Blankley, citing "Washington tradition," decried "Christmas bombing" by media, Bush critics; ignored his own 1999 Yuletide broadside on Clinton
SUMMARY: In decrying what he called a pre-Christmas attack by Democrats and the media on the Bush administration, Tony Blankley ignored his own pre-Christmas attack on the Clinton administration in 1999.
In his December 21 syndicated column, Washington Times editorial page editor Tony Blankley decried how "just days before we celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace," "the New York Times, Democratic (and a few Republican) senators and the rest of the ever-willing-to-be-brutal media launched their Christmas bombing of the Bush White House." Citing The New York Times' revelation that President Bush authorized secret wiretaps of U.S. citizens without court approval and the fact that Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) "raised the prospect ... of the impeachment of our president," Blankley asserted that "both the timing and the ferocity of their Christmas attack on the president is an appalling breach of decency."
Blankley stated:
By long Washington tradition, these are the weeks when the politicians and media lay down our (figurative) swords, brass knuckles, slings and arrows, sniper rifles and bazookas and toast each other across the partisan and professional divide over convivial spirits at Christmas parties from one end of K Street to the other. In the middle ages such a moment was known as the Truce of God.
But in his own December 22, 1999, Washington Times column, titled, "You better not lie; and Republicans better not believe Clinton," Blankley refused to grant such a Christmas truce to then-President Clinton, and derided "newspapers and television" that report "those special stories that warm the heart" at Christmastime. Blankley wrote:
Like all readers, I look forward to the story of the mother cat that rushes into a burning house to save the neighbor's puppy dog, with nothing worse than singed whiskers to show for her heroism.
[...]
It does seem a little coincidental that those stories reliably appear every Christmas. I have often wondered whether a couple of fat, bald guys sit at the back of the newsroom sharing a bottle of whiskey, and cynically make up those stories that remind us of the real point of Christmas. But, from whatever source, I hadn't yet seen my idyllic Christmas story this year -- until last Sunday.
Blankley then described a December 19, 1999, Washington Post article that reported on "[a] recent round of cooperation between President Clinton and House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert." The Post reported that Clinton and Hastert had "quietly forged a businesslike rapport" and quoted Hastert as saying: "He knows he can take me at my word. We're able to talk straight to each other."
But Blankley questioned whether Clinton would honor this "bond of trust," asserting: "Of course the president can trust Denny. ... The question is whether Denny can reliably trust Mr. Clinton. Many people have tried; all have failed."
In conclusion, Blankley stated:
It's Christmas time, and you may believe that all those mother cats really did run into the burning houses. But I've watched the president for too long. I think the story that Mr. Clinton can be trusted was written by one of those fat guys at the back of the newsroom. Bah, humbug.
one of your names is "Blankley."
With all this talk about "Bush haters" and the "anti-Bush crowd", harken back to the Clinton years. The EXACT same thing was occurring: the right "hated" Clinton to the SAME extent the left hates Bush. Only now, the right thinks this kind of "hatred" is "unprecedented". Not at all.
The hatred of Clinton seemed to be baseless and partisan...the hatred of Bush is very, very well-founded on his illegitimacy, his policies, and his actions.
I often amuse myself by reversing the names of the players while keeping the circumstances of the game the same. What would the talking heads be saying if Clinton (or Gore or Kerry) prosecuted the Iraq war exactly as Bush has done? What if Clinton got caught authorizing illegal wiretaps? What if Kerry hired people like Brown and Chertoff and they failed miserably? What if Diane Feinstein and Harry Reid were under ethics investigation. The howl would be deafening. It is the absolute height of hypocrisy, but a lot of the public is still willing to play along.
The media outlets need to grow some cajones and stop pandering to the Repubs just because they think their "business interests" will be best served with BushieCo. Dudes if you reading this, STOP giving these clowns a pass and it will be magical what occurs. I guess this is my holiday (oops...Christmas) wish.
Oh they would howl but I promise a Rescumlican control Senate and House would have already present the articles of impreachment if only 1 or 2 of your examples would have happen let alone all of them.
My wish for 2006 is for the American Public to wake up out of the stupor and realize what a mistake they have made. It's too late now but we have to reverse this ship somehow or i feel for the future of this country.
"just days before we celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace," ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
What a mystery - warmongers who celebrate the life of the ultimate peace activist.
Hey, Tony, this was just another secular battleship broadside across the bow in the War on Christmas.
The "liberal media" NYT sat on the domestic spying story for a year at the request of the US Government. The only reason the Editors let it out was the debate over the Patriot Act and the obvious lies of the Bush administration. Now that is turned on its head by this Yahoo?
As a progressive and Democrat, I don't hate Dubya. I just think the man is a moron, who employs moronic speech writers. The man is incompetent to run a country and he's surrounded by even more incompetent Yes-men. Dubya should be running a company (oh wait...), perhaps a sports team (crap, he can't do that either...), maybe a state? (Crap again). Maybe he should just be a dishwasher at a diner. No, that won't work. Instead of just cleaning the dishes he'd try to shoot the customers before they could eat.
Contrary to what the radio demagogues claim, I think very few who oppose Bush actually hate him. I hate his policies because I think they're ruining the country and I suspect I might not like him much, he seems a little on the dim side. You accurately point out his complete lack of qualification for his job. It's like The Peter Principle to the nth degree; if you fail at something, you just keep getting promoted.
For eight years Republicans and/or conservatives attacked Clinton practically every day, probably every hour or every minute. Most of their claims were silly and disproven. Whitewater was over less than $100,000, and after years of investigation, Bobby Fiske and Kenneth Starr could not come up with anything. Bobby Fiske was forced out as the independent prosecutor after he couldn't find anything on the Clintons and Whitewater. Thats when Kenneth Starr was brought in, and after eight years and $70 million dollars of taxpayer money, all they could find on Clinton was a dress with his DNA stuck to it. Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation has so far cost the taxpayers less than $1 million dollars, and he got well-deserved indictments out of it, on Lewis Libby, and more will be coming soon probably, for Karl Rove and others, perhaps even Dick Cheney himself. Even Kenneth Starr grudgingtly concluded that Vince Foster's death was a suicide. Five seperate federal investigators concluded that Vince Foster's death was a suicide. Newsmax had some forensic expert or something like that, I think his name was Cogswell, and he said that there was no question that Ron Brown was murdered. Just one problem: Cogswell never actually examined the body of Ron Brown. The hatred against Clinton from 1993-2001 was unprecedented, and the Clintons were accused of all sorts of things and called all sorts of horrible things--by the very same people who are now criticizing Democrats and/or liberals for being critical of George Bush. Politics became the way it is throughout the 1990's because of the Republicans--Gingrich and his gang--they started this process of unprecedented vicious attacks on the Commander-in-Chief, and now, when Democrats and/or liberals are simply pointing out the obvious, like the deliberate deceptions used by the Bush Administration to sell the Iraq invasion, the treasonous outing of a CIA operative, openly advocating torture and violating the Geneva Conventions and thereby putting American soldiers abroad in danger, the criminal negligence and incompetence regarding Hurricane Katrina, and the blatant shredding of the Constitution by George Bush so that he spy on Americans, they call that hating and say it is unprecedented and irrational. The Clintons were not angels, and they did have some scandals, but nothing as serious as the treasonous crimes of this criminal administration.
THANK YOU. njguy93@yahoo.com
there's been lots of stories, including nbc nightly news tonight, about how a lot of churches, including many of the "megachurches", have cancelled all services for this sunday because most people don't show up on christmas. but wait a minute isn't christmas all about baby jesus and paying homage to him? i smell a big whiff of hypocrisy.