{"id":2200,"date":"2008-03-05T17:22:13","date_gmt":"2008-03-05T22:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2200"},"modified":"2008-03-17T10:44:12","modified_gmt":"2008-03-17T15:44:12","slug":"beware-of-flaks-bearing-gifts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2200","title":{"rendered":"Beware Of Flaks Bearing Gifts"},"content":{"rendered":"

If there’s someone who qualifies as “The Lori Sturdevant of the NYTimes<\/em>” – the Gray Lady’s most reliable Tic flak – it’s Frank Rich.<\/p>\n

So when he Mcomes out and admits the Times’ <\/em>great nemesis, Rush Limbaugh, is right<\/a>, conservatives would do well to keep the exits to that Trojan Horse covered with machine guns and artillery.<\/p>\n

BEFORE they were sidetracked into a new war<\/font><\/a> against The New York Times, the Rush Limbaugh posse had it right about John McCain. He is <\/em><\/span>a double agent. Some Democrats do admire and like him. So does Jon Stewart, and so do many liberal editorial boards and card-carrying hacks in the mainstream American press. So, in fact, do many at The Times, including myself. As long as I don\u2019t look too hard at the fine print.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rich’s “fine print” must be on the contract he signed, obliging him to be a mindless flak – but I digress.<\/p>\n

\n
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You\u2019ve got to love a guy who said a few years ago that he regretted<\/font><\/a> likening Mr. Limbaugh to \u201ca circus clown\u201d because of all the complaints from circus clowns insulted by the comparison. \u201cI would like to extend my apologies to Bozo, Chuckles and Krusty,\u201d Senator McCain told a rather startled Neil Cavuto of Fox News.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
News Flash, Frank Rich – conservatives have all sorts <\/em>of problems with John McCain. Some of us made peace with them weeks ago, when Romney bowed out. Some of us were dragged to the table by your paper’s hatchet job against the man.<\/div>\n

What\u2019s more, Ann Coulter and Tom DeLay aren\u2019t entirely wrong when they bluster that a vote for Mr. McCain amounts to a vote for Hillary Clinton (or, for that matter, Barack Obama).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Oh, puh-leeze.<\/p>\n

When Frank Rich “agrees” with Ann Coulter or Tom DeLay, start looking for the punch line.\u00a0 Or the whammy.<\/p>\n

The Arizona senator\u2019s otherwise conservative record is closer to the Democrats on immigration<\/font><\/a>, campaign-finance reform<\/font><\/a>, stem-cell research<\/font><\/a>, global warming<\/font><\/a>, oil drilling in Alaska<\/font><\/a>, waterboarding<\/font><\/a>, Gitmo<\/font><\/a> and, until a recent flip-flop, the Bush tax cuts<\/font><\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which are, in order; lamentable, a travesty for which conservatives will need to get their pound of flesh, an important but not critical issue, something we need a Republican Congress to countervail, not really the President’s turf, understandable, ditto, and I don’t give a rat’s ass if someone “flip flops” if they “flip flop” in the right direction.<\/p>\n

In The New Republic, Jonathan Chait concluded<\/font><\/a> that Mr. McCain\u2019s Senate votes made him \u201cthe most effective advocate of the Democratic agenda in Washington\u201d during the first Bush term.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you leave out the war, spending, taxes (mostly) – y’know, the things that matter for presidents.<\/p>\n

The good news for the Democrats so far is that whatever Mr. McCain\u2019s sporadic overlap with liberals, he is emulating almost identically the suicidal Clinton campaign against Mr. Obama. He has mimicked Mrs. Clinton\u2019s message and rhetorical style, her tone-deaf contempt for Mr. Obama\u2019s cultural appeal, and her complete misreading of just how politically radioactive the war in Iraq remains despite its migration from the front page.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Frank?\u00a0 Slapnuts?\u00a0 He’s been running for the endorsement.\u00a0 <\/em>Republican primary and caucus voters aren’t really looking for Obama’s “unicorn in every garage” message.<\/p>\n

Hence, he won.\u00a0 And beats Obie and Madame Putin in hypothetical polls.<\/p>\n

Which is why, naturally, Frank Rich is writing this noxiously disingenuous article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If there’s someone who qualifies as “The Lori Sturdevant of the NYTimes” – the Gray Lady’s most reliable Tic flak – it’s Frank Rich. So when he Mcomes out and admits the Times’ great nemesis, Rush Limbaugh, is right, conservatives would do well to keep the exits to that Trojan Horse covered with machine guns […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2200\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}