Tuesday, April 22, 2008

The Playbook ...

How it should be done:

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As Greenwald notes, the GOP and its propagandists in the press frequently “personify the sexual sleaze and amoral hedonism against which they endlessly sermonize.” Examples include Newt Gingrich, a serial adulterer who ditched his first wife while she was recovering from cancer surgery; Rush Limbaugh, with his drug addiction and “Viagra-fueled jaunts to the Dominican Republic”; David Vitter, the “Values Voter” champion who frequented Madame Deborah Palfrey’s high-class prostitution service; Mark Foley and his lewd emails to congressional pages; Larry “Wide Stance” Craig, Bill “Falafel King” O’Reilly, etc., etc. In each case, Greenwald shows that all of these men have a long record of statements supporting “family values” issues such as the Federal Marriage Amendment and the Defense of Marriage Act, and that none of them personally adhere to the lofty standards that they espouse for others.

In addition to Republicans’ proclivity for personal vice, Greenwald also documents their shameless chickenhawkery and how their alleged love for small government disappears the minute they gain political power. They are, in short, completely full of shit about everything they claim to stand for and deserve to be hammered for it repeatedly. Greenwald’s tone throughout the book is not gentle, which is one of the reasons why fed-up lefties such as myself enjoy reading him so much. His polemical prose has all the tact and subtlety of a chainsaw, and given the subject he’s discussing, this is entirely appropriate. After all, it’s difficult to point out that vast swathes of our political elites are full of shit by being polite and restrained. [my em]

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Will a Dem ever grow a scrotum, that actually has balls in it, to say what needs to be said? Sadly, no.

We've been screaming for 4 years (here anyway) about how 'full of shit' the Republicans are and it hasn't really done any good. Yes, I know turnout has been high in the primaries and more people seem interested in the process, but the thing troubling me most is that McCain is still so close in the polls against either Dem candidate. By rights, he should have the same approval ratings as the Chimp.

I think the media's fawning over McCain will ultimately prove to be the undoing of the Dems, regardless of who gets the nom. There will be no equal treatment, the Dem dissected and inspected and McCain given a wink and a nod. Thanks to the media's treatment of him, a good portion of the nation still sees him as the maverick, straight-shooter, war hero, though he is neither. When Obama's relationship with Rev. Wright underwent the equivalent of a cavity search and McCain's endorsement by Rev. Hagee was hailed as a diplomatic coup, you know it's gonna be a long summer.

Off to work ...

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