Andrew Brietbart’s ad hominem attack on Van Jones in The Daily Caller — right down to calling him a “commie punk” and “a cop killer-supporting, racist, demagogic freak” — violates the tenets of debate and civil discourse we have strived for since the day we launched. As a result, [Huffington Post] will no longer feature his posts on the front page.
Dave Weigel notes (a) Breitbart helped develop HuffPo in 2005, (b) the “ad hominem attack” was not posted at HuffPo, and (c) if such remarks in other forums are disqualifying for front-page status at HuffPo, “Boy, good thing Breitbart doesn’t have an army of contributors who can comb HuffPo authors’ published and spoken work to see if they’ve done that.”
UPDATE: Blogs are way ahead of the regular news outfits on this story. Michelle Malkin:
Free-market champion and conservative businessman Herman Cain declares Madison “Ground Zero” in the battle against Big Labor.
That’s the first quote I’ve seen from Cain’s speech, and he spoke more than two hours ago. You would think that when a presidential candidate gave a speech at a major event like this, reporters on the scene would rush to be the first to report it. But you would be wrong. Anyway, Malkin is using reports via Twitter to cover the rally and posts this Twitpic of the scene:
Gov. Scott Walker on Saturday rejected an overture from a Democratic state senator that public employee unions had agreed to make financial sacrifices contained in the budget-repair bill in return for the right to bargain collectively.
The protests by the Teacher unions (and the professional protesters called up by OFA and President Obama) in Madison, Wisconsin are almost a bad re-play of the Anti-war protests of the Bush years (both Bushes). Thus, deja vu.
Walker has called on 14 Democratic state senators, who fled the state rather than allow a quorum permitting a vote on the bill, to return to Madison.
Bill opponents say they won’t allow a vote unless Walker negotiates on the plan to eliminate collective bargaining rights for everything but wages. The legislation also would require most employees to pay more for their pensions and health insurance benefits.
“I have been informed that all state and local public employees — including teachers — have agreed to the financial aspects of Gov. Walker’s request,” said Sen. Jon Erpenbach, a Democrat. . . .
Walker, who says the state is “broke,” is asking legislators to pass his Budget Repair Bill to combat a $137 million shortfall through June 30. An upcoming two-year budget for 2011-13 must address a pending $3.6 billion deficit, he said. The governor’s press secretary, Cullen Werwie, released a statement Saturday calling on Erpenbach, Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller and other Democrats to return from Illinois. “These are many of the same senators who, two years ago, rammed through a billion dollar tax hike in 24 hours with no public input,” the statement said. “The quickest way to resolve the current situation is for the Democratic senators to stop shirking their responsibilities and debate the bill in Madison.” Opponents say the proposed legislation is an attack on workers’ rights.
“Worker’s rights,” my ass! You’ve got no “right” to be employed by the state, nor any “right” to hold taxpayers hostage and demand that they give you more money or more benefits.
Revolutions everywhere–in the middle east, in the middle west. But there is a difference: in the middle east, the protesters are marching for democracy; in the middle west, they’re protesting against it. I mean, Isn’t it, well, a bit ironic that the protesters in Madison, blocking the state senate chamber, are chanting “Freedom, Democracy, Union” while trying to prevent a vote? Isn’t it ironic that the Democratic Senators have fled the democratic process? Isn’t it interesting that some of those who –rightly — protest the assorted Republican efforts to stymie majority rule in the U.S. Senate are celebrating the Democratic efforts to stymie the same in the Wisconsin Senate?
It is that last question, you see, which is the aiming-point of Klein’s column, as he wishes us to conceive the GOP’s filibusters in the U.S. Senate as analogous to the shenanigans of Democrats in Wisconsin.
Of course, the constitutional separation of powers and the ancient super-majority cloture rule in the Senate are such as to make the Senate (usually) an impediment to any sudden shift of policy. Looking back over the first two years of Obama’s presidency, we see that it was the overwhelming Democratic majority in the Senate which enabled his fatal overreach.
“If” — the most important two-letter word in the English language.
Contrary to what Klein or any other pundit may have thought, the anti-Obama, anti-Democrat tide is still running high. This tide is still quite strong enough to overwhelm the government-employees unions in Wisconsin and by 2012 may yet be strong enough to wash Obama himself out of office.
That this is not entirely a Republican tide is what so confuses the liberal punditry. The GOP’s Bush-era “brand damage” is still deep enough that voters hesitate to describe themselves to pollsters as Republican, because that label carries negative connotations for so many. Yet when they see the policies pursued by the Obama administration — a wild and reckless binge of deficit spending — these voters do not hesitate to say that the country is on the “wrong track” rather than in the “right direction.”
Klein sees the irony of Democrats Against Democracy — a movement that predictably arises whenever Republicans are in the majority — without wondering whether he himself has helped bring about this ironic circumstance. Weren’t Joe Klein and his journalistic colleagues singing in unison from the Hope and Change hymnal all through the 2008 election and on into the Obama administration? If the Democrats and union thugs in Madison think they represent the forces of Truth and Justice marching on The Right Side of History . . .
Well, when did Joe Klein ever contradict that belief?
Organized labor is leading liberalism on a lemming stampede toward a cliff, and it’s probably too late for Klein or anyone else to stop them.
Thursday night, commitments brought me to three different events: The “Blogger Bash” at FreedomWorks, Andrew Breitbart’s “Big Party” with Sophie B. Hawkins (above) at Eighteenth Street Lounge, and the “Kruiser Cabana” in Stephen Kruiser‘s hotel suite.
Packed into the Eighteen Street Lounge, conservatives listen to a presentation by Andrew Breitbart, who helped sponsor the event with GOProud.
Newt Gingrich interviewed by Paul Croteau of FTR Radio.
Newt Gingrich interviewed by bloggers including CPAC Blogger of the Year Javier Majarres and — of all people! — notorious left-wing provocateur Mike Stark.
Newt Gingrich shakes hands with my buddy Chris Cassone.
The dirty scam that is the Pigford case, via Breitbart TV:
Lee Stranahan explains at Big Government. When Breitbart went into all-Pigford-all-the-time mode a few weeks ago, some people didn’t get it. “Is this just vengeance for the Sherrod dust-up?” and so forth. But there’s a serious scandal here.
With Republicans taking control of the House of Representatives, the GOP committee chairs get to decide what to investigate, and when they start holding hearings to get to the bottom of this dirty business, it’s going to make huge headlines. The way the plaintiff’s attorneys hosed the taxpayers on the Pigford class-action case is a shame and disgrace to the American legal system.
Perhaps we can persuade Republicans to stick an earmark into an “omnibus” bill, funding a USDA research project to determine whether the corpses of tort lawyers can be used as fertilizer or cattle feed.
In general, I avoid the “liberals are hypocrites” line of argument that highlights episodes of Democrats engaging in sexism, racism and homophobia, because (a) plenty of other conservatives employ that argument, and (b) my feeling is that political correctness exaggerates the extent and/or danger of these postmodern “sins” against the Religion of Tolerance.
Sexism? American women are the most privileged women in all of human history. Homophobia? Every socioeconomic analysis I’ve ever seen shows gays in America well above average in education, career status and per-capita income. Racism? One of the reasons I’ve so often been smeared as a “white supremacist” is because I dispute the liberal narrative that depicts U.S. minorities as helpless victims of Caucasian oppression.
Given my skepticism toward these “sins” of political correctness, then, it ill behooves me to point the accusing finger at a liberal and scream: “RAAAAACISM!” (Remember: 5 A’s.) Being a crusader against bigotry just isn’t my thing. Prejudice is a permanent fact of human nature, and to run around denouncing other people as haters implies that one has a roadmap to Utopia where everyone holds hands and sings “Kumbaya.” Besides, in the Obama Age, becoming a raaaaacistis as easy as voting Republican.
These caveats aside, however, a thing of beauty is a joy forever:
There are multiple layers of irony here, but time is short, there is much work to be done and so I won’t bother to peel this onion further. Feel free, however, to have at it in the comments.
Ed Driscoll featured this Newsbusters video in which Andrew Breitbart brilliantly nails Bill Maher who, for the past 15 years, has tried to claim he’s some kind of libertarian. As no libertarian could possibly support ObamaCare, however . . .
ANDREW BREITBART: So you’re, you’re officially not a Libertarian anymore, right? I mean, this position…
MAHER: Well..
BREITBART: …has run so far from the Libertarian position. Is this, so you admit that you have more of a, you know, European socialist leaning perspective on this issue? (AUDIENCE LAUGHTER)
BREITBART: Why is that funny?
MAHER: I’m, I’m not afraid, it’s not, I’m not afraid to say European socialism works.
Maher is not a libertarian and never was. He is a deformed personality. His political incoherence is a mere reflection of his twisted mind, as I wrote in April 2009: “Bill Maher hates himself. And can you blame him?”
My friend Andrew Marcus at Founding Bloggers produced this video, which I found via my friend Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit. To call Glenn Beck a “coward”? Easy. To claim that Tea Party activists are motivated by “hate”? Easy. But to call Andrew Breitbart a “faggot” while doing these things is to invite yourself to one of the greatest intellectual ass-kickings in history — as guest of honor:
That this mob of epithet-spewing union goons was fomented by President Obama’s “Organizing for America” illustrates a point that is the exact reverse of the MSM’s narrative. It is not Beck, Breitbart and the Tea Parties who are stupid, hateful and ignorant pawns.
BTW, Andrew Breitbart is a married father of four. He’s about 6-foot-2 and 230 pounds. I don’t doubt that he could have literally kicked the asses of the people calling him “faggot.” It’s rather interesting to discover that the most rabid supporters of Barack Obama’s Democrats — you know, the party trying to overturn “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in the Senate — so quickly resort to calling people “faggot” when they’re angry.
