http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,9816,00.html
Dem Diva Wants Her Babs-TV
Monday, April 16, 2001
Songstress and movie star Barbra Streisand wants to create a Democrats-only cable television channel to get things back to the The Way We Were in the Clinton years.
The channel, according to US News & World Report, would ban Republican talking heads so Streisand and her fellow Dems wouldn't have to watch what they consider the right-leaning pundits who contribute to other channels.
A left-leaning channel would fit in nicely with the strategy to fight the Bush presidency the Funny Girl laid out in a highly publicized memo she recently sent out to the Democratic Party.
"You need to speak on TV, on radio and in the newspapers about the election and keep hammering home about the legislative favors Bush is granting his corporate supporters," she wrote in the widely publicized letter.
"The public is being fooled by Bush," she added. "They are not sufficiently informed to protect their own self-interests."
But don't wear out your thumb clicking on the remote in search of Babs-TV. One insider inadvertantly compared the political assessment of the idea to the 1987 movie she produced and starred in.
"Everybody told her it was nuts," one source told the magazine.
This news came even as the heroine of Prince of Tides has redoubled her efforts to try to stop what she sees as a tide of GOP power washing in in the wake of the Florida election deadlock.
In her Southern California home recently, the Brooklyn native hosted a summit of leading Democrats in which she hectored her fellow party members for not doing more to win back Congress, the hearts of the American people and, of course, The Main Event coming in 2004.
"Some of you seem paralyzed, demoralized and depressed," the star of Yentl told the audience, reading from her memo.
"We should have one goal, and that's to win back the House, Senate and Presidency," she went on. "Unless we win, we'll be consistently on the defensive with our fingers holding the dyke [sic] against the Republican revolution. We should draw attention to the differences in our parties, hold accountable those currently in power and make them pay for their actions on Election Day. This is not a time to be weak."
Babs's kaffeeklatsch was a veritable who's who of the politically active heavy hitters in Hollywood: Warren Beatty, once rumored to be mulling a presidential run, attended with wife Annette Bening; producer Norman Lear rubbed elbows with House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt.
Then Streisand demonstrated that, while she may have forsworn any more live appearances, she can still summon up the sass that made Walter Matthau pay attention in Hello Dolly! While her feelings for Republicans are well known, she made it clear that plenty of Democrats had earned her wrath as well, including Bush tax-cut supporter Sen. Zell Miller, of Georgia; the eight Democrats who voted in Attorney General John Ashcroft; and any Democrats who abandoned her friend Bill Clinton during his travails.
"Just being nice doesn't work," Streisand exhorted. "Let's act now and fight before it's too late! I know you can do it."
Dem Diva Wants Her Babs-TV
Monday, April 16, 2001
Songstress and movie star Barbra Streisand wants to create a Democrats-only cable television channel to get things back to the The Way We Were in the Clinton years.
The channel, according to US News & World Report, would ban Republican talking heads so Streisand and her fellow Dems wouldn't have to watch what they consider the right-leaning pundits who contribute to other channels.
A left-leaning channel would fit in nicely with the strategy to fight the Bush presidency the Funny Girl laid out in a highly publicized memo she recently sent out to the Democratic Party.
"You need to speak on TV, on radio and in the newspapers about the election and keep hammering home about the legislative favors Bush is granting his corporate supporters," she wrote in the widely publicized letter.
"The public is being fooled by Bush," she added. "They are not sufficiently informed to protect their own self-interests."
But don't wear out your thumb clicking on the remote in search of Babs-TV. One insider inadvertantly compared the political assessment of the idea to the 1987 movie she produced and starred in.
"Everybody told her it was nuts," one source told the magazine.
This news came even as the heroine of Prince of Tides has redoubled her efforts to try to stop what she sees as a tide of GOP power washing in in the wake of the Florida election deadlock.
In her Southern California home recently, the Brooklyn native hosted a summit of leading Democrats in which she hectored her fellow party members for not doing more to win back Congress, the hearts of the American people and, of course, The Main Event coming in 2004.
"Some of you seem paralyzed, demoralized and depressed," the star of Yentl told the audience, reading from her memo.
"We should have one goal, and that's to win back the House, Senate and Presidency," she went on. "Unless we win, we'll be consistently on the defensive with our fingers holding the dyke [sic] against the Republican revolution. We should draw attention to the differences in our parties, hold accountable those currently in power and make them pay for their actions on Election Day. This is not a time to be weak."
Babs's kaffeeklatsch was a veritable who's who of the politically active heavy hitters in Hollywood: Warren Beatty, once rumored to be mulling a presidential run, attended with wife Annette Bening; producer Norman Lear rubbed elbows with House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt.
Then Streisand demonstrated that, while she may have forsworn any more live appearances, she can still summon up the sass that made Walter Matthau pay attention in Hello Dolly! While her feelings for Republicans are well known, she made it clear that plenty of Democrats had earned her wrath as well, including Bush tax-cut supporter Sen. Zell Miller, of Georgia; the eight Democrats who voted in Attorney General John Ashcroft; and any Democrats who abandoned her friend Bill Clinton during his travails.
"Just being nice doesn't work," Streisand exhorted. "Let's act now and fight before it's too late! I know you can do it."