The news from the NY Times:
The overhaul of the White House staff continued today as Scott McClellan stepped down as the president’s chief spokesman and Karl Rove gave up his portfolio as senior policy coordinator to concentrate more politics and November’s midterm Congressional elections.
Mr. Rove has been Mr. Bush’s senior political adviser since his campaign for governor in Texas. Just over a year ago, he was promoted to deputy chief of staff in charge of policy development.
Mr. Rove will remain a deputy chief of staff and chief policy aide, as well as senior adviser, but the role of policy coordinator will be given to Joel Kaplan, now the deputy budget director, according to a senior administration official.
Mr. McClellan made the announcement about his departure on the White House lawn standing side by side with Mr. Bush just before they were to leave on a trip to Alabama.
“I have given it my all, sir, and I have given you my all, sir, and I will continue to do so as we transition to a new press secretary,” he told Mr. Bush.
I have no idea what it all means, if anything, but if nothing else it shuold be fun to technorati rats + sinking + ship to get the predictable responses from one quarter of the blogosphere.
Ryan S
Only one quarter? I think your being a little too stingy. More like one-half or maybe even two thirds.
Jorge
Who is going to lie to us now?
I do hope that the rumors bear out and it is Tony Snow.
fwiffo
More like deck + chairs + Titanic.
Mr Furious
Wow. A new liar. Should really mean things are going to change at the White House…
McLellan’s shelf life expired, he is no longer viable as a mouthpiece. He’s getting replaced by a new vessel, just as the press was starting to rip him apart. We’ll see if they back off and take it easy on the new guy.
My bet is yes.
Tim F.
Somebody explain to me why Rove had a policy portfolio.
ppGaz
Okay, let’s forget the “predictable response” crack, since it is itself a predictable response.
What is the “correct response?”
Rovie, you’re doin a heckuva job?
Scotty, you’ll never work in this town again?
Secretary Rumsfeld is exactly what is needed in this critical time?
It isn’t a lie when the president says it?
Is Bill O’Reilly available?
etc
The Other Steve
The deck chairs on the Titantic theme is kind of cliche.
This appears more like rearranging Lawn Chairs on the USS Arizona.
I mean, seriously. McClellan? Does he do anything? As I’ve noted before, you could replace him with a VIC-20 running Eliza.
The Other Steve
The guy on CNN was reporting this morning that a potentional replacement might be Tony Snow from Fox News.
Frankly, I think they ought to post it on monster.com and see if they get any better applicants.
capelza
Rove had to give up his “policy portfolio” because either the threat of indictment is hanging over his head and Bush didn’t want him that close to him when the shit hits the fan (my dream reason) or he has to return to his satanic altar for the mid-terms (my snark answer).
Really I just don’t care anymore…but David Gregory won’t have Scottie to kick around anymore. ;p
Jim Allen
Meaningless window dressing.
The new press secretary will do and say whatever he (or she) is told. Rove will continue to do whatever he and Cheney want.
D. Mason
Exactly. But they will spin this as a major administrative shakeup, and Republicans will act like this is the same as what happened in the Reagan second term. If the de-balling of America wasn’t so sad and shameful the methods would be riotously funny.
Jorge
Hey,
John is the Decider. And he decides what the best response is. And what’s best response is not to go with the predictable response.
capelza
While I’m thinking about it, Rove gave up his policy portfolio, but is he still getting paid by me and the rest of the taxpayers as whatever his title in the WH is (it’s early and I just don’t remember)?
So am I in essence paying him to completely fuck with me at the mid-terms?
Which reminds me, total gossip…Rove is a Norwegian-American and hates the Swedes. Read somewhere several years ago that one of the reasons Hans Blix could not get the Bush admin to listen to him was because of Rove’s hatred and distrust of Swedes.
I think every time Rove makes an apeearance, Swedish Americans should hold a rally proudly displaying their flag, just for Karl.
LITBMueller
Because fucking up the country is hard work!
Hey, I hear that Les Kinsolving will be Scotty’s replacment!!! ;) What we can expect:
gratefulcub
He had to go. he was sent to the podium with statements that were ‘less than true.’ His credibility is nil, and it isn’t really his fault. If Rove tells him that he had nothing to do with it, he goes out and repeats it, that is his job. He is the admin mouthpiece.
All partisanship aside, this is a good move. He had become a parody of the position.
Pb
The Other Steve,
Just replace ‘why do you think you feel this way’ with ‘this is the subject of an ongoing investigation’ and you’re good to go!
Bob In Pacifica
Do people who are in the closet lying about their sexuality, in a sense “living a lie,” make the best Presidential spokespeople?
Once you live a lie, the rest of what comes out of your mouth is just commentary.
tBone
McClellan was then immediately hustled into a “Geek Squad” VW, which was scheduled to drop him off at the nearest Best Buy for a long-overdue reformat and reinstall of his OS.
Pooh
Is it possible for Rove to focus less and policy and more on politics than he was already?
Marcus Wellby
Can we have a do-over of the last two elections please? I’d be willing to take another republican even, any republican. We just need these clowns out of office now.
Like a new spokesperson or a more covert role for Rove are going to make any difference at all?
Mac Buckets
New Press Sec’y: Lindsay Lohan.
SeesThroughIt
When has a WH spokesperson ever had credibility? I seriously can’t think of a single one. They’re professional liars and spinmeisters by trade; to think that any of them is trustworthy seems a bit foolish to me.
gratefulcub
Was this an attempt to make it appear that Rove is being demoted? he isn’t. There is only one ‘demotion’ for him that would matter: dismissal. As long as he is there we will get more of the same, wedgie politics.
Krista
I’ve always felt a bit sorry for whoever has the press secretary position. As a fellow spokesthingie, I have to say that you could not pay me enough to do that job. They have to say whatever the boss tells them to say – no exceptions. There’s three choices in that job: you tell the lies you’re made to tell, you resign, or you do a career kamikaze and tell as much truth as you can before they haul you away from the mike.
gratefulcub
Maybe so, but he needs to have the appearance of credibility.
Ari was good. I didn’t believe him because he was speaking for people I don’t trust. But, he seemed competent.
SM was forced to go from “Karl didn’t doo it” to “We don’t talk about an ongoing investigation”, without getting to explain why he told us untruths, that he probably believed to be true.
SeesThroughIt
I believe the proper technical term is “spokesamajigger.”
DougJ
I’m hoping for Dan Senor, but I’m worried it will be Dan Bartlett. Worried because I think Bartlett would be pretty good at it — that guy’s as smooth as 25 year-old whiskey.
John S.
But which quarter are you referring to? The Jane Hamshers of the left or the Charles Johnsons of the right?
After all, I wouldn’t want to run the risk of misinterpreting any implications you are trying to make here.
Krista
That’s the masculine variation. “Spokesthingie” is the feminine form of the noun.
Punchy
Looks like they’re replacing Scott McCanttellin’ with Tony Snow-Job. I see no change, really.
Rove would NEVER EVER agree to this move. He must be days away from a date with an indictment.
gratefulcub
Karl wasn’t ‘demoted’, he was reassigned. It’s his time to shine.
-Raise Money
-Whip up some gay hate
-Scare the country with stories of Jose bin Laden Horton’s crossing the border
-Convince people that the most important issues facing our country are: gay marriage, treasonous reporters, gay marriage, liberal retired generals pimping a book, and gay marriage
-Count the votes, but only the ones he likes, and declare 50.1% to be a mandate to eliminate social security and the first amendment
Paul Wartenberg
Wake me when Rumsfeld and Cheney get arrested for crimes against humanity.
SeesThroughIt
Ah, right you are. I stand corrected.
ppGaz
Wells tated. Actually, this choice exists in many jobs, not just mouthpiece jobs.
In my case, I have gone with door number three most of the time. In the long run, it works out for the best.
Brian
Enjoy your sleep.
ppGaz
I don’t know about the indictment part, but it does seem odd …. did Rove make such a “move” during the reelection cycle of 2004?
Brian
Why am I not surprised.
Accept the job, take the paycheck, bite the hand. Repeat.
ppGaz
What a moron your persona is, man! Honestly. You back for another try at it?
It’s like this:
Accept the job, do the job, eventually get asked to do the job wrong, refuse, find a new job.
Not a mouthpiece job, thus my original post. Almost any job that requires professional-level or journeyman-level skill will put people in these situations sooner or later. Then you have to choose. I’ve generally chosen to refuse to go along with the bad plan, and paid the short term price for it. But long term, it works out for the best.
And by the way, did I mention that you are an insufferable fuckhead?
Perry Como
I’m afraid of the kind of signal this sends to terrorists around the world. It seems that certain administration officials are cutting and running in the middle of the War on Terror.
KC
I’m with Kevin Drum on this one. This story gets a great big ugly yawn from me. To think any of this is about a genuine staff shakeup is similar to thinking that you can cure chicken pox by scraping off a scab.
Krista
Well, Door #3 probably wasn’t an option for our friend Scotty M. Not unless he wanted a complete career change (or a lucrative book deal.) A high-profile job like US Press Secretary? If you crack, you’re done in that industry.
Mind you, Scotty could have done a lot better, IMHO. There are ways to deliver your company message while still being respectful of your audience. It’s hard to say how much his hands were tied, however. Judging from the rather legendary secretiveness of this administration, I’d say he had little or no say in how the message was structured, and was just told to go out there, deliver, and never deviate from the script, even when it was obvious to him and everybody in the press room that the script inappropriate and absurd.
Krista
make that, “…that the script WAS inappropriate and absurd.”
(Shit, all this talk about controlling the message, and I can’t even control my typos.)
ppGaz
Well, you are right, Krista. Scotty’s gig is too visible for the Door Number Three approach. I’d go so far as to say that it’s a professional understanding in the mouthpiece business that you don’t publicly attack your patron. Who would hire a guy whose last job ended when he publicly flamed his patron? Etc.
But most of us are more like salarymen than PR agents. Yet we are faced with being asked to lie or cut corners by people who are more than happy to trim away our integrity in return for their gains. I just made up my mind long ago, nah gunna doit.
As I told one (former, obviously) boss of mine, you can get somebody and pay them a lot less than you are paying me who will lie to you to make you feel better.
So, he did. Fine with me. Life goes on.
skip
Not rats. Mice.
jaime
The Rove “portfolio” is a crock. Rove’s control of policy died after the Social Security disaster. He is an election specialist pure and simple. It’s near election time and that’s where he was heading anyway. It’s like someone walking out the door, slamming it, and you shouting “and stay out”
DougJ
Trent Duffy would like us to include his name in the list of possible replacements for Scotty Mac.
Krista
Oh, very much so. I encountered that as a sales exec. A lot of pressure to oversell, to screw the customer for the sake of immediate profits. Never did it. Still grew my book like gangbusters, because my clients knew that I wouldn’t try to sell them a bunch of unnecessary crap, and wound up referring me to their friends. That was my Door #4. Do it your way, but keep getting the results.
jg
McClelland had to go, no one believed him anymore. Rove needs to make sure the heartland reacts correctly to the immigration and Iran war issues. The John Coles of the right aren’t doing a good enough job spinning the issues so Rove has to come off the bench.
Krista
It would have been nice if Scotty had been allowed to choose Door #4 every once in awhile — it would have given him a lot more credibility (and probably a lot less stress), had he been allowed to occasionally use his own voice and tailor his message according to his audience and the situation.
Brian
Hear that, John? Are you going to resign your blog now?
Talk about conspiracy-minded inbreeders. Commenters like jg (and there are many here) embrace the VRWC to a stunning extent. Even John Cole is tentacle of the octopus called Rove.
DougJ
I don’t think it is clear Rove will be indicted. He could be ratting Stephen Hadley out. Presumably, Fitz will indict someone else, but I don’t think it is obvious that it will be Rove.
ppGaz
Maybe he’s a tentacle, but you’re a sucker.
ppGaz
If you watch some of those unedited tapes of the breifing room encounters, it almost looks like that’s what the reporters were begging him to do. Dammit, man, just get real with us one time, will ya!
You gotta hand it to the guy, though: Nerves of steel.
jg
hanks fo rstepping in it Brian. I hoped for Darrell but you’re pretty much interchangable anyway.
jg
I’m firing my editor. That should be:
‘Thanks for stepping in it Brian.’
Andrew
I thought that was the responser’s job, no? Decider is decidederly different.
Brian
If “it” means your verbal excrement, yes I did. Hard NOT to step in it around here.
jg
‘It’ would be troll bait. Caught ya.
ppGaz
Place your bets, folks: How long before Brian’s next meltdown?
I am putting my chips on 36 hours. But the shorter times will probably go fast at the betting window.
jaime
Next time you bitch about George Soros or the “liberal media” or anything Clinton, I’m gonna remind you of you’re non-beliefe in Vast Conspiracies.
Brian
So?
Ryan S
Said like a caught troll.
jg
See Jaime’s post at 1:01 for an example.
ppGaz
It’s Graham Chapman in “The Life of Brian — Part Deux”.
Brian: You don’t need to follow me … you’re all individuals!
Pb
The Liberal Media does a pathetic job of reporting on the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.
ppGaz
Do I get any points for using “chips” right after Brian’s “excrement”?
I’m just saying.
Faux News
So, you’re a lousy Troll. Boring too. Makes me pine for the days of scs.
Ryan S
Only if your refering to the kind that cows leave.
Otherwise thats just gross.
ppGaz
You gotta savor it.
Brian
I’ve no interest in entertaining you.
The Other Steve
scs is pining for the fjords.
Krista
And I bet you he was wishing he could have.
I’m thinking not. I could be wrong, but I can’t see Scotty M. bearing a whole lot of good feelings towards his former employer.
Pb
Yesterday, Bush was The Decider. Today we learn that Scotty is The Decider and Bush is The Accepter? Flip-flop! :)
Faux News
LOL. And Brian is the dead parrot :-)
Faux News
No one is accusing you of being entertaining or even interesting.
ppGaz
I’m afraid we must take this as the least surprising piece of news we are likely to get today.
Fledermaus
Fledermaus comes out from his cabin looks around for a moment and yells “OK, who’s been messing with the deck chairs!”
John S.
Really, you must warn people before posting stuff like this – especially when they’re eating lunch and drinking beverages.
Davebo
I wonder if Scotty is planning on working for his Mom’s Texas Governor campaign?
tBone
I think it’s safe to say that Scottie is the Accepter. I prefer the term “catcher,” though.
Steve
Any new spokesman needs to be able to live up to the gold standard:
ppGaz
I know. I timed it perfectly for the West Coast lunch hour ……
Ryan S
Fffffft If this is what he considers protection. I think I’ll invest in a good bicycle.
Its been like over ten years since I bought one. Anyone have any recommendations? I need one good for both on and off road.
ppGaz
Bush would gladly be the guy who authorized the cutting of the last tree on Easter Island.
“Heck yes, chop ‘er down. It’s the Easter Islander way of life! As long as I’m prezdint, I’ll defend that way of life!”
Paul Wartenberg
And anyone’s gonna believe the next guy who comes in???
The credibility problem with the White House starts with Bush The Lesser. Whoever’s coming in to the press secretary’s job is gonna get stuck with the same script, the same spin, and the same problems.
srv
How much on road, and how much “rough” off road? Price range? Live in a craiglist city?
Trek pretty decent ‘hybrids’, but they don’t call them that anymore.
srv
I hear that even Baghdad Bob has turned the job down, as even he has some self-respect.
ppGaz
What about his twin sister, Mary Matalin?
Ryan S
Not a whole lot I live in a smallish town and I don’t wanna die if a hit a patch of gravel or sand. I might want to take it on a gravel or dirt road sometime also.
Price range: I don’t think I can live with myself if were to spend more than say $1500 on one.
srv
Ryan,
I bought a ‘medium’ duty mountain bike and end up riding it mostly in the city. Most MB frames are way more than what you’ll ever need in the city or on a farm road.
$1500 is a bit on the high range, you should be able to get something new for half that with a front suspension.
Depending on what the mix is, for that money, I’d buy a hybrid like the Trek 7500 and have a set of treads that work on the road and can still handle a little rough stuff. If you might be doing road cycling weekdays and dirt roads on weekends, buy two sets of wheels with appropriate treads. A 7500 can do fine on curbs and potholes.
If you’re not riding very far at a time, look at a MB model and try to match the treads to your needs. In that case, the extra weight of the mountain bike won’t bother you that much. Ride several different models, they’re usually good about that.
Brands I trust: Trek, Cannondale, Klein, Giant, Specialized. They usually all have similar components.
Bob In Pacifica
Anyone know if Rove gave up his security clearance? Could be in advance of any criminal charges. Just a thought. You don’t need a security clearance to accept payoffs and slander people. I mean, it helps, but…
Bob In Pacifica
Pay no attention to Scotty. There are school buses under water!
DougJ
Did people see the article by Princeton historian Sean Willentz about whether or not Bush is the worst president ever? Atrios linked to it.
The Other Steve
Ryan,
I ride either on total dirt offroad trails, or on paved trails just for fun and fitness. So I bought two bikes, MTB and Road. I do have a spare set of wheels for my MTB, one being for more aggressive riding, the other having a tire with a smooth center bead which is good for a combination of pavement and gravel trails.
The problem I have with the MTB is I don’t find it comfortable for riding very long on pavement, which is why I bought the Allez. But I don’t find the hybrids sturdy enough to ride over tree stumps and such. So I have a Cannondale Mountain bike(2002 F500) and a Specialized Allez Sport(2004). Both were in the $600-700 range, so not terribly expensive but good.
But it depends on what you’re going to be doing. If you want to do commuting, and by off-road you simply mean gravel roads, there are some good compromise bikes.
The Cannondale Road Warrior or the Specialized Crossroads are pretty good. You can get a nice one for maybe the $700 range. I have a friend with the Crossroads Pro and he rides with me on the paved trails along my Allez and he finds it very comfortable over the 30-40 miles we might do.
As srv noted, Trek makes good bikes too. I just don’t like the local Trek dealer.
There are all kinds of bikes, and it all depends on what you want to do. :-)
One of my friends is a bigger guy(6’4″ weighs around 275 lbs) and he kept breaking the cheaper mountain bikes. So he ended up with a Specialized Enduro which set him back close to $3,000. But it’s got suspension in the rear as well as front, disc brakes and sturdy wheels. It’s nice, and having those disc brakes is nice if you hit any mud, but then I think you’re better just staying on the road if it’s muddy out as riding the mud just ruins the trail.
jg
Just read it. Bush sucks more than any president has ever sucked before.
t. jasper parnell
Cyclo-Cross from Surly ideal for off and on road.
InsultComicDog
Ari Fleischer… Scott McClellan… these are tough shoes to fill. I think the obvious replacement choice is the Iraqi Information Minister.
Brian
Talk about bait. The Willentz piece is moonbat bait at its tastiest.
What serious policy magazine has published this essay of his? And do you know that this is the same “historian” who tried to get a re-vote in West Palm Beach, FL, during the disputed 2000 election (and how well was that received, even by his fellow signatories)?
True historians don’t behave this way, unless of course you’re a fellow academic or a card carrying member of the Angry Left.
jg
You’ve done a commendable job attacking ht eauthors credibility and the magazine that published the article. Any thoughts on what was actually said in the article? Do you dispute the facts as laid out?
I think he covered how true historians behave. Did you read the article?
Gold Star for Robot Boy
Translation: Conservation is for pussies.
When I make my shortlist of Things that Drove Me Nuts about the Bush Administration, this sentiment will be on it.
The Other Steve
Brian –
Ahh, ad hominem at it’s finest. None of your points even relate to the article itself.
The Other Steve
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
DougJ
Did you read the article?
It was more than 50 words long, so I doubt he did.
Perry Como
He runs out of paste to eat around word 27.
Krista
Bingo.
DougJ
All right, I’m spoofing over there at Brokeback Bloggers or whatever they’re calling it. I’m making it easy — cutting and pasting craziness I’ve written before or seen in my favorite crazy places (Volokh, PW, Rathergate) and using a name similar to my name here. Let’s see how long I last.
Brian
Yes, I wasted my precious time to read the article in question, jg. Why, do you want to debate it word for word, line by line? That would be a deeper waste of my time.
You and many of your cohorts have certain judgments regarding Bush and what his legacy will be. That’s fine, as far as you are concerned. But along comes some guy with an important-sounding title with an essay containing everything you already believe, and you toss it all over the internet as as being worthy of interest because it’s coming from such a source (and not your own fevered mind), and you can be sure that you’ll get push back from people who know better.
Wilentz has a history of his own that shows he is not an impartial, dispassionate observer of the president. In fact, his past activities are evidence that he carries a serious grudge against Bush, a grudge which pollutes his work. Hence why it likely ended up in Rolling Stone (where yellow journalism meets pop culture), and not a more respectable periodical, of which there are many.
If this is what it takes to be a historian, then consider yourself one. You’ve already determined that Bush’s presidency is a failure, even without Wilentz’s support.
I prefer to let history actually play itself out before making such sweeping pronouncements. And I think that any genuine historian would agree.
Broken
What do you call serious? Powerline? News Max?
Loopy Doug
After a night of passion, a cigarette and a cup of coffee in the trailer belonging to her old man, ppGaz.
DougJ
You’re a moron, Brian.
Broken
That’s pretty good critical analysis, Brian.
You wrote a short essay about what you thought was wrong with the article, but not one word is wasted on anything actually in the article. You accused the author of being a Bush-Hater(TM), and that’s enough for you.
Some Other Brian Guy
It was interesting, he basically accused the author of what he did himself. That is, the author of the article goes through and details many of the Bush policy failures, and Brian can’t be bothered to take the time to rebut those, he just knows he hates this author and that’s enough for him.
I guess we can call this phenomena Bush-Hater-Hater syndrome.
DougJ
I prefer to let history actually play itself out before making such sweeping pronouncements.
I’m glad to hear that, Brian, because the world is on pins and needles waiting to hear your pronouncements and it would be a shame if you made them prematurely.
Loopy Doug
The author is the Princeton historian, Sol Wilentz, who back in November 2000, organized something called the Emergency Committee of Concerned Citizens 2000, which spent more than $125,000 buying ads in the New York Times urging a “revote” in heavily Democratic Palm Beach County, Fla., in the hope of installing Al Gore in the White House. Apparently historians aren’t required to have any knowledge or understanding about constitutional law. As I recall, many of the names appearing in the NYT ad claimed that they were not in agreement with the content of the ad as the action proposed was as “unconstitutional as Hell,” as one of them put it.
Steve
Brian is just parroting the standard line, which is that anyone who thinks Bush is a bad president is therefore partisan and disqualified from having an opinion on Bush.
srv
Wilentz does spend a bit talking about other presidents (old history) and historian bias, so it’s not like this is some stealth piece.
Many republicans of course, today prefer to squint distantly into the horizon when pondering others historical views. Except when it involves all those recent ‘victories’, like Lebanon, Afghanistan and Iraq. Clearly, the book is already closed on those.
ppGaz
Now, with all due respect, I maintain that Brian is actually an insufferable fuckhead.
This is similar to a moron, but differs in that the I.F. insists on pushing his moronic views on you, and further insists that unless you swallow his moronic views without question, then something is wrong with you.
I hold that the insufferable fuckhead is a much greater threat to world peace, public health, and general happiness, than the ordinary moron.
jg
How long do you wait? When is it the right time to evaluate the job performance of the man who is president of the country?
ppGaz
When it’s Clinton?
Andrei
Ok… just for fun, please enlighten us on the successes of the Bush presidency. You know… the answer to the question “Ask yourself, are you better off today than you were four years ago?”
ppGaz
“Yes I am!”
— Osama Bin Laden
Steve
It’s so hard to find the right moment to make these historical judgments.
The Other Steve
Well you know on the bright side.
At least President Bush doesn’t eat kittens.
DougJ
You know what the point of all this wait-and-see stuff with the right-wing is? It isn’t just tards like Brian — David Brooks does it a lot and all the real whacks who say that Watergate caused the slaughter in Cambodia took it to its logical conclusion. The purpose of it is that no matter how much you fuck up, there will be good things that happen as a result, seemingly as a result of what you did. And when you do the smart thing, of course there are bad things that may happen that the righties can somehow blame on what you’ve done. For example, 8 years of wise economic policy somehow caused the “Clinton recession”. Conversely, years of run away military spending “won the cold war”. And, of course the Watergate investigation gave the world Pol Pot. You can do this with anything if you like — slavery was good because it ultimately made the United States more racially diverse. WW II was good because it helped European economies in the long run — thus England and France were wise to appease Hitler. Penicillin was bad because it led to overpopulation.
That’s the right-wing mind at work. Letting history take its course becomes just another way to obscure reality.
ppGaz
Dr. Pangloss, I presume?
I mean, in the best of all possible worlds, wouldn’t we remember Hitler mainly for pushing development of the Volkswagen?
CaseyL
There actually is some RW nutjob who says slavery in the US was a good thing because it enabled black people to come to America.
So, by that Platinum Standard of crackhead logic, Lincoln’s assassination was a good thing, because it led to punitive Reconstruction policies, which led to the rise of the KKK, which led to the modern civil rights movement.
And WWI was a good thing, because it ended monarchial rule in Europe. Also, it led directly to WWII, and…
…the Nazi Holocaust, which was a good thing, because it led to the creation of the state of Israel.
Hey, anyone can play! Who can find the bright side of Kennedy’s assassination?
DougJ
It’s just another one of their rhetorical tricks;
(1) Let history take its course — then there will be so many other random things that happen that our errors will be obscured.
(2) When our side does something truly awful, point to something not quite as awful on the other side and say “both sides are doing it”.
(3) The experts disagree because we got Exxon to pay one scientist to say there’s no global warming.
(4) If you don’t agree with me, you’re a nutjob consumed with Bush hatred.
(5) So what if the public hates our positions, we don’t goven by polls.
(6) You don’t understand how dangerous the Islamofascists are.
There’s so many really, it’s amazing. I like reading this blog in part because I like seeing how often John (who is a good guy and not dumb) resorts to them. He does it much less than any other Republican I know, in fairness.
ppGaz
It’s referred to as “dynamite in the distance” in the excellent WaMo article:
Getting ahead in the GOP
Everything you always wanted to know about their technique, right there.
Zifnab
My favorite stuff is the doublespeak.
“There is a groundswell of popular support for our race-baiting, immigrant hating, gay bashing policies which make them perfectly acceptable.
But we don’t concern ourselves with the epic disapproval ratings of the Iraq War because we don’t just govern by letting the ignorant masses tell us how to act.”
DougJ
I liked that article — I read it a few months ago. I should read “What Makes Sammy Run” sometime.
Zifnab
No kidding. That was a compelling read.
Almost makes me want to try running for something.
The Other Steve
I actually blogged about one such person here
Sadly, the original article is gone, but I still have the solid gold quote…
Welcome to the Modern Republican Party.
The Other Steve
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12402069/
I don’t think signing your letters to constituents with “I think you are an ass” is a good way to get reelected.
Pb
DougJ, ppGaz,
That sort of tortured denial is what advisorjim over at Daily Kos referred to as “The Right Wing Reasoning Chip“… great stuff.
P.S. Full disclosure–I liked his diaries so much, I even bought the book! :)
Pb
The Other Steve,
Yeah, but the full 7 letter version that was apparently used is even worse.
“Just a few years from now, China will rival the U.S. and the European Union in global market power. It already has surpassed us in population.” — Jo Ann Emerson
Say it ain’t so, Jo….
ppGaz
Who knew?
Ryan S
Off topic but still a good read.
Gitmo events
Richard Bottoms
I am so looking forward to the smoking crater that was once the GOP come November.