I have posted a number of times about something Joe Klein has written. Often because he was under attack by some of the less-hinged members of the left. This quote from Klein about Charles Krauthammer is unfortunate:
“There’s something tragic about him, too,” Klein said, referring to Krauthammer’s confinement to a wheelchair, the result of a diving accident during his first year of medical school. “His work would have a lot more nuance if he were able to see the situations he’s writing about.”
Unfortunately, Klein’s defense of that quote is even more unfortunate:
So it is possible to write brilliant, nuanced commentary-on the war in Iraq, for example-without visiting there. But it sure does help to understand a complicated situation in an unfamiliar culture if you can see it for yourself. Indeed, I believe the leavening effects of direct experience are especially valuable for those who are blinkered by ideology and debilitated by extreme views.
In other words then, if you agree with Klein’s positions, you are bright and able to rise above disability. Cripples who disagree cannot.
Yeah, that was a pretty harsh way to put it, but that would be what Klein appears to have meant.
(For the record, I had no idea – at all – the Charles Krauthammer even uses a wheelchair. Nor does it matter in any way, shape or form.)
I’ll point this out, yet again: if Klein was a conservative pundit, he would already have been fired by Time for his comment. Just as David Axelrod would have been gainfully unemployed right now had he made his Miss California joke as a Republican consultant rather than as an Obama White House adviser. Just as had Obama been a Republican, he would have still been dealing with a firestorm over his Special Olympics crack.
Jason Arvak, writing at Michael Van Der Galein’s place, doesn’t even care for Krauthammer’s opinion writing – but understands just how badly Joe Klein stepped over a line here:
Personally and logically offensive double standards from some arrogant liberals. What a shock.
BTW, I disagree with Krauthammer’s approach to Iraq and Iran and, well, pretty much everywhere. But Klein’s particular reason for dismissing Krauthammer’s views is a betrayal of everything liberals are supposed to stand for, and what far too many of them including Klein have long since sacrificed in their partisan vendettas.
I rather doubt I’ll bother defending Klein again.
Defend him not… Mayhaps pass him the sharpened knife in the dark of night for his personal use…
This is so foul that it says everything needed to be said about Klein’s ethics.
I never knew Krauthammer was in a wheelchair either. I’m even rather surprised because I’ve seen him on TV in many different venues and never seen the chair. However, that fact alone invalidates what Klein says. Why can’t Krauthammer go to Iraq if he wants to? He apparently travels around the US just fine.
In regard to the Arvak excerpt, this is the Democrats and liberals at their best. Dems/Libs have no trouble whatsoever with double standards. Sometimes I think they are incapable of realizing they HAVE a double standard. The observation that Klein betrays everything liberals are supposed to stand for is business as usual for them.
After all, they overwhelmingly supported Slick Willie even though he is a sexual predator that used his offices both as governor and president to make often unwanted (and apparently sometimes wanted – Monica) advances towards women. He committed sexual assaults on several occasions and then committed perjury in a court of law to cover up his antics. The Dem response? “Move on, it’s just sex.” How long have Dems railed against sexual predators? Who got laws passed against sexual harrassment in the workplace that Slick Willie specifically violated? Who has been championing the “No is NO” campaigns? Yet as long as he was a liberal Democrat they were willing to let Clinton slide.
Democrats have a long history of double standard. As long as someone is a liberal Democrat they can get away with pretty much anything no matter how reckless our disgusting. Just don’t let a Republican try it.