“难得糊涂”的政治家

PETER GROSZ, host: Right now, panel, it's time for you to answer some questions about this week's news. Charlie, the Republican National Committee is looking for a new leader, and they recently held a debate. Candidates were asked: what's your favorite book? Most of the answers were very predictable, but one candidate confused everybody with her answer "my kitchen table." Why did she say that?

Mr. CHARLIE PIERCE (Author, "Idiot America"): Oh, this is the lady who thought they asked her: what's your favorite bar?

GROSZ: That's right.

(Soundbite of bell)

GROSZ: Now...

Mr. PIERCE: And by the way, my kitchen table is a weird answer even to that question.

GROSZ: Yeah. Even after somebody else before her had answered, "The Reagan Diaries,"(《里根日记》) Ann Wagner thought that it was a good idea to say "probably my kitchen table."

(Soundbite of laughter)

GROSZ: Which, for the record, the New York Times has called a page turner( 引人入胜的书), and a heartbreaking, fully-realized tale of woman who will never be elected RNC(Republican National Committee,美国共和党全国委员会) Chair.

(Soundbite of laughter)

GROSZ: It was worse, too, when they said who's a Republican that you really admire and she said Captain Morgan(摩根船长，世界排名第二的朗姆酒).

(Soundbite of laughter)

GROSZ: Possibly, though, the best part of this entire thing was they asked the same question of Michael Steele, of course the current chair who's running for reelection, and he answered the book part of the question, the real question, with "War and Peace."(《战争与和平》) And then right after he said "War and Peace," he followed up by saying, and this is not a joke, he said, "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

Mr. PIERCE: Oh.

GROSZ: Which is not from "War and Peace," it's from "Tale of Two Cities."(《双城记》)

Mr. PIERCE: Well, obviously, he'd had breakfast with that woman.

(Soundbite of laughter)