Melanie Morgan might not have a profile as high as some other pundits of the right, but she is emerging, in my book, as one of conservatism's most fearless and articulate advocates.Posted on 08/17/2007 4:52:03 PM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
Melanie Morgan might not have a profile as high as some other pundits of the right, but she is emerging, in my book, as one of conservatism's most fearless and articulate advocates.
Last month, I noted an epic dust-up on "Hardball" between talk radio host Morgan and feminist Naomi Wolf. On today's show, the two again clashed. Last time around, I suggested that Wolf might be America's most passive-aggressive woman. Today, she showed herself to be one of its most alarmist. The topic was the controversy over the extent to which Alberto Gonzales [at the time Pres. Bush's White House counsel] pressured a then-hospitalized Attorney General John Ashcroft into approving the extension of the anti-terror wiretap program.
View video here.
Morgan was unapologetic.
MELANIE MORGAN: Anbody that doesn't get what a truly dangerous world we live in should just take a look at this wireless wiretapping program. It was a valuable program and it still is. And if there was pressure applied by Gonzales, then good! . . . We needed that program and I'm really glad that if there was pressure applied, it kept it in place, because otherwise, Americans could die.
Wolf's response was a case study in breathless, alarmist, deconstruction-speak.
NAOMI WOLF: What's scary to me about listening to Melanie and various people at the White House is how Orwell [bonus points for Orwellian allusion] describes people who want to close down an open society don't just lie, they make lies the ground of the discourse. There's this extraordinary fudging [demerit for use of everyday word; consider "circumvention" next time] of reality, not just to change the record, but to disorient us [seems to have worked on Naomi].
WOLF: I think that we have to get it [and as we all know, Republicans just don't] that what they're up to isn't just abuses of democratic process, it's about an end-run around democratic process. Why is it so scary what they're going to get away with? Gonzales isn't going anywhere. And we keep saying, "oh my goodness! How can this be? How can this be? How can he still be there? It's an outrage." Because we still think they're playing democracy's game, by democracy's game rules.
Melanie called Wolf on what might be considered her paranoia.
MORGAN: What kind of Orwellian discussion are you having? What is it you're referring to, Naomi? What is it exactly that happened that all these big, bad people at the Bush White House did that was wrong about the wireless wiretapping program?
WOLF: I think that what is really scary is that if you go back and look at what was suggested in those emails that they're [the White House] not producing, one of the things possibly suggested is that there would be a mass purge of the attorneys, the U.S. attorneys, and we really need to think forward, what kind of scandal, what kind of terror, that would be for the United States, in the event of a close election, if there had indeed been a general purge of the attorneys. And so I think we need to get it [that favorite lefty phrase, again] that they're not playing by the rules that we've come to believe for over 200 years that you have to play by in the United States. We have to get it [enough already!] that it's a different ballgame [come on, use "paradigm" next time], and act accordingly. It's a crisis.
MORGAN: The people who were fired were political appointees. There was no law broken, so all of this is a stupid little "gotcha" game that you Democrats are playing in order to keep Washington tied up in little knots. Well congratulations: you've been very successful at that. But you know what? We are in the middle of a war in which we are facing very serious consequences, long-term consequences, if we don't win it. So I suggest you get your mind focused around something important for a change.
Bravo, Melanie. Too many conservatives are intimidated by people like Wolf and their high-flown rhetoric. Wolf looks at the world and is scared by "crisis," "outrage," "purges" and "terror." The irony is that she sees them all as the work of our own government. Morgan tells it like it is: the terror emanates, very simply, from terrorists who seek to kill as many of us as possible and destroy our civilization.
Melanie Morgan dusts Naomi Wolf. Ping to Today show list.
>> Melanie Morgan dusts Naomi Wolf
Not only that, but it’s yet another case where the woman on the right is much hotter than women on the left.
Sorry to be a shallow cad on such a serious topic!
Um, Naomi dear, sort of like when Xlinton took office in '93 and "purged" every one of the U. S. attorneys? Hmmmm??
Good for her! Maybe she could give lessons or something!
I saw the original dust up w/ the Goron advisor.
Wolf needs to be taken down a notch or six.
Melanie is the blond and Naomi is the fake tan.
>> Melanie is the blond and Naomi is the fake tan.
I know! I meant the one on the “political” right is hotter than the one on the “political” left.
Go Melanie Morgan :)
Like Bill Clinton did when he took office?
Here’s a response to miz Cry Wolf:
We’re Becoming A Fascist Society? How Ridiculous.
Remember Naomi Wolf, the feminist who taught Al Gore how to act like a man or in femspeak, an “alpha male?” Well, she’s back and it looks like she’s so eaten up with Bush Dementia syndrome that she’s having a public mental meltdown and claiming George Bush is turning America into a fascist society.
Now, this is particularly noteworthy, because even a lot of the nutty netroots crowd stop beating the “fascism & rigged elections” drums quite so hard after the 2006 elections, but apparently, that didn’t even phase Wolf’s rock hard noggin’.
Here are the 10 steps to fascism that George Bush has taken according to Wolf (followed by my comments).
1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy Of course, we have a terrifying external enemy, terrorists, so this one would be a given no matter who was in the White House.
2. Create a gulag. By this, she means Gitmo and other prisons for foreign terrorists. Setting aside the fact that they’re prisons, not gulags, isn’t the point to set up a gulag to put YOUR CITZENS into? I mean how do you create terror among the citizenry by sticking a bunch of Saudis and Afghans in a prison in Cuba?
3. Develop a thug caste. This she defines as mercenaries in Iraq, private security guards hired in New Orleans after Katrina, and Republican protestors in Florida after the Goracle tried to lawyer out a victory. Of course, this makes for pretty thin gruel if you’re trying to come up with a “thug caste.” As a matter of fact, black block protestors at anti-war rallies would probably be closer to the mark than anything Wolf came up with, but that’s on the wrong side of the partisan divide...
4. Set up an internal surveillance system. The Bush Administration has beefed up security measures, but none of the programs Wolf mentions are aimed solely at internal communications. All of them are designed to capture intel that goes from inside the US to outside the US. So, this is really another whiff for Wolf.
5. Harass citizens’ groups. Wolf’s evidence for this is a church that advocated political positions is being investigated, justly I might add, by the IRS and government interest in anti-war groups. Given that some of these anti-war protests have been violent and advocated treasonous sentiments, it is appropriate to check up on them — and just investigating these groups doesn’t constitute “harassment.” Again, if this is the best Wolf can come up with, it’s weak tea.
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release. Here Wolf uses the “no fly” list and two people who were looked into for potential terrorism ties and not convicted. Again, this is just an incredible overstretch.
7. Target key individuals This is so vague as to be meaningless; “Target” — target how? “Key Individuals” — why is a person a key individual? As befits something this vague, Wolf flails all over here from college prosecutors to the fired US Attorneys and accomplishes nothing.
8. Control the press Bizarrely, Wolf cites everything from the administration’s pushback against Joe Wilson’s lies to Wolf’s despicable claim that the US is trying to murder journalists in Iraq. Yet, the idea that the mainstream media, which is extremely liberal and implacably hostile to Bush is under his control in any way, shape, or form, is ludicrous and Wolf makes no serious effort to prove otherwise.
9. Dissent equals treason This is a favorite canard of the left, but it’s self-refuting. Liberals always claim to be afraid of prosecution for speaking truth to power, yet they do it anyway, and nothing ever happens to them as a result. If anything, we’ve probably gone too far in the other direction where actual treason is simply shrugged off as another form of dissent.
10. Suspend the rule of law. Here, Wolf is horrified because Bush has been given the power to send one state’s national guard into another state because of an emergency. You may think that’s a good idea and a rational response to the mess caused by Blanco’s incompetence after Katrina or you may think it’s a bad idea, but it certainly doesn’t amount to a suspension of the “rule of law.”
Conclusion: Note that even though Wolf came up with her own 10 terms, her own 10 signs of fascism, she still couldn’t make a case for her argument.
Right Wing News Website
Like Bill Clinton did when he took office?"
The question to Cry Wolf is: Where was her outcry when this took place?
Mel sure put Naomi in her place once again!
Naomi Wolf is eating out too much, and must have overslept while in a tanning bed.
On the 7:00 pm show Chrissy shot the ending to show him smiling and no guests on screen as he said goodbye. The phoney POS that he is did not want any heat about cutting Mel off (my opinion)
But I agree, his rant at the end was very immature.
Matthews just seemed frustrated, irritated and flabbergasted - some combination of the three.
That's going to leave a mark.
I was looking for audio archives of more Melanie, but couldn’t find any, until I found an article on Melanie’s site about someone else who is suing Media Matters for libel.
So i went to Media Matter’s site and found tons of Melanie sound and video bites.
I think Media Matters is a vile organization but i have to give them a backhanded compliment for creating a library of archives of some great people, so check it out.
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