Ted Cruz Plays Slap the Dummy

Ted Cruz may have sunk Hagel.

The Israel question won't hurt Hagel too much -- it's a niche question that only Jews and conservatives care about. Non-Jewish Democrats despise Israel and generally agree with Hagel's dark conspiracies about the "Jewish Lobby."

But Cruz might have made Hagel a very difficult for Democrats. Cruz played audio of Hagel agreeing with a questioner's premise that the US was "the world's bully," complimenting that sentiment as an "important observation" (or words to that effect).

Will our troops really be led by someone who calls them The World's Bully?

Little bonus on that question and response: Hagel said this on.. Al Jazeera.

Consider the politics there.

The left's counter-spin -- and they are already spinning like tops, all the "reporters" like Chuck Todd -- is that Hagel "merely accepted" the premise, he did not offer it himself. And, they say further, is someone appearing on Al Jazeera really required to dispute all premises he disagrees with?

But the same people have claimed that politicians are indeed required to dispute questioner's premises -- see, for example, the ruckus they made when Rick Santorum failed to object to the premise that Obama was a Muslim. And you of course remember all the media attacks in 2008 over McCain's/Palin's failure to silence every single dumb shout at a rally.

But now they're claiming someone can call the US (and its military, of course) "the world's bully" on Al Jazeera and Chuck Hagel can call this an "important observation" and that's okay because We Said.

Update: Here's the Al Jazeera clip in question.

via @brianfaughan and @amandacarpenter

posted by Ace at 02:31 PM

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