Apparently Dave Weigel feels like he’s been getting a lot of crap from conservatives lately, because he takes to Bloomberg News to give a spirited defense of Rudy Giuliani with a classic “Well, I’m just informing you what conservatives think” angle.
Suddenly, though the calendar reads February 2015, Democrats were in October 2016 gaffe-police mode. Conservatives rolled their eyes at socket-singeing speed. “Raise your hand if you think ‘but they won’t say whether Obama loves America” could really put Hillary over the top in Nov 16,” joked Commentary editor-in-chief John Podhoretz. The Washington Free Beacon compared the media coverage of Giuliani tothe far skimpier coverage of the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation’s money to foreign donors. The media seemed to be covering the story Democrats wanted them to cover. There was more at work, though.
The media was lecturing from inside a bubble. All Thursday, the offices of potential Republican candidates were asked to react to Rudy Giuliani. “The gist of what Mayor Giuliani said — that the president has shown himself to be completely unable to speak the truth about the nature of the threats from these ISIS terrorists — is true,” said Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. Senator Ted Cruz declined to comment. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush said through a spokesperson that he did not “question President Obama’s motives.”
And of course we have this:
This is a deep source of conservative frustration. They want to accuse Obama of radicalism the way that they once accused undergraduate Saul Alinsky-scholar Hillary Clinton of radicalism; the way that they see the media reading into Paul Ryan’s Ayn Rand-fandom, or the Koch brothers’ patriarch being a member of the John Birch Society. And when they try, they’re accused of othering, and racism.
They’ll keep trying. Some of the anger at Obama grows out of the belief that, as a candidate, he was sold as more moderate than he was. He was challenged not by a Rudy Giuliani, but by Arizona Senator John McCain, who prevented aides from attacking Obama over the words of Pastor Jeremiah Wright, and waited until their final debate to bring up former Weather Underground terrorist and Obama friend Bill Ayers.
At the 2008 Republican convention, one speaker went so far as to argue that Obama had a great, uniquely American life story. McCain and Obama, this speaker said, “they’re both good and patriotic men with very different life experiences that have led them to this moment of shared history.” He mocked Obama, but then he came back around to praise. “His rise is remarkable in its own right. It’s the kind of thing that can happen only in America.”
Now, Weigel thinks he’s being clever here by again presenting this entire thing as “what conservatives believe” rather than it being what he does, but that’s a nice little device that allows him to write 95% of a Daily Caller rant and get away with it.
Nice work if you can get it. Classic “view from nowhere” stuff.
Villago Delenda Est
The REAL problem “conservatives” have with Obama is that they can’t say “Nigger nigger nigger” and get away with it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Eh? I thought the scandal was contributions from foreign donors? Is that a typo, or is there some angle of this, real or imagined, I haven’t heard?
jl
‘ Giving Out Free Passes ? ‘
How about ‘writing garbled confusing garbage’?
It is impossible to tell when Weigel is typing passive aggressive trash talk, reporting reactionary hurt feelings and posuturing BS and supposedly doing some sort of analysis of anything vaguely based in fact.
The ‘Democrats egged it on’ is particulary puerile.
And Wiegel claims he cannot see the difference between charging that a person actions are unpatriotic and that a politician does not love his own country? Really? (Edit: events of recent days directly refute Weigel’s claim. Where is the fuss over several GOPers saying that Obama’s actions are disastrous for the country and dangerously against its interests, but that it was wrong for Giuliani to say what he did? Oh, that’s right, there is no fuss because statements like that are not beyond the pale and everyone knows it)
The idea that hate mongers and smear artists should not be criticized because they have done it before is really irritating. Giuliani is the type who will take to the next level, and it is important to respond to him.
As for racism, after Giuliani’s first smear (and it was an ugly smear, whether it was openly racial or not), the next words out of his mouth were obviously racist garbage about how he cannot say racist things about Obama because Obama had a white parent. Giuliani may be too dense to understand what is odd about that line of reasoning, but others are not.
I am really truly tired of GOPers smearing Democrats on a regular basis for being a fifth column, treasonous, un-American, and I damn well want Democratic politicians to push back hard whenever this garbage is thrown. And the lack of proper response to it goes back long before Obama was president.
Weigel’s piece was too poorly written to figure out what he is doing, and a lot to criticize about it besides the apologetics for a known bigot about this most recent in a series of smears by Giuliani.
Mike J
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The Bill & Melinda Gates foundation takes contributions from all over too. Why is it supposed to be bad?
Baud
Actually, Democrats would prefer that the media take the GOP less seriously than they do. It’s the Republicans who want their attacks covered but never the response.
dmsilev
A deep source of conservative frustration, huh? So, they’re upset because their fever-dream visions of what Obama and Clinton supposedly did fifty years ago aren’t taken seriously, but today’s views and actions of today’s conservatives are being criticized?
I work in a department which owns four electron microscopes, and I’m pretty sure that not even the most powerful of those could detect the size of my sympathetic reaction to such frustration. I’m willing to try, though.
EriktheRed
As far as that Clinton Foundation thing goes…
mediamatters.org/research/2015/02/19/media-recycle-old-news-to-attack-hillary-clinto/202564
crooksandliars.com/2015/02/corporate-media-conflates-clinton
The Ancient Randonneur
A blog post about a journalist writing other media types is getting way to meta for me. Time to go see if the latest episode of Agent Carter is up on Hulu.
Just Some Fuckhead
Read the Weigel piece and don’t understand it. Regardless of what merit you place on some abstract quality that Republicans possess in spades but are fully incapable of articulating outside of slamming anyone who dares not be a Republican, there’s nothing wrong with agreeing with Rudy that his comments were “horrible”.
Poopyman
The larger question is why should the media be paying attention to some dim ex-politician? Because he says inflammatory shit? Who cares? Because he wants to be preznit? So does my cat.
jl
@EriktheRed: Playing on the ignorance of too many people in the country (and an ignorance that seems to be fostered by our horrible media, either because it is convenient for them, or their news actors are too ignorant to cover the news themselves).
This is just a the beginning of ramping up the campaign against an HRC nomination. That will be fun. I will gladly watch reaction shots gifs of Matthews reaction to charges that HRC will set up FEMA mass castration camps the day after she is elected. Not sure why Matthews would worry since his will drop off the moment it happens.
Roger Moore
Shorter Weigel: Republicans has a sad because now they get pushback when they question a Democrat’s patriotism, and that’s totally unfair.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@dmsilev: the way that they see the media reading into Paul Ryan’s Ayn Rand-fandom
That’s particularly funny, Paul Ryan is probably far more popular among the Morning Joe/Politico/Sunday Show crowd than he is in Janesville. And besides Pierce, Krugman and maybe a couple of MSNBC hosts, which Beltway types point out (if they’re even aware of) Ryan’s Rand-ness, according to our plucky ink-stained wretched Paulite correspondent?
jl
@The Ancient Randonneur: I believe everyone should allowed to find their own comfort level in the hierarchy of ‘meta’. Or did I mean ”meta”, or ”’meta”’, or (meta, (meta))? I’ve confused myself now, and need a time out.
Poopyman
@jl: I’m sorry, but FEMA will go away when Homeland Security is defunded. See? The GOP is making a strategic move to keep their balls in a Hillary administration!
Roger Moore
@dmsilev:
It’s very hard to detect something the size of the Planck radius.
jl
@Poopyman:
‘ I’m sorry, but FEMA will go away when Homeland Security is defunded. See? The GOP is making a strategic move to keep their balls in a Hillary administration! ‘
Won’t save the likes of Matthews and Mornin’ Joe and Lush Rimbaugh, which might be sad or totally hilarious, depending on one’s endowment of evil attitude.
Roger Moore
@jl:
Are you sure they’re still attached?
Mike J
@Poopyman:
I can’t wait until she decorates the WH xmas tree with them.
Villago Delenda Est
@jl: Each of them is a ballless twit who had a chance to show some balls back in the 60’s, but, like the deserting coward and the Dark Lord, declined to do so.
dmsilev
@Roger Moore: Well, we also have access rights to some particle accelerators. That might help.
jl
@Mike J: I can;t wait for the WH seasons’s greetings: Hairy Holidays, Everybody!!
Just Some Fuckhead
@jl:
I think this is what fuels much of the outrage and is a dimension that Weigel is ignoring. I think many of us on the left thought we were through with this decades-long uber-fascist charge when Bush made a mess of the entire world.
Jeremy
Bill Ayers is a friend of the President ? Last I checked the President happened to attend an event or two and he was there but he didn’t have a close relationship with the guy.
Mike in NC
ISIS and other terrorist groups tremble when Piyush Jindal opens his yap.
danielx
Somewhat confused as to why any sentient being would give a flying fuck what Rudy Guiliani thinks about anything whatsoever.
rikyrah
They are mad because they can’t call the President out his name the way that they want to.
Valdivia
should be noted that a few left pundits are making similar noises about giving Giuliani attention and why do it. Amazing how the Village always circle the wagons, nothing to see here kind of line. Ugh. I am sure the Walker Obama is not a christian thing will get same treatment.
Patricia Kayden
@Villago Delenda Est: But they probably could. What makes you think that Republican supporters don’t say that all the time when they’re in the confines of their homes or within their circles?
Patricia Kayden
@danielx: I think we’re more surprised that mainstream Republicans, i.e., those running for the highest job in the land, aren’t condemning his race-baiting attacks against our President. It’s as if the Republicans have no filter and cannot descend to any depths in vocalizing their hatred against the first Black President.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Valdivia: as Weigel’s smarter younger brother in libertarianism points out
the other thing that’s never pointed out is the contempt for the base inherent in all this pandering, from evolution to the Giuliani nitwittery, Walker is paralyzed by fear of people he thinks are stupid
Villago Delenda Est
@Patricia Kayden: They desperately want to say it over the air, on talking head shows, and they know that to do so would cause trauma of biblical proportions to rain on them.
It’s not enough that they can mutter it in private. They want to say it loud and proud.
They know if they do so, it encompasses their doom.
Chris
@Patricia Kayden:
What are those running for office gonna do, stand with the Kenyan Usurper, and against the brave patriots Taking A Stand against him? They’ve got primaries to think of.
another Holocene human
I never realized Weigel was such a reactionary seething with racial resentment but how could you possibly defend Giuliani? NYDN ran a devastating piece on Giuliani and his forebears ducking of military service during a time of war was especially on point. I don’t get how RG’s anything other than contemptible, a bitter man who will never be president yelling from a forgotten corner trying to tear down someone who is better than him in every way. STFU, Rudy. Oh and by the way, you’re wrong about policing too.
Villago Delenda Est
@another Holocene human: “A small man in search of a balcony.” — Jimmy Breslin commenting on Rudy Giuliani.
FlipYrWhig
I don’t know what world Weigel is living in where he thinks _more_ has been said about Paul Ryan and Ayn Rand, or the Kochs and John Birch, than Obama’s not-so-secret supposed communism/radicalism/anti-colonial African resentment. Dinesh dafuq D’Souza made a whole stupid movie about it. We’ve heard it plenty.
mai naem mobile
I was watching Squawk when Walker was being interviewed. Just total lack of courage. Zero. Also no questions about the Wisconsin budget and the missed debt payment and the massive proposed cuts to higher education. This happens to be the same program who are always first to bitch about NY K-12 education but when it comes to cuts to a very good university – crickets.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Villago Delenda Est: ah! Thank you. I’ve been trying to remember the exact wording and origin of that.
@another Holocene human: on one of the MSNBC shows they were asking if it’s significant that Rudi, last seen trying to be Chris Christie defense lawyer in the media trial, was now trying to attach himself to Walker> I think it only signifies that Rudi is a has-been, desperate to attach himself to any (potential) A-lister he can get his picture took with.
RSA
@Roger Moore:
…and not for his actions, but because he doesn’t say he loves America often enough. What’s next, loyalty oaths? Oh yeah, big fans already.
Roger Moore
@RSA:
No. It’s because he’s not like us. Giuliani didn’t say that Obama doesn’t love America or he’d say it all the time; he said that Obama doesn’t love America because he isn’t like us and wasn’t raised to love America. That’s what really got him in trouble.
Villago Delenda Est
@RSA: And these same people piss and moan about “political correctness.”
It’s all projection, all the time, every day is Memorial Day weekend at the Octoplex down at the mall with these assholes.
RSA
@Roger Moore: True. I was going with Giuliani’s follow-on, digging-deeper comments: “What I’m saying is, in his rhetoric, I very rarely hear the things that I used to hear Ronald Reagan say, the things that I used to hear Bill Clinton say about how much he loves America.”
Tenar Darell
I don’t think that Giuliani can hear the dog whistles anymore. The party has cut off any emotional intelligence or higher brain functions to the point that “It’s so unfair…” is a standard rejoinder to anyone, including their allies, pointing out that they’re using overt and unconscious racist tropes in their rhetoric and in their arguments and worst, in their policies. They treat even constructive criticism as if it were their allies p*ssing into the tent. It upsets me, but I’ve been outside the tent for so long no one would listen to me. However, I am thoroughly sick of wishing that most of the media weren’t in denial about what is going on.
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
@RSA:
I know, it’s so weird how black Americans don’t go on and on about how much they love America. You’d think they had some kind of reason for not thinking America is the greatest nation on earth. I wonder what it could be …
dww44
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: No one will probably see this, but a la things Guiliani, we turned on the TV this morning and got our usual weekend morning fare….. infomercials. Except that this was one with Montel Williams promoting Lifelock with the aid and abettance of RG addressing the security provide by purchasing Lifelock and why we all need it. My SO said something to the effect of “he must be hard up for money”.
So, how do these long out of office Republicans still have any credibility when many of them have long since sold their souls and mostly for a pittance. Not only do they lack credibility they somehow can still mount a Presidential campaign? We Dems may have a thin bench right now, but by golly I will take that in lieu of what’s on offer on the right.
pseudonymous in nc
I think Weigel misreads his subjects: I’m sure they are frustrated that they haven’t found the magic words that will make the masses see Obama for the socialist radical Muslim socialist America-hater he apparently is, but all the masses hear is ‘the sheriff is near’.
David Koch
Weigel must have been in coma in 2008 when Palin was screaming “Obama is a terrier-ist” and some fake plumber was calling him a “zocialist”.