Commentary Update for October 24, 2001: Lou O'Malley

On this week's Commentary program I praise guest Lou O'Malley's Green Bay Press Gazette column several times. Today a letter (see below) appeared in the Green Bay Press Gazette expressing a different view. Here's the link to the O'Malley column that the letter writer is responding to:
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/news/archive/opinion_1330176.shtml

Reader doesn’t like O’Malley’s column

GREEN BAY — I just finished reading another column (Burger King exercise a whopper) from Lou
O’Malley, the brilliant law student; the heroic ex-Marine; the hearty ex-utility worker; the blue
collar stud; the descendant of the old sod; the parent-hall-of-fame father; and the
Harvard-educated charity worker par excellence.

Hey, I actually admire the guy for his accomplishments. But why does the Press-Gazette give
anyone a column whose main theme seems to be “Aw, shucks, ain’t I great?” If you carefully
read his past columns, you’ll find the eventual core of each to be a quick self-description by
O’Malley of his hugely macho, oh-so-intelligent, curmudgeonly-wonderful 50-plus years of
service to mankind.

Why does it always have to be about you, Lou?

In the Burger King column, O’Malley’s phantom subject is an ill-conceived attempt by BK to put
its managers through a team-building retreat that included employees walking on hot coals.
O’Malley cleverly worked in his usual paean to himself: “Excuse me, Lou. You volunteered for
the Marines. You spent decades climbing utility poles in sub-zero weather, and you broke the
occasional bone doing it …’’ Blah, blah.

Maybe it’s just me, but I seem to find one of these self-reverential references in every column
he deigns to bestow upon us.

Tim Blaser