progressive cyberdadaism from our nation’s capital
In comments below eRobin points me to a list put together by eriposte at the Left Coaster with the objective of showing that, like the Clinton campaign, the Obama campaign has gone negative. This is apparently in response to a post by Kos, referred to by the post author as “the crown prince of CDS.” For the uninitiated, CDS is Clinton Derangement Syndrome, a variant of the malady known as Bush Derangement Syndrome, or BDS. BDS was first proposed by (former psychiatrist) Charles Krauthammer, a defender of the Bush administration, who believed that dislike of the 43rd president could be best explained as a psychological disorder. By extension, Clinton Derangement Syndrome has been used to explain criticism in the left blososphere towards Senator Clinton.
Eriposte links to a post at CorrenteWire under the title: “Why won’t that stupid bitch quit?” watch. Lambert quotes Kos here:
Clinton’s license to do harm
by kos
Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 07:21:00 AM PDTIn one of the threads last night, commenter theran made a good observation:
At some point the concept of “Republicans will do X” has turned into a license for Hillary to do all the same things. It’s bizarre, but I don’t really consider her a Dem any more.
Yup.
This, eriposte explains, is what motivated a post detailing “The Hypocrisy of Hope, Change and Unity.” In his/her words: (my emphasis)
Now, Sen. Clinton is no fairy and I do agree that she has perpetuated some Republican style talking points against Sen. Obama - something that I disagree with. However, if that is now the key criterion for inclusion in the Democratic party (according to the Crown Prince of CDS), let’s just say that Sen. Obama would have had to be expelled from the party quite a while ago. (To be clear, I believe Sen. Obama is a Democrat who requires no expulsion of any kind, but I’m pointing out what would have had to happen if we followed the illogic of the Crown Prince of CDS). All I can say is, if the Crown Prince of CDS and his like-thinking friends keep this up, Sen. Obama’s already tenuous support amongst a significant chunk of Sen. Clinton’s base (which is roughly half of the Democratic party) will start depleting even further and become problematic if Sen. Obama becomes the nominee. Their behavior is certainly not the kind that fosters any kind of hope, change or unity and it is sad that fact-free, irrational, hate-filled, blog posts - something that used to be the domain of Little Green Fascists and other lower life forms on the Right - have become part of the mainstream of Sen. Obama’s blogger base on the internets (also see Turkana’s post on this).
The tenor of this spat is a bit over-wrought. It’s difficult for me to look at this as a prelude and take this list that eriposte has put together seriously.
Now, I did look his/her list, and thought it was thin gruel. For example, what was supposed to show Obama going negative on Bill Clinton’s sex life was this letter to the editor in the Denver Post by an Obama superdelegate:
The Democratic Party chairman in Wyoming is predicting that Democratic candidates throughout the Rocky Mountain region will be damaged if his party selects Hillary Clinton for president.
“Every Democratic candidate in Wyoming will be painted with that same liberal, big-government brush. We will also be the target of the locker room jokes that rightfully belong to Bill Clinton,” John Millin wrote in a letter to The Denver Post.
“While I don’t agree with this view of Mrs. Clinton, I have to accept that this is the truth. It has become the dirty little secret in the Democratic Party,” he wrote. “Westerners have an independent, libertarian spirit and Democrats can make Republicans pay a heavy price for years of pandering to the social conservatives. None of this will happen if Hillary wins the nomination.”
This statement is well within the cultural norms of Wyoming. And not from the Obama campaign, but from somebody who plans to vote for him. So, I don’t think it’s fair to say that this is the equivalent of Hillary Clinton linking Obama to the Weather Underground during a televised debate.
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hip·po·pot·a·mus n. A notion, perhaps distinct from conventional wisdom, that needs to be verified by reality-based scrutiny.
95. Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum (I think that I think, therefore I think that I am.)
— Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
Some speculate the Senator Clinton would want the spirit-killing Vice Presidency because she would be willing to wait for two terms so as to be the likely nominee in 2012. I believe that she could well contemplate this scenario. [Link]
A subsequent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research showed that gas prices fell by 3 percent, meaning that only three fifths of the savings from reduced taxes was passed on to consumers. [Link]
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is filing a complaint with the IRS today challenging the conservative group Freedom's Watch status as a non-profit. [Link]
For Barbara, Hillary has become the screech on the blackboard. From First Lady to Lady Macbeth. [Link]
So what's changed? I asked Reich. "I saw the ads" — the negative man-on-street commercials that the Clinton campaign put up in Pennsylvania in the wake of Obama's bitter/cling comments a week ago — "and I was appalled, frankly. [Link]
Otherwise cites other (mostly right-wing) writers, adding a few words—or one word (usually heh, indeed, or ouch)—to denote approval. This style is, probably purposely, hard to engage. [Link]
Before you tie 'em, you have to lace 'em — and you can choose from among 43,200 perfectly legitimate ways to do it. [Link]
“He doesn’t have the appearance of a tax-and-spend liberal . . . but if the essence of being a tax-and-spend liberal is a lot of taxes and spending, that’s what he comes down to.” [Link]
Before an audience of liberal bloggers last fall, Hillary Clinton defended Washington’s advocate class. “A lot of those lobbyists, whether you like it or not, represent real Americans. They actually do,” she said. [Link]
As things currently stand, it appears that the 39 delegates from DC will include 19 Obama supporters and 14 Clinton supporters. The positions of the remaining 6 — the 4 undeclared DNC members and the 2 add-ons — are unknown. [Link]
But to understand what Obama is proposing, it's important to ask: What, exactly, is the mind-set that led to the war? What will it mean to end it? And what will take its place? [Link]
Clinton's prayer group was part of the Fellowship (or "the Family"), a network of sex-segregated cells of political, business, and military leaders dedicated to "spiritual war" on behalf of Christ, many of them recruited at the Fellowship's only public ev [Link]
"It's quite clear that the Bush administration officials who were around in the 1970s are settling old scores now," said Tim Sparapani, senior legislative counsel to the American Civil Liberties Union. [Link]
Raelyn Campbell has a wild story. She bought a computer at Best Buy. It malfunctioned. She took it back to be repaired. They apparently lost it -- lied about it -- and lied about it -- and lied about it -- and then. . .lied about it. [Link]
When Feinstein pressed, Johnson admitted that "I don't know the answer to that," but offered he himself is working on it, determining "what are the next steps." [Link]
All of this might suggest that the new Executive Order was designed to prevent the IOB from re-emerging as an effective oversight body under a future president. [Link]
What about Congressman Darrell Issa of California? ("`Isa&quo~ means Jesus in Arabic). Former cabinet secretary Donna Shalala? (Shalala means "waterfall&~ in Arabic). [Link]
The filmmaker who won an Academy Award Sunday night for best documentary is next turning his attention to the Jack Abramoff scandal, including GOP presidential candidate John McCain’s role in investigating the affair. [Link]
Today, the House has just approved H.Res. 982, which provides for the adoption of H.Res. 979, recommending that the House of Representatives find Harriet Miers, former White House Counsel, and Joshua Bolten, the White House Chief of Staff, in contempt of [Link]
Looking at Clinton’s statements during critical moments in the war underscores her obscurantism on the most important issue of U.S. national security—a stance that makes sense only in the related contexts of strategic confusion and political expedienc [Link]
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April 25th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
eRiposte is a woman??
April 26th, 2008 at 12:51 am
Oops! I have no idea what gender eRiposte is. I think that I mentally put an “n” in, so that it becomes “Erinposte” in my mind, but that’s purely associative.
April 26th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Gotcha. I re-read and saw the “his/her” up there.