Today on This Week, while discussing Michael Steele's recent comments on Afghanistan, Al Hunt made a remarkable statement:
A senior member of the House told me that if there had been a private vote on that supplemental spending bill for Afghanistan funding, it would have lost by a decisive majority. Many Democrats, and more Republicans than you might think...
Al, I'm just a naif, a nobody, but here's what I think: Al, if this is true, you have a moral obligation to push this issue. You have an obligation to take these comments out of the shadows called "highly placed sources" and demand they be on the record. Yes, I understand the ethical canon of journalism with respect to sources. Yes, I know to do so would likely impact your cozy relationship with the insiders. But here's the thing Al, your pals are literally sacrificing the lives of Americans in the pursuit of their own Machiavellian power equations. They have blood on their hands.
Al, do you understand the monstrous implications of their political calculations and cowardice? Do you understand that your failure to do your job makes you complicit? Yes, Al, your job. Do I need to remind you that your job is to expose the perfidy, duplicity, hypocrisy, and immoral behavior of those who would claim power? To speak truth to power, that is your job Al. Have you become too comfortable, too indulged, too feted, too lazy? Have you been seduced by access, and secrets, and the inside dope? Have decades of being a "celebrity journalist" hypnotized you? Are the shiny baubles of second-hand power really worth the price you've paid? Al, you're not supposed to be an insider.
Al, where is your integrity? Al, where is your courage? Al, where is your humanity? Al, where is your self-respect? Al, how can you comfortably swill one more cocktail with these jackals you call sources? Al, how can you participate in one more off-the-record conversation with these feral politicians and thus protect them and guarantee their unearned prerogatives? Al, how can you coyly intimate the unseen mechanics of raw immoral power yet not pull back the curtain for us to see? That's your job Al. Al, what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?
Al, there is more to life than being welcomed into the upholstered sewer of some Senator's inner-office. Al, if you do not honestly report to us, and thus sacrifice the pleasures of of being privy to the gossipy gasses that issue from Washington's Stygian pit, who and what are you? Nothing more, I'm afraid, than a mealy-mouthed supplicant at the groaning board of corrupt power. You too, Al, have blood on your hands. Shame on you Al.
Ok then, end of rant.