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STOP BY A BUMP THE FUNDRAISER THREAD (It's in the Breaking News sidebar!)
Posted on 07/08/2003 11:37:29 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
Radical leftists regularly resort to hateful and intolerant invective to buttress claims that their political opponents are uniformly hateful and intolerant; evidently, the irony eludes people who have divorced reality and wed themselves to self-righteous delusion. Columnist and humorist Julia Gorin’s new book, The Buddy Chronicles, provides an unfiltered and predictably damning portrait of the knuckle-dragging Clintonite left in all its malicious, illogical, and semi-literate infamy. Buddy is also a timely counterweight to Hillary Clinton’s recently released fictional memoir, Living History, with which the former first lady took a brazenly propagandistic first step toward a 2008 presidential run.
Gorin rose to punditry prominence in the wake of her January 4, 2002 reflections on the death of Buddy, the focus-grouped canine drafted into the Clintonian image corps. Two days earlier, Buddy had died in a collision with an SUV outside the house that Terry McAuliffe bought in Chappaqua, New York. Buddy reproduces in full the column that sparked the controversy.
As a dog lover imbued with at least minimal common sense, Gorin wondered whether the Clintons’ characteristic disregard for everything but their own careers extended to Buddy’s care and adversely affected the vigilance of the dog’s secret service caretakers. While not explicitly blaming Bill Clinton for Buddy’s demise, Gorin plausibly suggested that such tragedies are more likely to befall cavalier and careless pet owners. Through a satirical device, the column diagnosed a disease of character; Buddy was merely an unfortunate symptom.
After dispensing with Buddy, Gorin shifted her emphasis to Chelsea. Arguing that the Clintons reproduced primarily for political purposes, the column contended that Chelsea became “a stellar child” to fulfill the requirements of the Clintonian script. Gorin asserted that the stress of playing her role was leading Chelsea down the path of substance abuse.
Despite its tongue-in-cheek intent, the column only reached Chelsea by veering slightly off course. If child exploits are an accurate barometer of parents’ character, the Clintons stand far taller than they do when critics focus on their innumerable greater transgressions. Regardless, the casual prediction of Chelsea manifesting “more symptoms” in the future detracted from an otherwise strong piece of satire.
Editors recognized the novel perspective and satirical slant of the Gorin’s column. It appeared at the Jewish World Review and in more than 10 major newspapers across the country, including the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Within minutes, the hate hits started and kept on coming. Indignant Clintonites unleashed a torrent of vituperation. Approximately seven hundred and fifty responsive e-mails, more than 600 negative, followed publication of the Buddy column. This voluminous correspondence, reprinted verbatim and including all available sender particulars save contact information, forms the heart of Buddy. Gorin also inserts occasional “Editor’s Notes” that include pithy commentary such as, “36% of this e-mail is misspelled.”
Unsparing in its detail, Buddy illuminates the gloomy world of Clinton extremists and their quasi-Stalinist devotion to a man who would never hesitate to betray them. In their perverse world, any criticism of Clinton is hate, rhetorical conveniences such as satire and humor are unfathomable beacons of lightened tone, and those who diverge from the left’s angry outlook are enemies to be despised and, where possible, destroyed.
Of the letters reprinted in Buddy, well over one hundred accuse Gorin of various forms of general and Clinton specific hatred. Numerous screeds rely on variants of the intellectually flaccid “get a life” admonition, dozens rely on explicit profanity, and still others recycle tired complaints about the Democrat failure to steal the 2000 presidential election.
Several people either expressed their hope (or issued a command) that Gorin die. Having deluded themselves into believing that the term “right-wing” is synonymous with “evil scum,” some of Gorin’s accusers condescendingly dismiss her as a product of the other wing. Nastier critics display the brand of humanity that they claim the right lacks with their Carvillesque slanders that W. is a draft-dodging cocaine addict.
Among all the miscreants who soiled cyberspace with their bile, one Mr. David Abston stood out from the rest. Sinking to rhetorical depths rarely seen outside a bad gangster movie, Abston’s entire contribution to the Gorin discourse consisted of the following: “dear c---, f--- you.” Churchill need not worry.
To address the frenzied aftermath of her initial column, Gorin penned a follow-up piece that appeared in the Washington Times on January 18, 2002 and that Buddy reprints in full. She started by stating her conclusion that many rank-and-file Clinton supporters are “ready to kill for the man.”
After summarizing her hate mail, she amplified the Clintons’ underwhelming canine record: their previous dog, Zeke, also met his maker in the form of a speeding automobile. Before his death, Zeke wandered around Little Rock unattended and because the Clintons didn’t bother to have the dog neutered, he managed to father multiple litters.
In the strongest portion of either column, Gorin insightfully conveys the absurdity of an ex-President mourning that the glory of ensuring national security after 9/11 had eluded him while demonstrating anew his inability to ensure the local security of a household pet. If Clinton were the type of man who concerned himself with less glamorous security issues, such as Buddy (and WTC ’93 and the African embassies, among others) perhaps our current President would never have had reason to distinguish himself in the War on Terror.
Overall, Buddy succeeds in reminding us of the rabid hatred and distorted worldview that characterizes an alarming number of inveterate Clinton enablers. While many of the chronicled e-mails are nauseating, exposing the nature of Hillary’s potential ’08 base can only help the cause.
Chris Arabia is a writer living in Boston and Middle Tennessee. You can reach him at viceroy@chrisarabia.com
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