Big Media Matt states that Euegene Volokh is close to jumping the shark:
Meanwhile, Eugene Volokh seems to be poised precariously above the shark tank.
Why? Because Volokh thinks it probably isn’t the best thing for a sitting US Senator to criticize the administration’s Middle East policies in an interview with a newspaper from the Middle East. Says Volokh:
I realize that anything one says in any newspaper may get into the Arabic press. But when the readers in the Arab world, likely including Iraq, know the statement has been made to an Arab newspaper, it seems to me that the perceived force of the statement would be magnified: “The American opposition wants us to know that even they think that the U.S. is in trouble.” (The interview was with a British Arabic language newspaper, but naturally the material would be reprinted in other publications in the Arab and Muslim world — the quote in the Best of the Web story is from Brunei Online, with an Agence France Press dateline of Beirut — and the readers will likely perceive the statement as having been made to the Arab community.)
Seems to me that the very likely effect of statements such as this is to magnify the resolve of those who are trying to defeat us, to kill our soldiers, and to take over Iraq (despite the line about “could not abandon Iraq,” which many Iraqis would assume could change if America’s “trouble” only got big enough). It is especially likely to magnify their resolve to keep fighting until the election, rather than to surrender and be seen as giving Bush a victory. And the standard (and often quite persuasive) justification for such criticism even during wartime, which is that Americans need to hear all the arguments to decide whom to vote for, is at its least forceful with a statement such as this one.
As Volokh notes, Sen. Clinton is free to say what she wants, but perhaps consideringthe venue might be a tactful idea. Considering she is a Senator, and she is, after all, and one who sits on the Armed Services committee. Asking people to think aboutthe effect their words will have is not stifling dissent, you know.
If that sort of sensible reproach to bad behavior on the part of Sen. Clinton is close to jumping the shark, I can only ask:
How was the landing when you jumped, Matt?
MNdude
How dare she make a comment to that news paper read by them darkies.
“it seems to me that the perceived force of the statement would be magnified”
Complete bull shit. That’s why Matt objected to Gene.
Mark L.
John Cole — you have been ON FIRE the last three days. I have been rolling on the floor reading you posts.
I don’t EVER want you that mad at me.
HH
Clinton claims she never made those statements… this whole thing is fishy.