The big “Duhs” of the week
I love it when brainiac journalists make what they think are stunning discoveries, but those discoveries are just accepted facts for the rest of the planet. The two that really struck me today were one from Joe Klein (Time Magazine)Â and the other from Dave Balz (Washington Post). Both articles deal with the super-polarized political scene, but different aspects.
Joe Klein is shocked, shocked I tell you, that the left end of the blogosphere is;
…a fierce, bullying, often witless tone of intolerance that has overtaken the left-wing sector of the blogosphere. Anyone who doesn’t move in lockstep with the most extreme voices is savaged and ridiculed—especially people like me who often agree with the liberal position but sometimes disagree and are therefore considered traitorously unreliable.
But, of course, it’s not their fault, according to poor little victim Joe;
…the left-liberals in the blogosphere are merely aping the odious, disdainful—and politically successful—tone that right-wing radio talk-show hosts like Rush Limbaugh pioneered. They are also justifiably furious at a Bush White House that has specialized in big lies and smear tactics.
Yep, it’s Rush Limbaugh’s and the Bush Administration’s fault. Poor little leftists forced to “ape” those evil Republicans. Before the Bush Administration even got into office, there were political ads in Missouri that warned citizens that electing Bob Dole to the Presidency would result in more church burnings.
There were political ads in Texas that accused then-Governor Bush of being responsible for the dragging death of James Byrd because he wouldn’t sign “hate crime” legislation. Who was it that accused Republicans of wanting to starve the children and elderly in the first months of the Republicans’ reign of terror in Congress back in 1995?
Who accused Republicans of wanting to poison the air and the water – hell, as recently as 2001 when the Bush Administration yanked back regs that imposed impossible arsenic on communities that hadn’t done any damage in the previous eight years of the Clinton Administration – and your side used that as evidence that Republican were evil beings setting out to destroy the world. Remember that, Joe?
Who’s side went to Iraq on the eve of our war and stood on the terrace of Saddam Hussein’s palace and declared that Hussein was more trustworthy than our own President?
Hell, I got banned from the Democratic Underground on my very first post back in 1999 – and all I asked was “You guys don’t really believe this do you?” That was it and my account was flung off into the cybertrash. That was certainly before the Bush Administration did all of the nasty things you and the others claim they’ve done.
I got named “Idiot of the Week” by some Leftist website I’d never heard of – in fact google my name and you’ll see how my fame that week was spread out to several websites as they repeated the honorary title (I think it was really less than a week, though – which is false advertising – there was a new idiot up there within a few days). My point being – I don’t call people names from other blogs. I’ve called politicians idiots and morons, but not someone on another blog, randomly. OK, William M. Arkin, but he doesn’t really count – he’s paid to blog by some small newspaper on 15th and Eye Streets here in DC.
So, Joe, you tell me who the mental midgets (most of whom can’t spell and have trouble with the “Caps” key, too – speaking from experience) on Left are “aping”.
Now, let’s get to Mr. Balz;
The collapse of comprehensive immigration revision in the Senate last night represents a political defeat for President Bush, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), the bill’s most prominent sponsors. More significantly, it represents a scathing indictment of the political culture of Washington.
The defeat of the legislation can be laid at the doorstep of opponents on the right and left, on congressional leaders who couldn’t move their troops and on an increasingly weakened president and his White House team. But together it added up to another example of a polarized political system in which the center could not hold.
Yep, that’s who we’ll blame – the President and John McCain (then we’ll mention Fat Teddy just to seem bipartisan in the blame). But if you bother to scroll down the story, you get to this part;
House Democratic leaders were tepid in their support, demanding that Republicans bring at least 60 to 70 votes so that freshman Democrats from marginal districts would be able to vote no.
Um, excuse me? We’re going to blame a lack of bipartisan cooperation, the weakness of the President – and that cooperation includes Republicans helping Democrats get elected?Â
What planet is this? Since when do Republicans have a duty to the country to help “marginal” Democrats get reelected?
But that’s hardly my point, Dan Balz’ whole contention is that Washington is polarized. As if he’s the only person who noticed. I didn’t see Dan balz writing stories about Jane Harmon being frozen out of a committee chair because she placed our national security above her party’s seat gains. Did you , Danny? Funny I searched your writings over the last six months and found nothing. When Democrats sent a broke-dick, half-assed, pork-laden, cobbled-together defense budget to the President because their whacko anti-war base were crying crocodile tears daily outside their offices – what did you write about their blind partisanship?
Yet, when there are “Republicans responding to their base” somehow that’s wrong and indicates a “failure of leadership”.
Then you wonder for the rest of us to read;
If Washington cannot produce a solution to the glaring problem of immigration, they will ask, what hope is there for progress on health care, energy independence, or the financial challenges facing Medicare and Social Security? Iraq is another matter entirely.
All of those issues are being blocked by Democrats who refuse to compromise even a little. Republicans have offered solutions to each of those problems and what do we hear from the Democrats – their only solutions are “raise taxes on the wealthy”, “roll back the Bush tax cuts”. That’s it. That’s all they have.
I know you’re trying to excuse Democrat behavior, but anyone who has had their eyes even partially open since 1995, and is intellectually honest would admit it’s not a failure of leadership – it’s a failure of upbringing.
