Liar, Liar, Pants On Fire

I read two columns in the past week which touched on a point I've wanted to blog about. That is the current tendency to brand our opponents as liars, or evil incarnate.

It is no longer possible to simply disagree with our opponents, we must castigate and destroy them. The MoveOn.org ad slandering Gen. Petraeus is perhaps the pinnacle of this phenomenon. Or maybe that was Hillary calling Dick Cheney "Darth Vader".

Bush lied to get us into Iraq. He wasn't merely wrong about WMD, he made it all up. Gen. Petraeus knows Iraq is hopeless; he's just shilling for Bush, the way Colin Powell did.

Whatever happened to the idea that "reasonable people of goodwill may differ". I think it is our current brand of hyper-partisan, win at all costs politics. If you can't use reasoned argument to defeat someone, attack his motives, his background, his family. Call him names, call him a liar. The Clintons named this "the politics of personal destruction". They coined the phrase in self-defense; they became its best practitioners.

Kathleen Parker and Suzanne Fields both wrote columns on this point. Read them in full if you can. Here are a couple key points, first from Parker:

"Politics is ever the enemy of judgment, and perspective gets lost in the hysteria that inevitably builds when large numbers of politicians and media gather too tightly in a room. The whir of cameras and the flash of bulbs alter the human ecosystem somehow and interfere with the brain's circuitry, it would seem."

Fields was even more direct:

"There is no greater lie than to falsely accuse a person of being a liar. The slander by MoveOn.org, the smearing machine of the Democratic lunatic left, rises to the highest office of the land, falsely accusing the president of lying about weapons of mass destruction in Saddam Hussein's Iraq, which was not a lie but a mistake based on the intelligence gathered by several nations of the coalition. A mistake is not a lie; an accusation of mistake has no power to destroy a reputation.
Lying in politics is not new, but what is new is the thundering silence from critics of policy who know better and who say nothing. In time truth generally wills out, but when media is instantaneously ubiquitous, a lie, in the words of a senator of the previous century, runs halfway around the world before truth can get its boots on. A lie distracts debate, inhibits rational discussion, curtails the free expression of ideas and reduces honest differences of opinion to vicious tirades. And it lives forever in the infinity of the Internet, even after exposed as a lie."

On the blogs, Fields last point is very evident. George W. Bush is not just a bad President who bungled Iraq, he is the worst, criminal, lying President in American history. People like me who supported him in any way are fools, morons, or worse.

I wonder what it will take to restore a modicum of civility and honor to politics?

Thompson Is In: Update

There is an interesting piece on Fred Thompson written by Tom Bevan in Real Clear Politics. It is a nice assessment of Thompson's appeal and chances.

Read the whole thing but Bevan concludes with a few words on why it isn't too late for Fred:

"The other good news for Thompson is that right now his show is the only new one around, while the other candidates have long since gone into reruns.
Just after Thompson finished speaking in Mason City, I asked a group of people attending the event whether they felt Thompson waited too long to run and "missed his moment." Not a single one felt he had, and one man opined that the problem wasn't that Thompson had gotten in too late but that the other candidates had gotten in too early. "We're bored to death of those guys," the man said, while the others nodded in agreement.Thompson may be playing catch up from a fundraising and organization standpoint, but as far as voters are concerned there is plenty of room for - and interest in - adding another show to the Republican line up. We'll know soon enough whether Thompson can keep them tuned in."

This Just In!

In a surprise development, Congressman Jim Walsh has changed his position and decided he is against the War in Iraq. Reports from Washington indicate that Walsh (RINO-26th Dist. NY) will also announce that he will oppose any further funding for the War.

This position switch marks the 27th or 28th surprising about-face for Walsh since his electoral "near death" experience last November. Sources close to Walsh say that his re-election chances are the furthest thing from his mind and that this decision resulted from many sleepless nights poring over opinion polls while pondering what courageous stance would be most popular in his district.

Thompson Is In. Is It Too Late?

Former Sen. Fred Thompson has finally thrown his hat in the ring. He has a lot of things going for him, particularly a really down-home manner and resonant voice. When he articulates his views, he sounds confident, forthright, and reassuring.

The big question, as noted in the accompanying cartoon, is whether he has waited too long. Winning primaries takes grass-roots organization as well as money. Fred may be able to raise money, but its not clear he can put together a deep campaign organization fast enough.

Pinched Nerve Checks Blogger

My "pain in the neck" has proved to be a real impediment to blogging. I just wanted you two or three faithful readers to know I haven't quit, I'm just on a medical hiatus.

They Were For It Before They Were Against It

Check out this Victor Davis Hanson post from National Review Online.

He is predicting how many Democrats will deal with good news from Iraq. He also "warns" that Sen. Obama is not hedging his bets and that may harm his presidential bid if the Petreaus report is upbeat.

Lord Stanley's Cup Visits Gates

I've been on a sports kick for the past week, so I thought I'd mention the fact that I got to see (and touch) the Stanley Cup today.

As you probably know, members of the winning team each get a day with the Cup. they can do whatever they want with it. It turns out that my brother lives across the street from a guy who is the Mighty Ducks equipment manager. He brought the Cup to Gates.

He had it in the house on Fisher Road and a bunch of friends and neighbors got to see it and take pictures with it before he took it to Rookies Pub on Buffalo Road. My wife has a picture where she appears to be drinking from the Cup. I was less sacrilegious; I just touched it.

Its pretty cool up close and personal.