The Senator's Shoes

Ladies and Gentlemen, for your approval, I give you the Christening of the USS GERALD R. FORD:

Nov. 9, 2013: With one swift swing, Susan Ford Bales, daughter of President Gerald R. Ford and sponsor of the aircraft carrier bearing his name, smashed a bottle of American sparkling wine across the bow to christen the ship. Also pictured (left to right) are Capt. John Meier, commanding officer, CVN 78; U.S. Sen. Carl Levin; and Newport News Shipbuilding President Matt Mulherin. Photo by Chris Oxley (HII-NNS)

And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, for your approval (though not your pleasure -- for those of you trying to log into www.croatianfootbondage.net I can only surmise that your Google is broken), I give you feet:

Of course, these are not just any old feet, mind you.  They are privileged feet, important feet, feet that will command a ship, that have lead an industry, that have carried the burden of Presidential legacy, that have trod the corridors of power in the Senate.  

So I got to ask:  What's up with the shoes, Mr. Levin?

It is perhaps unfair to even ask, as there are plenty of perfectly good reasons why Mr. Levin's footgear is not up to code.  He may have a foot condition that requires him to wear sneakers all the time.  He may have forgotten his good shoes at home.  He may prefer sneakers because they let him sneak around in the Senate cafeteria galley looking for cookies without being detected, as it is a well known fact that the clackity clack of well shod feet upon a hard kitchen floor is not conducive to absconding with macaroons.  

It could also be interpreted as yet another moment where we see how human these people are.

The best example of that, maybe even better than Levin's shoes, are the remarks that Donald Rumsfeld gave at the Christening. Now, if you were to tell me at the beginning of the day that his remarks were to be my favorite of the many, many given on the day, I would have laughed in your face and said "surely, thou art shitting me heartily."  But when his voice broke as he described how he and his wife went to visit President Ford on what was his last Thanksgiving I felt my heart break a bit as well, and I was reminded that whatever my latent disagreements with Mr. Rumsfeld and the rest of the Bush Administration are (and there are many), I also was reminded that Donald Rumsfeld is still very much a person.  I might even find him to be a very good person, if I got to know him.  It was a valuable recapitulation of an oft forgotten fact in these divisive times.   

So likewise there is Senator Levin in his crappy shoes, just trying to get through the Christening as comfortably as possible, just as any of us would.  

On the other hand....

Look, I am the last person who should judge someone else on his footware.   Every night  Van Gogh's ghost knocks on my door, pleading with me to let him paint my battered old brown shoes in a heavy impasto.  

Still, if I learned that I was to be up on that podium with Mrs. Susan Ford Bales, standing at the leading edge of one of the mightiest symbols of American power ever constructed, I reckon I'd probably pull the good shoes out of the back of the closet and I'd probably shine them up too.  

But that's just me.