Senator al-Durbini's Latest Fatwa
Boy, this guy is drunk with his own newfound extremist notoriety:
One can only imagine what the Extreme Media reaction would be if this were, say, Rick Santorum trying to squash a left-wing group's ad blasting him for his unfortunate Nazi parallel of a couple of months back (which didn't directly equate any lib/Dem to Nazis in any case, but work with me here...). Oh, heck, do I really need to elaborate? We'd get ads comparing Santorum to Hitler, Himmler, Eichman, Heydrich, and maybe even Hermann Goering if the Pennsylvania Republican gained fifty or sixty pounds and acquired a heroin habit.
But, golly, is it any wonder that Ali Dickbar wants to squelch MAF's message? They're simply quoting his own words and hanging them around his stack 'o dimes neck. Which suggests that he considers this publicity to be highly unfavorable, particularly given that his state (Illinois) is bluer than an Eskimo streaker in a sleet storm. And since al Durbini is the epitome of Chicago machine authoritarianism, he's just doing what comes naturally: trying to flatten enemies whose arguments he cannot counter.
It bears repeating that Republicans do not do things like this. Nor do Republicans do the sort of things that lead to the temptation to do things like this. But the reason that Democrats DO do things like this, and the sort of things that lead to the temptation to do things like this, is because Republicans let them do them. Republicans never fire back. Republicans never do the "task taking" that, as a consequence, falls to independent groups like MAF. Republicans are seemingly incapable of public indignation, righteous or otherwise. A verbal atrocity such as Senator al Durbini pulled should have gotten him ripped from rectum to belly-button by all fifty-five Republicans and the handful of Democrats who would have joined the chorus for fear of being lumped in with that obscene partisan exhibitionist.
But no. A few days of fretful clucking, followed by Ali Dickbar's non-apology and a huge collective sigh of relief that the Senate could once more return to the "comity" that has become a neurotic compulsion for the so-called "majority."
If you were a lying, corrupt, seditious, bullying bastard like he, and this was the extent of the retaliatory political ordnance deployed against you, would it have even occurred to you to hestitate in going after the one opposing group that was actually retaliating in kind?
Also, remember during last year's campaign, when John Kerry did the same damn thing to Sinclair Broadcasting over their plans to show the real low-down on the Vietnam War on the Boston Balker's record in it, Stolen Honor?
They call us fascists and Nazis and "terrorists," and yet when confronted with their own sedition, it is they who send in the Armani storm troopers.
Here's a novel application of Justice O'Connor's "reasonable observer" test: At what point in an escalating series of provocations would the reasonable observer haul off and punch his assailant smack in the mouth?
Not that I'm recommending that tack for Senate Republicans (or anybody else), but by my reckoning, Senator al-Durbini passed the broken teeth threshold a loooooong time ago.
[HT: George Meredith]
The U.S. Senator who smeared U.S. Troops with claims that they were barbaric torturers akin to "Nazis, Soviets with their Gulags, or some mad regime like Pol Pot or others" is now trying to silence Move America Forward, a pro-military not-for-profit organization.
In keeping with his outrageous conduct, U.S. Senator Richard Durbin's office intimated to an Illinois newspaper that the IRS should shutdown Move America Forward, telling the newspaper: "Have you ever seen that H&R Block commercial where the guy leans in and says, 'I see an audit'?"
One of the grounds used to threaten impeachment of President Richard Nixon was that he politicized the IRS and tried to use IRS audits ofhis political enemies to shut them down or silence them. That is precisely what Senator Durbin's office is doing now! There is noplace for that in American politics, and Senator Durbin must be held accountable.
In another effort to shut down the voices of American military men and women who rely on Move America Forward to defend them, it looks like Durbin's office has also called the television stations in the state and pressured them not to run the television commercial calling him to task.
Already, two television stations have buckled under his pressure: the ABC affiliate in Chicago (WLS TV 7) and the NBC affiliate inChicago (WMAQ TV 5), are refusing to run the ad critical of Durbin. The CBS affiliate in Chicago has withstood Durbin's pressure, and Move America Forward has already aired the ad during their news broadcasts.
The TV Ad Senator Durbin seems so frightened of can be seen here.
One can only imagine what the Extreme Media reaction would be if this were, say, Rick Santorum trying to squash a left-wing group's ad blasting him for his unfortunate Nazi parallel of a couple of months back (which didn't directly equate any lib/Dem to Nazis in any case, but work with me here...). Oh, heck, do I really need to elaborate? We'd get ads comparing Santorum to Hitler, Himmler, Eichman, Heydrich, and maybe even Hermann Goering if the Pennsylvania Republican gained fifty or sixty pounds and acquired a heroin habit.
But, golly, is it any wonder that Ali Dickbar wants to squelch MAF's message? They're simply quoting his own words and hanging them around his stack 'o dimes neck. Which suggests that he considers this publicity to be highly unfavorable, particularly given that his state (Illinois) is bluer than an Eskimo streaker in a sleet storm. And since al Durbini is the epitome of Chicago machine authoritarianism, he's just doing what comes naturally: trying to flatten enemies whose arguments he cannot counter.
It bears repeating that Republicans do not do things like this. Nor do Republicans do the sort of things that lead to the temptation to do things like this. But the reason that Democrats DO do things like this, and the sort of things that lead to the temptation to do things like this, is because Republicans let them do them. Republicans never fire back. Republicans never do the "task taking" that, as a consequence, falls to independent groups like MAF. Republicans are seemingly incapable of public indignation, righteous or otherwise. A verbal atrocity such as Senator al Durbini pulled should have gotten him ripped from rectum to belly-button by all fifty-five Republicans and the handful of Democrats who would have joined the chorus for fear of being lumped in with that obscene partisan exhibitionist.
But no. A few days of fretful clucking, followed by Ali Dickbar's non-apology and a huge collective sigh of relief that the Senate could once more return to the "comity" that has become a neurotic compulsion for the so-called "majority."
If you were a lying, corrupt, seditious, bullying bastard like he, and this was the extent of the retaliatory political ordnance deployed against you, would it have even occurred to you to hestitate in going after the one opposing group that was actually retaliating in kind?
Also, remember during last year's campaign, when John Kerry did the same damn thing to Sinclair Broadcasting over their plans to show the real low-down on the Vietnam War on the Boston Balker's record in it, Stolen Honor?
They call us fascists and Nazis and "terrorists," and yet when confronted with their own sedition, it is they who send in the Armani storm troopers.
Here's a novel application of Justice O'Connor's "reasonable observer" test: At what point in an escalating series of provocations would the reasonable observer haul off and punch his assailant smack in the mouth?
Not that I'm recommending that tack for Senate Republicans (or anybody else), but by my reckoning, Senator al-Durbini passed the broken teeth threshold a loooooong time ago.
[HT: George Meredith]
posted by JASmius at 9:13 PM
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