Comic relief from Hugh Hewitt

Responding to a post by Henry Farrell, "And while we’re on the subject of Newspeak …", on the group weblog "Crooked Timber". --Jeff Weintraub

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Hi Henry,

And while we’re on the subject of Newspeak …

Posted by Henry

Hugh Hewitt’s outing for the New York Times today is very funny.

The right’s embrace in the Miers nomination of tactics previously exclusive to the left – exaggeration, invective, anonymous sources, an unbroken stream of new charges, television advertisements paid for by secret sources – will make it immeasurably harder to denounce and deflect such assaults when the Democrats make them the next time around.

posted on Friday, October 28th, 2005 at 2:15 pm

My thought precisely--hilarious And as I'm sure you are aware, the passage you cited is not the only (unintentionally) comical one in Hewitt's preposterous op-ed. As I read his piece, I kept thinking to myself, "Is this a joke? I don't get it." For example:

Over the last two elections, the Republican Party regained control of the United States Senate by electing new senators in Florida, Georgia, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota and Texas. These victories were attributable in large measure to the central demand made by Republican candidates, and heard and embraced by voters, that President Bush's nominees deserved an up-or-down decision on the floor of the Senate.

All those swing voters turned out because they felt passionately about procedural issues in the US Senate? It wasn't because they wanted Supreme Court justices who would rule one way rather than another on specific issues (such as abortion)? Can Hewitt possibly believe this? No, even he isn't that stupid.

A deliberate parody couldn't have done a better job of portraying Hewitt in a way that leaves open only two possible options: (a) he's a shameless, bare-faced liar, or (b) he's an idiot. Possibly both, I guess.

Cheers,
Jeff Weintraub

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Kevin Drum (Political Animal) on the same subject:

October 28, 2005

PLATONIC SHILLDOM....In a New York Times op-ed today, Hugh Hewitt takes on conservatives who opposed the Harriet Miers nomination:

The right's embrace in the Miers nomination of tactics previously exclusive to the left — exaggeration, invective, anonymous sources, an unbroken stream of new charges, television advertisements paid for by secret sources — will make it immeasurably harder to denounce and deflect such assaults when the Democrats make them the next time around.

I guess that's it, then. There's literally nothing that Hugh is embarrassed to say in the service of his cause. He has reached Platonic shilldom.

—Kevin Drum 8:34 PM Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (38)