Ringing Hollow
Writing in Today's Opinion Journal, Lanny Davis, former special counsel to President Clinton takes note of the venom spewing from some sections of the left. He's quite correct, some are as bad or even worse than the extremists on the right. The problems have been evident to a lot of people for quite some time.
• "Good men, Daniel Webster and Faust would attest, sell their souls to the Devil. Is selling your soul to a god any worse? Lieberman cannot escape the religious bond he represents. Hell, his wife's name is Haggadah or Muffeletta or Diaspora or something you eat at Passover" (by "gerrylong," posted on the Huffington Post, July 8, 2006).
• "Joe Lieberman is a racist and a religious bigot" (by "greenskeeper," posted on Daily Kos, Dec. 7, 2005).
And these are some of the nicer examples.
One Sunday morning on C-Span I debated Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel on the Lieberman versus Lamont race. Afterwards I received a series of emails–many of them in ALL CAPS (which often suggests the hyper-frenetic state of these extremist haters)–that were of the same stripe as the blog posts, and filled with the same level of personal hate.
But the issue is not just emotional outbursts by these usually anonymous bloggers. A friend of mine just returned from Connecticut, where he had spoken on several occasions on behalf of Joe Lieberman. He happens to be a liberal antiwar Democrat, just as I am. He is also a lawyer. He told me that within a day of a Lamont event–where he asked the candidate some critical questions–some of his clients were blitzed with emails attacking him and threatening boycotts of their products if they did not drop him as their attorney. He has actually decided not to return to Connecticut for the primary today; he is fearful for his physical safety.
What rings hollow here is that Mr. Davis has a book due out soon decrying "gotcha politics". I've mentioned before that I saw a noted increase in that form of politics led by the Clintons during that eight year presidency. It's kind of funny to watch the reaping of the whirlwind that the Clintonistas helped sow. It was not long after Clinton took office that Hillary started to denounce the "Vast Right Wing Conspiracy", that fictional construct that continues to be the bogyman in the left's collective imagination. (I never have gotten a VRWC membership card, even after sending in all those boxtops.)
But it's not a bad thing that some of the vitriol is getting some exposure in the main stream media, either. The Lieberman in blackface graphic was generated by the extreme mindset some of these folks have. The more that venom is exposed, the more it will turn off the average voters. Hopefully it will then lessen in intensity as more politicians distance themselves from it.
UPDATE: The Real Ugly American finds a post attacking Davis and proving his point for him.
Other Links to this Post
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Sister Toldjah — August 8, 2006 @ 10:01 am
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Leaning Straight Up — August 8, 2006 @ 10:53 am
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The Real Ugly American.com » Blog Archive » Bigotry and hate aren’t just for right-wingers anymore — August 8, 2006 @ 11:10 am
