If one is looking for an example of unintended irony, one need only listen to Frank Luntz's dissection of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's senior thesis on Hannity and Colmes Friday night.
Luntz, a longtime GOP pollster and strategist claimed that the New York Senator's paper on left-wing activist Saul D. Alinsky places her "completely out of the mainstream."
"The American people want you to say what you mean and mean what you say," Luntz told Sean Hannity during the segment. Despite that, under close questioning from Alan Colmes, even Luntz had to concede that Clinton's paper was a not a whole-hearted endorsement of Alinsky's practices.
"I agreed with some of Alinsky's ideas," she explained in "Living History," her 2003 biography, "particularly the value of empowering people to help themselves. But we had a fundamental disagreement. He believed you could change the system only from the outside. I didn't." – MSNBC article, "Reading Hillary Rodham's Hidden Thesis" March 3, 2007.
Despite that lukewarm endorsement, right-wingers like Hannity have been making much of the fact that the thesis was sealed during Bill Clinton's two terms in office. It has been available for scholars to review since Clinton left office in 2001. In spite of it presenting a tempting target for right-wing bloggers, it took a member of the oft-maligned mainstream media to dig up the paper.
Luntz seems particularly ill-equipped to conduct any sort of dispassionate examination of Clinton's college work. His sole credential for appearing on Hannity and Colmes appeared to be his recent book, Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear. Publishers Weekly described the book as mostly being a collection of anecdotes and common-sense writing tips.
The most readable and redeeming feature is the two case studies, where Luntz demonstrates his skill as a communicator by identifying real-world communications successes and failures. Unfortunately, by the time nonpartisan readers reach these chapters, they will have already lost patience. – Amazon.com's Editorial Review of Luntz's book.
So there is no rigorous, scientific examination of the language Senator Clinton used in order to out her as a wild-eyed radical. Instead, one can easily imagine the thesis being written by a woman on the cusp of adulthood who was somewhat starry-eyed in the presence of a man whose accomplishments she admired.
"...he has been feared — just as Eugene Debs or Walt Whitman or Martin Luther King has been feared, because each embraced the most radical of political faiths — democracy." – Hillary Rodham's senior theses – 1969
But all that aside, given the current political climate does Luntz really want the average citizen to think too much about an administration that has:
- They sealed the records on George H. W. Bush's administration.
- Mislaid the records on the current President's National Guard Service.
- Was less than forthcoming about warrantless wiretapping, extraordinary rendition and prisoner abuse.
- Could not be pinned down on the use of intelligence before launching the war in Iraq.
And the list goes on.
All a person can say after watching this pathetic attempt at a smear job is this: If this is the worst the right can do to Senator Clinton, she can start measuring drapes for the Oval Office right now.