Real Dicks and Baptist Bras

Last week Mark Halperin, MSNBC senior political analyst and Editor-at-Large for Time magazine called President Obama “a dick” on a popular morning show and then quickly apologized.

“I thought he was a kind of a dick yesterday,” Halperin said on “Morning Joe,” referring to the president’s conduct during his press conference.

Now the lésé majesté aside, let's see who acted like a real dick.

President Obama? Now that's strictly a partisan judgment; although to call someone a dick is taken as being offensive. I don't know how the term came about, but I would suspect that, as a Democrat of note, he would not aspire to be compared to Dick Nixon.

Mark Halperin? Maybe. But simply from naively expecting that his hypercandor and crude language would not be aired. Does Mr. Halperin also believe in the Easter Bunny?

The host of 'Morning Joe', Joe Scarborough? Yes, because he told Halperin that his remarks would be off the record, but they weren't. There was some mendacity going on here.  Joe, you need to keep your promises!

The White House and the American news media? You betcha. They acted like a bunch of prissy little Catholic schoolgirls willing to tell on a misbehaving classmate. And they went into a feeding frenzy mode pronto. And neither MSNBC nor Time magazine passed up the opportunity to appear pious.

 We're currently in a National Baptist Bra Mode: making mountains out of molehills.

Or, we're still in the dick joke phase that the woeful saga of Anthony Weiner got us on to. And everyone makes sure he can get his licks in about it.

Can I say it: they're getting it off by acting in concert like pious dicks.

But why is it so bad to be a dick? And why is the word 'dick' a synonym for penis? In reviewing the census of all the named players in this story, the number of penis possessors is approximately 100%. And I guess that each of them enjoys his own; and would be sad without it.  I know a lot of guys.  Presumably they are in possession of penises, but I did collect data to verify this.

 So why doesn't 'He acted like a dick yesterday' get accompanied with 'and deserves the fifth slot on Mt. Rushmore?'  Or why doesn't acting like a dick warrant a high-five, or a joyous drenching of champagne in the locker room?

In short, why is there this diffidence with regard to penises?

And why pick on poor Dicks?  The Richard variety, I mean.