From the wonderful song parody group The Capitol Steps:
Old Man Rumsfeld (sung before the firing resignation)
If you haven’t heard the Capitol Steps they take potshots at both sides. So if you don’t like a phrase in a song, remember they go after everyone.
Note that the first song is sung from the perspective of conservatives; the second one from the perspective of the center and left. People who don’t have a sense of humor and claim they are “conservative” or “liberal” haven’t listened to their body of work (the group was founded by moderate Republican staffers many years ago) and need to “lighten up.” I bring their CDs with me on long drives and they always make the rides seem shorter.
PS: Ironically, the only public official who truly got mad at them (Ronald Reagan loved them and Bill Clinton did, too, until their brutal song parodies involing the Monica Lewinsky scandal) was Republican Senator Bob Dole. They did a parody of him and his wife singing “Viagra” to the tune of “Maria.” Dole reportedly was not happy and threatened to leave a party at which they were performing if they did the song.
Watch them in action singing this song parody about polarization — one that is almost psychic in that it predicted the outcome of the election – and they even dare to use the “m word”:
You can buy their CDs here.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.