not to mention insensitive, rude and just clueless.
I don't write that many diaries any more, but I had to write this one (on my birthday, yet. Happy Birthday to me!)
I refer to the Tony Snow situation. Last week, when the news first broke that he was going to have surgery, we had this piece of cowdung. Tony Snow wasn't REALLY sick, he didn't REALLY need surgery, oh and by the way, did you know that I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night?
Today, of course, we found out that Tony Snow has had a recurrence of cancer, and he may well die as a result, so today we sing a different tune. We have the obligatory "here's the news" and of course, "our prayers are with you" diaries.
Read on for my not so nice analysis of this debacle.
This was a fundamental fuckup on two levels. First and foremost, as human beings, we should grant anyone (including Republicans), the right to privacy when it comes to these kinds of medical issues. My father died of colon cancer, my mother has it now. My wife had thyroid cancer in 2000, and will deal with it from now til the end of her life. It is none of anybody else's goddamn fucking business what I do or how I do it. And I say that as a pretty down and dirty political player -- within the lines of the playing field, EVERYTHING is fair game. But there ARE lines, and this is one. Daily Kos, not just the diarist, crossed those lines last week, because that diary was the #1 recommended diary for almost a day. I was disgusted then, and I am even more disgusted now.
Even aside from the purely personal, on a political level, this was stupid. We need to do better than this. Most of us are here because we want to accomplish things in the political/policy world that need doing. We are advocates, we are leaders, we are the next generation of political operatives. But some of us don't understand the way to play this game. For those who recommended flo58's putrescent diary last week, and who commented on it saying it was perfectly fair game, I say this: you were stupid. You acted like idiots, and now you look even more stupid. You don't know how to act like a grown-up. Think before you speak. This (and by "this," I mean political blogging in the limelight, where people can see you and you stand for something more than yourself) is no longer about protests and that awful George W. Bush. It's about the ability to communicate EFFECTIVELY in a new way and to persuade others that we are serious about what we want and how we want to get it. Anyone reading that diary last week and now seeing the news about Tony Snow would be disgusted by Daily Kos and what it stands for. Again, I am as much of a hardball player as there is, but THERE ARE LIMITS. Too often lately, I see those limits crossed by people who think they are clever, who think that such antics help to accomplish their goals. Yes, I am sure that some of them are trolls, but not enough to make the diary the #1 recommended diary for quite some time.
On so many levels, we fucked this one up, folks. Big time.