alternative hippopotamus

progressive cyberdadaism from our nation’s capital

July 28, 2006

Peter Beinart, Feh

by AltHippo @ 8:27 pm. Filed under Uncategorized, rhetorical fallacy, hacks

Yes, I saw Young Peter’s op-ed in the WaPo.

On one hand, there’s not too much to say. Is Beinart posturing for the pundit class? Of course. Does this sort of op-ed ingratiate him to the same folks that would hire, say, a Joe Klein? Sure. Is there a grain of truth contained in his op-ed? Hmm. That’s a question I can’t answer. A grain of truth has never satisfied me, or anyone who might pass by this patch of lawn on the internets.

On the other hand, to quote Tevya, there is no other hand.

The chief fallacy lies in this remark:

The Democratic Party’s single biggest foreign policy liability is not that Americans think Democrats are soft. It is that Americans think Democrats stand for nothing, that they have no principles beyond political expedience.

You know, if Beinart had also questioned Republican expedience, then I might find that remark understandable. Or, if he had sited polls to back up his assertion, then there would be some meat to his op-ed. Or, if he could explain the broad lack of military service in the Bush administration, and somehow square that with the word “soft” that could have made for an interesting read.

Update: I was tempted to retitle the post “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Beinart,” but “Feh” sums it up pretty well. Particularly given Glenn Greenwald’s remarks:

If you want to know what the U.S. should do about the new Middle East war and any other complex, grave national security matter, you have to talk to Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes and Stephen Hadley and Peter Beinart and Joe Lieberman and John McCain and Tom Friedman and Rich Lowry and Newt Gingrich and all the other “serious” tough guys who might have been wrong about every single thing they said about Iraq but, for some reason that is impossible to discern, are supposed to be the only ones with any credibility on these questions — still.

I’ll also note that there’s an article in today’s WaPo about the White House witholding information on India’s missile sales to Iran, so that the House would vote favorably on sales of nuclear technology to India.

In an alternative universe, a Young Peter Beinart, just back from his third tour of duty in Iraq, would be penning an op-ed about how Republicans undermine national security. In this one, not so much.

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