Blogs and Stories
The Impressive Hypocrisy of the GOP
Getty Images
When the administration ended, Bush disciples like Karl Rove and Michael Gerson became pundits. Eric Alterman says they're behaving just as shamelessly in the media as they did at the White House.
When you consider the respective achievements of the folks who peopled the upper echelons of the Bush administration, I think you’ll agree that after their incompetence, ideological obsession, and general malevolence, their most impressive characteristic was, and remains, their audacity.
Think about it: George W. Bush is widely considered to be, if not America’s worst president ever, then certainly in the bottom four or five. His legacy to his successor includes: the worst economic crisis in 80years, two unsuccessful wars, a thoroughly corrupt Justice Department, the destruction of time-honored civil liberties and hard-won rights, and the widespread contempt of almost everyone on the planet who was not a committed member of the conservative Republican base. And yet not only did Bush and Co. never own up to the catastrophic consequences of their actions, they gave one another medals for it. (It’s only a rumor, however, that Bush tried to rename the Presidential Medal of Freedom the “Heckuva Job” medal.)
Unlike ex-Democratic pundits who want to prove their mettle by attacking their ex-friends, GOP talking heads keep up exactly the same shenanigans that landed this country in the screwed-up place they left it.
In a society with any kind of memory whatsoever—much less one whose public servants enjoyed a modicum of self-respect—these folks would slink off into the sunset and lay low for a decade or two before taking up new careers doing something useful—if not ministering to the poor like Jimmy Carter, then at least sticking to charity golf tournaments like Gerald Ford.
Instead they’ve become pundits. And unlike ex-Democratic pundits, who tend to want to prove their mettle as independent analysts by attacking their ex-friends using Republican talking points—demanding to know why presidential candidates do not wear flag pins and are BFFs with Louis Farrakhan and the like—they keep up exactly the same shenanigans that landed this country in the screwed-up place they left it. Admit it: It’s impressive.
Exhibit A in this category is ex-chief speechwriter Michael Gerson. Using the same kind of impeccable logic that led him to write speeches demanding that we invade a different country other than the one that attacked us on 9/11, Gerson was punished for his crimes against the English language with a regular gig in The Washington Post and Newsweek, and a fancy fellowship at the Council on Foreign Relations. This week, he took the occasion of a recent Pew poll to attack Barack Obama as “the most polarizing new president of recent times.”
“Obama has been a unifier, of sorts,” he quips. “He has united Democrats and united Republicans—against each other.”
As with so many Gerson-authored speeches for George W. Bush, the question one has to ask oneself upon hearing this is not whether the man uttering the words believes them, but whether he can even comprehend them. In Gerson’s case, he appears to understand his own audaciously dishonest claim because he undermines it a few paragraphs later. “The Pew report notes that this is the extension of a long-term trend,” he admits. Well, yes, there’s that. (The poll itself is here.)
And there are also a few obvious-to-everybody-else explanations for the tendency. As Michael Dimock, Pew’s associate director told Gerson’s Post colleague Greg Sargent, “It’s unfair to say that Obama has caused this divisiveness or to say that he is a polarizing president.” Not only is the trend one that’s been building over time, but it is driven in part by the fact that partisan divide is always stronger under Democratic presidents—Bush II being the exception—because Democrats tend to give their opponents a chance while Republicans do not. Second, two Bush terms that went about as well as a biblical flood—see above—have left the party denuded of all but its most ideologically driven elements. A party answerable to Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh is going disapprove of just about anyone and anything in what during the Bush years became known as the “reality-based community” simply because, well, it’s there.
Gerson goes on, again impressively, to blame Obama for failing to get Republican votes for his budget, for increasing the deficit, and expanding our dependence on China as if the past eight years never happened.
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
The Right Dumps Carrie
Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
Geithner's Stock Plummeting
Jeff Madrick is a contributor to the New York Review of Books and a former economics columnist for the New York Times. He is editor of Challenge Magazine, visiting professor of humanities at Cooper Union, and senior fellow at the New School's Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis. He is the author of Taking America, The End of Affluence (Random House) and The Case for Big Government.
Why Democrats Are Smiling
Eric Alterman is a professor of English and journalism at Brooklyn College and a professor of journalism at CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. He is the author, most recently, of Why We're Liberals: A Handbook for Restoring America's Important Ideals.
The Speech of His Life—Again
Eric Alterman is a professor of English and journalism at Brooklyn College and a professor of journalism at CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. He is the author, most recently, of Why We're Liberals: A Handbook for Restoring America's Important Ideals.
How E.L. Doctorow Does It
Eric Alterman is a professor of English and journalism at Brooklyn College and a professor of journalism at CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. He is the author, most recently, of Why We're Liberals: A Handbook for Restoring America's Important Ideals.
Here is a surprise. A left winger who continues to bash Bush and his inner circle. Boy! I would not expect this from a liberal journalist, employee of MSNBC and Media Matters for America (a group concocted by the Clintons).
Can this guy be any more transparent? I think that he needs to look into the approval ratings for Obama and Congress because polls remain in dumper and Obama's are dropping.
I would take Bush over Obama any day!!!
Of course, you attack Alterman while completely ignoring his story. Oops! Another GOP attack method! The story just happened to be very, very accurate...another unfortunate coincidence for br549.
Here's a surprise. A right winger who continues to support Bush and his inner circle. Boy! I would say this is unexpected but its not. Typical of a conservative blogger making up facts as they go along and creating a conspiracy theories around the founding of Media Matters for America to boot. Hint: The Clinton's had nothing to do with it. It was founded by David Brock who once wrote for the American Spectator, and lied about Clinton for a living, until his conscious caught up with him.
Can you be any more uninformed and transparent? I think you need to look at the approval ratings for Obama and Congress because the polls remain in their favor.
You and the other 23% are the only people on this planet who would take Bush over Obama. Its why the GOP lost the last two elections and will continue to be the margins of American politics, not to mention the laughing stock of the world.
"Not only is the trend one that's been building over time, but it is driven in part by the fact that partisan divide is always stronger under Democratic presidents-Bush II being the exception-because Democrats tend to give their opponents a chance while Republicans do not. Second, two Bush terms that went about as well as a biblical flood-see above-have left the party denuded of all but its most ideologically driven elements."
br6875 = Q.E.D.
(PS - Obama's 66% approval rating in the recent Gallup poll are the highest of his presidency. Only in Bizarro Bush-Rove-Rush world does this count as "dropping." Of course, reality has a well-known liberal bias, as Steven Colbert likes to say. And Congress' ratings are up too, btw. But I'm sure this gets little coverage over at FoxNews, Drudge, & RedState).
HAHAHHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA. BRB6875....priceless. That was one of the greatest posts. Your response made no sense, and had nothing to do with the authors premise. Well played.
Amen to this! How dare Rove, the Master at politicizing things, criticize someone else for supposedly doing the same thing. Also, what they SAY is politicizing is really just undoing that done by Bush and his cronies. God, it's like these people are so divorced from reality that they can't even see the logical results of their own actions. How did these people evolve, and why did people vote for them?
Hey Chris314--what logical results are you referencing??
hey Chris314--what logical results are you referencing?
Hey br6875 -- take responsibility for the actions of your party. You neocons are like a bunch of pathetic whiny children, and you just don't get it: you lost, your party is moribund, and the democrats are undertaking the enormous task of fixing what your party broke.
Live with it and shut up.
It would be interesting to see Alterman apply his tortuous, rigorous analysis of words, intent and their meaning to the very words spoken by Obama during his campaign.
hey br6875--how about making a point? Your only counter to the argument proferred in the article is that he must be a "left winger." You rely, therefore, on the idea that anything a "left winger" says is, by definition, wrong. That type of argument doesn't fly here. You want to "win" this debate? Then try to come up with something other than a pejorative label. Even the author, in his attack on "right wingers" Karl Rove and Mike Gerson, looks at the substance of what they say to point out what he perceives as their flaws. How about you try the same? Point out what the author here says, using his own words, and then tell us why the points he makes are invalid. Until then, you're just another member of the Cheeto Brigade, spouting off ditto-head nonsense and working on a heart attack. Well done.
Hey, bS875, Obama's poll numbers have ACTUALLYGONE UP! In what lala land do you live in? OH, well, we all need our fantasies, I suppose. Reality is too dificult.
The magical thinking of Gerson, Rove and Frum cannot erase the devastating reality of W. eight years in office. They can receive media contracts and fellowship grants but nothing will ever change that truth. Calling someone a left winger or progressive will not erase what Team Bush did to the country.
Hey br, all the logical references you want are right there in the article, especially the part in Rove's own words. Either learn to read or find out what logic really is. Good grief.
Then WHY does Main Stream Media continue to perpetuate the myth that the Reich wingers have any merit at all?
Money. Pure airwaves profit.
Until the MSM gets some balls and integrity, these dangerous, lying thieves will fill the airwaves, and stupid morons like br6875 will believe that Bush was a great president and Obama is to blame for the disaster that is America.
I could scream it makes me so fed up.
Ok, Alterman, I am a liberal, and I agree with your argument that the GOP, as always, is being hypocritical.
See what I just did there? I set up my comment by inviting you to keep reading with a sympathetic viewpoint, because you already know I am on your side, or at least respect your views.
But do you know how you began your article? By establishing that the GOP spokespeople are incompetent, ideologically obsessed, and audacious. You then continued to assert that Bush was, if not the worst president in history, near the bottom.
Do you see the problem with your approach? A little? By beginning the article the way you did, you ensured that not a single conservative would read past the first few sentances, or if they did, they would be approaching it defensively and defiantly the way most liberals approach watching Fox News. By beginning the article the way you did, you seem to not care in the slightest about convincing readers and engage them in true debate and rational argument, but rather give your liberal readers a chance to pat themselves on the back for the things they already agree with. Because of that introduction, your entire article was utterly pointless, and accomplished nothing in the way of changing the political discourse in this nation.
Excellent, well-written piece. It is as important that we, as a nation, go forward with our memories intact. In fact, it is as important to our future, as Germany's was following the Hitler years.
At least Bush was a decent man, on a personal level. But can you imagine what would have happened if Karl Rove had been our actual President?
Please, how was Bush a decent man on a personal level? Maybe if you compare him to Hitler, yes, but I wouldn't say that being better than Hitler made him decent.
littlequeenie- I should clarify that as a President he was an absolute disaster. However, he has certain personal qualities that are decent, such as being a good father, husband, and a loyal friend. The loyalty thing is what got him in trouble, because he was also loyal to a bunch a scallywags like Rove, Cheney, and the Oil-ey boys.
Truly, though, do you think he was, or is any more corrupt than any of the rest of the politicians serving the American public?
Always politics,who made Carl Rove, a brilliant, schemer, a guru in this country. He is suave and cool, and thoroughly,collected. Yet he and the administration, and Bush and Chaney, raped, us and fleeced, and destroyed a huge %by not watching over the people of the US.They all should be held accountable, for not having oversights, agencies, people in charge, protecting those who needed them.You know at first I thought the Japanese were out of whack when someone committed suicide, or was put to death over not watching over their jobs. Well, people are bankrupted, spiritually and financially, schools, are closing, iras, devalued, people out of their homes, children cant go to college,we have been rebuilding infrastructure in a country that we should have never destructed,and billions and trillions just pass hands. nd before anyone sys anything I am not Democrat, at this point Im not sure of anything.Except, maybe if Chaney Bush, Rove, all of the wallstreeters, bankers, war money was returned we ll would be fine and growing.Mismanagement, unaccountability, free checking accounts with all our dollars.Look around there are no jobs, industries, productions growing, here.Nothing was done to benefit our country.nd Bush and Chaney and the mastermind Rove and many others,..............and for Republicans, who wish our country and this president to fail, you already all failed, we are trying something new.Pray as Americans that he succeds.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
Hockey dog I just read what you wrote, as much as I blame, Pres. Bush, I do believe he was a happy go lucky guy.Rove, and Chaney.................................................
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
I'm still confused why Rove isn't in jail yet??
Eric, thank God you have a forum to write these thoughts. They are my sentiments exactly!
You've put into words everything I have thought about the con and neocon pundits. But I suggest one slight change - instead of inventing a new Nobel category, why not put them in Ripley's Believe It Or Not, or even the Guinness Book of World Records for the deepest pile of BS.
Gerson is one of the many reasons why I don't stop by the wapo anymore. It's not just because they hold different views of the world than mine, they are just stupid views and a big waste of my time. I'm willing to listen to people like William Buckley, Jr, in fact we used to watch his television show all the time. There is no conservative thinker today who approaches him in critical thinking.
Absolutely everthing the Karl Rove writes in the Wall Street Journal is a full-on guffaw. Re-writing history is his new career. Re-selling Bush makes Rove a lot of money. He also has to keep stroking the "Righties". They demand to be stroked and lied to, and they are.
Mr. Alterman, very disappointing article, you blatantly disregard any and every comment ever made by Democrats regarding their own lack of shortcomings. How many second chances do you need to get it right, too much is at stake not to hold everyone to the same standard. Talk about memory loss! Look in the mirror. At least act like you're above the same tactics by practicing something different than what you berate.
More disappointing hate mongering by failed whacko government teat sucklers like Jacklegs. No wonder you lost in '88, smaller wonder no one has ever heard of you, thank goodness. Why does the webmaster allow shameless commercials like this?
Reckless, good job pointing out the irrationality we need to be diligent in disregarding.
We should leave Guantanamo open so we can lock up the lynchpins of the Bush Adminstration like Rove, Cheney, Rummy etc. for screwing up our great nation.
It's up to us, the majority, to fix what these kooks have messed up.
"George W. Bush is widely considered to be, if not America's worst president ever, than certainly in the bottom four or five."
There's a pure statement of opinion-primarily a Leftist opinion. While I lean to the right I do acknowledge that the last four years of Bush was a waste of our time. What a lame duck. However, all this Bush-bashing needs to end. The Left acts like he was Hitler or Mussolini. There have been some real Democratic flops for president as well. Anyone care to recall Carter and the Iran hostage crisis? Gas rationing? Both parties have had some real hum-dingers in office. The answer is a viable third party to keep the other two in check.
"George W. Bush is widely considered to be, if not America's worst president ever, than certainly in the bottom four or five."
There's a pure statement of opinion-primarily a Leftist opinion.
-----------
A statement of opinion, perhaps. But a widely shared one (& not just among leftists apparently).
http://www.pollingreport.com/wh-hstry.htm
I lived through Carter. Compared to W, Carter was the second coming of Abraham Lincoln.
If the "Justice Department" wasn't corrupt, and Democrats had the courage of their convictions, these clowns would now be under indictment & too busy defending their indefensible actions, to offer up more of their sociopathic commentary. Somehow, some way, 55% of the popular vote and 58 Senators do NOT translate into a functioning majority, while under Bush (
Thank you.
As a first time user, your comment has been submitted for review. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or two for your comment to be reviewed, depending on the time of week and the volume of comments we receive.
Please log in to leave comments.