Posted by
Bill Crawford on Wednesday, March 25, 2009 10:48:37 PM
Thirty years ago, Brian Lamb's great idea took off- a public affairs channel, funded by the fledgling cable services across the country, and offered as part of everybody's basic cable package. And so it was that C-SPAN came to life.
Newt Gingrich was one of the first to take advantage of the new forum- using his empty chamber special order speeches to rail against the world, talking as if he were taking on a full house of Congressmen. This act infuriated Speaker O'Neill so much that one day he ordered the cameras to pan the empty chamber while Newt was railing on.
Brian was the prototype moderator, being the ultimate poker face. He has hired others who man the desk in a similar style, holding expression no matter who was talking or what they said.
Except for the one eyebrow. Brian would pan stoically through the Left and the Right screaming at each other, but every now and then a true lunatic would make it past the screeners and one of his eyebrows would go up, announcing to the world that he thought a straight jacket was needed.
I first realized this sometime in 1994, when somebody from Arkansas droned on about how Bill and Hillary were having people killed at Mena Airport. He moved to the next call and the eyebrow just set me off. It was one of the funniest things I ever saw.