Andrea Mitchell, Republican Alan Greenspan's Republican wife and Chief Foreign Affairs correspondent for NBC news has a column up online entitled, "Debate rages over media’s role in Iraq war."
Now let's be clear: The raging debate is between movement conservatives desperate for an excuse on one side, and reality on the other. Mitchell quotes paragons of truth and virtue Rush Limbaugh and Laura "just as noxious though not as smart as Rush" Ingraham for their perspectives.
“And they go out and find video of a burning, smoldering vehicle blown up by an IED and that's the news of the day,” Rush Limbaugh said on his radio show Tuesday.
Radio host Laura Ingraham was on NBC’s “Today” show Tuesday morning with NBC’s David Gregory.
“David, to do a show from Iraq means to talk to the Iraqi military, to go out with the Iraqi military, to actually have a conversation with the people,” Ingraham said, “Instead of reporting from hotel balconies about the latest IEDs going off."
Like the cycles of grief, losing wars maintain their own rhythms and currents. What we're seeing now, to borrow a phrase, is "the last throes" of conservative victimhood and refusal to take responsibility. Hopefully, this disease will kill Limbaugh and Ingraham, but probably not. Instead, we'll see increasing blame for "liberals", "fifth-columnists", "terrorist allies" etc. There will be no shortage of boogeymen and scapgoats for their miserable war and miserable movement.
You see a lot more of this technique these days, but it's an old gimmick. Here's Lawyers Guns and Money on the subject:
"This is a line of attack that has been in preparation since 2002, and that we have expected for nearly as long. If this war went south, everyone knew that the damn dirty liberal hippies would be to blame, just like they were in Vietnam. That the conservative account of Vietnam bears no resemblance to the actual history of that conflict is irrelevant; blaming the critics of a war for its failure has been a remarkably successful political strategy for the right wing, and not just in the United States."
Limbaugh, Ingraham, Hannity and the rest are what the real traitors look like - people who were always more interested in fighting their domestic political enemies than in fighting any sort of foreign threat. For that, I hope these people meet miserable ends.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11947276/
http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/2006/03/bit-more-on-stabbing-in-back.html
Posted by mike at March 21, 2006 11:01 PMIn Krugman's column last Monday (Bogus Bush Bashing) he explains how even those rightwingers who now actively critize Bush are steering clear of the important problems of the administration. If they were to recognize and cite the real problems with Iraq and tax cuts, they would have to implicate themselves in the problem as well.
In regards to tax cuts, they've created the bogus notion that Bush "[presided] over runaway growth in domestic spending."
Somehow I'm not too eager to champion the Republicans for finally seeing the light. They're just trying to jump from a sinking ship, and if another Republican ends up in the White House in 2008, I really won't know what to say about the American voters and the Democratic Party.
P.S. John McCain is not an ok solution. If anyone thinks he's a benign moderate republican, I will direct them to Krugman's March 13th column. I'm tempted to carry around a print out of it in my pocket, but that would be a little too nerdy and creepy.
Posted by: Lori on March 26, 2006 11:19 AMI agree with all of that, except I already don't know what to say about American voters. The overwhelming tendency among liberals is to blame the "cowardly" Democrats or the "no-message" Democrats. This is doubly harmful in that it a) reinforces Republican talking points and b) doesn't acknowledge the reality of a conservative electorate.
If the Republicans win in 08, it won't be because of some political consultant.
Posted by: Mike on March 26, 2006 05:33 PM