Filed under “least surprising announcement of the day…”
Well at least we now know who the sacrificial lamb at NARAL will be… 
beagledave:Hey Squink, do you have any intention of answering the question that I’ve asked of you?
Squink:Why would I? You just want to beat me with whatever answer I give.
Read all about it here.
Yeah, right. I’m sure the timing of his resignation was all just an awkward coincidence.
There is something I find quite interesting about all this, and that is the number of Democrats and liberals who are stepping forward to condem one of their own. There’s a Fox video on the above linked page that comments more than once about the complaints that came “from across the political spectrum”. It gives significant face time to Lanny Davis, a Clinton Deputy White House Counsel, who roundly criticises NARAL for the ad.
I don’t remember seeing very many Republicans stepping forward to condem the Swifties. I’m sure there were some including our own **Bricker **, but nothing like what I’m seeing here.
Still, I’m not sure what this means. Does it mean that liberals are just better people than conservatives; does it mean that liberals think too much; does it mean that liberals are clueless about winning at politics?
[Here](javascript:videoPlayer(‘081205/sr_naral_engle_081205’,‘NARAL%20Ad%20Pulled’,‘Special_Report’,‘acc’,‘Politics’,’-1’);), by the way, is the full link to the video, but it’s javascript, so I’m not sure if it will actually work.
I have a couple of theories that I’ll throw out. I’m not sure that I think they’re great theories, but they’re my initial thoughts.
The condemnations from prominent liberals did not come until the second day of this news cycle. I think it’s possible that it became clear very early on, that the NARAL ad was not gaining any traction. Factcheck.org got on it the first day that news broke (I saw a link from blogdex…thats how I found out about it)
John Kerry was a politician running for office as opposed to a nominee. For better or worse, it’s possible “attack ads” are more expected and accepted in that arena. Indeed, the Kerry camp was ALSO accused of running misleading ads. (see the archives at factcheck.org).
The “truthfullness” of the Swift Boat ads is a bit tricker to piece out for many folks. For example…take a look at factcheck.org’s analysis of one of the ads. Notice the length and details and context that have to be explored, compared to the NARAL 30 second ad, where the “falsehoods” may have been easier (for some) to seize upon. To some extent, the Swift Boat ads gained some traction…for the target audience they built on existing fears that some had about Kerry. NARAL never gained traction with their ad.
I suppose it’s possible to say, well libs/Democrats are just more honest than cons/Republicans when it comes to misdeeds done by their own. But if you’re considering other reasons than that…I’d be interested in feedback on my theories (or other reasons you can come up with).
There weren’t very many, Bricker being an obvious exception. Whether liberals are ‘better people’ than conservatives or not, they certainly like to think that they are. That gives the conservatives a twofold advantage in that they can pull dirty tricks, and have many liberals shrug them off as expected behavior, and they can also point out liberal deviations from perfection, and know that many on the left will come down on even minor transgressions like a ton of bricks.
How did we get to the topic of lawsuits in here? It’s very hard for a public figure to successfully sue someone for libel or slander in this country, and that’s by design. It also would’ve looked bad, but that’s why Kerry didn’t sue.
It’s possible that, while liberals on average don’t have more integrity than conservatives on average, the current Democratic leadership has more integrity than the current Republican leadership. That’s what I see as going on: the current Republican leadership has an extraordinary dearth of integrity, and so they refused to condemn lies that any halfway decent person would condemn.
Daniel
And, as ever, a thread about the lies spread by the Left turns ineluctably to attacks on Republicans.
You folks really are idiots, aren’t you?
There may be something else going on here that keeps the NARAL ad and the Swiftie ads from making good comparisons to each other.
Most of us - apparently not all, but most - would agree that it is important to choose your battles carefully. The John Roberts nomination is not a smart battle to fight. Barring some shocking new revelation about the guy, he *will be *our next Supreme. Considering what we have come to expect from this administration, this guy is far better than anything I would have hoped for.
NARAL was just wasting good credibility ammunition on this useless fight. The Swifties, on the other hand, had a good reason to fire everything they had at Kerry.
You talkin about me here?
Daniel
No, Republicans are defending lies they know to be lies, ferociously and irresponsibly, because they know that the Party line is more important than any mere objective standard of truth. They’re like the old line Communists. Whatever the GOP/Moscow says is truth, is truth, whether you beleive it or not. If you think that’s better than what the Dems are doing, congratulations, you’re a Party member in good standing … Republican or Communist, it’s pretty much the same.
Hopefully the Dems will follow standard Pubbie practices and find him a nice cushy job at some think tank or other.
It means a lot of liberals/Dems still wanna bring knives to a gun fight, which doesn’t augur well for their chances in 2006.
Exactly right.
I loves me a slice of irony pie.
beagledave:Hey Squink, do you have any intention of answering the question that I’ve asked of you?
Squink:Why would I? You just want to beat me with whatever answer I give.
Evil Captor, is it your assertion that the Democrats would have done better to stand by the NARAL ad?
Daniel
A friend of mine, who until fairly recently worked for the local chapter of NARAL had this to say about the recent fiasco:
“MORONS!”
The national branch of NARAL presently has a rather bad reputation amongst the local branches.
Since this is pretty much exactly the opposite of whatever you driveled earlier, I will take it that my point penetrated, and at least reversed the jerk of your knee. Thus proving that you are not even a consistent idiot.
Incidentally, I should clarify that I wasn’t calling you a troll earlier. FWIW, I believe you to be completely stupid; so completely as to really believe your own ludicrously lame hypocrisy. So you are not a troll. It would be difficult to believe that even someone like you could roll around in your own feces as consistently and enthusiastically as you do without honestly enjoying it.
Regards,
Shodan
And so are you.
Can I call you a pinko now? That’d be fun.
This is modern partisan politics: NARAL basically has to keep their donors happy and riled up, runs stupid dishonest ad. Their donors are happy, and conservatives rally behind Roberts, whom many were starting to question as yet another possible wobbly justice. Everybody wins. Except America.