He may be too close to Leon Wieseltier and Al Gore, but the New
Republic’s main man Martin Peretz never fails to deliver the goods
on our idea of a hero: an obscure little creature that makes our
world worse than it was before he wormed into power. Thus there’s
one Loren Jenkins, identified by Peretz as foreign editor of
National Public Radio — the only network in America with its own
blacklist, it would appear. One fellow on it is Steven Emerson, an
expert on Islamic terror support networks in the U.S., the sort of
voice Foreign Editor Jenkins would sooner bury under a pyramid than
allow into his policed broadcasts. Jenkins and Emerson have what
might be called irreconcilable differences. Back in August 1998,
for instance, Jenkins wrote to knock down claims that Osama bin
Laden was a terrorist planning to hit the U.S. again. These were
mostly based, Jenkins claimed, on “bin Laden’s own braggadocio and
the bad company he apparently keeps…. [H]e seems to be more of a
spiritual leader and financier than the sort of terrorist
mastermind being alleged.”
And where or where or where did Jenkins issue this clean bill of
health? In Salon.com, natch’, home of the brave (much as it regards
that last word as an ethnic slur) and home of the once free.
Nowadays at its pumps if you need to fill up with Salon gas you
have to order “premium.” They even charge if you need to clean your
windshield, and they charge you with abuse if you kick your tire.
Like all socialists united they long ago forgot that the best
things in life are free. Now that no one pays to read their pricey
prose, when they do want someone to notice their spewings they
can’t wait to give the stuff away. Hence the free availability of
the recent 800,000 word essay by Salon founder and strongman David
Talbot. It’s a call to arms on behalf of progressive and vigilant
Democrats worldwide.
To Talbot it all goes back to when the then-president of the
U.S. summoned him to Camp Monica or wherever to fill him in on the
vast right wing conspiracy. By his reckoning, the Arkansas Project
remains a Republican state of mind. It brought us Florida, Bush,
John Ashcroft, Judge Bork, the early Barry Goldwater, Attila, the
late Napoleon, the Whites in the Russian Civil War, the Vichy water
cartel, Jesse Helms, John Tower, Hiroshima, President Thieu, Mme.
Nhu and Mme. Chiang Kai-shek. Yet somehow his prose can’t help but
give aid and comfort to the enemy:
“When Al Gore blasted Bush last week, it was a painful reminder
of what he and Joe Lieberman didn’t do in Florida, when GOP bullies
simply ripped the presidency out of their hands.” (And kicked Gore
out of Cheney’s house, he fails to add.)
“There was simply nothing that these people were incapable of
saying or doing to advance their political agenda. They shamelessly
and self-righteously crossed dozens of lines that marked what once
were the acceptable bounds of political battle.” (Someone from San
Francisco knows what’s acceptable?)
“One of the most repellent aspects of Brock’s book is his
reminder of how the right-wing sleaze campaign eventually succeeded
in dictating mainstream news coverage.” (Howell Raines, you’re
outta here!)
“At the White House reception I attended, Clinton remarked,
‘Maybe I’ll be remembered as the president who took the poison out
of American politics.’ … But this, unfortunately, is wishful
thinking. The Old Testament fervor that inflamed the GOP and the
conservative movement throughout the Clinton era is still very much
alive.” (For once we’re speechless.)
So unchallenged is the right in its supremacy the wonder is why
the world isn’t uniting to demand that it withdraw from its many
West Banks.
Say what you will about Comrade Talbot, at least his posture is
one of a hysterical faux fighter — not like all those small
capital D Democrats who spent this past week in Washington
wondering how wonderful life would be if John McCain were one of
them. Don’t these people have anything else to do, like maybe toss
a frisbee around Dupont Circle or order a second cup of smoke-free
latte?
In a better world David Talbot would be an automatic EOW. But
even Enemy Central has standards, and it refuses to confer its
highest honors on anyone who turns himself in or begs too cravenly
for attention. We require grace, delicacy, indelible sweetness and
dignity from our laureates. Someone, say, with the class and style
of Andrew Cuomo, who just the other day denounced New York Gov.
George Pataki for failing to lead after 9/11. That was news to
anyone who spent the months after 9/11 begging Pataki to provide
maybe a little less leadership. Word on the street is that Andy
remains irate that his friends in the scrap metal business were cut
out of the post-9/11 cleanup.
Bad breaking news from Hollywood, where Robert Blake’s bodyguard
is also under arrest. Bad news, that is, for our man of the moment,
who’s acted as a self-appointed protector of one Yassir Arafat in
Ramallah. An adoring New York Times profiled the guy the other day,
as he expounded on his deeper beliefs: “My philosophy is that we’re
all human beings, and I don’t buy into ethnicity and sectarianism.”
But he does buy into suicide bombing, evidently, because the story
never mentions he doesn’t. He was raised Jewish but says he’s now
an atheist, as if that changes anything. Not that we can’t change
anything. For one thing, Adam Shapiro is our Enemy of the Week.
Okay, so it’s not that big a deal, but is might be for David
Talbot. In his treatise he voices outrage that the Wall Street
Journal’s editor Robert Bartley called Talbot’s inspiration, Mr.
David Brock, “the John Walker Lindh of contemporary conservatism.”
Will it make him any happier if we call David Brock the Adam
Shapiro of contemporary conservatism?
