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Davis Doesn't Fly (Levin on Lanny Davis' WSJ piece)
Levin on NRO ^ | 8/8/2006 | Mark Levin

Posted on 08/08/2006 10:01:51 AM PDT by Uncledave

Davis Doesn't Fly 08/08 12:00 PM I'm intrigued by the bizarre attention so many conservative websites and bloggers are paying to Lanny Davis's silly op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal. See here.

Here's an excerpt from the Davis piece:

My brief and unhappy experience with the hate and vitriol of bloggers on the liberal side of the aisle comes from the last several months I spent campaigning for a longtime friend, Joe Lieberman.

This kind of scary hatred, my dad used to tell me, comes only from the right wing—in his day from people such as the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy, with his tirades against "communists and their fellow travelers." The word "McCarthyism" became a red flag for liberals, signifying the far right's fascistic tactics of labeling anyone a "communist" or "socialist" who favored an active federal government to help the middle class and the poor, and to level the playing field.

I came to believe that we liberals couldn't possibly be so intolerant and hateful, because our ideology was famous for ACLU-type commitments to free speech, dissent and, especially, tolerance for those who differed with us. And in recent years—with the deadly combination of sanctimony and vitriol displayed by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and Michael Savage—I held on to the view that the left was inherently more tolerant and less hateful than the right.

Now, in the closing days of the Lieberman primary campaign, I have reluctantly concluded that I was wrong. The far right does not have a monopoly on bigotry and hatred and sanctimony.

Davis smears conservatives generally as intolerant and hateful, using his false characterization as a basis to compare loathsome attacks by liberal bloggers against his friend, Joe Lieberman. He slimes Rush and Ann (Savage, of course, is loathsome) with bloggers who write such things as this:

"Ned Lamont and his supporters need to [g]et real busy. Ned needs to beat Lieberman to a pulp in the debate and define what it means to be an AMerican who is NOT beholden to the Israeli Lobby" (by "rim," posted on Huffington Post, July 6, 2006).

As an aside, no one has been more steadfast and thoughtful in his support of Israel than Rush (indeed, no one has been more intelligent in their exposition of conservatism than Rush). Moreover, George Bush — the Republican president Lanny Davis and his liberal ilk undermine on a daily basis — has been spectacular in his defense of Israel, unlike so many Davis’s fellow Democrats. And while Davis correctly condemns the poison flowing from his own side, this is a serious problem for the Left, not the Right. Our nuts are on the fringes; his nuts run the DNC, their PACs, and their think-tanks.

Davis was a mouthpiece for one of the most corrupt president’s in history. More to the point, Bill Clinton and his wife were specialists at using slurs and personal attacks against their opponents (including numerous women). Davis defended all of it.

We are nothing like the Left.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2006election; bloggers; clinton; clintoncrony; clintonlegacy; election2006; hatespeech; lannydavis; liberalbigots; lieberman; marklevin; mocksurprise; politicalsmear; rattricks
Here's Davis' piece: http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110008763
1 posted on 08/08/2006 10:01:52 AM PDT by Uncledave
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To: Uncledave

He makes a good point. I was noticing how Davis tries to show how bad Liberals are by saying they're as bad as Conservatives. It's a nice try, but I don't think people are going to fall for it.


2 posted on 08/08/2006 10:06:02 AM PDT by The Blitherer (You were given the choice between war & dishonor. You chose dishonor & you will have war. -Churchill)
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To: Uncledave

>This kind of scary hatred, my dad used to tell me, comes only from the right wing -- in his day from people such as the late Senator Joseph McCarthy.<

Man! Lanny is one badly misinformed fella! Senator McCarthy was right on in the '50's and what he fought against then is tragically too alive today! God bless McCarthy's soul, God bless the right wing, and God save all the rest of us!


3 posted on 08/08/2006 10:07:20 AM PDT by Paperdoll (........Washington Staters, Vote for McGavick!)
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To: holdonnow
Well put.

Davis spews a litany of conservative evils--some real, some imagined--and ends meekly but we have some too.

But the anti-Israel/anti-Semitic forces on the left are in charge, while those on the right are in exile.

4 posted on 08/08/2006 10:08:04 AM PDT by Petronski (Living His life abundantly.)
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To: Paperdoll
Hey Lanny, McCarthy was right. Google up something called VENONA.
5 posted on 08/08/2006 10:09:01 AM PDT by Petronski (Living His life abundantly.)
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To: Petronski

Mr. Davis is an apologist for President Clinton. Beyond that, I have no idea why anyone could possibly have an interest in what Mr. Davis thinks about anything.

Being the defender of Bill Clinton is not much of a pedigree.


6 posted on 08/08/2006 10:10:04 AM PDT by RexBeach ("There is no substitute for victory." - Douglas MacArthur)
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To: Uncledave
Here's an excerpt from the Davis piece:

My brief and unhappy experience with the hate and vitriol of bloggers on the liberal side of the aisle comes from the last several months I spent campaigning for a longtime friend, Joe Lieberman.

This kind of scary hatred, my dad used to tell me, comes only from the right wing—in his day from people such as the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy, with his tirades against "communists and their fellow travelers." The word "McCarthyism" became a red flag for liberals, signifying the far right's fascistic tactics of labeling anyone a "communist" or "socialist" who favored an active federal government to help the middle class and the poor, and to level the playing field.

"From each according to ability, to each according to need" is Marxism. Denial ain't a river.

And NONE of the liberal blogs are a suprise to anyone. Who's he fooling? The left is a hateful breed. Why else did hardcore punk thrive in the era of Ronald Reagan?

7 posted on 08/08/2006 10:10:27 AM PDT by weegee (Remember "Remember the Maine"? Well in the current war "Remember the Baby Milk Factory")
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To: Uncledave

Mark Levin rocks.


8 posted on 08/08/2006 10:12:23 AM PDT by kesg
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To: Paperdoll

The House Committee On Un-American Activities stretches back to the 1930s. It wasn't all McCarthy.

And the Communists in America in the 1930s urged "peace" and no war with Hitler (until he double crossed Uncle Joe Stalin).


9 posted on 08/08/2006 10:13:31 AM PDT by weegee (Remember "Remember the Maine"? Well in the current war "Remember the Baby Milk Factory")
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To: weegee

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1679760/posts

The Lanny Davis article


10 posted on 08/08/2006 10:13:49 AM PDT by GeronL (http://www.mises.org/story/1975 <--no such thing as a fairtax)
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To: Uncledave
Our nuts are on the fringes; his nuts run the DNC, their PACs, and their think-tanks.

Bingo! So for those who say "they all do it", they are technically correct. However, that's like equating the Mid-West and the Inter-Mountain West states because they both have "hills."

11 posted on 08/08/2006 10:14:14 AM PDT by Reaganesque
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To: Uncledave
Lanny Davis wants to be in the news.

So people can hear his name.

Because Lanny Davis will soon be selling a book. Note that it's mentioned in the "story":

Mr. Davis, former special counsel to President Clinton between 1996-98, is the author of "Scandal: How 'Gotcha' Politics Is Destroying America," forthcoming from Palgrave.

PR for Lanny, that' all this is.....

12 posted on 08/08/2006 10:15:25 AM PDT by isthisnickcool (You! Shake your junk!)
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To: Uncledave

Funny that Clintanoid Davis is trying to shame Lamont supporters by "aligning" them with Rush and Ann.

In contrast I also say when someone is unashamedly lying to pull a con that they are running a "Lanny".


13 posted on 08/08/2006 10:17:59 AM PDT by rod1
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To: Uncledave
As usual, Rush nailed this whole thing this morning.
14 posted on 08/08/2006 10:19:23 AM PDT by fish hawk (Terror : in a cave in Afghanistan. Treason: in a cave-in , in the Democratic Party)
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To: Uncledave
What frigging planet is this dingle-berry from?

Distrust of Commies and their fellow travelers, is pretty prudent.

Just ask the millions killed by the Soviets and the Red Chinese.

15 posted on 08/08/2006 10:21:04 AM PDT by Mark was here (How can they be called "Homeless" if their home is a field?.)
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To: Uncledave

And Davis' moronic claim that McCarthy was out to get liberals in favor of activist government is a bald faced lie, and what's more, he knows it. McCarthy found ACTUAL SOVIET AGENTS in government and the Kremlin's own de-classified archibes show the State Department, including a top FDR aide, we're KGB agents. McCarthy was right. To call his attempt to purge communists 5th columnists from the government "bigotry" or "hatred" comparable to that of the far left fringe cannibalizing Joe Lieberman is the height of intellectual dishonesty.


16 posted on 08/08/2006 10:25:23 AM PDT by MikeA (Not voting out of anger in November is a vote for Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House)
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To: Uncledave

A test: which of the four Clintanoids smiles the least while telling lies (their favorite past-time):

Lanny Davis
Bruce Linsay (aka Mr. fix-it)
Richard Ben Venista
Ann Lewis








Answer:
Ann Lewis--she lies just as much as the rest but rarely smiles. She is perfecting the Helen Thomas range of expressions ----from sourpuss to if I am smiling you still can't bear to look--look.

Davis never stops smiling and almost never bumps into the truth. Ben Venista has a wonderful smirk punctuating glorious whoppers that must have taken all night to dream up. and Bruce Linsay is only virtually nocturnal always running from cameras so as not to ever be cornered-and when he is he always looks at the ground. So who knows about him.


17 posted on 08/08/2006 10:29:20 AM PDT by rod1
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To: weegee

>The House Committee On Un-American Activities stretches back to the l930s. It wasn't all MCarthy.<

I didn't say it was, but boy! He sure took the fall for them, didn't he?


18 posted on 08/08/2006 10:41:44 AM PDT by Paperdoll (........Washington Staters, Vote for McGavick!)
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To: Paperdoll

Oh I agree that McCarthy took a fall. And the communists have been happy ever since. And they've continued about their work.

HCUAA continued to investigate into the 1960s but even with antiwar agitators like John Kerry meeting with Viet Cong in France, there was still little will to prosecute anymore.


19 posted on 08/08/2006 10:44:27 AM PDT by weegee (Remember "Remember the Maine"? Well in the current war "Remember the Baby Milk Factory")
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To: Uncledave
Davis writes a piece supposedly condemning the attacks from the left against Lieberman, but spends ninety percent of it detailing so-called right-wing name callers. Sheesh. What else is to be expected from a Clinton lap-dog?

BTW, just how did his son get that job with CBS Sports?

20 posted on 08/08/2006 10:45:33 AM PDT by Rummyfan
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To: Uncledave
"Lanny Davis' WSJ piece"

You are all missing the point here. Lanny Davis is not trying to prove anything or be anything other than the left-wing liberal he is. But there is one characteristic that distinguishes him -- he is Jewish and pro-Israel, and he is finally realizing that the left, especially Jewish-American leftists, have abandoned Israel and are pro-Muslim, pro-Palestine, and pro-Hezbollah.

The current situation will be one of those political intersections which makes strange bedfellows -- leftists like Lanny Davis aligning with evangelican Christians in support of Israel. It won't be the first time such a bizarre alignment happens.

But Lanny finally realizing this shows how clueless he is. The left abandoned Israel long ago. They stopped using logic when considering Middle East events long ago. The left is impulsively pro-Muslim and that includes probably 75% of American Jews.

There was a survey about 10 years ago which asked American Jews, "If you were King and could choose one thing to fix forever, which would it be: Making abortion irrevocably legal, or keeping Israel forever safe?" Sadly, about 2/3 of the respondents (remember, they were all Jewish) selected abortion. The survey sadly noted the fact, that Jews cared more about leftist politics than their ancestral homeland. It also says reams about how many American Jews have no connection with their faith anymore.

Of course, there are countless Biblical perspectives to the abandonment of Israel by American Jews. Fulfilling prophecy is one. But don't get me started.

21 posted on 08/08/2006 10:46:09 AM PDT by tom h
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To: Petronski

That is the best way to respond to these idiots that always scream "McCarthy"...tell them to read the Venona Files book, substantiation of McCarthy from the bowels of the KGB archives!!!


22 posted on 08/08/2006 10:48:01 AM PDT by iopscusa (El Vaquero. (SC Lowcountry Cowboy))
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To: weegee


Yes. Just try to incarnate the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities today and see how far you get! :o(


23 posted on 08/08/2006 10:53:12 AM PDT by Paperdoll (........Washington Staters, Vote for McGavick!)
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To: iopscusa
Somehow, I think a leftist like Lanny knows all about KГБ and BEHOHA.
24 posted on 08/08/2006 11:01:51 AM PDT by Petronski (Living His life abundantly.)
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To: Uncledave

Davis is a hack, i think less of the wsj for putting him on a pedestal by allowing his crap to be printed as if it was meaningful.


25 posted on 08/08/2006 11:06:02 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: Uncledave
The word "McCarthyism" became a red flag for liberals, signifying the far right's fascistic tactics of labeling anyone a "communist" or "socialist" who favored an active federal government to help the middle class and the poor, and to level the playing field.

You might not call yourself a socialist but you still think like one. You want the government to steal my property because (1)you think I have more than I need and (2)you know how to use my property better than I do and (3) it is necessary to give it to others because they "need" it more than I do.

26 posted on 08/08/2006 11:55:54 AM PDT by mjp
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To: Rummyfan
BTW, just how did his son get that job with CBS Sports?

Must've been that "level playing field" that Lanny and his dad worked so hard to build.

27 posted on 08/08/2006 12:00:36 PM PDT by randog (What the...?!)
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To: Uncledave

BTTT


28 posted on 08/08/2006 12:12:42 PM PDT by kellynla (Freedom of speech makes it easier to spot the idiots! Semper Fi!)
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To: Paperdoll
I'd convene one just to investigate members of the judicial, legislative, and executive branch!
29 posted on 08/08/2006 12:25:16 PM PDT by weegee (Remember "Remember the Maine"? Well in the current war "Remember the Baby Milk Factory")
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To: mjp

For the benefit of Mr. Davis...

so·cial·ist
n.
An advocate of socialism.
often Socialist
A member of a political party or group that advocates socialism.

adj.
Of, promoting, or practicing socialism.
Socialist
Of, belonging to, or constituting a socialist party or political group.

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.


---

so·cial·ism
n.
Any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy.
The stage in Marxist-Leninist theory intermediate between capitalism and communism, in which collective ownership of the economy under the dictatorship of the proletariat has not yet been successfully achieved.

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

socialism
n
1: a political theory advocating state ownership of industry
2: an economic system based on state ownership of capital [syn: socialist economy] [ant: capitalism]

Source: WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University




http://www.investorwords.com/s3.htm#socialism

socialism

Economic system which is based on cooperation rather than competition and which utilizes centralized planning and distribution.




socialized

adj : under group or government control; "socialized ownership"; "socialized medicine" [syn: socialised]

Source: WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University


30 posted on 08/08/2006 12:30:18 PM PDT by weegee (Remember "Remember the Maine"? Well in the current war "Remember the Baby Milk Factory")
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To: Uncledave

It is clear that the anti-Israel,anti-Semitic forces on the left have taken over. Although it might help them in the short term, it is a death knell for the future, especially '08

The posts from Huffington, Du, and KOS are despicable. The moral equivalence with people on the right is ridiculous.

Posts of that nature would be pulled from FreeRepublic and that vile hatred and racism would neer see the light of day.


31 posted on 08/08/2006 1:16:17 PM PDT by Cincinna (HILLARY & HER HINO WANT TO TAKE OVER YOUR COUNTRY !)
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To: Uncledave

We boot our nuts, like Buchanan, out of the party. They hug their nutjobs (Michael Moore, etal) and give them standing ovations.


32 posted on 08/08/2006 2:34:49 PM PDT by driftless2
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To: All
If the interviews I've heard with this former employee of the Clintons are any indication his writings will mostly be collections of emotional attacks on Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, et al.

If Mr. Davis really believes that hate was patented by the right then he has never heard of Whittaker Chambers.

He also has no knowledge whatsoever of the 1960s Ramparts, East Village Other, Berkeley Barb and the plethora of "alternative" media of that era. Ditto the Chicago riots during the Democrat convention. Ditto, "Hey, Hey LBJ how many babies did you kill today."

He also never watched TV or read the major newspapers of the "Fairness Doctrine" era.

News items routinely trashed conservatives as controversial, bigots, racists, hateful and divisive; it was the conservatives' hatred of JFK that caused Oswald to assassinate the president, for example of "reporting."

And anyone objecting to the urban riots, looting, and destruction back then were racists for mentioning law and order -- mocked by the left as "lawn order" and code words for the N word, they taunted.

Apparently Mr. Davis never set foot upon a university campus back then or today.

It's clear to me based upon his interviews, anyone not worshiping the Clintons is a right wing hate monger.

33 posted on 08/08/2006 7:53:42 PM PDT by WilliamofCarmichael (If modern America's Man on Horseback is out there, Get on the damn horse already!)
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