Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Dick Morris, Cont'd

I love Dick Morris! Here he was after the Oklahoma bombing.
Behind the scenes, Clinton’s Svengali, adviser Dick Morris, was calculating the political advantages six months after humbling losses in the 1994 midterms, issuing a memo that predicted Clinton could leverage the crisis into a “permanent gain” in voter perceptions. 

Among the possible benefits Morris cited were “Improvements in character/personality attributes” and a chance to use the “Extremist Issue vs. Republicans.”
Here is good ole' Dick today. 
Oklahoma City was an act of political terror, incited by resentment against federal tactics at Waco. It was not some speech that ignited Timothy McVeigh but a massive act of violence.

...


But what if the killer had been a political conservative? What if he had attended Tea Party rallies or – for that matter – been active in Moveon.org or a left-leaning union? Would the killings have made the movement fair game? Would it be right to cast aspersions on tens of millions of nonviolent citizens exercising their democratic rights in the name of discouraging violence?

Since the shootings, I have gotten e mails from the BBC and Sky TV in the UK and Der Spiegel in Germany requesting interviews. How much they would like to link conservative opinions with the attempted assassination of a Congresswoman! Suddenly, they are all ears.
I don't need to state the obvious: that Dick Morris is a used-up salesman who peddles his political strategies to the highest bidder. But I think a larger point is due. Have conservatives fallen for it? We don't need greedy mercenaries paid to hatchet job the other side and whisper sweet nothings into our ears. We need leaders and pundits who are willing to state cold, hard facts regardless of how it makes us feel.

4 comments:

Pablo said...

Caution: My criticism of Morris is NOT that I think he is wrong about the Arizona tragedy and conservatives. I just think he is a complete phony that has no credibility.

BOSMAN said...

I put Morris in the same league as Fineman. Even when Morris is right on an issue, I look for ways to disagree with him.

Anonymous said...

I'm not a fan of Morris either for all of the reasons mentioned.

zeke

Anonymous said...

I do read Morris's articles but when he talks about this it is really hypocritical. The way he talks about the Arizona tragedy is the way he should have been during Olkahoma City.

A.J.R.