Thinking Like an Apparatchik

Atlantic Monthly ^ | July, 2003 | Christopher Hitchens

[MHGinTN]

In his new book Sidney Blumenthal presents a disconcertingly cynical yet naive account of the Clinton years

BY CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS

.....

The Clinton Wars by Sidney Blumenthal Farrar, Straus & Giroux ow is it that domestic politics in this country is at once so rancid and so banal, so embittered and yet so uninspiring? Why should it be that two parties with few if any essential differences are ready to speak of each other as if a cultural or even a civil war were only a few speeches away? Obviously, much of this fatuous rhetoric arises from the need to disagree more and more about less and less, to maintain the mills of fundraising in a churning condition, and to keep the dwindling groups of genuine loyalists and activists in a state of excited pseudo-commitment. But much of the dankness and dinginess is owed to the influence exerted by professional political operators, those who have a careerist interest in "the process" as it is—which is to say partisan in theory and bipartisan in practice.

Those in the unelected election business who become celebrities are sometimes quite willing to work for either party. Dick Morris, to take a notorious example, toiled energetically for Jesse Helms before being hired by the Clintons. David Gergen's mysterious usefulness to a succession of Republican and Democratic Presidents will almost stand comparison with the mystical utility of the Reverend Billy Graham to Eisenhower and Nixon, Carter and Clinton. The self-satirizing summa of all this is the bizarre marriage of Mary Matalin and James Carville, who actually contrived to run opposing presidential campaigns in 1992 while still, at the end of the day, proving that the two parties were essentially in bed together.

[Revolting cat!]

Brilliant!

[WaterDragon]

You have to duck and weave sometimes through Hitch's politics in his writings but he's the best writer today in America.

Thanks for the ping, Howlin.

[dead]

That first quote was Hitchens being sarcastic. The second was really the words of Blumenthal.

It's really hard to out-sycophant Sidney, even as a joke.

[dead]

Ooops! I should have read more carefully. Both of those were Blumethal!

Hitchens was sarcastic in the paragraph following your first selection.

I guess I sort of reinforced my point about Sydney being parody-proof!

[Little Bill]

I haven't seen anything that good on FR in years, even Sam Smith in his good years didn't trash the Bent One as well as that, English Education?

[wimpycat]

At six feet, two inches, with a jutting jaw, gray-green eyes, a ruddy complexion, and loose long limbs, Clinton was the most physically imposing person in the room, as he almost always was.

Sounds like L-O-V-E to me. Oh geez, how pathetic. Only someone in love could describe Clinton's blotchy, puffy red face that screams "I am a heart attack waiting to happen" as "ruddy".

[wimpycat]

Something tells me Sid typed out his manuscript one-handed...which is why it took so long for the book to come out...I mean, be released...I mean, hit the shelves.

[Catspaw]

Howlin, you KNOW I don't speak his name. I think of 1992-2000 akin to Pam coming out of the shower after a year & it was all Bobby's dream.

[texasbluebell]

Clinton brought in with him a stream of cool, brisk air from outside. At six feet, two inches, with a jutting jaw, gray-green eyes, a ruddy complexion, and loose long limbs, Clinton was the most physically imposing person in the room, as he almost always was.

Uh-huh. Really an attractive figure, who could resist?

[EllaMinnow]

I really hope you disinfected your hands after typing that.

Now I need to go rinse out my blue, no wait, they're gray-green, no wait, they're blue, eyes.

[CyberAnt]

More legacy rewrite which says: see what you missed out on by not letting x42 have another term - we were just getting started.

Excuse me ... Bush accomplished more in his first SIX MONTHS than x42 accomplished in all of his 8 years.

[hchutch]

Sidney Blumenthal needs help.

[Howlin]

That works for me!

[firewalk]

Thanks for the ping

[Howlin]

I hated to make you read this crap.........LOL.....but you gotta!

[firewalk]

You plan these things, I just know it! (-:

[My back yard]

I thought you would be on this article commenting. Man o man, Blumenthal is something else. Evidence, really, that one can possess too much je ne sais quoi.

Do you suppose this was a counter for the Dereliction Of Duty book?

Let's just see which sells.

[cyncooper]

Use bleach, especially after viewing the alleged "loose long limbs" featured in post #29. (Well, love IS blind!)

Sidney has a schoolgirl crush on The Thing, just like Tina.

ICK

[wingnuts'nbolts]

Sid typed out this book with Hillary on the other end of the phone making suggestions! This comming out just ahead of her book is more than suspect and certainly makes Sid appear even more rediculous than before he decided to pimp for Hillary "One more time".

[wingnuts'nbolts]

Sid typed out this book with Hillary on the other end of the phone making suggestions! This comming out just ahead of her book is more than suspect and certainly makes Sid appear even more rediculous than before he decided to pimp for Hillary "One more time".