Right-wing pundits play doctor; diagnose Gore as "insane" (complaint by liberal media watchdog)

Media Matters for America ^ | 05/28/04 | David Brock

[motife]

Right-wing pundits play doctor; diagnose Gore as "insane"

Responding to former Vice President Al Gore's May 26 speech (sponsored by MoveOn.org and delivered at New York University), in which Gore called for the resignation of six top Bush administration officials, right-wing pundits seemed to read from the same anti-Gore script: resorting to satirical speculation about his psychiatric state -- in one case, attacking the speech itself as "hate speech" and, in another case, as eliciting "the biggest cheers ... from caves in Afghanistan and diehards in Fallujah."

Charles Krauthammer, on FOX News Channel's Special Report with Brit Hume, on May 26:

It looks as if Al Gore has gone off his lithium again.

(Charles Krauthammer is a syndicated Washington Post columnist, Time magazine columnist, and FOX News contributor. He holds a medical degree from Harvard and worked as a resident in psychiatry in the late 1970s before moving to Washington.)

Dennis Miller, host of CNBC's Dennis Miller, on May 26:

At one point I respected Al Gore, but I think he's lost his mind. ... I think he's gone daft because he's a sad little man now.

Mark R. Levin, conservative radio talk show host, as a guest on FOX News Channel's Hannity & Colmes on May 26:

He sounded like and looked like [televangelist] Jimmy Swaggart. He really did.

[...]

And half the country thinks he's [Al Gore is] a mental patient. ... They think he should go back to the dayroom he came out of.

(Mark R. Levin is the president of the Landmark Legal Foundation, a conservative legal advocacy group that has received millions of dollars in funding from right-wing financier Richard Mellon Scaife, according to a dossier by Media Transparency: The Money Behind the Media, a website that tracks grants made to conservative organizations. Levin is also a contributing editor for National Review Online. His nightly radio show is aired on 77 WABC Newstalk Radio, which also airs conservative commentators Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham. He has also been a frequent guest on Hannity's radio show, The Sean Hannity Show.)

Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC's Scarborough Country, on May 26:

Well, Al Gore is at it again. He just can't help himself, breathlessly attacking the president in a speech today. But will hate speech like this backfire on the Democrats? [text on screen: "Gore's Hate Speech"]

[...]

You know, Al Gore adds to the global warming threat today with his very own thermonuclear meltdown.

Michael Savage, on his nationally syndicated radio show, Savage Nation, on May 26:

We are all sitting here asking ourselves, was there lead in Al Gore's silver spoon, because of the obvious tilt across the river of sanity. He has definitely pulled his raft across the river of sanity, or he has taken the side of the enemy, there's no other explanation for what he has been doing.

(Michael Savage's radio program, Savage Nation, is syndicated by Talk Radio Network and is the third-largest syndicated radio talk show in the nation, reaching 6 million listeners per week. He is the author of two New York Times best-sellers, The Savage Nation: Saving America from the Liberal Assault on Our Borders, Language and Culture and The Enemy Within: Saving America from the Liberal Assault on Our Schools, Faith, and Military -- both published by the conservative WorldNetDaily press WND Books. Savage hosted a short-lived televised version of his show for MSNBC, also called The Savage Nation, before being fired by the cable channel for referring on the air to a caller as a "sodomite" and saying that the caller should "get AIDS and die.")

John Podhoretz, in a column in the New York Post, on May 27:

[I]t is now clear that Al Gore is insane. I don't mean that his policy ideas are insane, though many of them are. I mean that based on his behavior, conduct, mien and tone over the past two days, there is every reason to believe that Albert Gore Jr., desperately needs help. I think he needs medication, and I think that if he is already on medication, his doctors need to adjust it or change it entirely.

[...]

Gore's speech is the single craziest political performance of my lifetime, and I use the word "craziest" advisedly. The speech, at 6,600 words, was twice as long as Bush's address to the nation on Monday night. The indiscipline shown by the sheer endlessness of Gore's address is a reflection of the psychic morass in which he has become mired.

(John Podhoretz is a New York Post columnist, FOX News Channel contributor, author of Bush Country: How Dubya Became a Great President While Driving Liberals Insane, and former speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush.)

David Frum, in "David Frum's Diary" on National Review Online, on May 27:

Maybe a National Psychological Council would be a good idea after all -- and maybe it could start by advising this former senator, vice president, and two-time presidential candidate that he [Al Gore] ought to seek out for his own good a cool and quiet darkened room.

(David Frum is a contributing editor to National Review, a resident fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, and a regular contributor to National Public Radio and to Great Britain's Daily Telegraph. He is also the author of the 2003 Random House release The Right Man: The Surprise Presidency of George W. Bush.)

Barbara Comstock, in a column published on National Review Online on May 27:

Columnist Charles Krauthammer observed, "Looks as if Al Gore has gone off his lithium again."

[...]

Outside of MoveOn.org, the biggest cheers for Gore must have been coming from caves in Afghanistan and diehards in Fallujah.

(Barbara Comstock was director of the Office of Public Affairs at the Department of Justice under Attorney General John Ashcroft from December 2001 until September 2003 and is currently a principal at Blank Rome Government Relations, where she serves "as a lobbyist and strategic communications specialist." She was director of research and strategic planning at the Republican National Committee during the 2000 election. According to the May 13, 1998, issue of The Hill, Comstock was a "close ally" of David Bossie while both served as aides to Representative Dan Burton (R-IL) on the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee. Comstock "also played a key role in [selectively] editing and releasing" controversial transcripts of former Clinton administration official Webster Hubbell's prison conversations -- the incident for which Bossie was fired from the committee.)

James Taranto, on The Wall Street Journal's editorial page website, OpinionJournal.com, in his "Best of the Web Today" column, on May 27:

An Associated Press account of yesterday's speech notes that "Gore, who served in Vietnam, predicted greater problems for America's involvement in Iraq." The AP apparently means to suggest that Gore suffers from posttraumatic stress disorder, since the Vietnam reference is otherwise a complete non sequitur. But according to WebMD, "symptoms of PTSD usually occur within three months of the traumatic event." True, "they can occur months or years later" -- but three decades later?

We've got a better theory: Gore, in our view, has cracked under a crushing burden of guilt.

Linda Vester, host of FOX News Channel's DaySide with Linda Vester, on May 27:

Some pundits have said they thought he went off his meds.

Oliver North, as a guest on FOX News Channel's DaySide with Linda Vester on May 27 and on FOX News Channel's Hannity & Colmes that evening: They should check Gore's medications. [from DaySide with Linda Vester]

Somebody needs to check this guy's medication. This guy has got a problem. [from Hannity & Colmes]

(Oliver North is a nationally syndicated columnist and the host of the weekly FOX News Channel series War Stories with Oliver North. North is also the author of a book -- based on his tour in Iraq embedded with Marine and Army units during Operation Iraqi Freedom -- titled War Stories: Operation Iraqi Freedom (Regnery Publishing, November 2003). The book includes a free DVD featuring an hour-long FOX News Channel episode of War Stories: Operation Iraqi Freedom. According to a Publishers Weekly review, FOX shares copyright on the book.)

Sean Hannity, co-host of FOX News Channel's Hannity & Colmes -- in response to guest Oliver North's comment "Somebody needs to check this guy's medication. This guy has got a problem." -- on May 27:

He's [Al Gore's] really nuts. Rush Limbaugh, host of the nationally syndicated radio show The Rush Limbaugh Show, on May 26:

I guess we can't -- get those -- those naked pyramids just not in the national interest to Al Gore. [laughter]

[...]

I mean, it says -- it says a lot about Gore. It says he's perverse, that he would be argue to go confer greater rights on those who seek to murder millions of Americans and calling for even tougher actions to seek them out and destroy them before they destroy us.

What really troubles me about these photos, above and beyond what's in them, is how they're being used to undermine our war effort.

— N.C., S.M., K.N., & A.S.

Posted to the web on Friday May 28, 2004 at 10:05 AM EST

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[aculeus]

Repeat after me: Brock is a Crock.

[hardhead]

In all the news and posts I've read, I have only seen one demo criticize his own party - Zell Miller. Democrats are like muslims, shut up and toe the party line.

[highlander_UW]

Typical leftist response, instead of considering the sanity of Gore it has become..."the right wing conspiracy did it" to Gore.

[VaBthang4]

HEY!! I didn't get my VRWC fax concerning our talking points per Al Gore.

[miltonim]

An Associated Press account of yesterday's speech notes that "Gore, who served in Vietnam, predicted greater problems for America's involvement in Iraq." The AP apparently means to suggest that Gore suffers from posttraumatic stress disorder, since the Vietnam reference is otherwise a complete non sequitur.

By the way, did you know Kerry was also in Vietnam?

[B-Chan]

[BenLurkin]

"Ah . . but the strawberries, yes - that's where I had them!"

[hermgem]

Gore wants to go back into graces with Democrats.
His hug fest with Howard Dean where he performed with the intention to repeat-serve as Vice President made him an outsider with inner circle Democrats.
After ballooning after his Florida court failures, dieting to get the fat off again, he now performs for attention, regardless of style, to serve again.
Gore needs to realize and accept the fact that he is through.

[BlazingArizona]

Two friends are cycling bipolars,..

I've noticed this about quite a few spokeheads. Make sure your friends keep to the off-street trails.

[lavrenti]

Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.

[HardStarboard]

Bump for Dennis Miller's comment on mad Al Gore:

I think he's gone daft because he's a sad little man now.

[Bonaparte]

If we accept Brock's terms of debate, then Charles Krauthammer, who is a psychiatrist, concurs with the pundits who believe Gore is mentally disturbed.

Who shall we believe -- a duly licensed physician specializing in psychiatry or a self-admitted liar and sexual pervert?

[beavus]

Hopefully after Dean and Gore's respective fiascos, Democrats will give up their efforts to rally the troops.

[badgerlandjim]

Hey, cut Al some slack... could be
he's under slumlord stress again be-
cause of rental unit toilet problems...

[oyez]

Better yet.

[oyez]

(Heh-heh) Algore is probably looking for a key to the lock box about now. He has proved with geometric logic that a key does exist.

[NYCVirago]

Funny how David Brock missed this comment:

John Kerry's advisers were surprised and annoyed to hear that Mr. Gore hollered so much, he made Howard Dean look like George Pataki. They don't want voters to be reminded of the wackadoo wing of the Democratic Party.

I guess it doesn't count, as it was written by the liberal Maureen Dowd, and not a member of the VRWC.

[Bonaparte]

Brock claims that commentators are "playing doctor" when they offer their opinions on Gore's sanity. He is clearly implying that a non-professional is somehow not "qualified" to render an opinion on somebody else's sanity. The US Supreme Court and numerous other courts disagree with Brock. In fact, it is a legal maxim that a sane individual under oath should be able to state an opinion on the sanity of another.

From Moore v. Duckworth (USSC)...

Held: Although a state prisoner is entitled to a determination whether the record evidence could support a finding of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, Jackson v. Virginia, ante, p. 307, nevertheless a remand for further consideration in light of Jackson is inappropriate here. The Court of Appeals properly deferred to a rule of Indiana law permitting sanity to be established by either expert or lay testimony, and although that court applied an improper legal standard in considering the due process claim, it appears that such claim concerned the above Indiana rule and that the evidence in support of the conviction was constitutionally adequate under the Jackson standard.

From State v. Lewis (Sup. Ct. So. Carolina)...

A defendant may rely on lay testimony to establish insanity. State v. Hinson , 253 S.C. 607, 172 S.E.2d 548 (1970); see also, State v . Rimert , 315 S.C. 527, 446 S.E.2d 400, cert. denied , 513 U.S. 1080 (1994)(State relied on lay testimony to establish sanity); State v. Smith , 298 S.C. 205, 379 S.E.2d 287 (1989)(where defendant presents expert testimony on his insanity, State is not required to present expert testimony on sanity; lay testimony may be sufficient). In fact, a jury may disregard expert testimony. Milian-Hernandez, supra.

For more judicial opinions upholding the admissibility and sufficiency of lay testimony on sanity, go to Google and type "lay testimony" sanity into the search field.

[texasflower]

That was hilarious!