Posted on 11/29/2002 12:01:20 PM PST by Jean S
I ignored Tom Daschle when, some weeks back, he accused conservative media figures of endangering his life.
"What happens when Rush Limbaugh attacks those of us in public life is that people aren't just content to listen," said the Senator. "People want to act because they get emotional...and the threats to those of us in public life go up dramatically, against us and against our families."
I admittedly have little regard for the ideas of Senator Daschle, and categorized his tirade as sour grapes from a man whose party went down in flames during the mid-term elections. Rather than admitting that Democrats failed to provide ideas or solutions, he sought to place blame. This is nothing new. Liberals are rarely known for grace in defeat.
However, Al Gore has now jumped on Senator Daschle's bandwagon. In a recent New York Observer interview, Gore whined of how "unfair" the press had become.
"There are some major institutional voices that are, truthfully, speaking part and parcel of the Republican Party," said Gore. "Fox News Network, The Washington Times, Rush Limbaugh...there's a bunch of them, and some of them are financed by wealthy ultra-conservative billionaires who make political deals with Republican administrations and the rest of the media."
I'm smelling a trend arising from the Democratic Party. When you lose, you do not ask yourself why or quest for future remedy. Instead, in denial, you attempt to stifle disparate voices. Like Al Gore (and Hillary Clinton before him) you hint of "vast right-wing conspiracies." Like Daschle, you speak of the "danger" you're in.
And all this is a facade, a sham, a smokescreen. What Daschle and Gore really detest is the First Amendment. Limbaugh's attacks have not been on Daschle personally. They have been on his policies and beliefs. Fox News has become popular because the cable network offers both sides of the political debate an opportunity to speak. What Daschle and Gore seem to be saying is that they fully support a public discourse, as long as the discourse portrays them as saints and their ideological adversaries as sinners.
Most people see the caterwauling of these two for what it is, frustration in defeat, fear of fading from the public eye and anger over the loss of personal power. However, I am bothered by something else. I am bothered by the hypocrisy of such as Gore and Daschle, particularly the latter. Daschle went so far as to link the violent fundamentalism seen in other countries to the "shrill tone" of "Rush Limbaugh and all the Rush wannabes."
Since I fall into that latter category, I've a few questions for Senator Daschle. Why sir, if you are so concerned about shrill tones in the media, and the menace they pose to public figures, were you utterly silent when the following statements were made by liberals?
Why, Senator, did you remain silent when producer Spike Lee said the solution to gun violence was to "shoot Charlton Heston with a .44 Bulldog."
Why Senator, did you remain silent when actor Alec Baldwin publicly called for the stoning" of Henry Hyde during the Lewinsky scandal?
Why, Senator, did you remain silent when Richard Gephardt called Newt Gingrich and his supporters "trickle down terrorists who base their agenda on division, exclusion and fear."
Why Senator, did you remain silent when James Carville said that Ken Starr was "one mistake away from not having any kneecaps." For that matter, why did you keep silent when Carville referred to Paula Jones with the comment "you drag $100 bills through trailer parks and there's no telling what you'll find."
Why, Senator, did you remain silent when NPR's Sunni Khalid said that Newt Gingrich was "looking at a more scientific, a more civil way of lynching people."
Why, Senator, did you remain silent when columnist Julianne Malveaux said "I hope Clarence Thomas's wife feeds him lots of eggs and butter and he dies early, like many black men do, because of heart disease. He is an utterly reprehensible person."
And why Senator, did you remain silent when Clinton advisor Paul Begala, in the wake of Al Gore's 2000 election loss, explained the famous "red and blue map" (with "red" indicating counties that voted Republican) in the following manner. "You see the state where James Byrd was lynch-dragged behind a pickup truck until his body came apart? It's red. You see the state where Matthew Shepherd was crucified on a split-rail fence for the crime of being gay? It's red. You see the state where right-wing extremists blew up a federal office building and murdered scores of federal employees? It's red."
Why, Senator, did you remain silent when in fact YOUR state was primarily "red." Do you believe that the aforementioned words were less an incitement to violence than Limbaugh's criticism of your legislative proposals? Do you not view these statements as "shrill rhetoric," or were they fitting and proper because they arose from Democrats?
Do the words of Limbaugh and all us "wannabes" really put you in physical danger, Senator? Or, does the danger lie in the fact that thepresentation of viewpoints divergent from your own provide an alternate perspective?
Isn't it you, Senator, who has spoken endlessly on the importance of "choice?"
(Ron Marr is the founder of The Trout Wrapper, the official magazine of Montana's Tobacco Root Mountains. The publication believes in "big guns, big dogs and big bar tabs." Founded in 1994, The Trout Wrapper says it is "dedicated to hunting down and publicly tormenting the humor impaired," and it espouses the "wholesale abuse of all things politically correct.")
Does a bear poop in the woods???
All Democratic Socialists define "tolerance" as accepting anything that falls under the Liberal umbrella. Everything else is subversive, dangerous, fascist, bigoted, etc, etc, etc. It is to this longstanding policy of faux-tolerance that my screen name is dedicated.
Thanks for the post!!!
What is Tommie's position on choice? What has his wife, the bag lady, been paid for it to be?
Poor Lil Timmy Dasshole... he's been VICTIMIZED by big 'ole mean, vicious Rush Limbaugh.
And poor Wooden Goreon. Not only has he been VICTIMIZED by Rush, he's also been VICTIMIZED by The Washington Times and Fox News as well!
Hey fellas, I feel for ya. Guess ya could say I even feel yer pain.
NOT!!
Only if Republicans are for it. Seriously though, Tom Daschle opposes all opposition, including himself. Last week he had to get a restraining order against himself and he even opposed that.
from TPDL 1999-Apr-8, from Capital Hill Blue, by Doug Thompson:
White House staffers, Clinton confidants and others describe Clinton as "incredibly profane" and "an angry man who wants to inflict as much pain as possible on his enemies."
Former White House senior staff member George Stephanopoulos in his book, All Too Human, writes about Clinton's mishandling of the Somalia crisis and shows the depth of the President's violent emotions:
"'We're not inflicting pain on these f*ckers,' Clinton said, softly at first. 'When people kill us, they should be killed in greater numbers.' Then, with his face reddening, his voice rising, and his fist pounding his thigh, he leaned into Tony [Lake], as if it was his fault. 'I believe in killing people who try to hurt you. And I can't believe we're being pushed around by these two-bit pricks.'"
Those who have known Clinton since his days in Arkansas say the quote is "vintage Bill."
"Only an idiot would buy the public persona of Bill Clinton," says Walter Erricson, a retired reporter who covered Clinton in his early political days in Arkansas. "He is an incredibly profane individual. He is now and always has been an angry man who wants to inflict as much pain as possible on his enemies."
White House staff members say Clinton curses like a sailor, has temper tantrums that cause people to back away from him and uses the word "kill" often to describe what he wants to do with his enemies.
"Once, when the House was finishing up its impeachment investigation, the President slammed his fist down on the table and said 'I'd like to kill all of these sons of bitches and just be done with it!' There was a long, painful period of silence until he regained his composure. Then everybody went on like it was never said," says one former White House staffer.
Samuel Wilson, a former political worker in Clinton's second campaign for governor, remembers the candidate encountering a critic at a campaign appearance in a small town. After the critic told Clinton he was nothing but a "two-bit politician" and then walked away, Clinton turned to a campaign aide and said "write down the name of that motherfucker. When I'm back in office, he's a dead man."
"I remember his look. It was cold," Wilson said. "I don't want to think he wanted to kill him literally, but I'm sure some sort of revenge was inflicted later on."
In fact, it was fear of what Attorney General Bill Clinton could do to her business that kept nursing home operator Juanita Broaddrick from reporting Clinton's rape of her 21 years ago in a Little Rock hotel room.
"Her fears were justified," says retired reporter Erricson. "Everybody knew Bill Clinton was a man who got even, any way he could."
Helen Shannon, who worked in the Arkansas Statehouse during Clinton's second term as governor, said the governor would personally order state contracts canceled when he got angry with people.
"The word would come down from the governor's office that somebody was off limits and we would cancel their contracts and put them on a 'don't use' list. It happened a lot," she says.
Shannon, who was dating a member of Clinton's staff, says Clinton would order audits of contracts and tell the the Arkansas State Police to "turn up the heat" on somebody he didn't like.
"When Bill Clinton ran Arkansas, it was a police state," she says.
White House staff members tell similar stories. At one meeting, Clinton told staff members he wanted everyone in the Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's office audited by the IRS.
"Several people in the meeting told the President he shouldn't do that," the staff member remember. "He slammed his fist down on the table and said: 'I can do any Goddamned thing I want. I'm President of the United States. I take care of my friends and I fuck with my enemies. That's the way it is. Anybody who doesn't like it can take a hike."
The White House did not return calls for comment.
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