The conservative fixation on Putin continues to get stranger
This story has everything, though the best might be how it makes Vladimir Putin look like
a star-chaser with very low standards.
Suddenly, Putin proposed a bold new idea: make Steven Seagal an honorary consul of Russia in California and Arizona.
Since Putin and Barack Obama couldn't much stand each other but Putin and Steven Seagal (sigh) like each other very much, the idea was to put Seagal in as a sort of intermediary—filling the same role that Seagal already bridges between Arizona's Sheriff Joe Arpaio and dangerous Phoenix-area poultry. Seagal has Russian roots, both men like judo (Putin has a life-size statue of the founder of judo
in his house, which is the sort of peculiar homage only fabulously wealthy people can get away with without their family pondering an intervention.)
Most importantly, of course, Putin considers himself both a celebrity and a real-world action hero—and therefore associates with as many celebrity figures (both action hero and not) as his administration can fly in. This has not gone unnoticed by American diplomats.
[W]hen Hill, a former national intelligence officer, first heard that Michael McFaul was to leave his post after a torrid time as ambassador to Moscow, she lobbied the administration to appoint Arnold Schwarzenegger as his replacement. The idea was just crazy enough to work, Hill argued. [...]
“It would be very hard to intimidate someone like Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the real substance could go on behind the scenes,” Hill said.
I love this story. I love this story because it paints a wonderful picture of the world as being run by sixth grade boys with nuclear weapons.