While Andrew Sullivan, despite his lurch to the left these past five years, remains a gifted writer, he, more often than not uses his verbal and literary gifts to conceal an increasingly incoherent political philosophy.**  He claims to be a “small government” conservative, but has been almost unstinting in his praise of a big-government liberal Administration.  And while he regularly blasts conservatives, often in quite impolitic language, he lectures the right on the “civil and civilized way” to oppose Obamacare (while ignoring those conservatives and Republicans who have done just that).

Like many of his fellow travelers on the left, Andrew describes the right not in its manifold manifestations, but by its most extreme elements.  And if there’s an aspect of or individual on the right he doesn’t particularly like, well, he dresses it or her up as a extremist to suit his fancy — and so he can make his point, even if it’s more imagination- than reality-based.*

He calls himself a conservative and yet on nearly every significant issue facing the country these past five years, six months and twenty-seven days, he has sided with the leading left-wingers of our day, often repeating their hysterical accusations and imitating their breathless tone.  And one of those accusations is that many of their ideological adversaries on the internets silently acquiesced in the big-spending domestic policies of then-President George W. Bush.

At the same time, he congratulates himself as being the lone conservative voice for fiscal sanity in those dark days of the Bush-Administration.  And as a reader of his blog in 2003 and 2004, I can attest to his regular criticism of the then-President, often in the most civil of terms, for his budgetary imprudence.  Yet, he was far from alone.

Indeed, such criticism was rampant on right-of-center blogs throughout Bush’s second term, with most conservative bloggers agreeing that Republicans lost Congress in 2006 and the White House in 2008 because the GOP, when in power, had failed to restrain domestic spending. (more…)

Like my fellow right-of-center bloggers, Dan Riehl and Betsy Newmark, I’m not much of a fan of Glenn Beck’s program.  (His style is a little too “breathless” for me.)

I do, however, share the radio and TV talk show host’s libertarian leanings and am impressed by how quickly the audience for his show on FoxNews has grown.  Having moved to the network the day before Obama was sworn in, Beck is now the third largest draw in cable news, behind only Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity.  More people watch his program than watch Keith Olbermann’s and Rachel Maddow’s combined.

But, you needn’t look at the latest cable ratings to see how well the guy is doing; you could probably guess it just by noticing the increasingly hysterical media coverage of the man.  For the picture of Beck to accompany its cover story, Time magazine tapped a photographer who last year had bragged about distorting pictures of John McCain for an Atlantic cover last year.

And they’re not alone.  Everyone on the left seems out to get Glenn Beck these days, as if he is the defining voice of the Republican opposition.  And heck, the guy isn’t even a Republican, having repeatedly attack George W. Bush that Republican was in office.

Whatever Glenn Beck’s faults, he has tapped into something in America.  And yet, as, with their coverage of the Tea Parties, the media seek to denigrate and attempt to discredit the man rather than understand the phenomenon he (along with many others) has come to represent.

(Via Ed Driscoll.)

Writing about an article in the Washington Post on Attorney General Eric Holder’s attempts to cover himself on CIA prosecutions, Michael Barone makes an interesting observation about the letter that seven former CIA directors wrote to the President, urging him “to call off Holder’s investigation“:

That [letter]’s mentioned, briefly, in the second and third paragraphs. And the article mentions as well that the seven directors served under presidents of both parties, but it denies the reader the information that the seven include all living former CIA directors except the nonagenarian Stansfield Turner and former President George H. W. Bush. Turner may be in no position to sign such a letter, while Bush, like living former presidents of both parties except for Jimmy Carter, can be presumed to be adhering to a policy of not criticizing the current incumbent.

Recall, how back in March, H.W.’s son refused to criticize the incumbent President, his successor, saying he “deserves my silence.”   Like Jimmy Carter, H.W. was voted out of office by a decisive majority (62.5% ) even greater than the percentage rejecting Jimmy (59%) and yet he managed to befriend his successor.

Why is it the Georgian, alone among ex-presidents, has continued to nurse his sour grapes.  It’s like a child throwing an extended temper tantrum . . . but for 28 years?

Well, Jimmy’s petulance does have some precedent.  Achilles refused to fight in the Trojan War for some time, nursing his grudge against Agamemnon.  But, in depicting the great warrior’s childish behavior, Homer means him to look petty, sulking while his fellows suffer and died.  The poet is setting his hero up for his ultimate transformation at the end of the epic (The Iliad).  Perhaps, Mr. Carter will experience a similar metamorphosis.

But, to do so, he must first see the folly of his ways.   Perhaps, were he not such a bitter man, filled with bile against Jews, he could learn from what we do this time of year, engaging in T’shuvah, reviewing our deeds, atoning for our faults, our sins and taking action to better ourselves.

Dan’s posting was so simple and important, I wanted to repeat it and reinforce that I completely agree!

Still, however, all too many remain fixated not just on the color of our skin, but on any identifying characteristic which separates us from the “norm.”  And perhaps because that characteristic put us in a disfavored class, we reply by becoming proud of our difference.

With gay people, the pride replaces the shame previous generations thoughts about our difference. Perhaps, had I come of age a decade or so before I did, I might feel proud to be gay, but I don’t.  I’m not ashamed of it.  It’s just part of who I am.  One characteristic among many.

How true, Dan.  This is another example of how left-wing identity politics is turning America into a “Balkanized Iraq-like” nation day-by-day.  We must stem the tide and all become AMERICANS again.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Glenn Reynolds:

It seems to me that President Carter has earned his place as if not the worst president in history, the worst president of the 20th Century.