Kiss And Condi's "Stockholm Syndrome"

Via the AP here, it turns out that Our Gal Condi Rice has become the newest recruit of the “Kiss Army,” having met bandleader Gene Simmons at the hotel in Sweden where Rice was attending an international conference on Iraq…

"It was really fun to meet Kiss and Gene Simmons," she told reporters, noting they seemed well informed about current events. The band had asked if she could stop by after she finished dinner with the Swedish foreign minister and Rice readily agreed, she said.

Simmons and his crew, who are on a European tour, weren't wearing their trademark stage makeup, but were recognizable as rock stars to even non-fans by their hair, according to State Department officials who were with Rice.

I’m sure it wasn’t hard for Condi to spot a middle-aged, paunchy white guy with a poofy ‘70s ‘fro, was it?

Putting aside the fact that the music of Kiss is utterly mundane as far as your humble narrator is concerned (I’ll give them credit for about 4-5 songs that were actually good, but that’s it), it should be noted that Gene Simmons is someone who I consider to be utterly simpatico with the Bushco cabal.

This Wikipedia article on Simmons states that he is a “liberal on social policy” but still supports the foreign policy disaster perpetrated by our ruling regime in Iraq, so much so that, in typical 101st Keyboard Kommando fashion, he wrote the following on his web site in 2003…

“I’m ashamed to be surrounded by people calling themselves Liberal who are, in my opinion, spitting on the graves of brave American soldiers who gave their life to fight a war that wasn't theirs...in a country they've never been to...simply to liberate the people therein".[6]

And while Simmons has an appreciation and respect of this country for the liberation of his mother from a concentration camp in World War II by our forces (Simmons was born Chaim Witz in Haifa, Israel), he chose not to serve even though he readily cheerleads the sacrifices of our military leading to, in too many cases, their injury and death in Mesopotamia.

The article on Simmons also mentions that little dustup with Terry Gross of NPR’s “Fresh Air” where he told the host “If you’re going to welcome me with open arms, then you’ll have to welcome me with open legs,” to which Gross rightly took offense – Simmons was using the line from that Who song, “You Better You Bet,” but somehow I think Pete Townshend et al would have more sense than to use it the way Simmons did. The Wikipedia information also tells us that Al Franken kicked Simmons’ butt in a game of racquetball, and Simmons’ behavior as this took place earned him the dubious recognition from Franken as “the most awful person I’ve met.”

So it doesn’t completely surprise me that our Secretary of State, with her musical and political inclinations, has found herself gravitating towards “the leader of the band.” However, given Simmons’ misogyny, I give Madame Secretary enough sense to depart his company before he tries to get her to “rock n’ roll over.”

Update 6/4/08: She responds to "her master's voice" so well, doesn't she?