This is a momentous morning. The Washington Post has written a remarkably honest editorial about the Valerie Plame Affair:
It follows that one of the most sensational charges leveled against the Bush White House — that it orchestrated the leak of Ms. Plame’s identity to ruin her career and thus punish Mr. Wilson — is untrue. The partisan clamor that followed the raising of that allegation by Mr. Wilson in the summer of 2003 led to the appointment of a special prosecutor, a costly and prolonged investigation, and the indictment of Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, on charges of perjury. All of that might have been avoided had Mr. Armitage’s identity been known three years ago.
No kidding. After giving ‘Scooter” et al a perfunctory slap on the wrist, the editorial goes on to say what was obvious to many of us from the get-go:
Nevertheless, it now appears that the person most responsible for the end of Ms. Plame’s CIA career is Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson chose to go public with an explosive charge, claiming — falsely, as it turned out — that he had debunked reports of Iraqi uranium-shopping in Niger and that his report had circulated to senior administration officials. He ought to have expected that both those officials and journalists such as Mr. Novak would ask why a retired ambassador would have been sent on such a mission and that the answer would point to his wife. He diverted responsibility from himself and his false charges by claiming that President Bush’s closest aides had engaged in an illegal conspiracy. It’s unfortunate that so many people took him seriously.
Of course Mr. Wilson’s narcissistic drivel was bought hook, line and sinker by that bastion of reactionary liberalism the New York Times and parroted by its myriad followers. Wouldn’t it be interesting to be a fly on the wall of their editorial offices at this moment? In a loose-lipped moment, Bill Keller once called blogs a ‘circle jerk,’ one of the most classic uses of projection since Freud. What will they do now? Their onetime employee Judith Miller went to jail over this farce (and speaking of hooks and lines – we at the burgeoning PJ Media bought into the whole charade, inviting Ms. Miller to our debut).
But what interests me is how the Plame Affair fits into the whole framework. It may be opera bouffe, but it is far from unrelated to the way the press has conducted itself in recent years. Is it so different from Pallywood and the Mohammed Al Doura case, the Reuters photographs, the Jenin “massacre” and so forth – all lies swallowed whole by a gullible Western media? At first glance they would seem far apart, but in this small world one concept draws them all together – narrative. The truth is less important than the weltanschauung of the publication. But we knew that, didn’t we?
So next step – why this phenomenon? Why the acceptance of this narrative whose result is so negative to world history and seems in continuous aid of the destruction of the Enlightenment itself? Is it just Bush Derangement Syndrome? Well, I think that’s a large part of it. But the term (BDS) is too narrow to encompass the phenomenon. A variety of psychological forces are in the mix, but most notable to me is a sense of deprivation. 9/11 stripped the left of its self-perceived idealism that was the mainstay of its “personality.” Forces (like Bush) that lefties once dismissed as reactionary were taking the lead in the preservation of the West instead of supporting dictators as they once did. Furthermore, in the old days the left could take concilation that the enemy (communism) had at least a theoretical rationale – economic fairness to all. The new enemy was more troublesome – on the one hand poor (only seemingly, of course, considering the oil rich) and on the other hand medieval, anti-woman, anti-gay and anti-modern… essentially anti-liberal. What to do…. what to do?
In the beginning the left went along with Bush, but the minute things began to lag in Iraq, they deserted him in a flash. At first glance the reason was political but on a deeper (and I believe more important) level the reason was psychological. The left was in a rush to reclaim its lost idealism (the “it’s about oil” nonsense was but an obvious example of this), to preserve its disintegrating sense of self. Of course the big loser in all this is the truth. Sure Bush made a bunch of mistakes (who wouldn’t?) but it should be obvious to anyone that we are at the earliest stages of a very long war. Nevertheless, a culture of media corruption set in almost instantly that ended up creating absurdities like the Plame Affair. We are lucky this one got unmasked. We will also be lucky if the conclusions drawn in the WaPo editorial stick for that publication at least. We shall see.
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43 Comments
1. Plainslow:It’s amazing, how many lies have had to be told, to make Bush look like a liar.
Sep 1, 2006 - 10:10 am 2. Rhy0lite:I wish that the WaPo editorial would not have been published on a Friday before a long, holiday weekend. I hope it was not an intentional attempt to bury the message.
Sep 1, 2006 - 10:17 am 3. Acheron:testing
Sep 1, 2006 - 10:24 am 4. reliapundit - the astute blogger:Rog’
you wrote:
“9/11 stripped the left of its self-perceived idealism that was the mainstay of its “personality.”
i think it was the collapse of the ussr and the resurgence of china and india and other former leftist regimes which had abandoned leftism and followed reagan/thatcher/hayekian policies. like ireland.
the left has only its post-modern hared of the west – derived from reactions to ww1 – and a love for the third world (an agrarian rousseuvian idealfatasm) and a hatred of all things industrial.
this coupled with mulitculti moral relativism makes them overvalue the UN and devalue Natural Law, universal human rights.
this war is all about universal human rights.
so they are intrinsically opposed to it.
they see bush as the same as binladen: both trying to impose values.
in fact, only tyranny is imposed. democracy is not imposed; it is derived from mutual consent.
consent, not imposition.
Sep 1, 2006 - 10:28 am 5. jedrury:Thanks, Roger, great commentary. Spot on.
Sep 1, 2006 - 10:33 am 6. Charlie:The WaPo editorial still contains the nonsense about the White House not being blameless given its inquiries into the rationale for Wilson’s trip to Niger. Not only is that little jibe still baloney, the administration would be wrong NOT to discover the facts behind a scold like Wilson, out to do it damage, and whoever might be abetting him.
Bush is a decent man with an abiding belief in the ability of government to do good. Still, he has no excuse. His pappy was there to warn him of the blows the State Dept and CIA would try to land. Wilson et al should have been handled by a stealth offensive rather than a noisy defensive.
Sep 1, 2006 - 10:35 am 7. AskMom:Opera Bouffe indeed, and needing just as much staging to sustain the illusions even for a short run. Sadly for the producers, in this case mostly the New York Times, the internet gives the whole world a backstage pass. The props are visible and the stage makeup shows grotesque when digitally dissected.
Ah, the cold hard light of reality. How a good liberal must hate it.
Great writing, Roger!
Sep 1, 2006 - 10:37 am 8. patrick neid:“opera bouffe” birthed in a lunatic asylum. too perfect.
and here all along i’ve been calling it a failed coupe d’tate……………
Sep 1, 2006 - 10:54 am 9. ray_g:“Why the acceptance of this narrative whose result is so negative to world history and seems in continuous aid of the destruction of the Enlightenment itself?”
I think reliapundit has the ‘why’ covered pretty well in the 10:28 post.
My comment is that this is really not new. During the Cold War the left and what we now call the MSM did not consider communism a threat, and claimed the U.S. was the major threat to peace. They were sure that the Soviets would be big friendly teddy bears if the U.S. did not provoke them. So, they mind set is, sadly, not new.
Sep 1, 2006 - 11:04 am 10. Victor Erimita:Roger, you always use the word “reactionary” to describe the kind of tattered leftism exhibited by the NYT, which is a good term to use. I think that the collapse of the USSR, and with it the last shred of legitimacy of the communist dream, did not result in the collapse of the essence of the Marxist worldview. A vital piece of that view had become the replacement of the original Marxist notion of a ruling class and proletariat within each nation by the notion of ruling versus proletarian nations. This remains a funmdamental notion to what has become a profoundly unseerious and anti-intellectual “Left.” I think that is a principle reason why “Third World” nations, peoples, movements, whatever, are always seen as legitimate and Western (particularly American and Israeli) ones are always seen to be illegitimate and “exploitative.” It is mere rigid mid-20th Century modified Marxist doctrine. And that is why this “Left” is so, to put it very charitably, confused about de facto fascists who come from the Third World, and therefore to their view must be legitimate.
I think this philosophy long ago lost any serious intellectual (and certainly moral) underpinning and in its last dying stages has become a kind of political jewelry to be worn by “rebellious” bien pensants to impress their friends at cocktail parties. The interesting psychological angle is why these people feel it necessary to cling to such intellectually bankrupt and dishonest tatters of a long-discredited philosophy. I think pure fashion ois one reason. Laziness and narcissism another. And the sense of false moral superiority of criticing one’s own country, which appears to be a kind of honest self-criticism but is fact fact, through dissociation with one’s nation, merely finding fault with others, always an attraction to the self righteous.
Sep 1, 2006 - 11:10 am 11. Ron:The contrived story by the pip squeak Wilson and his accomplices both marital and those who thought it up in the CIA was handed to the New York Times, the mouth piece of the Democrat Party for wide dissemination to its other flacks. What ever lie or distortion of the truth it takes to bring down President Bush it seems to matter not to the Main Stream Media and their followers. They have been shown over and over that they will stop at nothing in order to regain the power that was once the Democrats before they lost their collective minds; they will stop at nothing. The Paper of Record, what a joke that has become, circulation is down, their stock is down, believability is down and its said that in a very short time they will be down the toilet; better sooner than later.
The MSM led by the New York Times always seems to be on our enemies side, their track record stinks ever since they backed Walter Duranty and his friends in the NKGB; it continues into the present with their revelations gleamed from traitorous people within our most secret organizations.
There is something special about this country, when strong leadership is really needed we are continually lucky, we seem to always have the President who can steer the county in the right direction. Just think of what a disaster it would have been to have some light weights like Jimmy Carter or a John Kerry after what happened on 9/11. The whole Democrat Party seems to have been sold to the Teachers Union and a couple Billionaires.
Sep 1, 2006 - 11:23 am 12. Knucklehead:You and the commenters have this one covered, Roger.
I would like to point out, however, that:
lies swallowed whole by a gullible Western media
is letting the Presse Ancienne off the hook far too easily. They didn’t “gullibly swallow” these various lies any more than Clinton’s cabinet gullibly swallowed his lies about Monica. They recognize the lies and dutifully go forth to perpetuate them.
As Ray_g pointed out this behavior by the left predates BDS. BDS is like the evening temper tantrum thrown by a brat who has been misbehaving all day. They did the same to Reagan but they were less practiced at it.
Ron said, “The whole Democrat Party seems to have been sold to the Teachers Union and a couple Billionaires.” He’s correct. It remains to be seen if the “little people”, who so doggedly continue to pretend to themselves that the Democratic Party is looking out for them, will ever sniff out the money trail.
Sep 1, 2006 - 11:46 am 13. Wildmonk:Hi Roger (and all).
You wrote:
“Why the acceptance of this narrative whose result is so negative to world history and seems in continuous aid of the destruction of the Enlightenment itself?”
Just after the post-9/11 sympathy for America began to evaporate I wrote a long and somewhat academic post on how it would all unravel. If you have the time and interest, I think you may well enjoy the essay. It is explicitly about the history and philosophical justifications of the counter-Enlightenment forces and how they inform our current political situation.
The post is on: http://Wildmonk.net (my login name is a link to the site as well).
Sep 1, 2006 - 12:02 pm 14. heather:A couple of memories: I was in Seattle, in 1970, attending University, and very ‘into’ the Feminist movement. One of the speakers, a middle aged lady, was very intense… and very Marxist. She was an Intellectual, she was in love with all the definitions involved in that belief system, the complex ideas, etc. Roger, in his book, The Big Fix, has characters of that ilk, in the Jewish Old Folks Home, arguing the minutia of Marxist ideologies (his characters are more loveable than the lady I speak of).
And then, there is one of my relatives, beautifully educated in an Ivy League university, who worked – during her college years – as a researcher for some Washington politicians. Her stories of that time reflected all the hubris of the well educated, completely ignorant of the reality of democratic politics. She was good at sneering at the ‘foolish’ politicians who ignored her super intelligent recommendations, in favour of the wishes of his voters.
The Media is a sort of down-market intellectual crowd. And Intellectuals love the central planning inherent in socialism. Paperwork, planning, progress reports, studies… all NECESSARY in central planning!!! The Intellectual is in his element!!!
And they feel – no, they KNOW – they are terribly superior because they KNOW MORE than the hoi polloi… thus, they ‘understand’ – more than the dull and ordinary can ever do – about the third world, they have read anthropological studies, and incredibly interesting literature by third world people who live far away from the dull and the ordinary fellow citizen… so, by ‘respecting’ the head-hackers’ ‘religion’, you see, the Left signals its SUPERIORITY to the mediocrities it is forced to share a country with… why, only the Left can really understand that womens’ treatment in Saudi Arabia is a necessary construct of an ancient and beautiful culture, one that we – in our dull and mediocre western civilization – should learn from.
Sep 1, 2006 - 12:24 pm 15. Terrye:Bush stole their socalled “mission” and what is more he actually tried to do something not done before. That made the guys on the left look bad.
I know when Bush gave $15 billion to treat Aids in Africa [which was more than any other president had done] the reaction was outrage not gratitude. After all, guys like Bono are not supposed to be hanging out with Republicans from Texas.
It is the same with the expansion of democracy, these folks are used to talking a good game and doing nothing. Bush showed them up.
Sep 1, 2006 - 12:27 pm 16. Lem:I want to invoke Newton’s third law of motion against the MSM; for every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction.
Given the Wapo 5 paragraph mea culpa, after leveling a small forest of accusatory paper at imagined enemies of the peoples of the United States, is in my opinion a desperate attempt to extricate themselves from the backdraft that’s coming.
For those of you wandering what I’m talking about, ask Dan Rather.
I WANT SOME COMITI HERE. I WANT PENANCE.
The NYT is AWOL as usual.
I bet Plame has gotten close to if not more ink than Mahmoud and Kim Jong-il combined.
Now, That’s what I call an impeachable offence.
From now on is no longer Remember the Alamo. Every time these media types prop up some partisan hack out for big game the chorus line should rise a la Handel’s Mesiah – Remember the Plame.
Sep 1, 2006 - 12:30 pm 17. AlanC:It dawned on me recently that the problem with the left is that they, in a twisted sense, buy into “the meek shall inherit the earth”.
They see themselves as victims (aka meek) and believe, therefore, that they should inherit. Of course what that means is that they get to run things. But they want to do this while still playing the victim.
This goes on to make them reflexively support anyone or group that claims victim status of the big bad oppressor, the US. That’s because we are the lefts perceived oppressor. You don’t see them wailing about the victims in the Sudan or Indonesia or elsewhere because it’s the wrong oppressor.
When 9/11 happened the left was on board only until we decided NOT to be keep being a victim, but get up and start doing some payback. We lost our common victimhood.
Of course the left doesn’t want to be a REAL victim! They just want to play one. They live life as though it’s a role playing game where the monsters and orcs can’t really do anything. Anytime a REAL Orc shows up they run and hide under the bed.
As one great line I saw recently put it, the question to ask a leftist is this…
“If Bush is Hitler, why aren’t you a lampshade?”
Sep 1, 2006 - 12:33 pm 18. Lem:I want a Plame Commission. PRONTO.
Sep 1, 2006 - 12:36 pm 19. photoncourier.blogspot.com:Our modern “progressives” tend to live in a world in which the ony color is gray, in which there is no such thing as truth or reality, and the only appropriate psychological stance is cynicism and ironic detachment. I think many of them are attracted, usually at a subconscious level, to people and movements that *do* believe in absolutes and that paint the world in vivid colors. This attraction applies to our current enemies; it also applied to totalitarian Marxist regimes.
Sep 1, 2006 - 12:59 pm 20. submandave:“Bush stole their socalled “mission” and what is more he actually tried to do something not done before. That made the guys on the left look bad.”
This is just a surface treatment. Above all else the left in America, regardless of what they say, are overly concerned with “self.” Listen to them patting themselves on the back for “speaking truth to poser” or “saying the unpopular, even dangerous thing” against Bush. (Dangerous? Give me a break!) It is all about them being the hero and the center of the world. They are on an endless quest to be important. They don’t understand being a part of something bigger than themselves because they recoil from the idea that they aren’t the biggest thing there is.
Their anger with Bush is not just that he “stole their mission,” but rather that by doing so he revealed the horrible truth that the Emperor of the Left not only has no clothes, but never did and has no intention of ever being clothed, lest the fashion rob them of the spotlight.
Sep 1, 2006 - 1:15 pm 21. Syl:Lem and all.
The Washington Post, to its credit, retracted much of what Pincus had written in his article (sourced to Wilson) after the SSCI report. The paper was not totally satisfied with Pincus retraction, and even added to it.
(They were much more up front about it than the NY Times and Kristof.)
The WaPo knew and admitted Wilson was a liar long ago.
Sep 1, 2006 - 1:15 pm 22. Steven Mitchell:Yep, press has been off this rocker for more than a generation. I was reading the newspaper at age 10, and had the double-speak code pretty well understood by age 12. (And that was pre Reagan.) Journalism has always been saddled with some dim bulbs and outright liars, bless their hearts. However, I think there is one big difference between today and, say, 1981–and it ain’t just the internet.
The big name reporters with a leftist slant in 1960 came out of a good school system before WW2, for the most part. They might not have been Harvard material, but they were reasonably well educated. The times they lived in made them more so–academically and practically. You might say that they were reasonably savvy about what many people in the USA thought, and what they would stand to read. So if they chose to bend the truth sometimes, they knew it was because they had some credibility to burn. Plus, the powers that be had enough sense to use a real star even when his politics were perhaps a bit more moderate/conservative than the newsroom wanted.
Cut to the 90s. The internet is starting to come on strong, but hasn’t mattered yet. The evil Reagan/Bush regime is history. All they need now is a little bit of a push, and Hillary Health Care will be a reality. And who listens to Limbaugh? In short, they are running on momentum. Now, the media is increasingly made up of a bunch of, well, “average” at best guys. They have never worked in a time when the press didn’t get what it wants, routinely. They are no longer savvy. They think bald-faced lies will work every time, many times, with no intervening build up of credibility. Any study telling them that credibility is falling is ignored as right-wing propaganda.
Then, Bush II gets elected. They are in shock. 9-11 hits. They are already out of their league and on their way into slow oblivious when the internet explodes. They’ve been the Wizard of Oz for 30 years. And suddenly, not only has the curtain been ripped aside, but some wag has pulled their pants down and flashed their “We Luv Castro” tattoo.
If you were a dim bulb like that, you’d think Wilson made sense, too.
Sep 1, 2006 - 1:28 pm 23. Captain Hate:AlanC
‘It dawned on me recently that the problem with the left is that they, in a twisted sense, buy into “the meek shall inherit the earth”.’
The two-bit minds of the left have deconstructed that into “the academics are entitled to run the world”. After all inheritances are evil and should be distributed to the downtrodden, no?
I responded similarly to “If Bush is Hitler, why aren’t you a lampshade?” at a bbs of political idiots to a poster who called Bush a fascist with “If you aren’t posting from an incarceration facility, this is demonstrably false.”
Sep 1, 2006 - 2:19 pm 24. Larry BirdFlu:I don’t think it’s so much THAT these “mistakes” are made. It’s that ALL of these “mistakes” are made telling the same side’s story. Everyone makes “mistakes” and everyone would like to think that members of the CIA(or the human race for that matter but especially those in positions of immense responsibility and influence) would put the well being of the population of the world and the truth ahead of their personal quest for fleeting fame and carrying out petty vendettas. I guess it has something to do with the type of person that seeks these positions that makes them inherently untrustworthy, but my god the stakes are high. Can anyone think of a single noteworthy news story in the last 5 years where the narrative was essentially told from the POV of something other than Democratic talking points? How’s that saying go? 2 or is it 3 “is a trend.” Well what’s 50-100?
Sep 1, 2006 - 2:50 pm 25. Barbara Skolaut:Well said, Roger!
There’s a reason you’re a writer – and we’re not.
Sep 1, 2006 - 2:58 pm 26. insatty:The Democrats needed to puncture Bush’s credibility, the CIA needed to divert attention from its WMD problems, and Joe Wilson needed something to do. So they enlisted the MSM to push the silly meme that Bush “outed” Plame to “destroy” Wilson the “whistleblower.” The MSM storyline was all a lie, just as Wilson’s NYT ed-op.
But the MSM, Wilson, and the Democrats won out in the end, because the meme damaged Bush and the entire war effort against the Islamofascists. Chris Matthews, Newsweek, and their ilk will never acknowlege let alone apologize for their constant drumbeat pushing lies as truth. The Democrats and the MSM never got “Fitzmas,” but they had Hardball. The MSM is badly broken and the Democrats unfit to command.
It never mattered that this story helped the Islamofascists kill American soldiers and Israeli civilians; all that mattered is that Bush lost.
Sep 1, 2006 - 3:56 pm 27. Charlie (Colorado):is letting the Presse Ancienne off the hook far too easily. They didn’t “gullibly swallow” these various lies any more than Clinton’s cabinet gullibly swallowed his lies about Monica.
I wonder why “gullibly swallowed” is the first metaphore that comes to mind here?
Sep 1, 2006 - 4:01 pm 28. Charlie (Colorado):They see themselves as victims (aka meek) and believe, therefore, that they should inherit. Of course what that means is that they get to run things. But they want to do this while still playing the victim.
“The meek will inherit the earth — but in very small plots, about six feet by three.” — Lazarus Long
Sep 1, 2006 - 4:03 pm 29. Lem:I don’t want to keep harping on it Syl, but I had a naging feeling. I really believed that underneath all the smoke, door breaking and window smashing there was some little old lady about to be saved.
There was nothing other than Wilson lying up to his coroniya.
You can’t keep sermonizing the public, talking down to people (Olberman, Mathews) about their lack of interest, not voting, unaware of current events bla bla bla and at the same time feed them bull.
Sep 1, 2006 - 4:06 pm 30. Captain Hate:“In the beginning the left went along with Bush”
I never felt that way at all, Roger. On the morning of 9/11 I told a friend that there were a number of people, probably all on the left, that are very happy this happened. Sontag and Maher came out with their daft statements shortly thereafter.
Sep 1, 2006 - 4:37 pm 31. Captain Hate:Sorry for the mistaken post which I wish I could edit; actually most did go along with him, ready to desert at the first casualty.
Well phrased as usual, Roger.
Sep 1, 2006 - 4:59 pm 32. Anthony:Steven Mitchell,
Well said about the intellectually stunted modern media. It was crystallized recently for me when I listened to a report from Havana on CBS News concerning Comrade Fidel’s failing health. The reporter, one Portia Sigelbaum, in a scolding tone of voice, recounted (I assume with a straight face, it was on the radio) that unlike the Cuban communities in Miami which were rejoicing, the citizens of Havana were going about quietly with concerned looks on their faces. Some of them, she then reported, “were praying for him.” Praying–for an atheist dictator! Just how stupid and delusional must one be to report and believe such rubbish?
Sep 1, 2006 - 5:02 pm 33. Chris Fotos:The Washington Post, to its credit, retracted much of what Pincus had written in his article (sourced to Wilson) after the SSCI report. The paper was not totally satisfied with Pincus retraction, and even added to it.
(They were much more up front about it than the NY Times and Kristof.)
The WaPo knew and admitted Wilson was a liar long ago.
To the extent that may be true–I don’t have a handy example of whatever retraction may have been printed immediately after Susan Schmidt’s July 10, 2004 story on the SSCI report–the Post in July, on three occasions, essentially un-retracted any retraction by stating claims about Iraq seeking uranium in Niger were unfounded. Here’s my post on that very issue. One of the culprits is Howard Kurtz, who wrote on July 12 this year:
Novak triggered one of the capital’s most tangled investigations with a July 2003 column reporting that Plame had suggested sending her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, to Niger to investigate whether Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was trying to obtain nuclear material from that country — an unsupported claim that was included in President Bush’s State of the Union speech.
I wouldn’t put too much stock in “the Post” recanting much on Wilson. The Post editorial, yes, on this issue, today. The reporters? Who knows what they think, if any of them have bothered to read or absorb it. In any case none of their stories have been corrected.
Sep 1, 2006 - 5:19 pm 34. Insufficiently Sensitive:“The MSM is badly broken and the Democrats unfit to command.”
Not true, either one. The MSM works brilliantly – as an agitprop partisan of the Democrats. And should the Dems regain power, they’d all be scragging one another to be the new FDR-style Great Leader in the noble battle against their suddenly-realized 7th Century Fascists.
Oh, some differences. FDR actually ran a bipartisan Administration (as did Churchill) during WW II; Reid, Pelosi & Co. are far too much religious believers to allow any credit to fall to infidel Republicans.
And the Dems aren’t stupid – they know that in the face of a war, the Republicans (unlike themselves) wouldn’t undermine an Administration in wartime just to try for a political reverse. They also know that the MSM would never paint a military campaign in such black hues as it now does Iraq, Israel etc, if Dems were in charge of it.
Sep 1, 2006 - 7:08 pm 35. David Thomson:“And should the Dems regain power, they’d all be scragging one another to be the new FDR-style Great Leader in the noble battle against their suddenly-realized 7th Century Fascists.”
Sadly, you could not be more wrong. The days of FDR, Harry Truman, and JFK are long gone. Todayís Democrats are disingenuous pacifists to the core. Vietnam changed everything. They are convinced that American military action will only further anger our enemies. After all, it is allegedly our fault for initially oppressing them. The Republicans are regretfully the only game in town.
Sep 1, 2006 - 7:35 pm 36. chuck:and proletariat within each nation by the notion of ruling versus proletarian nations.
I believe Mussolini originated, or at least popularized, this notion, with Italy being one of the proletarian nations. One of the wonders of Marxism is the adaptability of its ideas.
Sep 1, 2006 - 8:38 pm 37. BEAM:Patrick Fitzgerald doesn’t get enough of the blame for his role in this whole fiasco. He was second only to Joe Wilson when it came to dishonest grandstanding and media ‘manipulation’. That nutty press conference he held for the Libby indictment is a prime example. The man knew full well what that no harm and no fouls were commited, but carried on with his ridiculous baseball analogies all the while insisting the investigation wasn’t over. What a complete joke.
Sep 1, 2006 - 10:25 pm 38. DRJ:I think that liberals in the media perpetually try to recreate the role they played in the Vietnam War and Watergate – episodes where their participation was central to the ultimate outcome. In a sense, those events represent the moment in journalistic history when reporters threw off the mantle of disinterested observer and became players in the political arena. It’s a two-fer for every idealistic reporter: Become a real-life mover and shaker and, better yet, Robert Redford plays you in the movie.
Sep 1, 2006 - 11:57 pm 39. HA:Roger,
It is time for the Wilson name to enter the lexicon of American politics alongside its McCarthy predecessor.
Wilsonism is the tactic of cooking up smears that conform the leftist agenda of the MSM and then exploiting the ensuing controversey for personal and political gain. A Wilsonist is one who engages in such tactics. The term also serves as a verb, as in Libby and Rove were Wilsoned by the former Kerry campaign advisor. A key facet of Wilsonism is the complicity of the media in perpetuating the Big Lie.
Sep 2, 2006 - 4:15 am 40. Old Dad:Great post Roger, but I’m hoping someone can explain something to me.
I can understand why the Administration allowed the Plame investigation to move forward. They needed political cover.
I can understand why Wilson and Plame ginned up their scam.
I can understand why the media ran with the con.
I can understand why Armitage with Powell’s cover ran and hid.
I can understand why Fitz tried to salvage his bogus investigation.
What I don’t understand is why the Administration didn’t blow Armitage’s sorry ass out of the water months ago, before all the collateral damage? If the current reportage is accurate (a big if), then everyone at the top knew who the source was. One little leak could have buried this albatross.
Sep 2, 2006 - 7:24 am 41. Bostonian:“In the beginning the left went along with Bush”
This is true for more moderate lefties like my mom, but I’ll never forget a conversation I had with a lefty at work shortly after 9/11.
The week after 9/11, this coworker told me he hated Bush so much he could barely stand to look at him. Those are his words, as far as I can remember.(Mind you, the guy hadn’t been in office very long! What had he “done” to deserve such hate?!)
I commented on the very recent disaster, and he said that it didn’t really bother him, because “there are already too many people in the world.”
Sep 2, 2006 - 7:27 am 42. Insufficiently Sensitive:David Thompson:
“The days of FDR, Harry Truman, and JFK are long gone. Today?s Democrats are disingenuous pacifists to the core.”
What??? The MSM fawned over the oh-so-heroic John Kerry, ‘reporting for duty’. They were all set to build him up as a Great Military Hero setting forth to undo the ‘mistakes’ of the inept Bush administration, while simultaneously attacking Bush for a fictitious dereliction of duty.
Any Democrat ascending to Commander-in-Chief would have this manufactured cheering section in support, and plenty of individuals, knowing this, would be happy to compete for the ‘honor’.
The Dems could not sustain a disingenous pacifist pose were they elected – too much of the electorate is concerned for national defense to allow them more than one term should the Dems so act.
Sep 2, 2006 - 9:33 am 43. HA:Roger,
Is David Corn still involved with Pajamas Media? If so, why? He is still linked on the Pajamas Blogroll. What is the nature of Corn’s association with Pajamas?
He and Isikoff did as much as anybody including Wilson to perpetuate this fraud on the American people. He and Isikoff are still trying to milk this fraud for all its worth even after Wilson has been proven a liar time after time after time.
If you want to know why Plamegate happened, maybe you should ask David Corn. If David Corn won’t denounce Wilson even today, then David Corn is making himself part of the lie.
Why would you want this man associated with Pajamas Media? If Pajamas continues its relationship with Corn, then how is it demonstrating any more integrity than the MSM hacks it is supposedly a remedy for?
I urge you to confront Corn on this issue. If Corn refuses to denounce Wilson and admit that the Bush administration acted honorably on this issue, then Pajamas should terminate any relationship it has with Corn.
Pajamas should not squander its integrity on a Wilsonist like David Corn.
Sep 3, 2006 - 5:31 am