The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Richard Cohen and a Plate Glass Window

Posted on | November 12, 2013 | 31 Comments

It probably seemed like a good idea: Trash Iowa, trash the Tea Party — an easy day’s work for a Washington Post columnist, and hey, why not throw in a cheap shot at Sarah Palin for good measure?

. . . Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah (considered to the right of Cruz, if such a thing is possible), Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the party’s recent vice presidential candidate and its resident abacus, and the inevitable Sarah Palin, the Alaska quitter who, I think, actually now lives in Arizona. If this is the future of the GOP, then it’s in the past.
None of these candidates bears the slightest resemblance to Christie. And the more literate of them — that’s not you, Palin —– must have chortled over post-election newspaper columns extolling Christie as precisely the sort of candidate the GOP ought to run in 2016.

His publisher hailed the column as “brilliant,” but it was just another 750 words of the useless op-ed drivel Richard Cohen has been getting paid to write for decades. Except . . .

Richard Cohen Has Written Something
Insane About Interracial Marriage 
— Gawker

Richard Cohen on Black-White Marriage
— The Atlantic Monthly

Racist Op-Ed Columns Are
a Strange Business Strategy 
— Slate

Yeah, he went there, thinking to make a clever attack on conservatives without considering the fact that the Young Turks of the online Left have had him on their target list for some time. It’s not fair that this old liberal should have that prime op-ed real estate, you see.

These Young Turks wanted Cohen gone, and his clumsy race-baiting (even though aimed at Republicans) was sufficiently offensive that they decided (in the memorable phrase of Spencer Ackerman) to smash Richard Cohen through a plate glass window.

Should we care? Probably not.

Richard Cohen says that his latest piece was not intended to be and shouldn’t be read as racist.
“The word racist is truly hurtful,” he told The Huffington Post on Tuesday. “It’s not who I am. It’s not who I ever was. It’s just not fair. It’s just not right.” . . .
“The column is about Tea Party extremism and I was not expressing my views, I was expressing the views of what I think some people in the Tea Party held.”

Oh, it’s not fair, eh?

Good luck with that argument.

UPDATE: Twitchy has an excellent round-up of Twitter reaction.

Indeed, what Cohen said “about Tea Party extremism” is not really different from what the Left has been saying about the Right for years. But he was standing on a banana peel — an old liberal with a prestigious gig, resented by ambitious young pundits — and didn’t realize that this shot at the Right might ricochet around and hit him.

 

Category: Liberals, Media Bias

Comments

31 Responses to “Richard Cohen and a Plate Glass Window”

  1. rsmccain
    November 12th, 2013 @ 11:56 pm

    Richard Cohen and a Plate Glass Window http://t.co/Lht4V6eNpt cc @AmPowerBlog @instapundit @jimgeraghty @ImAndrewMarcus @SarahPalinUSA

  2. jwbrown1969
    November 13th, 2013 @ 12:33 am

    Richard Cohen and a Plate Glass Window: It probably seemed like a good idea: Trash Iowa, trash the Tea Party —… http://t.co/1b29f1z8X8

  3. AmPowerBlog
    November 13th, 2013 @ 12:35 am

    RT @rsmccain: Richard Cohen and a Plate Glass Window http://t.co/Lht4V6eNpt cc @AmPowerBlog @instapundit @jimgeraghty @ImAndrewMarcus @Sara…

  4. ndmike12
    November 13th, 2013 @ 12:38 am

    “The word racist is truly hurtful,” he said in response to being called racist by critics of his column, in which he hurled sweeping accusations of racism that were supported only by his own speculation.

  5. AmPowerBlog
    November 13th, 2013 @ 12:39 am

    Richard Cohen and a Plate Glass Window http://t.co/a9ZBt1AeqU via @RSMcCain

  6. Tabitha Bliss
    November 13th, 2013 @ 12:41 am

    The unbelievable hypocrisy & blatant racism of the American left knows no bounds.

  7. Mike B
    November 13th, 2013 @ 12:47 am

    Huh. I wondered what Richard Cohen could write that would get Wonkette of all people to look askance upon him. “But I’m one of yours!” has never been a good enough excuse once you’ve been unpersoned by the Left.

  8. ECHackett
    November 13th, 2013 @ 12:57 am

    MT “Richard Cohen and Liberal Cannibalism” http://t.co/yK1r1YjTDu via @rsmccain #ClapLouderComrade #Raaaaacism

  9. ChandlersGhost
    November 13th, 2013 @ 1:04 am

    “Who denounced you?” said Winston.

    “It was my little daughter,”
    said Parsons with a sort of doleful pride. “She listened at the keyhole. Heard what I was saying, and nipped off to the patrols the very next day. Pretty smart for a nipper of seven, eh? I don’t bear her any grudge for it. In fact I’m proud of her. It shows I brought her up in the right spirit, anyway.”

  10. Josh_Painter
    November 13th, 2013 @ 1:22 am

    RT @smitty_one_each: TOM Richard Cohen and a Plate Glass Window http://t.co/tEBse0z9bH #TCOT

  11. Richard Cohen and a Plate Glass Window | Dead Citizen's Rights Society
    November 13th, 2013 @ 1:50 am

    […] Richard Cohen and a Plate Glass Window […]

  12. gvanderleun
    November 13th, 2013 @ 2:17 am

    Well, to be fair, Blasio on all levels does trip the gag reflex.

  13. Adjoran
    November 13th, 2013 @ 4:43 am

    I never understood the fascination with the likes of Cohen. I found him intellectually deficient and a hack writer 35 years ago or so, and spot checks of his columns over the years since have always confirmed my judgement.

    He served a purpose in the ’80s as a source of the liberal talking points but since Clinton started the Rapid Response Bimbo Eruption Team, every lefty blogger and reporter has their marching orders in their inbox when they get up in the morning. So Cohen is perfectly useless.

    My only sadness if he is canned will be the knowledge that whatever leftist Journ-o-Lister they hire to replace him will come cheap and improve their hideous bottom line. Maybe he’ll sue them for wrongful termination or bullying or something.

  14. Adjoran
    November 13th, 2013 @ 4:45 am

    Is Ana still alive? I’d have thought she’d have succumbed to some sort of exotic STD by now.

  15. Adjoran
    November 13th, 2013 @ 4:48 am

    They see “bounds” as the chains of the White Patriarchal Oligarchy’s hegemony and control, and reject it entirely. Morality itself is their sworn enemy.

  16. John Scotus
    November 13th, 2013 @ 5:25 am

    There is a lot that is strange about the article. I’m surprised that he was just dinged by progs for his racists remarks, and not for his un-PC assertion that Bill de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, “used to be” a lesbian.

  17. Jason Lee
    November 13th, 2013 @ 6:15 am

    “They wanna put y’all back in chains!”

  18. scarymatt
    November 13th, 2013 @ 7:20 am

    It seems obvious to me that he just came up with a novel way to call the Tea Party racist. What could be less objectionable to the bien pensant than that?

    I must agree with RSM here, as misinterpreting a quote and going after the perpetrator is exactly how they attack conservatives. Or these guys have a problem with reading comprehension. Not that any of these are mutually exclusive.

  19. Wombat_socho
    November 13th, 2013 @ 7:22 am

    I thought that was pretty widely known, but then all I know is what I read on WeSmirch and Google News (BIRM)

  20. rsmccain
    November 13th, 2013 @ 9:38 am

    ICYMI: Richard Cohen and a Plate Glass Window http://t.co/Lht4V6eNpt

  21. dave_mears
    November 13th, 2013 @ 9:40 am

    RT @rsmccain: ICYMI: Richard Cohen and a Plate Glass Window http://t.co/Lht4V6eNpt

  22. Kevin Trainor Jr.
    November 13th, 2013 @ 11:12 am

    Kevin Trainor Jr. liked this on Facebook.

  23. rsmccain
    November 13th, 2013 @ 12:12 pm

    RT @jwbrown1969: Richard Cohen and a Plate Glass Window: It probably seemed like a good idea: Trash Iowa, trash the Tea Party —… http://t…

  24. Richard Cohen Calls the Tea Party Racist, But He Used the Wrong Words or Something… | Andrew J. Patrick
    November 13th, 2013 @ 12:36 pm

    […] this is not me taking notice of Richard Cohen. This is me examining what Richard Cohen said that has everyone so worked up. The offending […]

  25. MNHawk
    November 13th, 2013 @ 3:56 pm

    Maybe if Richard Cohen had a history of screwing other men’s wives who were non-white, Cohen’s words might have more bite?

    Maybe if Richard Cohen had a history of talking dirty to female co-workers of color, instead of just the white ones, his words might have more bite?

  26. Susannah72
    November 13th, 2013 @ 5:17 pm

    Richard Cohen and a Plate Glass Window http://t.co/p9CvhtY88R (Via @rsmccain)

  27. RichFader
    November 13th, 2013 @ 5:32 pm

    That’s it. We right-wing wackos over here supposedly gag because the new mayor of New York is a white guy who married a black lady and former lesbian/bi-curious/whatever and had kids. No, it couldn’t possibly be because he’s a raving leftist. God forbid it might be that. It’s all raaaaace.

    And I suspect the gov is at least literate enough to read this op-ed and follow the ensuing furor…and then point and laugh.

  28. thatMrGguy
    November 13th, 2013 @ 9:53 pm

    Richard Cohen and a Plate Glass Window http://t.co/d3YbxW0CXz

  29. Quartermaster
    November 13th, 2013 @ 10:47 pm

    We witeboi conservatives are such racists, we hate whites. We is H8erz and itz all we thinkz of.

    Thus endeth the libtard lesson on race.

  30. Bob Belvedere
    November 15th, 2013 @ 4:00 pm

    We share observations of this Captain Dunsel of The Left.

  31. Bob Belvedere
    November 15th, 2013 @ 4:01 pm

    In a NYPost article from earlier this year, I believe Comrade McCray states that she is bisexual.