The Block of the Writers

Nice to know that I'm not the only one suffering from a lack of inspiration. Jeff Jacoby has an article today in which he clearly wants to focus on how much we Liberals hate President Bush in the context of the ongoing election. So naturally he takes as his chief evidence an article written a year ago.

Because that's presumably easier than digging up a lot of hateful things we are saying right now. Granted that article, "The Case for Bush Hatred" by Jonathan Chait, published in The New Republic, was a bit extreme. But most Conservatives apparently believe that even mild criticism of President Bush, coming from liberals, can only be motivated by hatred. So you'd think he could find some examples.

Jacoby's not content to recruit an article from last November. Why not through in a deception while he's at it? Let's read this sentence and see if we can pick out the lie. "That was before MoveOn.org posted two videos on its website depicting Bush as Adolf Hitler."

Did you catch the deception? If you read that story it sounds like MoveOn posted two videos comparing President Bush to Hitler doesn't it? But the truth is somewhat different. MoveOn held a contest, entitled Bush in 30 seconds (if memory serves), allowing people to turn in ads criticizing President Bush. Two contestants turned in the ads which used Nazi imagery. MoveOn promptly removed the ads, saying that they had exceeded the boundaries of good taste.

Coincidentally, the Bush Campaign then choose to use those images in a web ad of their own, splicing the images of Hitler in between images of Howard Dean, Al Gore, and John Kerry. You'd think if these images were so bad and so beyond the pale, they wouldn't want to use them. But I guess this was a special case.

Let's take another statement. "Clinton-bashing got pretty intense, but rare was the Republican who was proud to call it "hatred." Many Bush-haters, by contrast, embrace the term enthusiastically." I guess Jacoby has a hard time telling the difference between one (Mr. Jonathan Chait) and many. He's also not adjusting for irony. After Hillary Clinton referred to a "vast right-winged conspiracy" more than one Conservative commentator or politician was happy describing themselves as members of this conspiracy.

Conservatives have been calling Liberals Bush-haters for a couple of years now. If some liberals besides Mr. Jonathan Chait have accepted the term (and Mr. Jacoby's article gives no evidence that they have (other than assertion)), than might not the same logic apply?