Posted on 10/26/2009 10:55:41 AM PDT by mnehring
“Obama hasn’t reset the American relationship with Russia. He was taken for a ride. Maybe his vanity won’t let him admit it. But, believe me, the Russians know they have taken him (and us) for a big ride, indeed.” Obama, he adds, gave the Russians what they asked for, in the hope that Putin would then agree to tough sanctions against Iran. Secretary Clinton then goes to Russia, only to be informed by Putin that his government does not believe sanctions are appropriate. As Peretz concludes: “Of course, if you don’t ask, you don’t get. In fact, with the Russians, if you don’t demand and threaten a little, you get zero.”
There are honest members of the Left, capable of acknowledging when they agree with the Right and mounting rational arguments when they do not, as demonstrated above by Marty Peretz, but, oh yeah, he’s a man.
Here he agrees with Liz Cheney’s assessment of the Obama administration’s blunders in dealing with Russia.
What is it about the female of the species on the port side of the ideological divide that allows them to be seized by fits of hysterical snarkiness and trivial banalities like post-pubescent 14 year old girls ? Maureen Dowd, Jane Hamsher, Ana Marie Cox, et al all seem to regress into a state of suspended eighth-grade angst when confronted by a Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman or now, it seems, Liz Cheney, the latest source of their paroxysms.
Ron Radosh, of PajamasMedia, wrote of the media war on Cheney:
Liz Cheney is sending fervent Obama fans into a tizzy. First, Maureen Dowd, the most overrated op-ed columnist writing today, penned the most mean spirited column she has ever written and perhaps the most inaccurate. She accuses Ms. Cheney of “regarding bipartisanship with the same contempt as multilateralism and multiculturalism,” and along with her father and sister, of leading “the charge against Obama, painting him as a wishy-washy loser who turned America to mush.”
There is nothing as crude as exaggerating a serious critique of Obama’s foreign policy, one that Liz Cheney regularly makes with aplomb and dignity, by dumbing it down to make Cheney sound absurd. Dowd is obviously furious that Cheney along with Bill Kristol and others have formed a new group, Keep America Safe, that seeks to heighten public awareness of the need to come together as a nation and demand a policy that protects our national security.
Noemie Emery writes of the panic apparent in The New Republic’s Michelle Cottle (Martin Peretz’s journal) current rants about Elizabeth Cheney:
She’s Palin-Plus (Palin, plus pedigree), who Palin would be if she had been marinated from birth in the Beltway political culture, plus a top-ranking school and a mother who was one of the first stars of “Crossfire,” and minus the embarrassing ex-almost-son-in-law, the moose, and the family drama.
“Saturday Night Live” would have a hard time getting her number. She has conservative cred, but expressed in a Beltway-type patois that blue state independents do not find threatening.
She’s a Palin who could tie Katie Couric in knots, a mom from McLean who could be Cottle’s neighbor. Moms from McLean could be her constituents. Cottle couldn’t easily explain to a non-left-wing neighbor why Cheney is “dangerous.” That’s why Cottle hates her, and wants her destroyed.
That’s why Liz, and those like her, bring out the witch-hunting bloodlust in liberals; why “gutsy” and “tough” in a Hillary Clinton become “savage” and “rough” in a female conservative. They ought to get over this fear of strong women. It’s what they told us to do.
Echoing Emery, Jennifer Rubin of Commentary Magazine writes of Cottle’s and others attacks on Cheney:
Part of what’s going on here is fear of a political dynamo — an articulate and attractive figure who is putting pressure on one of Obama’s weakest points, his lack of resolute leadership on national security. But it’s bigger than simple concern about a new, rising star on the conservative side. What’s also at stake, just as it was with Sarah Palin, is no less than the meaning of “feminism” and liberals’ claim to represent all women.
For decades now, conservative women have been painted as “not real women” — fakes and frauds, betrayers of their gender because they did not check the box on the list of liberal dogmas, most especially on abortion. To be a feminist, and to be an authentic female politician, one had to subscribe to abortion on demand, expansion of government social services, and a view of foreign policy that eschewed hard power. Leave alone for a moment that this represented the worst sort of condescending stereotyping. It was the view propounded by politicians, academics, and media enablers of the Left.
So when strong, female, and conservative women — with children no less, and lots of them! — come along, the dogma is unsettled and the stereotype is challenged. Feminism is not the province of the Left, these conservative women assert, if feminism is meant to be the empowerment of women and the opening of opportunities. And it certainly doesn’t require acceptance of a pastel agenda of nanny-state domestic policies and pacifism abroad.
No one can deny Liz Cheney has been the beneficiary of her parents position and influence. But the luck of the draw does not obviate inherent and natural skill and intelligence. Cheney is a successful international lawyer, former State Department official, consultant and now operates the new website, KeepAmericaSafe.com, with partners Deborah Burlingame and William Kristol.
Liz Cheney has a husband and five children. So does Sarah Palin. So does Michelle Bachman.
Hmmm.
And all three of these women manage successful public careers, are fearless in defending their opinions and find no obstacles in their chosen positions as leaders in the conservative movement.
Who would have thought it ?
I'd take it as a badge of honor.
And Maureen Dowd has how many children to go with her loving husband?
Because RIGHT WING women, are REAL women ?
Both have the balls(how unfortunate) to take on the sleaze of the liberals and rise above it.
A BTT. These are not “real” women if we are to believe the self-appointed guardians of political correctitude. Not “real” because they don’t base their politics around class grievances. Not “real” but something else. I’d love to know what.
Also, one to watch who doesn’t get enough credit is Marsha Blackburn.
When she speaks, listen up. She is almost a female William F Buckley in how pointed (and Conservative) her statements are.
The other commandment these women have broken is Be Ugly. Because, to the true, liberal feminists, being beautiful is a betrayal. It means, to them, that you are choosing to be attractive to men vs being powerful. Lib Feminists see it as either/ or.
Hmmmmm...I have also have a husband and five children.
Yes. I do see a pattern here.
;)PM
right wing women are strong and sexy with a good head on their shoulders unlike the freaks who are on the left.
My wife and I get a kick out of the Dem rallies on TV .
The women are awful, no class, no sense of dress or style and many look like young boys.
Contrast that to the right wing women at the rallies who show grace , style, class and beauty.
Not sure if Marsha wants to make a run, although I agree, she is extremely good.
If they were really conservative, they would be home taking care of their children.
Congraulations to you! NE.Pa.perhaps? Go,Phillies!
I’ve watched Liz Cheney in interviews and the woman is SMART. She strikes me as being exceptionally tough as well in an understated kind of way.
Great line.
I’m a big fan of Liz Cheney. She should run for public office - she’d be a real asset to the party.
So I take it you don’t approve of Sarah Palin?
Funny
Conservative mothers must step up....because our men can’t even give up the NFL.
They speak their minds.
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