1 Boring Old Man

After excoriating Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame [in Valerie Plame’s lawsuit is a huge mistake… for Valerie Plame], Jim Kouri ends with:

The fact of the matter is that the Democrats want to keep this story alive in spite of not getting their archenemy Karl Rove indicted. The prosecutor tried, but being an honorable guy he realized — although he hasn’t said it bluntly — that this CIA Leak Case was a lot of Hoodoo. You see, Democrat Party liberals are only interested in probing leaks that don’t harm national security. You know — the ones that actually help the enemy and hurt the country.

I picked this article because it is such a good example of a particular kind of rhetoric prevalent in a lot of the right wing literature – it’s typical, for example, of the kind of thing Ann Coulter spews out on an almost daily basis. It says "… the Democrats want to keep this story alive in spite of not getting their archenemy Karl Rove indicted," as if this suit was initiated by some group of Democratic Liberals. As far as I know, it was instigated by Joseph Wilson and his wife.

But then he goes even further, "You see, Democrat Party liberals are only interested in probing leaks that don’t harm national security. You know — the ones that actually help the enemy and hurt the country." The author says that the motives of D.L.’s [his mythical coalition of Democratic Liberals who control all things] is specifically motivated to help the enemy and hurt the country. That’s Ann Coulter’s assertion in her book, the D.L.‘s managing the 911 widows, Max Cleland. It’s the usual charge of Michelle Malkin’s rants. Now that I’m thinking about it, it’s the theme of every Rush Limbaugh show I’ve ever heard [not many! I promise] or Karl Rove’s speeches. The demon D.L.‘s specifically plotting to undermine our country with conspiracies involving everyone – Cindy Sheehan, the 911 widows, the Wilsons, Hillary, probably me [if they knew I existed], etc.

It’s not even good pulp fiction…

This kind of rhetoric is so prevalent, that I think we ought to mount a campaign against it. Here’s my plan.

• First, we should all swear an oath not to do it – not to say, "Conservative Republicans are only interested in …" [followed by something absurd].
  
• Second, we should only talk about the absurdity of the rhetorical device when they do it, not take the bait and defend the content of the accusation.
  
• Third, we should write a collective piece of Pulp Fiction as satire entitled something like, The Democratic Liberals That Ate Cleveland, which might be fun.
• Fourth, we should have a national contest to name it – a rovism, a coulterism, a rushism, something catchy.
• Fifth, we might have a national awards ceremony, or suggest that Jon Stewart have a weekly award, for the most creative whatever-they-are-called of the week, year…