Dean's Comments Too Deceptive Even For a Kosmonaut

Some sanity from the reality-based community (ahem), as a Daily Kos diarist takes Howard Dean to task for, well, lying about the Kelo case. He claims Bush's "Right wing court" gave the okay to seize private property for corporate use, conveniently forgetting that 1) no one on that court was appointed by Bush and 2) more importantly, the three strongest conservatives (joined by Daffy Sandra Day O'Connor) dissented and the three strongest liberals (joined by the ever-"evolving" Kennedy) okayed this power.

Kind of brave of a Kosmonaut to actually speak the truth:

There's simply no way that Dean's comments can be spun to make them even remotely defensible. Dean's tendency to shoot his mouth off was endearing to us Deaniacs as a matter of pride during the campaign, but as DNC chair it's been a constant embarrassment.

...

However, Dean's trajectory of late has me worried. It's a different one from early 2003 or even late 2004. The new trajectory takes us too close to Democratism should the trend be extended to a futue where Republicanism is defeated - if we replace the Elephant with the Ass, has America been well-served?

Far better to make the course correction now - and ensure that there is no overcompensatory swing to the same kind of excess for which we rightly castigate the Right for. Update [2005-7-26 17:17:22 by azizhp]: in case you're wondering why Dean's comments are factually incorrect, ask yourself. How many Bush 43-appointed justices voted in favor of Kelo? How did Scalia and Rehnquist vote? How did Ginsburg vote?

But check out this comment, disagreeing with the diarist and supporting Dean's lie:

I'm 100% behind it. Why? Because it resonates, and I'm perfectly willing to go for a false statement that illustrates a truth.

Now, all of this might be deemed trivial, the musings of idiots with nothing better to do than write silly shit on-line all day (umm... ahem), but the Kosmonauts have a lot of influence on the left-wing of the Democratic Party, and I think the mindset of this commenter -- "Lie, lie, lie, so long as your lies promote a 'greater truth'" -- is quite common on the left.

Obviously it's not shared by all on the left; the diariest certainly knows the difference between truth and lie, and seems to think that lying is a bad thing per se, whatever political usefulness the lie might have. But this is a common belief on the left, that our country is faced by such dire peril by Chimphitler McHalliburton that any underhanded tactics are justified, if not demanded.

Thanks to Slublog.

posted by Ace at 02:11 PM

| Access Comments