Powerful Men Admire CNN's Rick Sanchez, Says CNN's Rick Sanchez

The publication of dopey CNN anchor Rick Sanchez’s first book (“Conventional Idiocy”) is still two weeks away, but who can wait that long to enjoy the blowhard’s wisdom and trenchant observations?

Sanchez--who can’t stop reminding viewers that he is somehow “pioneering” a new way of reporting the news by reading aloud hours-old Twitter posts--was once the subject of a marvelous June 1991 Miami Herald profile back when he was a controversial local news anchor. Since the nearly 8000-word story by Juan Carlos Coto is, sadly, not online, we’re going to reprint some random moments of Chez.

We’ll start with Sanchez addressing his ability to extricate himself from sticky situations, which makes powerful guys swoon. And there’s a bonus prediction about an accused rapist’s sunny future:

“Everybody admires it. Other men, and especially men who seem to be powerful men, I notice--I’m talking like a dime or nickel psychologist here, if you’ll permit me--will always come up to me and that’s always the thing they say. They admire in me the fact that I’ve been in some battles and I’ve won them.

It’s like I think when William Kennedy Smith gets out of this--if he gets out of this--he will be more respected, more successful. You find out the true measure of a man when he is down in the dumps, and he’s able to rise again.”

The above photo of Sanchez engaged in some kind of autoerotic asphyxiation is from his book.