Office of the Independent Blogger

At RealClearPolitics, Lawrence Kudlow mocks the subject of an Al Gore candidacy and declares Hillary Clinton the best candidate that Democrats could sic on the floundering Republican Party. Kudlow’s expertise is Economics, not Domestic Politics, and there’s a reason for it that shows. Kudlow’s so full of crap on almost every issue that his eyes leak feces, and he continues with consistency with his latest. Backing that article, they’re running a piece about how doves aren’t elected in times of war. This is very well true, but the rule isn’t absolute and it doesn’t mean you must be Ghengis Khan to get elected. Richard Nixon vowed to leave Vietnam “with honor,” but it was a clear message of withdrawal. Jimmy Carter was elected at the height of the Cold War. Besides, if we’re talking about Al Gore as a dove, that’s nonsense. Anyone with half a brain in their head about recent history knows that Al Gore is no pacifist, and even though he invented the Internet (or, as its founders would tell you, contributed heavily to its creation) he’s no McGovernite on a Modem. Al Gore is a strong candidate in every sense of the term.

While RealClear is running two nonsense articles, it does redeem itself somewhat with the prior article about the Left Wing and the Internet. They call them “McGovernites” on “Modems” and that’s probably a fair assessment. People who supported Howard Dean didn’t do it because they thought he had a ten point plan to restore Economic Growth or Fiscal Sanity!

That’s not the only article about Liberalism Online out today. There’s also this one, dubbed “The Left’s Digital Lynch Mob.” While at some points it reminds me of Clarence “High-Tech Lynching” Thomas, it is an interesting read. Nothing more, really. Just one man’s experience with the Left, and while worth reading, it’s not a sign of something deeper than the surface. Go to the Free Republic and you’ll find a lynch mob, too, from the opposite direction. Go to Washington, on the other hand, and you’ll find a Lynch Mob headed toward Langley.

Bush has nominated General Hayden to be in charge of the CIA, and he’s the same hack who implemented the wiretapping program. He’s a Negroponte lover, and there’s no reason to believe that he should be at the CIA. One of the reasons he’s unfit for command has to do with the fact that he clearly has never learned not to touch the stove that burnt your mother’s hand off. To wit: the purge at the CIA will “intensify” if he’s confirmed. The CIA shouldn’t have to worry about a Bush crony who is trying to wipe out the Agency’s leadership in what amounts to a perverse Honor Killing because the CIA defended itself when the White House blamed them for its mistakes.

The article I link to considers that a good thing — the purge, that is. It’s incredible that Republicans wonder why most Americans think they don’t know how to govern, and maybe they should look to Iraq as the reason for a lot of their failures. While Bush and I hold Iraq to be a model of sorts to the rest of the Middle East, it’s a nation that we shouldn’t strive to be much like we don’t look back at the 1850s and say, “Oh if only, if only!”

It appears to me, though, that Bush is looking at Iraq as being that sort of candle in the night, and he shouldn’t. If the President wants to be inspired by Iraq, he should take heart from their courage in the face of the Insurgency and the government’s attempts to unify the country: he shouldn’t be attempting to mimick their honor killings in Virginia.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 9th, 2006 at 5:31 pm and is filed under Outside Retort (Current Affairs).