Workin’ for the Weekend #44: Megyn Kelly's Heroes, Bobby Kennedy's Enemies

Also: RIP Andy Rourke

* Thank you to the Fifdom’s favorite warmonger, Eli Lake, for his triumphant return this week. (Previous guestings: #52, #65, #141, #174, Special Dispatch #51, #326 & #368.) You will not want to miss The Re-Education with Eli Lake’s two-part episode on “Bobby Kennedy and His Enemies,” nor his John Lennon revisionism with Nick Gillespie (SD 72, #379), nor the two star turns by Moynihan, on Christopher Hitchens (SD 36) and great artists with terrible politics.

* Speaking of RFK, I was back at Reason this week with another piece about Junior: “Did Fox Really Fire Tucker Carlson for Crossing the 'Red Line' of Criticizing Big Pharma, as RFK Jr. Claims?” And for the Strange New Respect files, here’s a National Review valentine from former George W. Bush speechwriter Matthew Scully, apparently undeterred by RFK 2.0 serially accusing Dubya of doing fascism and stealing the 2004 election.

* We did our monthly stint on The Megyn Kelly Show Tuesday, talking about CNN’s post-townhall meltdown, Roger Ailes’s suddenly mouthy widow, the Durham Report, unrepentant Russiagaters (plus the restaurant perturbations of Douglas Murray [#390]), Miller Lite’s weird “bad shit” commercial, Moynihan’s sex life in high school, and more. Full episode:

* Recent guest Jon Ronson (#149, #356, M.O. 162) this week went on the Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em podcast w/ pals Sarah Hepola (#354) and Nancy Rommelmann (#79, SD 27, SD 30, #198, #203, SD 34, SD 50, SD 64, SD 111). Rumor has it the Fifth Column is referenced….

* By universal acclamation (exacerbated by my laziness), here, finally, is that amazing episode of A Special Place in Hell, the podcast by Meghan Daum (#157) and Sarah Haider (#118), in which the gals talk to Race to Dinner co-founders Saira Rao and Regina Jackson.

* Upcoming Reason events in NYC: SoHo Forum debate May 22 features SF proprietor Gene Epstein and law prof Andrew Koppelman tussling over the proposition that, “Libertarianism has been thoroughly corrupted by delusion, greed, and disdain for the weak.” Then on June 5 Gillespie conversates w/ Kat Timpf (#33, #97) about her new book You Can’t Joke About That: Why Everything is Funny, Nothing is Sacred, and We’re All in This Together.

* Comment of the Week (reminder: commenting privileges are afforded to paying subscribers!) comes from the always-helpful L Brown:

I hope the boys do get to have the LA Times reporter Jaweed Kaleem on the podcast. Looking at the back catalogue, he's built up an interesting mix of pieces.

His feature on Sikh truck drivers criss-crossing the US is outstanding, just for the truck stop food element alone:

https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-col1-sikh-truckers-20190627-htmlstory.html

* RIP Andy Rourke. Ten years ago Moynihan, who did The Smiths episode with our buddies over at Political Beats, interviewed the former bassist for The Daily Beast. Here’s an excerpt:

During a long, meandering conversation lubricated by much beer and wine, Rourke discussed Morrissey’s famous avariciousness (“If anyone asks for a pay raise, they get fired”), his move to New York, and the just-emerging Anthony Weiner scandal (“He looks like a douchebag”). Unlike Morrissey and former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, Rourke—who since the Smiths breakup has played with Sinead O'Connor, Killing Joke, and members of the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays—lives an ascetic life, though not by choice. When I met him, he had just moved into Manhattan from the part-hipster, part-terrifying Brooklyn neighborhood of Bushwick.

Outro music, therefore, is one of the funniest g-d songs ever. (Somewhere in the Internet ether is a recording of me, with a vicious, throat-frogging illness, doing an impression of what late-career Johnny Cash would have sounded like performing this at the request of Rick Rubin…but today is not that day.)