Go read

by Henry Farrell on June 28, 2005

Dan Nexon’s “evisceration”:http://duckofminerva.blogspot.com/2005/06/dangers-of-talking-points-rnc-defense.html of the RNC memo defending Karl Rove.

{ 7 comments }

1

abb1 06.28.05 at 11:27 am

When you’re responding to “evil liberals want to destroy America” by a 3000-word post with dozens of links – you’ve already lost. The only appropriate response is: eat shit and die, you fucking Nazi asshole.

2

Uncle Kvetch 06.28.05 at 12:46 pm

I dunno, ABB1. If nothing else, I found it very refreshing to see a well-argued defense of MoveOn. I’ve gotten a little sick of being referred by places like CT over to the sites “reasonable” conservatives, the ones who “get it,” only to find the obligatory “Now, I’m talking about mainstream Democrats here; I’m not about to defend the likes of MoveOn, who really are objectively pro-terrorist America-haters….” As Nexon points out, this is based on a willful misreading of MoveOn’s statements and actions in the wake of 9/11, and it’s an ugly smear.

3

Purple State 06.28.05 at 1:23 pm

Karl Rove claimed that “conservatives prepared for war.” Well, not really. The chicken hawks in the administration just prepared to send other people’s children to war.

When they had their own chance to prepare for war–back during Vietnam–almost to a man they cut and ran.

So much for these fierce, brave conservative warriors. They’re all pathetically deluded about their own manlihood . . . they can beat their chests all they want . . . just don’t beat too hard, old men, your hearts are a little weak . . .

4

jet 06.28.05 at 3:16 pm

So Joe Biden said we needed to fast forward through the bombing stage of the war and move on to the part where the Taliban gets to shoot bac and US soldiers start dieing because, because it would be less harmful to the US’s Middle-Eastern image, and that is an “evisceration” of the attack on Biden? You’re kidding right? The defense that US soldiers’ lives are less valuable that the public opinion or people who can’t even vote is laughable. And that it is considered an “evisceration” here, well, I don’t know what to say about that.

5

djw 06.28.05 at 4:07 pm

jet, it’s clear as day that Nexon’s point is that Rove grossly misrepresented Biden’s position. Whatever one thinks of the merits of Biden’s position, Rove’s parsing is implausible. To suggest that we should employ techniques that target terrorists a bit more carefully even if that puts our soldiers at greater risk because in the long run it’s more effective might, arguably, be incorrect. That’s not the issue here.

6

jet 06.29.05 at 9:23 am

It’s funny that this has come up here and now. Just a few days ago my dad and I were arguing over if the Democrats had anyone sane and electable for 2008. I proposed Joe Biden and my dad concurred that he was fine, but had bouts of insanity and repeated something similiar to the above Rove memo. After reading the “evisceration” a little more carefully this time, it certainly appears that my first thought that Joe Biden was a sane man who’d make a decent president was the right one. I’ll have to point my dad at this and see if it changes his mind about Biden’s “bouts of insanity”.

7

A Scott Crawford 06.29.05 at 2:28 pm

Nexon should brush up on his Marlowe. It tends to be devilishly hard to score points on a fellow like Mephistophales Rove when using Faustian quoting, as he’s an undoubted master of the form.

If Nexon’s actually able to pull his counter-point quotes within context, he should provide us with the means to read them for ourselves. The problem he’s likely facing is the typical mass of transcribed dross a long sitting Senator (of either Party) generates over the years. Compared to a political operative like Rove or Carville, just about any Senator is going to seem inconsistant… especially during the Party realignments of the 1990’s. Remember Bob Dole trying to be a “small government conservative”? heh. Same problem, different part of the spectrum.

A better angle of attack is to go after GOP Senators that are up for re-election, rather than wasting energy on a guy who doesn’t have to face a single voter next year. Heck, Democrats should be able to avoid political tactics the Clintonites practically invented.

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