you noticed that too, huh? and I heard Feinburg doing the same ad today, shortly after I read your post. Ha!
Yeah, but it's funnier, in sort of a dichotomous kind of way, when Howie does it.
It's interesting on so many levels:
- I don't listen to Carr much, but I would expect that lawyers are occasionally the target of his sharp tongue; perhaps he's blamed them for one or two ills in our society. I have vague memories of statements to that effect.
Well, it's the old "all lawyers suck, except mine" position, which isn't all that uncommon. Howie also liked to rant about people who used the courts and the legal system to save themselves from their own incompetence and stupidity. He probably won't be hitting that one too hard for the foreseeable future.
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- The service being advertised is as you describe - diverting money so it can be a handout to someone who didn't earn it by someone who will then take tax money from the state.
Actually, its a handout to someone who doesn't need it to benefit someone who didn't earn it. I've never understood why it is 'illegal, immoral, and unethical" for people to pay their own bills, and let the kids just divvy up the life insurance money,
- But, the best part is that the target audience for the advertising is conservative - people who supposedly are against handouts and spending tax money!
That assumes facts not in evidence. I've always thought conservatives who hang their hats on Carr are taking a risk, since Howie is actually more a cynic (someone who knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing) than a true ideological conservative. I've never found his callers particularly conservative either, mostly either reactionary or the usual 'me, too' (......right on, Howie, you've nailed it, drunk drivers killing people is bad, keep up the good fight against the entrenched pro drunk driving lobby....), or apostle-of-the-obvious type (Yes. Howie, crime is bad..).
Interestingly, those who have the biggest axes to grind against Carr always go straight to the ad homs in taking him on, instead of explaining what is faulty with his thinking. If you can't intellectually wrestle Howie Carr to the ground, you probably shouldn't be allowed to listen to the radio, or use a keyboard, without a caretaker standing by.
As someone elsewhere once pointed out, Howie's brand of conservatism is 'leave me alone and keep your hands off my money." In fairness, I should say that he has never said that prohibition should be extended to your money.
So, either the ads are effectively increasing the business of said lawyer, in which case there are a heap o' conservative hypocrites* out there; or the lawyer is being duped by some sweet-talkin ad guy from a major radio station.
But no one side has cornered the market in hyprocrisy. I think a lot of us remember when liberal gadfly, Sam Donaldson, who made a cottage industry of badmouthing government handout programs, especially Republican-favored ones, like farm subsidies, was revealed to have been knocking down a hundred grand a year in subsidies for raising goats on his 30,000 acre future retirement ranch (evidently the government was concerned about the threat of a future mohair or goat cheese shortage.) I think Donaldson, probably unintentionally, both hit the nail right on the head, and detailed the problem exquisitely, when he stated....
"....But the bottom line, Donaldson said, is that the deal is there and he's glad to take the money. "The government helps ranchers and farmers and businesses of all kinds. If it is in existence and I am eligible to use it, I'll use it." According to) populist broadcaster Jim Hightower, Donaldson also avails himself of federal largesse by leasing large tracts of public land and asking government help in controlling the coyotes that dine on his sheep."
That lawyer's been advertising on the station for quite a while, so I think you can assume that it's working. And, whomever wrote the copy is brilliant and knows his audience perfectly...just tell them its "legal, moral, and ethical, and they'll take your word for it, because it's a lot easier then asking themselves if it's "principled" or "intellectually honest."
If you think politics makes strange bedfellows, it doesn't hold a candle to greed, on either side of the political aisle.
Regards,
TSB
