Spineless, Gutless. Get 'em Out!

Evil on the one side, spinelessness on the other. We need a third alternative.

Let's start right out by saying that I'm not particularly defending the MoveOn.org “Generay Betray Us” ad in the New York Times. If nothing else, it smacked (as Stephen Colbert so elegantly showed) of elementary school playground name calling. I also don't entire fault it in today's political arena where even the pretense of civility has pretty much entirely disappeared.

But I am absolutely ashamed of the Democratic Party for allowing themselves to be dictated to by the GOP, the same GOP that has used the same tactics year in and year out since early in Bill Clinton's Presidency. The GOP spin machine continues unabated, and a significant fraction of the Democratic Party in the Senate rolled over and did their bidding, as though they were still an ineffectual minority in that body.

Where was the outrage or the Senate condemnation when, in the run-up to last year's elections, the Republican Party politicized YET AGAIN the horrible attacks of 9/11, running a television spot with Osama bin Laden prominently featured and the clear implication that the party which has been so completely ineffectual at capturing or killing bin Laden is the only one that can prevent another 9/11? I've heard lots of talk on both sides of the aisle about how horrible it is for anyone to politicize 9/11, but not a peep out of the Senate over that ad.

Where was the outrage when the GOP and its various candidates impugned the war heroics of Max Cleland, a man who left major portions of his body on the battlefield for this country? To say nothing of the demonstrably false allegations of the so-called “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth” against Senator Kerry in 2004? Or the same group under a different name making similar statements about John McCain (another Republican even!), who suffered torture for his service to our country, and making those statements in support of a man who has never experienced even a moment of combat.

Where was the Senate condemnation when, in 2006 again, Bob Corker (R) smeared Harold Ford (D) during the campaign over Tennessee's Senate seat by running an add which carried the thinly veiled message “Harold Ford is not up to the job because he's black” and with strong misegenistic overtones. Or when during the 2000 Presidential campaign John McCain's adopted Bangladeshi baby was portrayed as “McCain's illegitimate black child” in push polls in South Carolina and elsewhere? Or when in that same campaign, Al Gore's statements were selectively parsed and intentionally mis-construed to portray him as a compulsive liar?

Or heck, since the President himself weighed in on how “disgusting” the MoveOn ad was, where was the outcry when during his campaign for Governor of Texas, he falsely accused incumbent Governor Ann Richards of being a lesbian, knowing that would not play well for her in Texas?

Come to think of it, where was the Senate condemnation when Ann Coulter has repeatedly used the term “faggot” as derogatory, both maligning those who she falsely portrays as gay AND all gay people by using that pejoritive term. If the Democrats need to condemn the most radical fringe of their own support group, why the Republicans embrace theirs? Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and indeed most of Faux News have all made extreme and prejudicial statements, and rarely have the Republicans come out to register their disapproval with or condemnation of the statements.(1)

Those who support the condemnation of the MoveOn ad will, of course, point out that one major difference between all of my examples and the MoveOn ad is that the other examples were ads against political targets, not military ones. But I submit that at the moment General Petraeus decided that his testimony to Congress would consist largely of cooked numbers and half-truths in order to make the conflict in Iraq look better, he crossed the line from military leader to political hack himself. And at least the MoveOn ad dealt primarily with that group's opinion of General Petraeus' testimony, they honestly believe he was betraying this country and the soldiers under his command. How, exactly, does the word “faggot” or false implied allegations of lesbianism or illegitimate babies or appealing to racist voters with charges of misegeny relate at all to the merits of any of the targets of those slurs?

And how can anyone still believe that we have a liberal media when the Democrats in a majority position feel that their political fortunes are better served by condemning their own radical fringe rather than by following years of Republican precedent and letting the event blow over without comment?

Liam.



(1) Note that as much as I dislike the tone in Washington, no one should be required to explicitly denounce something said by someone else, just because they happen to share the same ideological group. That's become one of the biggest straw-man tactics in American politics today, and it isn't fair any time it is used.