George Clooney upsets Abramoff family

George Clooney sure knows how to rile up the right wingers. Unlike other Hollywood liberals who fall into the hands of right wing commentators by making impassioned speeches, Clooney is using humor to thumb his nose at those on the right. Take his acceptance speech at the Golden Globe Awards. Clooney won a Golden Globe for best supporting actor for his role in Syriana. During his acceptance speech Clooney thanked Jack Abramoff "just because" and made a comment about the lobbyist's name.

"Who would name their kid 'Jack' with 'off' at the end? No wonder the guy's screwed up."

Clooney said it with a big grin on his face. I'm sure he was probably hoping to bait those on the right into trying to defend Abramoff, a guy who is as crooked as can be. After all it'd be pretty hard for the right wingers to start their usual liberal elitists whine about Hollywood liberals without looking like they were defending a guy like Abramoff.

One person who did take the bait was Abramoff's father who went as far as writing a letter to Clooney which included these comments:

Your glib and ridiculous attack on my son, Jack, coupled with your obscene query as to the choice his mother and I made in naming him brought shame and dishonour on you and your profession.

"What drove you to this lapse in lucidity, I can never know, but you need to know that your words were deeply hurtful to many innocent and decent people."

You can read the whole letter here. I think the Abramoff family should be concerned with more importants things. First of all their son has admitted to all sorts of wrong doing and may be spending 10 years in jail. Had he not agreed to cooperate with the feds, his sentence would be significantly longer. Secondly by writing that letter they only added further publicity to Clooney's statements which would have been forgotten after a couple of days. They gave the story "legs" as they say in the news business. Let's hope the rest of the Hollywood liberals take a lesson from George Clooney and his use of humor.