Is Sam Waterston out of his effing mind?

[aquart]

What is it about Law and Order that drives its lead actors politically insane?

He wants to start a third party to veer this rightwing-dragged country "back to the center" using candidates like, say, Hagel.

The only way to bring this nation back to the center is to turn sharp left.

[xultar]

1. What you're forgetting is the fuckers are so far right they can only see their

side from where they are.

[Hippo_Tron]

2. Well a third party Hagel candidacy would ensure a Democratic victory

Hagel is no better than any Democrat on the war which is his one issue on which he is a "moderate".

[WilliamPitt]

3. You're worried about a TV actor's political impact? A year before any primary?

Talk about getting distracted by "shiny objects."

[Yavin4]

10. Who Is Sam Waterston? Is he a Doctor on "Grey's Anatomy"?

Or is he on "Lost"?

[WilliamPitt]

11. The prosecutor on Law & Order

He also does commercials for some investment firm I can't remember the name of. You'd know him if you saw him; he has eyebrows bushy enough for larks to nest in, but is a good actor.

[Yavin4]

24. Well Then, He's More Than Qualified To Start A 3rd Party

Being on TV and all.

Personally, I'm waiting for the guy from "House" to start a new political party.

[WilliamPitt]

25. The "House Party"

Wakka wakka wakka!

*ducking*

[Quantess]

26. I think his eyebrows have been declared a national forest. (no text)

[Faygo Kid]

28. He has played Lincoln numerous times, and very well

He's getting a little long in the tooth, as Lincoln died at age 56 and Sam is 10 years older, but he really is a pretty good actor. Waterston that is, not Lincoln. (That man could write, of that there is no doubt. Didn't say nukular once, either.)

[AlCzervik]

4. c'mon now it's only Thompson and Waterston.

Jerry Orbach was a big ole liberal. And Angie Harmon's tenure was forgettable imo and i've watched the show from the beginning when MichAEL Moriarty was the DA.

[TheDebbieDee]

7. Michael Moriarty.............now there was an activist! n/t

[IntravenousDemilo]

18. Not to mention batshit crazy.

He even tried to start up a "Republican Party" here in Canada. You can imagine how far that went...

[Parche]

21. DA

And they have that damn ignorant Fred Dalton Thompson who is the biggest right winger out there
he is such an a$$ and a nifnod...........









I watch the reruns all the time..............


I love Law and Order SUV

I cannot stand Law and Order Criminal intent
this guy peeves me off.............




And his partner....whats her name is not much better........

[AlCzervik]

23. that is hilarious, i love him and my daughter hates him.

"Mom, there is something really wrong with him" and you should hear her trash talk the awful David Caruso from CSI Miami, she calls him "Towmahhhhtow"

[iverglas]

29. you mean psycho-boy and the runt?

Well, that's who they are in my living room ...

You gotta change how you look at it, to watch. He's a hoot, when looked at from another angle ... like the one he's always looking at things from, with his head upside down ...


The real L&O went seriously downhill when it lost its Canadian content: ADA Claire Kincaide, now Jordan, of course. This happens to US TV shows when they forget that without a significant Cdn presence (actor, writer, director), it won't fly. Just look at 24 -- packed full o' Canadians ... and getting worse by the hour ...

SUV has Toronto boy Ted Kotcheff executive producing. That's why you like it. ;)

[Zhade]

32. Plus, less chance of shit like "Iran-Contra was a lie".

Can't even begin to explain how angry I was when the show let the asshole rightwing boss ("Show me the right to privacy in the Constitution") state that Iran-Contra was "a bunch of cospriacy theorist garbage from the extreme radical fringe" (paraphrased), and McCoy didn't challenge it, as his liberal character would if the show didn't pander to rightwing lies.

Oh, and the constant anti-marijuana propaganda, all based on lies. Oy.

[iverglas]

37. it's the death penalty that gets me

That the real McCoy character would be out protesting the damned thing, rather than righteously getting needles stuck in people's arms. That, to me, is the huge sea change in the series.

Sadly, there probably wasn't much else they could do. Real life went and changed on them. They couldn't have a show about a prosecutor in NY state who refused to apply the law.

In real life, McCoy would have quit. If he did that in the series, we'd have nothing to watch on Friday night ... But yes, add the right-winger in the DA's office into the mix, and it's really just too much. And the plots are crappy these days anyhow.

Actually, I find that about the worst aspect of the series has been its treatment of Canadian law and policy, and Canadians, i.e. a good bit of its audience.

When it comes to US law, it never makes a misstep; it is always absolutely true to the law, and that's what I like about it: it can't pin its plots on things that would never happen in real life.

But I just re-watched the one about the serial killer who makes it across the border and gets picked up shoplifting at "an auto parts store just outside Mallorytown". (I'm pretty sure that would be the Canadian Tire just outside Morrisburg where I've often been; don't think Mallorytown has one.) The usual problem arises -- Canada won't extradite for death penalty cases unless assurances against the death penalty are given. Of course, the blonde won't give them. So she decides to seek extradition on a car-jacking charge instead. And the be-robed Canadian judge says that's just fine, and off the prisoner marches. As fucking if. No Canadian judge is quite that stupid; the Supreme Court certainly isn't, and that's exactly where the prisoner would have been on his way to at that moment, not back home to Jack McCoy's warm embrace. Perhaps someone in the US imagines that ya don't have a right of appeal in Canada.

The previous one was similar. A trashy young woman from Niagara Falls on this side makes it home after murdering her rich husband in NYC. Jack seeks extradition, and there is much palavering with the bow-tied Cdn diplomat in NYC. Really; our diplomatic corps doesn't all wear Lester Pearson uniforms these days, or speak in strange mid-Atlantic accents. Same sort of deal: Jack gives assurances against the death penalty in one case, thereby tricking the dumb Cdns into extraditing, and turns around and charges her with a different murder when she hits town. My ordinary retired guy father found that episode insulting in the extreme.

Given that Cdns watch L&O at higher rates than US audiences, I just expect a little more respect ...

[Annces]

5. I thought he did great work in The Killing Fields

But I guess is is a conservative a heart, oh well.

[keepCAblue]

6. Hagel? As in "election theft via ES&S" Hagel?

If Sam Waterston is a Hagel supporter, this blows it for me for every watching L&O again.

[Bonhomme Richard]

8. A link? From what I know of him personally I would find this .....

hard to believe. I know he is not right leaning and he gives an awful lot to charities.

[aquart]

17. Just saw it on CNN and had apoplexy.

Now Blitzer is interviewing Tom DeLay who had to leave Congress because of some sort of scandal (not an exact quote but damn close).

This is what I get for going to my Mommy's and watching cable during dinner.

ARGHHHHH!

[Bonhomme Richard]

20. I just saw it to and I think Sam ought..............

to stick with acting. He didn't seem to make much sense and it seemed that he wasn't all that familiar with the subject.
I know he's a liberal but me thinks he's a bit confused.

[CTyankee]

35. Yeah, I agree. I like Sam Waterston. He is often in New Haven, probably

because of work at the Yale Rep Theatre but also because he is an alum of Yale (as is his daughter) and often speaks at Masters Teas at Yale (don't ask, it's a Yale tradition).

I am not happy that he is doing a 3rd party thing, at all! That is bad news!

[TwilightZone]

9. Must be buying into the Hagel myth.

You would have thought that Hagel's recent actions would have changed his mind.

[marmar]

12. Proof that the world makes no sense...

Sam Waterston is also featured in ads for the Nation.....Go figure? :shrug:

[Double T]

13. Blue Dog Democrats have a lot of appeal for moderate and conservative rethugs........

Sam Waterston will help break-up the rethug party, if he has any affect at all.

[leveymg]

14. IMHO, L&O is one of the most intelligent shows on TV, despite its retarded politics

Funny, how artfully it skews how the legal system works. The message is always that things are FUBAR because of those damn liberal judges and their wacky attachment to the 4th Amendment of the Bill of Rights.

Still, it's immensely entertaining. Really good agit-prop for the Right.

[AlCzervik]

15. this fridays episode looks good, looks like they are doing a Ted Haggard

story.

[leveymg]

22. Wonder how many closeted gays with their fingers on the button attend Haggard's

New Life Church in Colorado Springs? With 16,000 members, there have to be at least a couple.

Vital Natural Fluids, indeed.

[Vinca]

16. I just went over to check out their site - not too impressed.

The last thing I want is a "bipartisan" ticket.

[IntravenousDemilo]

19. Oh, goody, then you'd have THREE right-wing parties to choose from. Happy happy joy joy! n/m

[Blue-Jay]

27. He's just scared because his robot insurance lapsed.

[woo me with science]

30. ROFL! nt

[WinkyDink]

31. I know! Can't we just have one D and one R run as a team? NOOOOO, you NITWIT!!

[MzNov]

33. Waterson is proposing this??? I thought he was a real left-leaner?

I say threatening to give our votes to a "third party" candidate would work wonders, without actually offering a candidate. We could unite as a progressive democratic block and still get results.

[hellbound-liberal]

36. Sam has been a strong Democratic supporter. Here's his record

from Newsmeat:

Hall of Fame ► Celebrities

Sam Waterston , 66 (bio)actor
$1,327 Republican

$24,100 Democrat

total: $25,427


http://www.newsmeat.com/celebrity_political_donations/Sam_Waterston.php

I agree that we need a third party in this country (Or actually a second party)but I sure don't agree that Hagel should have anything to do with it. He's as filthy as the rest of them and it definitely lowers my opinion of Waterston if he is supporting him.

[MzNov]

38. yeah, I agree. I'm stunned.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

34. Good for him. The more choices the better.