The world of film commentary lost one of its rising stars yesterday when Nashvillian Chip Saltsman officially announced his candidacy for Republican National Committee chairman.
Check out the former Tennessee Republican Party chairman and Huckabee campaign manager as he discusses the Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men with Republican strategist Ed Rollins. And as the 40-year-old campaigns on the platform of bringing new blood to the Party of Old White Men, what more fitting film to discuss? Saltsman clearly demonstrates one skill that might come in handy if he wins the position—feigning interest. He manages to seem genuinely attentive during Rollins' rambling analysis of the film.
Well, for the most part anyway. His one gaffe: At 48 seconds, he fails to cover his mouth to conceal a major yawn. We're not suggesting the yawn itself was a gaffe—you try to listening to Rollins without getting bleary eyed—but he should have done the hand cover. Those megabucks blue-blood donors are sticklers for etiquette.
And unlike political candidates, who have to be very diplomatic and choose their words carefully, an RNC chairman needs to be able to cut through the B.S. and get to the point, which Saltsman does poignantly when he says, "Now is this the guy-with-the-bad-haircut movie?"
And check out this bit of pit-bull politics. In a jab worthy of DNC chair Howard Dean, Saltsman slaps Romney consultant Barbara Comstock with this diss: "She doesn't breathe much because she just talks for three or four minutes." Between former VP Al Gore, former Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist and now possibly Saltsman, little ol' Music City seems to put out more than its share of major players on the national scene. We're pulling for you, Chip, even if it's the way Saturday Night Live writers pulled for Sarah Palin. (In no way are we suggesting that you share her intellectual shortcomings, Chip, and in fact you seem to be quite a savvy fellow. But what alt-weekly blog worth its salt wouldn't kill to have a hometown boy as RNC chair?)
