Stuck in the fringes’ tug of war: We’re the rope
: I just read a longer excerpt of the Rove screed in the NY Post and here’s the real problem: He is doing precisely what he is accusing the other side of doing. He says:
Has there ever been a more revealing moment than this year. when the Democratic senator, Democrat Richard Durbin, speaking on the Senate floor, compared what Americans have done to prisoners in our control in Guantanamo with what was done by Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot ó three of the most brutal and malevolent figures of the 20th century?
Let me put in this in really simple terms. Al Jazeera now broadcasts the words of Sen. Durbin to the Mideast, certainly putting our troops in greater danger. No more needs to be said about the motives of liberals.
OK, Rove, and now your remarks are being repeated all over the world to show how we are at war with ourselves…. and not with the enemy.
And, Rove, you whine when Howard Dean calls Republicans all a bunch of white Christians (said perjoratively, which causes this white Christian a moment’s pause). Yet you turn around and call all liberals a bunch of terrorist sympathizers (which causes this liberal hawk a moment’s pause as well).
You’re both wrong. Your all wrong. You think you’re going to win at the edges because that’s the way the game is played today. But you have lost the middle.
The NY Times’ op-ed graphic illustrates the point, uh, graphically today. It shows that the number of moderates in Congress — not in the nation, mind you, but in Congress — has greatly reduced because:
The differences are attributable to the emergence of the permanent campaign, the rise of partisan news media and, most of all, changes in Congressional redistricting. The expansion in the number of ìsafeî seats in the House that began in the 1980ís has put an increased importance on primaries, which favor more ideological candidates. A number of these sharp-edged representatives have then moved to the Senate, where they have helped widen the partisan gulf we have talked about ó and now can see.
The system is as broken as the American auto and airline industries. It’s time for a political restructuring. It’s time for a revolt of the middle. Right now, the middle is simply revolted at “leaders” such as these.
The victims have no problem calling them terrorists
: The BBC — which just went out of its way to call “terrorist” a bad word — reports that Arab media is (finally) seeing Iraqi “insurgents” for what they are: murderers. Meanwhile, the witnesses and victims know what they really are: terrorists.
Al Jazeera – often accused by the Americans of stirring anti-US feeling – has adopted less of an “Us and Them” approach.
The militants are no longer referred to as the “resistance” but as gunmen or suicide bombers.
Eyewitnesses are shown denouncing them as “terrorists” – condemnations that are echoed by a parade of Iraqi officials and religious authorities.
For the record
: Yes, Karl Rove is an ass. But you didn’t need me to tell you that.
This liberal wasn’t calling for therapy. This liberal was calling for bombs.
Network blog wars
: Brian Williams blogs the news meeting and makes rundown decisions transparent… beating CBS News to the transparent blogging punch.
