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Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Upping the anti

Over at Political Animal, Kevin Drum lets Jonah Goldberg off way too easy:

BUSH HATERS....Jonah Goldberg, in the middle of a post about Clinton haters and the people who hate them, says this:

“The Bush-haters ó who are just as extreme and nasty as the Clinton-haters were, and in many ways more so....”

Tell you what, Jonah. As soon as the most popular liberal editorial page in the country accuses George Bush of murdering one of his aides, maybe I’ll give your argument a hearing. And as soon as one of the most influential liberal interest groups in the country starts distributing hundreds of thousands of videos suggesting that George Bush ran a coke ring out of Austin, then I’ll really perk up. And when Senate Democrats spend $70 million investigating the Valerie Plame affair ó compared to the current $0 ó and end up bringing impeachment charges against George Bush, then you’ll have me. You’ll really have me.

But until then, sell it somewhere else. Michael Moore calling Bush a liar and a moron just isn’t in the same league as what your side did to Bill Clinton, and nobody who was sentient during the 90s can find the contrary suggestion anything but laughable.

Well, Kevin, I’m with you in spirit here, but actually, the cherubic Child of Lucianne has to meet a few more conditions before he really has you.  First, he has to find members of a major liberal organization at their annual convention, selling and wearing buttons and bumper stickers asking where Lee Harvey Oswald is now that we need him, just the way the Christian Coalition did in the mid-1990s.  Then he has to find a prominent Democratic senator-- say, Barbara Boxer-- saying that George Bush will “need a bodyguard” if he ever visits California, just the way Jesse Helms threatened Clinton in North Carolina.

And then he has to go around the country, from Arkansas to Washington, D.C. cleaning up after his mom.  That should take him a while.

UPDATE:  So much for my memories of 1994.  The major Oswald-yearning that year wasn’t at the Christian Coalition convention, but at the Virginia state Republican party convention (see comments).  Assuming you draw the distinction, which Pete Hamill suggested we don’t really need to do:  “The Christian Coalition commandeers the Republican state convention in Virginia, and among the slogans on the wall is one that says ‘Where is Lee Harvey Oswald when America really needs him?’” “Endgame,” Esquire, December 1994.  See also Sid Blumenthal’s account of the convention in the July 18, 1994 New Yorker:

Most booths did a brisk business in buttons, which expressed just a few simple themes: “There Are Americans And There Are Liberals”; “AIDS Abortion Euthanasia-- Don’t Liberals Just Kill Ya”; “Sodom and Gomorrah Had Gays in the Military”; “Clinton Doesn’t Inhale-- He Sucks”; “Real Men Are Not Called Hillary”; “If the Clintons Divorce, Who Gets the House?”;
“President Clinton: ‘You Can Play with the Dog, but Leave My Pussy Alone!’” and “Where Is Lee Harvey Oswald When America Really Needs Him?” One booth displayed a T-shirt reading “Justice for Clinton.” It featured a picture of an aborted fetus.

Remember, this wasn’t just a bunch of lunatics calling in to G. Gordon Liddy’s talk show.  It was the Republican Party of Virginia.

Over to you, Jonah.

Posted by Michael on 08/17 at 04:31 AM
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