Friday, July 09, 2010

Michael Gerson Knows A Thing Or Two About Crazy People

(Gerson [with the weird hairdo] with fun people Dan Bartlett, Condi, and some other guy, 01-20-04, AP Photo)

Michael "Axis of Evil™" Gerson typifies the Bush-era Christian Republican set; that's why he has a column in the Washington Post, after all. To his credit, he's one of the few Bushies to take on the Tea Party types. He knows they make run-of-the-mill hacks like him an endangered species: so insidery, so "establishment," so "Washington" (EW, EW!!). I have to admit I really enjoyed the following paragraph about Sharron Angle from his latest column:

But mainstream conservatives have been strangely disoriented by Tea Party excess, unable to distinguish the injudicious from the outrageous. Some rose to Angle's defense or attacked her critics. Just to be clear: A Republican Senate candidate has identified the United States Congress with tyranny and contemplated the recourse to political violence. This is disqualifying for public office. It lacks, of course, the seriousness of genuine sedition. It is the conservative equivalent of the Che Guevara T-shirt -- a fashion, a gesture, a toying with ideas the wearer only dimly comprehends. The rhetoric of "Second Amendment remedies" is a light-weight Lexington, a cut-rate Concord. It is so far from the moral weightiness of the Founders that it mocks their memory. 

Haw, good stuff! He then goes on to bash Rand Paul, so, you know, give the guy a little credit for taking the Tea Party angerbots head-on. Yes, yes, it's Gerson, an idiot, but you have to admit he nailed it with that "Che Guevara T-shirt" line.

6 comments:

Matthew Hubbard said...

It's early in the election cycle, and the one Dem brilliant move so far is Harry Reid bringing back the old versions of Sharron Angle's website. Her over-reaction to it is priceless.

Sharron may take to a makeover, I'm not sure. On the other hand, Rand Paul has lived inside a crazy bubble so long, I don't think he's going to be able to tone it down.

Sadly, this is not the same thing as saying he's sure to lose.

Karen Zipdrive said...

I love that Google cache or whatever it's called. And I'm glad to see that Pussyboy Harry Reid has finally grown a pair.

Bartman said...

Note all are in the black outfits that became de rigueur during Bush's second term. They even had to be worn during July and August in D.C.

The suits came off looking like velvet on my teevee. Old Jeem Lehrer still wears his.

Kalkaino said...

I dunno -- "the conservative equivalent of the Che Guevara T-shirt"? Wearing the iconic face of an obscure but movie-star- handsome revolutionary doesn't really seem to me "equivalent" to advocating the shooting of a sitting senator over policy differences. And even if Sharon's listeners only "dimly comprehend" what she's saying, maybe especially if they only dimly comprehend it, they're quite capable of acting on it. It doesn't take a poli-sci degree to pull a trigger.

But you can't expect a sociopath like Gerson to see the moral distinction.

dguzman said...

Prince Valiant called and wants his hairdo back.

pENcilDk said...

Tru dat Princess tru dat

like the playin the ball where it lies aspect of this post. as in if the drug war were mentioned as part of the cost of stupid laws in az where the current gov is truly laboring under the wieght of decades of horrible management at every level... ha! just kiddding! got NPR on...