badmigraine 0 Posted October 9, 2003 Share Posted October 9, 2003 Now it seems Arnold has won, more people than ever are saying "only in America!" After seeing Clint Eastwood become the mayor of Carmel, California; Jesse "The Body" Ventura become governor of Minnesota; Sonny Bono, Cher's ex-husband, become a Congressman (he died skiing without a helmet-should I move this topic to the Snow-Related" section?); and Ronald Reagan do what he did, it's easy to go into agreement. But what other countries have seen celebs become politicians? ITALY Cicciolina (nee Ilona Staller), the porn actress, became a member of Italian parliament. PAKISTAN Famous cricket captain Imran Khan founded the successful PTI party. JAPAN Wasn't there a comedian who won a big election in Osaka a few years back? DENMARK A bit of a long read, but worth it: * * * Some People See Politicians As Jokers: This Guy Is One -- Jacob Haugaard Was Elected To the Danish Parliament Promising Better Weather * * * By Dana Milbank, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal. AARHUS, Denmark -- Jacob Haugaard swears it was just a practical joke. He was only kidding when he launched the Party of Deliberate Work-Shy Elements. He was merely lambooning politicians when he ran for Parliament promising better weather, tail winds for Danish cyclists , and the right to be impotent. He was only having fun, he says, when he spend campaign funds on beer and sausages for his voters. Then, a funny thing happened. After six election defeats, the 42-year-old standup commedian actually was elected two weeks ago to the Danish parliament. Tuesday, Mr. Haugaard took his place in the nations first independent legislator in half a century. Nobody finds this more amusing than Mr. Haugaard himself. In his first act as an MP, a visit to the queen, he wore a loud tie and a three-piece suit made from a burlap coffee sack. ``I dont know anything about politics,'' he say. ``Now, I get an education in how it works--with full salary.'' The job pays about $60.000 a year. Mr. Haugaard, understandably, has become a celebrity. Weathermen talk about the Haugaard factor in their forecasts. College students invoke his name at protests. Haugaard T-shirts are available if not fashionable, and the comic appears regularly on television and on the front pages. ``He's more popular than the prime minister,'' says Michael Meyerheim, the host of a Danish TV talk show. Political Oddities ------------------ Exotic characters are in politics all over the world. Italy had La Cicciolina, a former porn star, in its Parliament. And radio talker Howard Star won (and then relinguished) the Liberian Party's nomination for the governorship of New York this year. But Mr. Haugaard could well be the first professional comic to win election to a national legistature as a joke. Some sober Danes don't think it's a laughing matter. ``How is it imaginable that 20,000 people would vote for a clown like that?'' Conservative Party chief Torben Rechendorff demanded in the Aarhus Stiftstidende, Mr. Haugaard's hometown paper. Steen Gade, socialist MP, also thinks the election shows that Denmark is in a rotten state. ``It is sad that many voters have thought the work in the Parliament so unimportant as to use their vote on him,'' he told the paper. Lighten up, Mr. Haugaards backers reply. ``The politicians have been in Parliament for many, many years and talked and talked and talked and done nothing,'' says Jens Richard Pedersen, a graying Aarhus buissnessman. Dansh voters are upset with incumbent politicians who have failed to fix the countried double-digit unemployment and do something about high taxes. At the Cafe Jorden here in Aarhus, young Haugaard supporters recite favourite Haugaard promises: more Nutella chocolate-spread for the U.N. soldiers in Bosnia. Less sex in the teachers' room. Arming a 17th-century frigate for service in the Persian Gulf. ``I voted for him just to get a kick out of it,'' says Peter Borring, a 25-year-old electronics salesman in Aarhus. ``Danish politics is very boring.'' The same clearly cannot be said about Mr. Haugaard. His suburban home has a dentist's chair and a huge water tower in the backyeard. Several mornings after his election victory, he comes downstairs in his underwear to greet a visitor. His rumbled coffee-sac suit (he calles it the ``Yves Sack Laurent'') hangs on a chair. he instructs his young daughter to ``light up the lady,'' a nightclub sculpture of a woman with neon breasts. Mr. Haugaard's political philosophy is a simple proof of politicians' promises and evasions. ``If something good happens, I say it's me,'' he says. ``If it's bad, I blame it on the opposition.'' His promises include more Renaissance furniture at Ikea (the Swedish warehouse furniture stores), bigger Christmas presents, shorter supermarket lines, carpeted sidewalks and a law giving disability payments to humorless people. His policy on employments: ``If work is so healthy, give it to the sick.'' He also wowed a fight for the right to be ``ugly, lazy, rich and stupid.'' On the Cheap ------------ One of his election posters features him with a cigar and a Rolls-Roycs and the slogan: ``An Honest Man.'' In his campaign (for which he spend all of $1,500) he was shown with his hand on a train's emergency brake, saying ``It's now or never.'' The son of a carpenter, Mr. Haugaard did factory and janitorial work before forming a bad called Sofamania in the 1970s. He plays a guitar mad from a garden spade. Since his hippie days, Mr. Haugaard says, he has given up all drugs -- even aspirin -- and is now a member of Alchoholics Anonymous. The band, the comedy routines, appearances in two movies and a soft-drink commercial in his case added up to political liability. In 1979, he accepted the nomination of some Aarhus University students to be their candidate for Parliament. He lost, then ran five more loosing campaigns before pulling off his stunning victory this year. Nobody -- not even Mr. Haugaard -- ever took his candidacy seriously. Though Denmark's Parliament is elected nationally, an independent can appear on the ballot in his or her home district by gathering 150 signatures, and all it takes to win a seat is 18,000-odd votes. On Sept. 21, he got 23,253 votes and became one of the 179 members of the exalted body. Another `Aarhus Joke' -------------------- To Ane Dybdahl, the newspaper reporter who followed Mr. Haugaard for the Aarhus Stiftstidende, his victory is just another ``Aarhus Joke.'' People in Copenhagen make fun of their cousins in Aarhus and the rest of Denmark's Jutland-peninsula as slow-witted. One joke says Aarhus people take the door off when they go to the bathroom so nobody can peek through the keyhole. ``It's a special kind of Danish humor,'' she says of Mr. Haugaard's style, ``a bit childish.'' What made her think that? Mr. Haugaard told her his goals in Parliament would be to erect a giant statue of himself urinating on a windmill, and to get his ``virtual-reality'' hat past the parliamentary guards. Pundits say that in Denmark's fragile coalition government, Mr. Haugaard's vote could be a tiebreaker. But not to worry. The comedian plans to use his position to jawbone his fellow politicians on causes he actually cares about: alcoholism, diability, the problems of old age. Mr. Haugaard, who won't sit on any comittees or propose any laws, intends, uncharacteristically, to be a quiet and respectful watchdog. ``In the beginning, I think I'll just take the cotton out of my ears and put it in my mouth,'' he says. He admits some of his political promises, such as affecting the weather and assuring opportune tail winds, may be hard to keep. But he appears to have connections in high places. ``All Denmark was laughing the day after the election,'' Mr. Haugaard says. ``The weather was buitiful, the sun was shining, and a tail wind was coming from all directions.'' Link to post Share on other sites
Weegeoff 0 Posted October 9, 2003 Share Posted October 9, 2003 I think Tony Blair is a comedian. Him and George bush are the Morecambe and Wise of the political World Link to post Share on other sites
badmigraine 0 Posted October 10, 2003 Author Share Posted October 10, 2003 Idea for another thread: what politicians end their careers as entertainers? Imagine Slick Wille Clinton smooching Britney at the next MTV awards extravaganza! Totally unrelated, but did anyone else see those bikini pics of Chelsea Clinton in the National Enquirer? They should include a rip-out barf bag with the magazine when they run stuff like that. Link to post Share on other sites
snowboard_freak 0 Posted October 10, 2003 Share Posted October 10, 2003 Jerry Springer! He used to be mayor of Cincinatti (sp?) or something before he took on the glourious talk show that he does today. I can't picture him being mayor. He's Jerry! I head that he is thinking of getting back into politics though. You never know Jerry and Arnie might both be running for president one day. God help us all! Link to post Share on other sites
zwelgen 0 Posted October 10, 2003 Share Posted October 10, 2003 In NZ we have transsexual MP and I could be wrong here but did s/he used to be a hooker? No one really seems to care though. Georgina Beyer is her name Link to post Share on other sites
jared 0 Posted October 10, 2003 Share Posted October 10, 2003 it was her/him that convinced parliment to legalise prostitution. Link to post Share on other sites
scouser 4 Posted October 11, 2003 Share Posted October 11, 2003 And did that actually happen? Link to post Share on other sites
badmigraine 0 Posted October 11, 2003 Author Share Posted October 11, 2003 I like how the guy said, "if work is healthy, then why don't they just give it to sick people?" Link to post Share on other sites
Thunderbird2 0 Posted October 23, 2003 Share Posted October 23, 2003 Are you a really really fast typer badmigraine Link to post Share on other sites
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