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Hating Bush
Townhall ^ | 4/18/05 | John Leo

Posted on 04/18/2005 5:17:16 AM PDT by Molly Pitcher

Political rhetoric, left and right, seems steadily worse. "Kill Bush"

T-shirts and bags were offered for sale last week on the Internet, then quickly removed after protests. In Chicago, a college art show featured a series of mock postage stamps showing Bush with a gun to his head. The unhinged left has long flirted with the theme of killing presidents, from the 1992 Manhattan posters urging the murder of the first President Bush to the "that pig Bush must die" message on a fringe website last week.

Columnist Michelle Malkin offered some acid comments on the "pro-assassination left," citing anti-Bush slogans such as "We support our troops, when they shoot their officers" and "Bush is the disease. Death is the cure."

Such attacks, of course, are not limited to the left. As the Washington Times reports, Judge George Greer is swimming in "a sea of death threats"

since his rulings that resulted in the feeding tube's being removed from Terri Schiavo. Justice Clarence Thomas issued a startling sentence last week: " I think we have been on borrowed time," a reference to the possibility of more violence against judges. Thomas and Justice Anthony Kennedy told a House appropriations subcommittee that they want more police protection in front of the Supreme Court.

This puts angry anti-court commentary in a different light. Surely it is time for Rep. Tom DeLay and his allies to withdraw their inflammatory remarks about judges before some suggestible person decides to act on their statements. Sen. John Cornyn's comments on the judiciary were more ambiguous than the way the media played them. His rambling speech contained several qualifiers, but the core paragraph can be interpreted to mean that judges are bringing violence on themselves. He should explain clearly what he meant.

DeLay has apologized for his statement on the Schiavo rulings (an "act of medical terrorism"); Pat Robertson's "judicial murder" comment calls for the same. And so does the remark by the Rev. Flip Benham, director of Operation Rescue, that the courts have become a tool "in the hands of the devil."

Nazi rhetoric. Most of us, alas, are upset by vicious rhetoric only when it is aimed at our side. The extraordinary Bush-is-a-Nazi rhetoric of the antiwar marches and the presidential campaign drew very little criticism from the responsible left, just as the repeated accusations that President Clinton is a murderer, perhaps a multiple murderer, didn't ruffle many people on the responsible right. The anti-Clinton vitriol has subsided, partly because the Bush family has reached out to Bill Clinton. But the Nazi references to Bush and Republicans rumble right along, showing up in art shows, columns, and letters to the editor. Sen. Robert Byrd recently said that the "nuclear option" to break any Democratic filibuster on judges was reminiscent of Nazi Germany and Mussolini's Italy. Last October, Byrd said that the Bush tactics that got us into Iraq reminded him of Hermann Goering.

During the presidential campaign, comedian Janeane Garofalo referred to the Bush administration as "the 43rd Reich."

Victor Davis Hanson writes that if you type "Bush + Hitler" into a Google search, the result is 1,350,000 hits. Virtually every major figure in the Bush administration has been compared to some Nazi official or other. Bush has been likened to Hannibal Lecter, Ted Bundy, Mussolini, Napoleon, Nero, Caligula, and the Japanese warlords of World War ii. Howard Dean, who says he hates Republicans and considers them evil, recently introduced a Communist theme, charging that Republicans "are essentially the best propaganda machine since Lenin."

We may be into another big anti-Clinton assault, this one aimed at Hillary Rodham Clinton. Last week a breathless item on the Drudge Report said that an anti-Hillary book, out next September, will be the equivalent of the Swift Boat Veterans campaign against John Kerry and may well derail her chances to be president. This is a cringe-making prospect. Do we really need yet another major assault on a prominent politician, or can we spend some time discussing actual issues?

We have reached the point where much political debate consists of insults and name-calling, every attack is likely to be called a "lynching," and tired expressions such as "institutional terrorism," "institutional racism," and "intellectual McCarthyism" are supposed to be taken as real arguments.

Political polarization is an obvious cause. But so is the democratization of the media, particularly the arrival of the Internet and big-time talk radio, which allow all of us to say whatever we like, no matter how crude. Mail to columnists is much more abusive than it was a few years ago. Inarticulate people, many of them celebrities, are finding it hard to make their cases without lapsing into abuse. So political discussion more and more consists of angry feelings instead of rational argument. Our political rhetoric is routinely awful. Let's work to clean it up.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Extended News; Front Page News; Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: dems; hateamericafilth; hatingamerica; hatred; johnleo; judiciary; mccarthyism; nazireferences; presidentbush
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Cleaning up political rhetoric?? Hmmmm... Let's start with the MSM holding the Left accountable for its smears....
1 posted on 04/18/2005 5:17:17 AM PDT by Molly Pitcher
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To: Molly Pitcher

I'm still waiting on Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi's condemnation of these acts.. yet all I hear are crickets.


2 posted on 04/18/2005 5:19:54 AM PDT by theDentist (The Dems are putting all their eggs in one basket-case: Howard "Belltower" Dean.)
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To: Molly Pitcher
Justice Clarence Thomas issued a startling sentence last week: " I think we have been on borrowed time," a reference to the possibility of more violence against judges.

If the judiciary would get back to interpreting the law instead of trying to make the law through activism, I have an idea their safety would increase a lot.

That said, I don't want to see violence against judges. I want to see the ones who don't deserve to sit on the bench removed.

3 posted on 04/18/2005 5:37:01 AM PDT by prairiebreeze (Does my American flag offend you? Dial 1-800-LEAVE THE USA!)
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To: Molly Pitcher

'Columnist Michelle Malkin offered some acid comments on the "pro-assassination left," citing anti-Bush slogans such as "We support our troops, when they shoot their officers" and "Bush is the disease. Death is the cure."


Such attacks, of course, are not limited to the left. As the Washington Times reports, Judge George Greer is swimming in "a sea of death threats"'

The author had to make quite a stretch here for that "fair and balanced" approach. I don't really see a similarity between publicly and openly advocating the assisnation of a sitting U.S. president and private threats towards Greer that we only know about because he told us so.

I don't doubt Greer did recieve some threats but when I start seeing large groups of conservatives publicly marching and openly calling for his assasination, then we can start comparing the two.


4 posted on 04/18/2005 5:44:32 AM PDT by L98Fiero
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To: Molly Pitcher

almost zotable


5 posted on 04/18/2005 5:49:27 AM PDT by austinite
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To: Molly Pitcher
This is a cringe-making prospect. Do we really need yet another major assault on a prominent politician 9Hillary!), or can we spend some time discussing actual issues?

Hillary! and her lying, cheatful ways, is an actual issue, you dolt.

FMCDH(BITS)

6 posted on 04/18/2005 5:57:13 AM PDT by nothingnew (I fear for my Republic due to marxist influence in our government. Open eyes/see)
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To: L98Fiero

Michelle Malkin is usually reasonable. I agree with your criticism of her editorial. Right you are.


7 posted on 04/18/2005 6:08:06 AM PDT by proud2beconservativeinNJ
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To: Molly Pitcher

"Bush is stupid!"
"Bush is dumb!'
"Bush is an idiot!" etc, etc, but what the liberals forget is that this dumb,stupid idiot has beaten them at every turn........so what does that make them?


8 posted on 04/18/2005 6:10:50 AM PDT by longfellow (You're either with US or from Hollywood! Ultimateamerican.com)
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To: Molly Pitcher

"The extraordinary Bush-is-a-Nazi rhetoric of the antiwar marches and the presidential campaign drew very little criticism from the responsible left, just as the repeated accusations that President Clinton is a murderer, perhaps a multiple murderer, didn't ruffle many people on the responsible right."

Apples and oranges.


9 posted on 04/18/2005 6:10:51 AM PDT by WorkingClassFilth (Let's pull the feeding tube of the American left - Defund NPR/PBS/CBP and the LSC)
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To: Molly Pitcher

Yes, we DO need another assault on HILLIARY! To have her as president would assault every American.


10 posted on 04/18/2005 6:21:23 AM PDT by Marysecretary (Thank you, Lord, for FOUR MORE YEARS!!!)
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To: Molly Pitcher

The fact of the matter is the Left's bashing of the President is not based on intellectualism at all. What happens is some leader of some group somewhere screams, "Bush Lied!" and suddenly everyone in the room is screaming "Bush Lied!" right back. If you asked one of these sycophants to back up the statement with fact, or even informed opinion, you'd get nothing except more mindless rhetoric. It's not a "movement" -- it's more a matter of stampeding sheep.


11 posted on 04/18/2005 6:25:45 AM PDT by JennysCool (Support bacteria - they're the only culture some people have.)
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To: Marysecretary

If she wants to play with the big boys she'll have to take what they dish out just like George Bush, Dick Cheney, AND all the others who were blatantly attacked and still are. hillereee won't like it when they dig up all the stuff they have on her. She'll know what it is like when the tables are turned. She got to where she is today because of billy boy anyway. She has no merit on her own. She hung on his coat tails and still is but anyway...she got to where she is today because of him. She put up with his womanizing and all his antics (which fems say women shouldn't put up with) just so she could move on up the ladder. Well, she was willing to be an enabler to get this far. Now if she wants the big prize she will have to show her stuff and it AIN'T gonna be pretty. She'll never be able to control her screaming banchee like personality. She'll SCREECH and lose control like dean.


12 posted on 04/18/2005 6:32:49 AM PDT by cubreporter
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To: Molly Pitcher
Victor Davis Hanson writes that if you type "Bush + Hitler" into a Google search, the result is 1,350,000 hits.

... and that's just from the New York Times web site. :)

13 posted on 04/18/2005 6:35:59 AM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle ("As a conservative site, Free Republic is pro-G-d, PRO-LIFE..." -- FR founder Jim Robinson)
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To: theDentist
I'm still waiting on Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi's ethical problems, past and present, to be presented in the Old Media!
14 posted on 04/18/2005 6:37:34 AM PDT by TexasCajun
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To: proud2beconservativeinNJ

I was wrong. The article only cited comments by Michelle Malkin and was clearly written by John Leo.


15 posted on 04/18/2005 6:41:25 AM PDT by proud2beconservativeinNJ
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To: longfellow

I was thinking the same thing.


16 posted on 04/18/2005 6:52:14 AM PDT by kassie ("It's the soldier who allows freedom of speech, not the reporter..")
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To: Molly Pitcher
Such attacks, of course, are not limited to the left. As the Washington Times reports, Judge George Greer is swimming in "a sea of death threats"

Note that the disturbed individuals making threats against Greer - who are rebuked by the vast majority of sane-thinking conservatives - are being equated to the leftists who believe inciting presidential murder is a political statement!?!?!

As far as the Swift Vets go, it's a shame that their first-hand accounts of treachery and perfidy on the part of Senator horse-face were never allowed into the political discourse for debate. The Swiftees were resoundingly slammed by nearly all media without even a cursory examination of the accuracy of their claims, despite the mountains of evidence against John Effin's own veracity.

IMO, this piece is the beginning of an attempt to immunize her thighness from the charges about to be brought forth against her. No matter if the charges are true, we can't be serious about them - right?

17 posted on 04/18/2005 7:03:25 AM PDT by MortMan (Quiet reflection does not involve a mirror.)
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To: Molly Pitcher

It's all Bush's fault !!!

If he'd just pronounce his name properly there'd be no problem.

E.g., Hush, Gush, Lush, Mush, Rush !!!

But Noooooooo... it's Bush, Push, Cush, Tush !!! ;-))



18 posted on 04/18/2005 7:08:26 AM PDT by GeekDejure ( LOL = Liberals Obey Lucifer !!! -- Impeach Greer !!!.)
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To: Molly Pitcher
"So political discussion more and more consists of angry feelings instead of rational argument."

Clearly Miss Malkin has been hanging around here the last few weeks!

19 posted on 04/18/2005 7:11:07 AM PDT by Sam Cree (Democrats are herd animals)
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To: Molly Pitcher

There are a lot of loons out there. Hate Bush, hate DeLay, hate Rush, blah blah, they are basically all malcontents.


20 posted on 04/18/2005 7:11:10 AM PDT by veronica (Pro-Bush pro-America pro-Israel warmongering neo-con...)
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