the kid rocks

Over in the sideblog a few days back I mocked Bruce Springsteen for his claim of receiving “enormous sustenance” from Maureen Dowd and Paul Krugman—a communion of the damned, if there ever was one.

Now, countering one celebrity's political views with those of another is usually both fruitless and inane: when making appeals to authority, one must be certain that the authority in question is better informed than your average bag of shiny pebbles. So I might seem to be making that error now when I quote Kid Rock—but bear with with me. There is a point here.

Oh, and the annoying caps are from the original article (via AllahPundit).

KID ROCK has blasted his rock peers who are involved with American politics - because none of them flew to Iraq to perform for their war heroes.

The rocker wowed troops when he and actress BRITTANY MURPHY jetted off to meet and greet soldiers in Baghdad last year (JUN03), and now he's angry that those who didn't salute men and women stationed in Iraq are touring to raise cash for President GEORGE W BUSH's rival JOHN KERRY on the VOTE FOR CHANGE tour.

He states, “You see this thing now where like BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, JON BON JOVI - like I love all these guys as musicians - they're gonna raise money for John Kerry. God bless 'em.

“But, before you go and do that, why don't these motherf**kers go over there and play for our soldiers in Iraq? I'm not vocal about my views on the war. I'm just vocal about my views on the troops.”

Rock, real name BOB RITCHIE, insists rockers have no right getting involved with politics.

He adds, “I do not believe that artists or actors and people should be out there like voicing their full-blown opinions on politics because, let's face it, at the end of the day, I'm not that smart of a guy. I play rock 'n' roll, that's what I do.

“Who would you trust to make your decisions, (US Secretary of Defence) DONALD RUMSFELD or the DIXIE CHICKS?”

As it turns out, Kid is a supporter of President Bush—but I learned that from a gossip account, not from some portentous news conference or press release or Ronstadtesque tirade from the stage.

I can't claim to be a Kid fan; beyond a vague genre classification, I can't even tell you what his music sounds like. But I do commend him for entertaining our deployed troops, and for possessing enough self-knowledge to realize what his political endorsements are worth: not bloody much. If only his peers could learn from that example.

MORE. It's worth pointing out that the Kid is also an inspiration to the many, many homely guys of the world—providing hope that they, too, might someday do well with the ladies.

Proof: