Not the same kind of thing

Fort Worth[less] Startlegram ^ | 3/14/04 | Mark Davis (who realized being a moderate ain't kewl!)

[harpu]

There are few things as revealing as public figures being caught in moments when they do not know they are being overheard.

Four years ago at a campaign event, when George W. Bush was caught calling a New York Times reporter a "major-league a--hole," it made every major network newscast that night.

That's fine. Unguarded, unscripted moments are so rare on the campaign trail that episodes like that attract understandable attention, especially if they're a little salty.

So, four years later, where were the lead stories the day that candidate John Kerry blasted his opposition as "the most crooked, lying group of people I've ever seen"?

To its credit, NBC Nightly News made mention of Kerry's sweeping, personal insult in its tease of the night's top stories. But CBS and ABC waited until deep into the newscast to air the bitter remarks from Kerry, who did not know the microphone he was wearing from an interview was still on.

This story has received additional attention in the last few days, but already the myth of equivalency has reared its head, in which people assert that things are alike when in fact they are not.

This incarnation involves the absurd claim that the Bush comment and Kerry's remark are similar.

That is simply not a serious observation. One is an offhand, admittedly intemperate remark about one member of the massive horde that is the press corps.

The other is either a slanderous assertion about the commander in chief in wartime or, at the very least, a slanderous assertion about the people who are working to re-elect him.

In fairness, let us accept the Kerry explanation that he was not referring to the president himself but to GOP campaign operatives, the "Republican attack machine."

If Kerry were sincere about this, it would be Exhibit A of paranoia. But he is not. This "attack machine" nonsense is just a typical tactic to change the subject and avoid addressing criticism.

In the same week that Kerry was calling people liars and lawbreakers just for disagreeing with him, the GOP "attack machine" started airing spots about Kerry's record.

And what horribly nasty low blows did they level? "John Kerry: wrong on taxes and wrong on national defense."

Oooh, that's tough stuff.

The Bush team will be spending a lot of time describing the ways in which it believes Kerry is wrong on various subjects. It will also chronicle the occasions when he has taken both sides of some issues.

Meanwhile, Kerry will be characterizing Bush as some kind of out-of-control, mean-spirited idiot. Think not? What are the adjectives Kerry uses to describe the Bush doctrine that has toppled Saddam Hussein?

Arrogant. Reckless. Ideological.

Get ready for much more of this. The Bush forces will continue to assert that Kerry is mistaken on the issues and prone to inconsistency. The Kerry forces will continue to assert that Bush is simply a bad human being.

And along the way, to cover for their low road, Democrats will concoct stories that some will swallow whole. On Thursday, Kerry again voiced the complete fabrication that Max Cleland's patriotism was questioned in his U.S. Senate battle against Saxby Chambliss in Georgia.

It is time for Kerry to put up or shut up. There is not one quote that can be found of Chambliss or anyone working in any capacity for him impugning Cleland's patriotism.

That is simply the knee-jerk reaction when any anti-war Democrat is criticized. It sure beats having to answer the actual criticism of not being tough enough on terror.

Are there Republicans who will say genuinely nasty, personal things about Kerry? Sure, but they generally come from the fringe ranks of the general public.

The Democrats spewing hate toward Bush are from the front ranks of the Kerry campaign and Congress.

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Mark Davis is a talk-show host on WBAP/820 AM. mdavis@wbap.com

[Abcdefg]

Mark Davis has stringent requirements for a person to earn his approval as a conservative. They must not be too conservative, and mostly, they must be rigidly Republican.
Screw him

[Starve The Beast]

...The Bush forces will continue to assert that Kerry is mistaken on the issues and prone to inconsistency. The Kerry forces will continue to assert that Bush is simply a bad human being.

Davis puts his finger right on it. The Rats have been comparing Dubya to Hitler for about the last year or so. The rhetoric of the Left has been some of the most rabidly personal that this country has ever seen. The Bush team has started to respond by bringing up valid questions about Kerry's record in the Senate, and Kerry is squealing about how he's being attacked. And anything he says, the press obediently repeats.

I wonder if they can get away with it for the next seven months?

[Starve The Beast]

I'm a Mark Davis fan. His show is interesting and well-paced. He can carve a liberal to pieces and make it look easy.

[cincy29]

Sure they can, with the mainstream media being Kerry's biggest cheerleaders and the go-cart known as the "Republican attack machine."