap—the press corps decided that the "kooky" Wolf had told Gore he had to wear earth tones. There was no real evidence that this was true, and Wolf unequivocally said it was false. No matter. On November 1, the clothes-obsessed Williams ran with the topic. Fineman was along to play shrink:

See that? All the way back to 1988, Gore had done what Bush does now—he had worn conservative suits to some events, and casual clothing to others. But now, the president is praised for such masterful conduct; in 1999, Gore was played off as a nut. Everyone who followed Election 2000 knows the spin which Fineman was offering. Al Gore doesn’t know who he is. It was recited over and over by amateur shrinks, all through the inane Wolf brouhaha.

Fineman continued the dimwitted spinning on Hardball two nights later. First, the show’s crackpot host played tape of Gore giving a speech in a suit. Then came tape of Gore in casual dress for a TV interview. This led to a long and ugly discussion about how mixed-up poor Gore must be. The conversation was deranged on its face, but Fineman was hot for the spinning:

Incredible, isn’t it? Clearly, there were two key things you just couldn’t do. You couldn’t wear any casual clothes—and you couldn’t give four-part answers! To state the obvious, this transcript can only be scored as "deranged." But of course, this is exactly the type of crackpot spinning that drove the 2000 election.

Let’s say it again—all the way back to 1988, Gore had sometimes appeared in casual clothes, and he’d sometimes appeared in blue suits. The conduct itself is utterly meaningless; everyone behaves in this manner. But now, Fineman says it shows Bush’s mastery; then, the conduct showed Gore was a nut. The comfortable courtier has skillfully changed on the subject of change of attire.

Alas! Your children have their birthright stolen by vacuous, brain-dead spinning like Fineman’s. Next, we’ll check out Fineman’s "character " in the case of the bare-faced borrower.

Next: Fineman called Bradley an "authentic" "straight-shooter" with "a life outside politics." But where had we heard it before?

Visit our incomparable archives: We discussed this foolishness in real time. See THE DAILY HOWLER 10/12/99, 11/4/99, and 2/15/00.

Rip Van Rutenberg: Where in the world has Jim Rutenberg been? In his recent piece about Fox and the war, he offered this dated assessment:

But that anchor role died long ago. For example, consider the astonishing Williams, anchoring The News in October 1999. Here he was on October 4, ranting about Gore’s casual dress:

To his credit, Zogby ducked the question. Next victim? Claire Shipman, two nights later:

See? Gore’s wardrobe was all about women. Williams raised the same point with Fineman a bit later:

For the record, Gore had campaigned in casual clothes right from the start of the campaign. A number of major scribes had profiled this fact, as far back as April 4. But now a new spin was blowing up hard—Gore had ditched the suits because Bradley was surging. Plainly, this was factually bogus, but Williams was spinning clothes hard:

Remember, this is an anchor speaking—although comments like this would be utterly stupid no matter where they came from. At any rate, Fineman was back on Monday, 10/11, and so was the grumbling about clothes:

And so on—and on and on. Again, Williams wasn’t simply drenched in trivia—his facts were also baldly wrong. But a hot new spin had blown through the corps, and Williams was spinning it hard.

It’s hard to believe that NBC would put such total crap on the air. But someone needs to tell Jim R: when it comes to anchors spewing their "outlook," Fox is still chasing MS.

Visit our incomparable archives: Williams spun some poll numbers blue. See THE DAILY HOWLER, 10/11/99.

If Williams can read, he tried hard to hide it. See THE DAILY HOWLER, 10/12/99 (postscript).