I read Josh Marshall’s Talking Points Memo regularly now. Today he’s on a roll.

First, there’s this post about the curious reasoning some in the press use when talking about the African-American vote.

This vaguely reminds me of the line one often hears in TV commentary about Democrats and their ‘dependence’ on the African-American vote. It’s only the African-American vote, the argument goes, that keeps the Democratic party from becoming a permanent minority party.

[...] I don’t want to overstate the point. But nestled down deep in this argument is some sort of perhaps unconscious notion that the Dems are just hopelessly sucking wind among real voters and thus have to resort to padding their totals with blacks.

Secondly, Marshall hits upon the perfect analogy for why the administration’s “Don’t dwell in the past” dodge leaks like a cheap paper towel.

[It’s] like I come back to my office to find my new employee has taken a crap right on my desk.

Puzzledly and not happy, I say, “What, umm … what happened here?”

To which he replies, “There you go again, always focusing on the past, how this or that could have been done differently, when what’s really important is the future, how we deal with this and other challenges we’re going to face.”

To which I would reply, “No. The future is exactly what I’m thinking about. And that’s why you’re fired. Because in the future I can’t afford to have anyone working here who craps on my desk, and then when I confront them about it all they can do is dodge responsibility with moronic excuses and try to put the blame on me for asking what the hell is going on.”

Third, he points us to Moveon.org new ad featuring Donald Rumsfeld’s apprearance on Face the Nation.

Finally, Marshall echoes my sentiments exactly that the Bush administration seems to think they can get away with absolutely anything they want.

‘Disrespect’ doesn’t quite convey the intended message. But it comes close. It may be closer to ‘contempt’ though I think the attitude is somehow breezier than that. They don’t think any rules apply to them.

They want to say up is down. And they’re sure they can get away with it because they think the people who are listening are either chumps or that their trust can be exploited endlessly.

Thanks, Josh. You’re okay in my book.

• No Related Post

Wednesday, March 17th, 2004 @ 5:42 pm Politics Matters
RSS 2.0 Both comments and pings are currently closed.