In a fine column on Fox News’ incessant and effective campaigning for Scott Brown and other Republicans, John Richardson closes with a sobering roundup of the right wing’s contempt for American ideals. George Washington would weep.
While we’re on the subject of shameless media campaigns, we’re still in the middle of the most shocking one of my lifetime. At the Weekly Standard, responding to the attempted suicide bombing of Flight 253, they brag that 58 percent of America says we should “waterboard the Nigerian.” In Commentary magazine, Jennifer Rubin expresses contempt for the idea that the bomber is “a ‘defendant’ now, fully Mirandized and with lawyers at his side.” At the Newsreal blog, Jamie Glazov says that “in an ideal world, Abdul Mutallab would be getting waterboarded right about now.” At the National Review, Marc Theisson compared opposition to waterboarding to “radical pacifism.” Charles Krauthammer wrote this in the Washington Post: “Once we’ve given Abdulmutallab the right to remain silent, we have gratuitously forfeited our right to find out from him precisely who else was involved.” And Dick Cheney attacks Obama for letting terrorists “lawyer up.”
This from the party that claims to be suspicious of government power!