If there's one thing I like about (most) modern liberal Democrats, it's that they are generally predictable. I know that they like to think that they are generally more interesting and "edgy" than most conservatives, but generally they're just "better" at using four-letter words, and dressing up illogical arguments with hysterical rhetoric. There's nothing particularly interesting about this once you realize that their playbook hasn't really changed much over the last two generations, even if their rhetoric has become a lot more "flavored."
Then, today, they threw me a one-two punch that genuinely left me speechless. And, for the life of me, I can't figure out what the strategery here is. I take a stab at it anyway below the fold
First, in a genuine shocker, the generally detestable Donna Brazile wrote this:
On Thursday night President Bush spoke to the nation from my city. I am not a Republican. I did not vote for George W. Bush -- in fact, I worked pretty hard against him in 2000 and 2004. But on Thursday night, after watching him speak from the heart, I could not have been prouder of the president and the plan he outlined to empower those who lost everything and to rebuild the Gulf Coast.
Who is this columnist, and what have they done with the real Donna Brazile? I checked my calendar, and we're nowhere near to April 1st, and none of the other major news outlets have reported that Donna Brazile is suing the Washington Post for fraudulent use of her name. So what gives?
And for the love of my sanity, why isn't she done saying nice things about President Bush?
The president also laid out the federal government's goal for rebuilding. It is unprecedented in its scope and ambition, matching destruction that is unprecedented as well. He made the challenge clear: This will be one of the biggest reconstruction projects in history. But he also made it clear that we can and will do this. New Orleans, Biloxi, all of the Gulf Coast will rise again. And the residents are ready to pitch in and do their part.
I know, maybe better than anyone, that there are times when it seems that our nation is too divided ever to heal. There are times when we feel so different from each other that we can hardly believe that we are all part of the same family. But we are one nation. We are a family. And this is what we do. When the president asked us to pitch in Thursday night, he wasn't really asking us to do anything spectacular. He was asking us to be Americans, and to do what Americans always do.
* * *
Mr. President, I am ready for duty. I am ready to stir those old pots again. Let's roll up our sleeves and get to work.
Wow. I was trying to digest the strategery of this (How will she turn this against Bush? How does this help the Democratic party? Is there some sort of secret code embedded in the article that made this confluence of words necessary, independent of their actual meaning?) As I was digesting this, I was simultaneously checking out the musings of the folks on the other side of The Big Ditch™ and came across this, which seemed to indicate that some folks, at the very least, aren't quite so ready to work together with President Bush. At least, I think that was the point:
You ready to pay your fair share in taxes Donna? You ready to ask your wonderful President to ask rich folks like you to pay their fair share?
Cuz I think that is where you can help the most. But maybe you have some carpentry skills we don't know about.
Dude, Armando, what? Are you trying to say that Donna Brazile is opposed to higher taxes for rich people? That Donna Brazile is in favor of the Bush tax cuts? You know that she makes a pretty good living going around the country and telling everyone who will listen that the Bush tax cuts are to blame for the deficit and must be rescinded, right?
And what is this carpentry thing? Are you calling her a chickentaxhawk? A chickencarpentryhawk? A chickenbushcohelpinghawk? Honestly, I don't know what to say about this. Are they really that intellectually vapid, that they're trying to take an illogical argument and shoehorn it into taxes? Against Donna Brazile? Has the chickenhawk meme become so ingrained in your mentality that you haul it out against literally anyone who does anything you don't like, even if they're not talking about the war? If there's a coherent message here (other than, "You're RICH and that makes me ANGRY!"), I'm missing it completely.
A less paranoid person would just say that the Donks have lost their last shred of sanity. But I'm still looking over my shoulder for the Clinton curveball in all of this. I'm sure Nick will sort it all out for me soon.
At the risk of being overly optimistic, I would speculate that if Bush's speech made a believer out of Donna Brazile, then we are soon to see a wave of approval polls trending in the upwards direction for the President. And really, if that happens, I don't know if the netizens of the left will be able to recover from the shock.
Somebody pass the popcorn.
Comments