Last November, Joe Lieberman wrote
his now-famous op-ed in the
Wall Street Journal defending George W. Bush's Iraq policy. In recent days, the
Journal editorial staff has repaid the favor--and with above-prime rate interest.
Today's editorial page includes a column entitled "Liberal McCarthyism" by veteran Democratic mandarin and Lieberman supporter Lanny Davis.
The bottom line: Davis has equated liberal Democrats with not only Joe McCarthy but Ann Coulter as well. His logic has more holes than the offensive line of the Detroit "Lions."
During the past few weeks, Davis spent some time sifting through anti-Lieberman posts. The posts he inserted into his column--three here on dKos and two on the Huffington Post--cover a range of dates from last December to last month, which means he's done enough cherry-picking to qualify for an honorary membership in the United Farmworkers Union.
One post that offended Davis, by tomjones, read as follows:
"as everybody knows, jews ONLY care about the welfare of other jews; thanks ever so much for reminding everyone of this most salient fact, so that we might better ignore all that jewish propaganda [by Lieberman] about participating in the civil rights movement of the 60s and so on"
An inexcusably ugly post to be sure, but tomjones is a relatively infrequent poster here, and has not put up a diary. And he represents exactly .001 percent of dKos membership.
Davis offers two other poset by Kossacks as evidence that Lieberman's opponents are no better than Ann Coulter, Michael Savage, or Rush Limbaugh.
ctkeith wrote:
"Joe's on the Senate floor now and he's growing a beard. He has about a weeks growth on his face....I hope he dyes his beard Blood red. It would be so appropriate"
And greenskeeper wrote:
"Joe Lieberman is a racist and a religious bigot"
In the words of sportscaster Keith Jackson, "hold the phone!"
Let's play a little compare and contrast here. Here are a few of the many bons mots that Coulter has unleashed in the name of discourse:
On the art of gentle persuasion: "I think a baseball bat is the most effective way [to talk to liberals] these days."
Why Joe McCarthy was a wimp: "When contemplating college liberals, you really regret once again that [American Taliban supporter] John Walker [Lindh] is not getting the death penalty. We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed too. Otherwise they will turn out to be outright traitors."
High crimes and misdemeanors: "[Clinton] raped a woman and molested interns in the White House."
On women: "We're not that bright." This from a member of the Law Review at U-M Law School.
"Loonie" views of our neighbor to the north: Canadians "better hope the United States doesn't roll over one night and crush them. They are lucky we allow them to exist on the same continent."
On winning Muslims' hearts and minds: "America should "invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.'
When complaining to the ombudsman doesn't work: "My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times building."
Finally, Ann's version of Article III of the Constitution: "We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens' creme brulee."
Can you say false equivalence? I though you could.
Davis also made this lame attempt to tie Ned Lamont to the most hot-headed figures in the blogosphere:
Moreover, the support he gets from these haters should not be attributed to Mr. Lamont--nor should he be blamed for their extremism, bigotry and intolerance. But he ought to denounce them. He hasn't as yet.
Oh? And what about Joe Lieberman's new-found friends--the right-wing figures who hold him up as "the good Democrat" for reflexively supporting a war of choice against a country that didn't pose an imminent danger? The Lord of Stamfordshire hasn't disavowed them.
Davis closes with these words:
Mr. Lamont and all other liberal Democrats should remember the McCarthy era and not fall into the trap of the hypocrisy of the double standard--that it's not OK when Ann Coulter dispenses her venomous hatred, but it is OK when our side's versions of Ann Coulter do.
Par for the course for a columnist who seeks to tar an entire community for the intemperate posts of the likes of tomjones. Davis needs to visit a Home Depot, and in a hurry. The brush he's using to paint Lieberman's opponents is much too broad.
Update: As a number of posters mentioned, the comment by tomjones was a snarky response to another comment that was troll-rated. Either Lanny Davis wasn't doing his due diligence, or he figured he could skate on this one. Hat tip to all of you who pointed this out.