Friday, December 26, 2008
Friday, December 12, 2008
Let's imagine and pretend and make-believe
One of the things we're hearing more and more of from conservative bloggers is that they were never really fans of Bush and his policies, that they were always skeptical and suspicious of him from the get go. The behavior is on display here in the form of a post about Patrick Fitzgerald in which the author insists that he always supported his prosecution of Scooter Libby for his role in the Valeria Plame case. To prove that, he offers up a post of his from March of 2007, which was conveniently after both Libby's conviction and the blowout in the mid-term elections.
It's plain to see what he's trying to do. Fitzgerald is prosecuting a Democrat right now, and Patterico wants to make himself sound relevant and reasonable throughout time by pointing out that when Fitzgerald was prosecuting a Republican, he was behind him. But scanning through his other posts, it becomes clear that his opinion about the broader Valerie Plame affair differs in no way from what most Republicans still believe; that the investigation into the leak was bogus and unnecessary, that Joe Wilson was a liar with an axe to grind, that Valerie Plame wasn't actually a covert agent, etc. The only thing that Patterico supports is Fitzgerald's prosecution of Libby for perjury. Had it been up to him, we never would have gotten that, because there never would have been an investigation into who in the administration leaked classified information to a reporter to silence a critic. Patterico thinks that would be silly.
Patterico may be voicing his support of the Libby conviction, but that's a separate issue. Fitzgerald's prosecution of Scooter Libby for perjury is not the corollary to Blagojevich's corruption investigation. The actual corollary is the investigation of Bush's corruption, which Patterico believes was misguided. Focus on this part of the above-linked post from a few days ago,
Nor am I saying that the Libby situation is anywhere near as scandalous as the Blagojevich situation. Let me be clear: it isn’t. The Blagojevich scandal is one of the most outrageous situations to come along in quite some time — and Libby’s deception, while reprehensible, is nothing close.
Even though that's a false comparison, we can still address the question of whether or not Blagojevich lashing out desperately in a political tailspin is worse than an aide to the Vice President being convicted of lying during a federal investigation looking into the administration's disclosure of national security secrets to advance their propaganda campaign pushing for unnecessary war. Blagojevich making a bunch of threats around town is worse than spilling state secrets to squelch a critic so you can start a war that doesn't make any sense? What kind of fucking political calculus is that?
Republicans are trying to pretend like the last 8 years didn't happen. They're trying to jettison George Bush and dodge all responsibility for all of the over-the-top fawning they did for him back when his approval ratings weren't in the toilet. They're trying to pretend like they didn't circle the wagons around him every time someone came at him with criticism that has turned out to be prophetic. That the national media takes so many of its cues from Republican talking points, it's absolutely essential that we confront these claims. Ignoring them will open up the possibility that Republicans gain more power in the near future. The past 8 years have discredited almost all things Republican and conservative. We need to make them feel discredited.
It's plain to see what he's trying to do. Fitzgerald is prosecuting a Democrat right now, and Patterico wants to make himself sound relevant and reasonable throughout time by pointing out that when Fitzgerald was prosecuting a Republican, he was behind him. But scanning through his other posts, it becomes clear that his opinion about the broader Valerie Plame affair differs in no way from what most Republicans still believe; that the investigation into the leak was bogus and unnecessary, that Joe Wilson was a liar with an axe to grind, that Valerie Plame wasn't actually a covert agent, etc. The only thing that Patterico supports is Fitzgerald's prosecution of Libby for perjury. Had it been up to him, we never would have gotten that, because there never would have been an investigation into who in the administration leaked classified information to a reporter to silence a critic. Patterico thinks that would be silly.
Patterico may be voicing his support of the Libby conviction, but that's a separate issue. Fitzgerald's prosecution of Scooter Libby for perjury is not the corollary to Blagojevich's corruption investigation. The actual corollary is the investigation of Bush's corruption, which Patterico believes was misguided. Focus on this part of the above-linked post from a few days ago,
Nor am I saying that the Libby situation is anywhere near as scandalous as the Blagojevich situation. Let me be clear: it isn’t. The Blagojevich scandal is one of the most outrageous situations to come along in quite some time — and Libby’s deception, while reprehensible, is nothing close.
Even though that's a false comparison, we can still address the question of whether or not Blagojevich lashing out desperately in a political tailspin is worse than an aide to the Vice President being convicted of lying during a federal investigation looking into the administration's disclosure of national security secrets to advance their propaganda campaign pushing for unnecessary war. Blagojevich making a bunch of threats around town is worse than spilling state secrets to squelch a critic so you can start a war that doesn't make any sense? What kind of fucking political calculus is that?
Republicans are trying to pretend like the last 8 years didn't happen. They're trying to jettison George Bush and dodge all responsibility for all of the over-the-top fawning they did for him back when his approval ratings weren't in the toilet. They're trying to pretend like they didn't circle the wagons around him every time someone came at him with criticism that has turned out to be prophetic. That the national media takes so many of its cues from Republican talking points, it's absolutely essential that we confront these claims. Ignoring them will open up the possibility that Republicans gain more power in the near future. The past 8 years have discredited almost all things Republican and conservative. We need to make them feel discredited.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
How Blagojevich will lead Republicans further into the woods
Someone ought to tell the Republicans to stop being so upbeat over this. The incoming Democratic President just got caught turning down a bribe. Whatever damage this does to the Democratic Party and whether that damage is national or localized, Obama will emerge unscathed at the least. The Republicans will try, certainly:
Fitzgerald says President-elect Obama was not implicated in the plethora of charges against Democrats Blago and Harris. The national media went out of their way to absolve him, too. But declaring Team Obama’s hands clean — especially with Blago crony and indicted Obama donor Tony Rezko in the middle of it all — is premature.
See that? That's exactly how Republicans are going to behave for the next four years. Nothing is too tangential to be considered a deeply meaningful, tit-for-tat, close personal relationship with Barack Obama. They acted the same way over the course of the presidential campaign with then uber-villains Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers. Republicans would criticize those men and think they were campaigning against Barack Obama. They put Obama on the line for black liberation theology and the Weather Underground despite his having nothing to do with them.
That tactic that they've apparently settled on with regards to Barack Obama could be called suggestion spamming. Republican pundits will make purposefully vague arguments against Obama using these characters, perhaps by insisting how they prove his judgment is bad, but stop short of actually describing what Obama might actually do in office. The propaganda component of conservative media takes over from there. The mindless automatons that constitute the conservative base have extremely vivid imaginations, and all they need to hear is that Obama went to Wright's church before they can start envisioning a United States where Barack Obama is President. To some people, that means afternoon tea with Iran. To others, it means the Black Panthers move into the White House. Others just go on and on about socialism and Karl Marx and the Nazis. It's better this way for the Republicans. Sean Hannity would like to just come and tell his followers not to vote for Obama because he's black, but he needs to keep up appearances. With a little subtlety, you can just throw out the suggestion, and the base is free to conjure up whatever insane conspiracy theories they like.
The strategy of suggestion has served Republicans well in the Bush years, but dismally failed when utilized against Barack Obama, who by any metric should have been more susceptible to these sorts of attacks. Republicans have simply done too much damage to their own credibility for moderate and independent voters to respond to these sorts of attacks. We're also headed into a recession, which was refocused the country on issues, not politics. Nobody cared about Barack Obama's connection to William Ayers because the economy was collapsing. The seriousness of that issue and others will be dominating political consciousness in this country for some time, and it will have the effect of inoculating people against giving a shit about any of the expanding cast of characters the Republicans seem so desperate to rely on in their opposition.
Fitzgerald says President-elect Obama was not implicated in the plethora of charges against Democrats Blago and Harris. The national media went out of their way to absolve him, too. But declaring Team Obama’s hands clean — especially with Blago crony and indicted Obama donor Tony Rezko in the middle of it all — is premature.
See that? That's exactly how Republicans are going to behave for the next four years. Nothing is too tangential to be considered a deeply meaningful, tit-for-tat, close personal relationship with Barack Obama. They acted the same way over the course of the presidential campaign with then uber-villains Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers. Republicans would criticize those men and think they were campaigning against Barack Obama. They put Obama on the line for black liberation theology and the Weather Underground despite his having nothing to do with them.
That tactic that they've apparently settled on with regards to Barack Obama could be called suggestion spamming. Republican pundits will make purposefully vague arguments against Obama using these characters, perhaps by insisting how they prove his judgment is bad, but stop short of actually describing what Obama might actually do in office. The propaganda component of conservative media takes over from there. The mindless automatons that constitute the conservative base have extremely vivid imaginations, and all they need to hear is that Obama went to Wright's church before they can start envisioning a United States where Barack Obama is President. To some people, that means afternoon tea with Iran. To others, it means the Black Panthers move into the White House. Others just go on and on about socialism and Karl Marx and the Nazis. It's better this way for the Republicans. Sean Hannity would like to just come and tell his followers not to vote for Obama because he's black, but he needs to keep up appearances. With a little subtlety, you can just throw out the suggestion, and the base is free to conjure up whatever insane conspiracy theories they like.
The strategy of suggestion has served Republicans well in the Bush years, but dismally failed when utilized against Barack Obama, who by any metric should have been more susceptible to these sorts of attacks. Republicans have simply done too much damage to their own credibility for moderate and independent voters to respond to these sorts of attacks. We're also headed into a recession, which was refocused the country on issues, not politics. Nobody cared about Barack Obama's connection to William Ayers because the economy was collapsing. The seriousness of that issue and others will be dominating political consciousness in this country for some time, and it will have the effect of inoculating people against giving a shit about any of the expanding cast of characters the Republicans seem so desperate to rely on in their opposition.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
I didn't find out about this moron until right now.
Is the Democratic Party filled with the stupidest fucking people on the planet? This is hilarious. This asshole can't even keep his shit together for a month - for one fucking month - before he starts thinking he's entitled to all kinds of shit! As broken and corrupt as our government is these days, you have to be awfully fucking dumb to get nicked for some shit like this. You can't figure out how to sell a Senate seat without getting caught? In America? How did this guy make it so far in politics?
Republicans are gonna keep this ball in the air for years. This is the Rev. Wright of Obama's first term. I can already see it being neatly recited by Sean Hannity as he runs down the litany of nonsensical complaints accumulated and incessantly flogged by the conservative base over the first year or two.
Republicans are gonna keep this ball in the air for years. This is the Rev. Wright of Obama's first term. I can already see it being neatly recited by Sean Hannity as he runs down the litany of nonsensical complaints accumulated and incessantly flogged by the conservative base over the first year or two.
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