Um, whatever happened to PJ O’Rourke? Once upon a time he was funny, even deliciously so. Of course it’s harder for a humourist to shine when his side is in power and O’Rourke’s jaded sardonicism is a style especially ill-suited to team-play. Perhaps that explains his sadly drab, unconvincing piece in the latest issue of The Weekly Standard. It’s all a long way from Republican Party Reptile and Parliament of Whores.
Ostensibly an account of a day O’Rourke recently spent aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, O’Rourke makes the mistake of trying, rather too hard – and none too successfully – to use his trip as the foundation for a Mass in praise of John McCain.
But it’s the, hmmm, flaccid writing that saddens. The rot sets in early. Landing on an aircraft carrier “was the most fun I’d ever had with my trousers on”.
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