Monday, May 15, 2006
The call to civility.
There are three recent examples of high profile Republicans making public calls for a more civil tone in today's political discourse.
John McCain appeared at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University and made a plea for we who disagree with him on the Iraq war to do so nicely. He did this in such a way as to appear to make a plea to those on the religious right to not be too harsh on him in his presumed upcoming attempt at the Republican nomination for President.
To Mr. McCain I simply say, good luck. If that crowd determines they do not like you, and you are close to winning a position they do not want you to have, then you ought to know better than to call upon them for civility. These are the same people who smeared McCain in 2000, using the most outrageous and unsubstantiated smears... as they repeatedly have done and will again. If this crowd gets the notion that he isn't one of them, they will assuredly let nothing stand in the way of their chosen candidate, including McCains good name. Again. To not be expecting this, or to call upon the better angels of their nature is to be naive to the extreme.
The two other examples I wish to consider in this post are related, in my opinion. I watched Newt Gingrich on Meet the Press this weekend and was struck by the famed right wing bomb thrower of the mid 90's calling upon Americans to be more civil in our discourse. As a matter of course I try not to pay much mind to Newt, so this may be a theme of his of late which I am just now picking up on.
The other occasion for a Republican to call for civility is from none other than President Bush. Repeatedly he calls for respectful debate, or for conversation that does not affect the morale of the troops, or a variety of other ways of saying that we should all play nice.
The reason I believe Newt and George are in the same league with these calls to political civility is because I am convinced they both take this tact because their side holds the power. Am I to believe for an instant that if Democrats held the power today that Newt would be agent of reason and civility? The example provided by the man himself screams to anyone who knows an iota of history that the answer is obviously NO! The transgressions of the Democratic machine in Washington in the mid 90's when compared to the Republican machine of today are simply paltry in comparison. Wrights book deals? Whitewater? What... no one gets tortured or needless wars started or full blown constitutional crisis'? Try for one instant to convince me that if Democrats were in power right now with all this going on that Newt and the gang wouldn't be screaming their lungs out.
The same goes for this President with a bit of a twist. Sure Bush never did come out and say that Kerry shot himself to get that purple heart. But by gum he stood by and watched while his team did the dirty work and he benefited from it. Bush was not in the Brooks Brother riot to stop the recount in Dade County in 2000, but he benefited from it. Where was the call for civility then you hypocrite of the first order? Need I go into all the other times that Bush surrogates have been directly responsible for the smearing of his opponents? The McCain call for civility directly harkens to this chicanery from the Bush team.
So now that the lies and deception, the outright fraud and power hungry anti-constitutional power grabs by this criminal gang are being exposed and people are getting po'd about it all... NOW they want us all to be nice. Well TOO FREAKING BAD!
The truth of the matter is that this is upsetting. We will not be nice as we point out the facts because the truth here is ugly. So buckle down and get ready for the ugliness to hit the fan, because it has got to come out in order to save this country. We can be nice and let them just walk all over us, or we can get a bit mean about it all and make them answer.
You can't just lie and start wars because some fanatical cabal wants to do it. You can't just start spying on us. You can't expose people who are just trying to do their jobs because they do not tow your line. This is America! You can't be king here, and if you try, us freedom loving patriotic types are liable to get a bit uncivil about it all. At least what people are mad about today has a bearing on reality, and isn't some made up accusations thrown into the mix to drive a candidates polling down.
Which is a game this crowd knows how to play all to well. So spare us the crocodile tears over lost civility, because we all know better. If the history of the ones crying the loudest over the tone of the discourse were not so replete with examples of shrillness and uncivility, they might be more believable right now.
McCain is the only Republican who can make this plea in anything approaching an honest manner, and he's doing it to try to fend off the extreme right of his own party. Maybe McCains call for niceness will provoke a response from that crowd and we can start down the long road to a pleasant political discourse. But in the meantime I can assure you that I do not believe Democrats ought to unilaterally disarm when it comes to this issue. Let them have it!
Speaking of uncivil types... one word about the Rove/Leopold affair from my perspective. In case one of my readers is unfamiliar with what I'm about to get into, Jason Leopold reported @ truthout.org that Karl Rove had been indicted. Evidently according to Leopold's sources the indictment was sealed (?) and Rove was given 24 hours to get his affairs in order.
Leopold clarified over the weekend that 24 hours meant business hours, so according to everything I understand about the meaning, the announcement should be sometime 05/16. Frankly, as of Monday evening 05/15, I'm not buying it. To be honest, Jason Leopold could be the White House spokesperson as far as his integrity is concerned in my book.
If Rove were indicted Friday there is no way on Earth that that secret would hold all the way through Monday evening at this point, with the exception of the Leopold sources. If it leaked to Leopold it would have to leak elsewhere. Leopold has an overriding interest in this story going public right now, so I hardly think he would bind his source to inform him alone. Leopold should be begging this character to confidentially leak to someone in the MSM.
If on the other hand an indictment is announced tomorrow, I will forthwith offer a sincere apology to Mr. Leopold.
John McCain appeared at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University and made a plea for we who disagree with him on the Iraq war to do so nicely. He did this in such a way as to appear to make a plea to those on the religious right to not be too harsh on him in his presumed upcoming attempt at the Republican nomination for President.
To Mr. McCain I simply say, good luck. If that crowd determines they do not like you, and you are close to winning a position they do not want you to have, then you ought to know better than to call upon them for civility. These are the same people who smeared McCain in 2000, using the most outrageous and unsubstantiated smears... as they repeatedly have done and will again. If this crowd gets the notion that he isn't one of them, they will assuredly let nothing stand in the way of their chosen candidate, including McCains good name. Again. To not be expecting this, or to call upon the better angels of their nature is to be naive to the extreme.
The two other examples I wish to consider in this post are related, in my opinion. I watched Newt Gingrich on Meet the Press this weekend and was struck by the famed right wing bomb thrower of the mid 90's calling upon Americans to be more civil in our discourse. As a matter of course I try not to pay much mind to Newt, so this may be a theme of his of late which I am just now picking up on.
The other occasion for a Republican to call for civility is from none other than President Bush. Repeatedly he calls for respectful debate, or for conversation that does not affect the morale of the troops, or a variety of other ways of saying that we should all play nice.
The reason I believe Newt and George are in the same league with these calls to political civility is because I am convinced they both take this tact because their side holds the power. Am I to believe for an instant that if Democrats held the power today that Newt would be agent of reason and civility? The example provided by the man himself screams to anyone who knows an iota of history that the answer is obviously NO! The transgressions of the Democratic machine in Washington in the mid 90's when compared to the Republican machine of today are simply paltry in comparison. Wrights book deals? Whitewater? What... no one gets tortured or needless wars started or full blown constitutional crisis'? Try for one instant to convince me that if Democrats were in power right now with all this going on that Newt and the gang wouldn't be screaming their lungs out.
The same goes for this President with a bit of a twist. Sure Bush never did come out and say that Kerry shot himself to get that purple heart. But by gum he stood by and watched while his team did the dirty work and he benefited from it. Bush was not in the Brooks Brother riot to stop the recount in Dade County in 2000, but he benefited from it. Where was the call for civility then you hypocrite of the first order? Need I go into all the other times that Bush surrogates have been directly responsible for the smearing of his opponents? The McCain call for civility directly harkens to this chicanery from the Bush team.
So now that the lies and deception, the outright fraud and power hungry anti-constitutional power grabs by this criminal gang are being exposed and people are getting po'd about it all... NOW they want us all to be nice. Well TOO FREAKING BAD!
The truth of the matter is that this is upsetting. We will not be nice as we point out the facts because the truth here is ugly. So buckle down and get ready for the ugliness to hit the fan, because it has got to come out in order to save this country. We can be nice and let them just walk all over us, or we can get a bit mean about it all and make them answer.
You can't just lie and start wars because some fanatical cabal wants to do it. You can't just start spying on us. You can't expose people who are just trying to do their jobs because they do not tow your line. This is America! You can't be king here, and if you try, us freedom loving patriotic types are liable to get a bit uncivil about it all. At least what people are mad about today has a bearing on reality, and isn't some made up accusations thrown into the mix to drive a candidates polling down.
Which is a game this crowd knows how to play all to well. So spare us the crocodile tears over lost civility, because we all know better. If the history of the ones crying the loudest over the tone of the discourse were not so replete with examples of shrillness and uncivility, they might be more believable right now.
McCain is the only Republican who can make this plea in anything approaching an honest manner, and he's doing it to try to fend off the extreme right of his own party. Maybe McCains call for niceness will provoke a response from that crowd and we can start down the long road to a pleasant political discourse. But in the meantime I can assure you that I do not believe Democrats ought to unilaterally disarm when it comes to this issue. Let them have it!
Speaking of uncivil types... one word about the Rove/Leopold affair from my perspective. In case one of my readers is unfamiliar with what I'm about to get into, Jason Leopold reported @ truthout.org that Karl Rove had been indicted. Evidently according to Leopold's sources the indictment was sealed (?) and Rove was given 24 hours to get his affairs in order.
Leopold clarified over the weekend that 24 hours meant business hours, so according to everything I understand about the meaning, the announcement should be sometime 05/16. Frankly, as of Monday evening 05/15, I'm not buying it. To be honest, Jason Leopold could be the White House spokesperson as far as his integrity is concerned in my book.
If Rove were indicted Friday there is no way on Earth that that secret would hold all the way through Monday evening at this point, with the exception of the Leopold sources. If it leaked to Leopold it would have to leak elsewhere. Leopold has an overriding interest in this story going public right now, so I hardly think he would bind his source to inform him alone. Leopold should be begging this character to confidentially leak to someone in the MSM.
If on the other hand an indictment is announced tomorrow, I will forthwith offer a sincere apology to Mr. Leopold.
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I think you're right on target here Ken. It is a preemptive step in defending their weaknesses as vulnerable incumbants.
We had a recent city council election here in Va.Beach. A particular council member that was up for election had angered much of his constituency with his decisions and statements. So of course he ran commercials criticizing the use of negative ads in campaigns. After all.....there was a lot of negative things that an opponent could point to. His slogan was "Not Afraid to Lead". I guess that is supposed to explain all the votes and decisions that were vigorously opposed by the voters. he did what he wanted anyway.
It's the same old crap. Not only would Republicans like to escape responsibility for what they have and haven't done but, the Bush team has been through the ringer. So, yea. Of course they would like the public beatings(figurative) to stop.
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We had a recent city council election here in Va.Beach. A particular council member that was up for election had angered much of his constituency with his decisions and statements. So of course he ran commercials criticizing the use of negative ads in campaigns. After all.....there was a lot of negative things that an opponent could point to. His slogan was "Not Afraid to Lead". I guess that is supposed to explain all the votes and decisions that were vigorously opposed by the voters. he did what he wanted anyway.
It's the same old crap. Not only would Republicans like to escape responsibility for what they have and haven't done but, the Bush team has been through the ringer. So, yea. Of course they would like the public beatings(figurative) to stop.
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