He has figured out how to personally profit from it, and its been an ugly thing to see... L'etat ces't Moi from Grover. How rich. And that is the beginning of his ending. Yet this is not about Norquist. It's not a hatchet job on Grover Norquist, it's a serious policy dispute coming to us live, from mysterious National Security greybeards who are seriously concerned, and so are using the pages of FrontPage magazine to gently nudge the White House in the right direction, as they always have. And this is necessary, because Frank Gaffney and his dedicated coterie of mysterious and knowledgeable National Security Types are the only people smart enough to protect our poor befuddled President from those bumblers that he surrounds himself with in the White House... who keep letting in The Wrong People because they -- unlike Frank and his friends -- do not understand who the Bad Guys are in the war on terror. And so the experts have come here, to Free Republic, to throw hatchets at Grover Norquist; not to conduct a hatchet job, but to inform and to educate. Not to pose as professionals with decades of experience who can't seem to get the White House to pay any attention to them, but to get other people to pay attention to them. So that they might stimulate debate, and discussion, and the throwing of hatchets at Frank's old officemate. It's hard to know what to think. You were doing so well with that act until you got a little cocky. And then out came the bile. And so we see the flash of hate, and with it the realization that this really is just a hatchet job. A cleverly disguised one to be sure, but a hatchet job, dressed in robes that the perpetrator knows best how to wear. For if it is not, we must believe that men with decades of experience in this field, with all the contacts that must bring in the National Security apparatus, think that going into the pages of FrontPage magazine is how you get things done in Washington. I don't think so. If you were half of what you are trying to get people to believe you are, you could have cut off Norquist's access to the White House without him even knowing what hit him. Instead here you are on Free Republic, gloating over the 'beginning of his ending'. A serious policy debate? It's no such thing, is it. It's a vile little personal feud dressed up in a fancy suit because that happens to be Frank Gaffney's suit... the biggest axe he knows how to throw. What else can we conclude from the actual behavior we see here? As you have said yourself, Grover Norquist is no national security type. Those who are should therefore have no trouble mowing him down among those who today are concerned with such matters. Yet this has not happened. Instead we see Mr. Gaffney hurling spears across town from the pages of magazines, and on the air, and now on the Internet. And always directed personally at Mr. Norquist, not at the policy dispute you claim this concerns. Why must he do this? Why does the National Security apparatus not pay attention to his clarion call? Do they not know the difference between Wahhabi and Shia? Do they not share Mr. Gaffney's concern for the security of the country? Or is just that they think that Mr. Gaffney is out throwing spears at some guy he used to share an office with, and it's none of their concern? And if it isn't their concern, why should it be ours? |
Some of us certainly hope so. Your posts are excellent and greatly appreciated.