Richard Cohen Is On F'n' Fire

Yes, Richard Cohen. The WaPo's usually tired, predictably hack liberal columnist. Writing about the Democrats' mau-mauing of William Bennet (is it racist to say "mau-mau"? I certainly don't want to offend anyone), Cohen blasts:

Actually, it is Reid and the others who should apologize to Bennett. They were condemning and attempting to silence a public intellectual for a reference to a theory. It was not a proposal and not a recommendation -- nothing more than a possible explanation. But the Democrats preferred to pander to an audience that either had heard Bennett's remarks out of context, or merely thought that anytime that conservatives talk about race, they are being racist. The Democrats' obligation as politicians, as public officials, to see that we all hear the widest and richest diversity of views was suspended in favor of partisan cheap shots. (The spineless White House also refused to defend Bennett.)

Because I came of age in the McCarthy era, I have always thought of the Democratic Party as more protective of free speech and unpopular thought than the Republican Party. The GOP was the party of Joe McCarthy, William Jenner and other witch-hunters. Now, though, it is the Democrats who use the pieties of race, ethnicity and gender to stifle debate and smother thought, pretty much what anti-intellectual intellectuals did to Larry Summers, the president of Harvard, when he had the effrontery to ask some unorthodox questions about gender and mathematical aptitude. He was quickly instructed on how to think.

He also takes the Democrats to task for claiming Tom DeLay is guilty until presumed innocent and for having no original ideas.

Thanks to Megan.

posted by Ace at 11:39 AM

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