Sit Up And Beg

So Joe Klein of the august MSM corporate publication Time Magazine (which I don’t miss subscribing to one bit, by the way), in the most recent issue, has decided that it’s time to “pin a few medals” on individuals who, in his estimation are worthy of this supposed great honor for their accomplishments during the prior year (with everyone else’s “end-of-year highlights” lists rolling out all over the place, whether we want them to or not). As I will attempt to illustrate, Klein maintains true lapdog form in his biased and oversimplified comments.

Klein’s column is called “In The Arena” as an homage to Theodore Roosevelt, which is praiseworthy enough. The first person Klein cites as worthy of tribute, however, is none other than Dubya himself. Klein acknowledges disagreements with Bush, but also gives Bush credit to acknowledging a Syrian dissident named Dr. Kamal Labwani numerous times in speeches. I applaud the brave sacrifices of Dr. Labwani, but Klein mentions that Bush has acknowledged the mistake of supporting “repressive regimes in the region.”


That’s funny coming from Bush, who, along with his family, has been playing “footsie” with the House of Saud – one of the most repressive regimes on earth – for years. Also, I know Pakistani president Musharraf is now a “good guy” since he has supposedly been helping us in the “war or terrorism,” all the while turning a blind eye to nuclear profiteer Abdul Qadeer Khan.

Also, I’m long past tired of hearing justifications for the Iraq War for human rights reasons when that wasn’t the basis upon which it was sold to us (but I should point out that Klein stated in a prior “Arena” column that the reasons for the Iraq War don’t matter to him any more).

The reasons for the Iraq War ALWAYS matter. The fact that Klein needs to be reminded of that is beyond pathetic.

Also, this quote from Klein irked me as well.

“He (Bush) has had a difficult year.”

“Difficult” is relative, isn’t it? Dubya has quite rightly lost some of what people perceive as a measure of populist prestige (yeah, I know…real scary, but I know of more than a few individuals who look at Bush that way – just keep spiking the “kool aid” and everything looks fine, I guess), but that is the extent of his losses. Try explaining how Dubya’s year has been “difficult” to an Iraq War veteran who has lost a limb, or the family or friends of an Iraq War veteran who has died, or an Iraqi family that has taken no side for the insurgency but still paid with the loss of life of a family member or friend or wounding of same, or the loss of electricity and running water in a climate where disease is flourishing, most notably affecting children. They could teach Dubya a thing or two about their “difficult” circumstances.

Klein also acknowledges that Bush has finally renounced the use of torture. As I stated earlier, how pathetic is it that he had to be dragged kicking and screaming into that realization? Also, from what I read, Condoleezza Rice still traveled around Europe telling lies about how we don’t send detainees to other countries for torture. Why should they believe us when we have about zero credibility with them at this point anyway?

Next, Klein mentioned “The Governator,” though Klein, as an opponent of the death penalty, criticized Schwarzenegger for the execution of “Tookie” Williams. Klein, however, immediately pissed away the goodwill he engendered on that in my book by complimenting Ahh-nold on “taking on the powerful teachers and nurses unions.”

Oh course, far be it for Klein to acknowledge that The Governator has been more than a tad disingenuous in dealing with the unions himself.

Klein then chose to salute John McCain for his courage, which is a given in terms of his military service. Unfortunately, his service in politics has turned out to be another matter. However, I do share a bit of agreement with Klein in his praise of Repug Lindsay Graham of South Carolina. I’ve been back and forth on Graham also, though he has done the right thing by pointing out that Dubya has failed to be accountable on Iraq. However, when all is said and done, Graham is a Repug after all, and that trumps any praise I could give to him.

This column by Klein would have counted as nothing but a typical, garden-variety homage to the Repugs, and I would have dismissed it as such, had it not been for this next-to-the-last paragraph in the column:

Speaking of judicial nominees (linking back to Graham), Senator Barack Obama deserves notice for his criticism of Democratic advocacy groups that opposed the nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court in their usual vituperative fashion—even though Obama himself opposed the nomination. "Whenever we exaggerate or demonize, or oversimplify or overstate our case, we lose," he wrote to the puerile liberal Daily Kos blog. Thanks, Senator, for taking a stand in the service of civility.

It should be noted that Obama’s position on the issue of the Roberts nomination, though commendable, is ground that he had to make up as far as I’m concerned because of his support of the fraud bankruptcy bill earlier this year (along with the scandalous help of other Democrats, including John Kerry).

What really got me, though, was Klein’s slap at the bloggers who opposed the Roberts nomination. I would take personal umbrage at this, but I know I’m not that big of a fish in the overall scheme of things, so I won’t. Even though it was a losing battle, I’m glad that I fought it.

However, I DO resent Klein’s attack on The Daily Kos. The Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary defines “puerile” as “juvenile, childish, and silly.” If Klein has a particular problem with this blog, then he should tell us what it is. As for me, Kos and Atrios are required reading for me on a daily basis because I find a wealth of information from the individuals who contribute to those sites (volumes more than anything I ever received from Time as a magazine and especially Klein’s column in particular, which is a big reason why we let our subscriptions lapse).

I find The Daily Kos to be the exact opposite of Klein’s description. Is it irreverent from time to time with occasional salty language? Yes. But I find the name-calling on the right-wing sites to be even worse. And by his own name calling (admittedly with $10 dollar words instead of swearing), Klein is no better than what he is criticizing.

So, while acting as a right-wing propaganda tool, Klein has shown only a token attempt at balance in his writing and instead plies his trade as a true hack, masquerading behind some sort of long-ago-earned liberal “cred” that he has now soiled beyond all recognition.

Go trot back to your Bushco handlers and ask them how high they want you to jump to receive another tasty treat, Klein, and spend more time reading Kos, Atrios, Crooks and Liars, Think Progress, this site if I may be so bold to make that suggestion, and other lefty blogs that are out there. You may actually learn something.