Postmodern Moonbats,

Trentino's Magazine ^ | February 26, 2005 | Trentino

[Davis]

Is there enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Maurice Hinchey has deserted his constituents in upstate New York's 22nd Congressional District and trotted off to Cloud Cuckoo Land?

I'm referring to the Maurice Hinchey who, while speaking on Social Security to a meeting in Ithaca last Saturday strolled off topic to assert that Karl Rove, Minister of Dirty Tricks for the Bush Administration, had forged and planted the Rathergate memos.

Hinchey: They've had a very very direct, aggressive attack on the, on the media, and the way it's handled. Probably the most flagrant example of that is the way they set up Dan Rather. Now, I mean, I have my own beliefs about how that happened: It originated with Karl Rove, in my belief, in the White House. They set that up with those false papers.

Observe that Rep. Hinchey has no doubts that the celebrated Texas Air National Guard memos were false, forgeries. Give him points for this, a conclusion beyond the reach of Dan Rather, honchodom at CBS, seven lawyers plus former Attorney General Dick Thornburgh and ex-AP CEO Lou Boccardi, but grasped almost immediately by Buckhead posting at FreeRepublic and the indispensable Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs. Without squinting, Hinchey can spot a forgery at thirty paces.

If only Hinchey had halted there and concentrated his vast cognitive apparatus on Social Security matters. But no, like a degenerate gambler, Hinchey pressed his bet.

Hinchey: And so what they did was, expecting that that was going to come up, they accentuated it; they produced papers that made it loode it look even worse. And they--and they distributed those out to elements of the media. And it was only--what, like was it CBS? Or whatever, whatever which one Rather works for.

They--the people there--they finally bought into it, and they, and they aired it. And when they did, they had 'em. They didn't care who did it! All they had to do is to get some element of the media to advance that issue. Based upon the false papers that they produced.

Of course it's a little unsettling that Hinchey wasn't quite sure which network employed Dan Rather, but you can still sort-of follow his reasoning. In order to protect Bush's reputation, they produced papers that made it look even worse. To do this, a clumsy forgery was needed, but one that would pass Mapes muster, but not fool Joseph Newcomer or the folks at PowerLine blog—or me, Trentino. Talk about subtle!

At this point in the proceedings, recorded live and sent to Little Green Footballs within hours of the event—a memorable blogging coup—Hinchey found himself engaged in repartee with member of the audience.

Audience member: Do you have any evidence for that?

Hinchey: Yes I do. Once they did that–

Audience: [murmuring]

Hinchey: –once they did that, then it undermined everything else about Bush's draft dodging. Once they were able to say, "This is false! These papers are not accurate, they're, they're, they're false, they've been falsified." That had the effect of taking the whole issue away.

Audience member: So you have evidence that the papers came from the Bush administration?

Hinchey: No. I--that's my belief.

Audience member: OK.

Hinchey: And I said that. In the very beginning. I said, "It's my belief that those papers, and that setup, originated with Karl Rove and the White House."

Audience member: Don't you think it's irresponsible to make charges like that?

Hinchey: No I don't. I think it's very important to make charges like that. I think it's very important to combat this kind of activity in every way that you can. And I'm willing--and most people are not--to step forward in situations like this and take risks.

Audience: [clapping and cheering]

Hinchey: I consider that to be part of my job, and I'm gonna continue to do it.

•••

Until Hinchey insisted that lacking evidence was no hindrance, his remarks were ho-hum Moonbat jive, nothing special. His claim that his belief that Karl Rove forged and planted the Rathergate memos—his belief, no matter how absurd—transformed him into something rich and strange. With that claim he joined the recently departed Jacques Derrida and Susan Sontag in a postmodern world where contradictory "narratives" are accommodated, where day's night today and black's white today, where a bone in the nose is the same as a man on the moon. A world where Western Civ has got to go, where linear thinking is...well, linear, and incoherence reigns.

In such a world, there are no objective facts, there are only beliefs, a democracy of beliefs, where every belief is just as good as any other. Except of course that some beliefs—surprise!—are a bit more equal than others.

In such a world, it is perilous to voice the belief that men and women differ at all, even if it's only a belief. The very notion of differing genetic makeup is most infelicitous. One must apologize to the sharks for bleeding in their presence.

I don't think that Maurice Hinchey qualifies as an example of the paranoid style in American politics, the Richard Hofstadter thesis adopted by my colleague, James Taranto. The special Moonbat nature of Congressman Maurice Hinchey is proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Anyway, I believe it, which is the same thing.

[zygoat]

Hinchey also owns a blue polyester sportcoat that bears a stain on the left lapel. DNA testing has revealed that the stains match the genetic make-up of the stains on Monica Lewinski's blue dress. It is up to Mr. Hinchey to prove that statement incorrect.

[zoosha]

It's the Hincheys in the democrat party that's driving them all to rack and ruin. I say, thank goodness for the hincheys of the world.

[HarleyLady27]

Hinchey went to Iraq and had a meeting with Saddam and told him that the U.S. was coming and Saddam asked Hinchey to take the WMD's and hid them, which I heard he did....now Loony Hinchey, prove this statement wrong.....

[Davis]

this is funny stuff!

[Davis]

Hey, that's funny!