Posted on 01/27/2005 9:16:49 PM PST by quidnunc
Because her idiosyncratic take on George W. Bush's Second Inaugural Address did not go unnoticed, Peggy Noonan decided she had some splainin' to do. Okay by me. But then she went and threw a press conference. For herself. Asking and answering her own questions. If that isn't a symptom of Olympian presumption, I'm not sure what is.
Fans of her writing may remember that Noonan is the columnist who three months ago told fellow conservatives not to rock the boat over Arlen Specter's elevation to chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee (even though she's Catholic and Specter has been hostile to pro-life nominees for positions on the federal bench). Back then, she described "Ssssshhhhhhhh" as both a "wonderful sound" and "good advice for our country" — something to keep in mind while we breathe deeply and "build a great silence" on issues that matter.
I hate to start thinking of her as Peggy "turn down the volume" Noonan, but her newfound enthusiasm for quietude at any cost would explain her adverse reaction to GWB's second inaugural. She wants oboes and clarinets. The guy in Air Force One whom she voted for prefers trumpets and cymbals.
"Life is layered, complex, not always most needful of political action. For many people in the world the most important extrafamilial relationship is not with the state but with the God," Noonan writes.
That's blessedly true, as far as it goes, but borderline lunatic when used to criticize a head of state who can only meet the demands of his office by engaging in political action. While the presidential writ doesn't extend to priesthood (thank God!), and the troubles of this world will pass away, it's hard to fault GWB's ode to freedom as "perplexing and disturbing," the way Noonan does.
In a crowning irony, Noonan gives thanks for the fact that timid staffers in the Reagan White House could not prevent Mr. Reagan from saying "tear down this wall," and calling the Soviet Union an "evil empire." Four administrations and one Laura Ingraham-style "but monkey" later, however, Noonan laments the lack of defensive thinking that in her youth she would have eviscerated.
-snip-
Newt used to call these critics the "perfectionist caucus".
The Bush-bot kool-aid drinkers don't like dissent-on any issue. They want 100% lock step.
Its quite silly, really.
One of the hallmarks of the Reformation was recovery of the doctrine in Romans 13 that God clearly directs leaders to be ministers of righteousness and not to bind the consciences of His people to policies antithetical to His word. And while one's relationship with God is preeminent, God is not silent on the issue of one's relationship with the state.
"The Bush-bot kool-aid drinkers don't like dissent-on any issue"
Yup. They have much in common with the DU loons.
It sure doesn't revolve around them and it's way past time they learned that lesson!
Those good folks in PA could care less about listening to PN. Only Arlen could quiet the crowd. How many Republicans would sit if Arlen was "forced" out of the GOP? Not many. Fewer would sit if the same thing happened to PN.
Now I get it. Its the Fundies. They hate Noonan because she questioned all the "God" references.
// Hey, if you guys can make assinine ignorant assumptions about Noonan's motives, so can I.
I don't hate PN. I pity her. She's so over. You and Peggy just don't realize it yet.
I pity you too.
"Those good folks in PA could care less about listening to PN. Only Arlen could quiet the crowd."
Because Arlen understood the power of a simple "ssssshhh". Peggy credits him with this, as it ties into her overall point in the article. You really need to read the article again, without your hatred.
She lost me last summer when she bemoaned the president's campaign focus on the war, urging him to change the tone and make clear that he "hates war, really hates it, and loves peace." Americans were growing tired of the drama of the times, tired of war, and want to get back to their lives, she wrote. They want drama on a personal level but not a historical level ... blah-blah-yadda-yadda. It was one in a series of columns filled with similarly self-absorbed touchy-feely dreck. (Speak, Softly, Mr. Bush)
I always found Noonan to be a bit cloying, melodramatic, pretentious, and too reliant on flowery emotion at the expense of logic, but I still read her stuff because of her obvious writing skills and her earlier work was often so damn good(What I Saw at the Revolution was an especially good book). Now, though, I usually scroll past her articles because she mostly bores the heck out of me.
"She's compromised her credibility irreparably."
Credibility before men is way overrated.
I wish people would back off on Peggy. She's still sharp, and even though she's out of my league, I'm not ashamed to say that she puts the jelly in my jam.
How is it that Peggy can "attack her own," but we can't attack Peggy because she's "our own"? Do famous speechwriters get a pass that we ordinary folks don't?
I would think it worked more the other way around.
In it I found her to be doing a breast stroke across a living room, floating a foot off the wall-to-wall on methaqualone.
No one's put in asyla these days, and as long as she's not given scissors or allowed to operate machinery, no harm, no foul.
Her criticisms of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush are as significant as rap music: to John Kerry, indispensible; to me, just noise.
You don't understand. PN is a leader in the GOP and the conservative movement. If she is insulted or ridiculed, she could just, just shut up and maybe bolt the party and....hundreds of thousands of conservative, moderates and independents will sit out too out of sympathy with PN. </sarcasm>
Dang! Doing the breast stroke a foot of the bleepin wall-to-wall on 'ludes? Whoooweee. Far out!
Hey my friend, I've been ther with ya tootin' the horn on this gal sense last Friday.
She didn't attack Bush, although I'm sure it seems that way to Bush fans. I've got no problem dissecting her article for flaws and pointing out where she "misses it".
But did you see her calling Laura a Whore? No. Did she call out Jenna as a Lesbian Bitch? No. Thats why I'm trolling the trolls here - you can criticize "our own" without demonizing them.
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