Paranoia, Conspiracy Theories and BDS In Barack Obama's Inner Circle [Kensington]

Back in January, 2006, I noticed a bit of paranoid conspiracy-mongering in an article by chronic BDS-suffering movie watcher Roger Ebert about the goings on at the Sundance Film Festival. That's nothing new, of course, coming from Democrats or Kos diarists or Andrew Sullivan, but just this morning, I remembered something special: the source of this particular bit of paranoid conspiracy-mongering was none other than President-Elect Barack Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

According to Ebert, the man who would be Chief of Staff shared a little inside information with Ebert when the two had an encounter in a screening room at the Sundance Film Festival.

Then Representative Emanuel told Ebert that “We’ll have another war right before the next election,” referring, of course, to the 2006 midterms. Ebert was eager to hear more, but, alas, the lights were going down, not only in the screening room but also in their heads.

Now we all know, of course, that paranoid conspiracy-mongering was just standard currency for the Left throughout the presidency of George W. Bush, but wouldn't it be appropriate for some credentialed member of the fourth estate to ask the Chief of Staff what he was referring to back then? What was his source for saying that there would be another war? What was his purpose in telling that to Roger Ebert? If he knew back in January 2006 that there would be another war within the next ten months, and felt free enough to spill the beans to Roger Ebert, shouldn't he have shared this with the rest of us? Ebert is, of course, a journalist, so is that an indication that Emanuel wanted this to be reported?

Of course, the likely answer is that Emanuel knew nothing and was merely indulging in paranoia and letting some of the BDS-steam escape from between his ears in the safe company of a fellow traveler.

It raises further questions, though, including: does he indulge similar fantasies with President-Elect Barack Obama and does he think it would be appropriate for someone in his position to do so? If not, then does he think such fantasizing was appropriate back when he was merely a Congressional Representative?

When do these children grow up?

FOLLOW-UP:
For anyone interested in Ebert's forays into BDS, Ed Driscoll's got some of the most recent goods. He also points to an older article from FrontPageMagazine referencing, amongst other things, Ebert's willingness to take shots at the Bush twins. There's also another post from my own blog about the time that Ebert speculated about whether the Minute Men were capable of seeing immigrants as Americans.

Also, Brad points out quite rightly that it's the fourth estate, not the fifth. Me dubm.

posted by xgenghisx at 05:26 PM

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