Friday, February 23, 2007

Vomiting all over Richard Cohen

On February 13, the "liberal" Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen wrote an article admonishing Hilary Clinton for passing the buck on the war to G.W.B. Cohen's right, of course, that Hilary is acting foolishly, and that she should admit she was wrong, but what's astonishing to me is that someone who so vocally supported the war feels like he has the right to scold Hillary. Cohen, who admits he supported the war, sees himself as akin John Edwards or Chris Dodd, those senators who voted for the war but now say they're sorry. Saying you're sorry is fine, but one can't help noticing how people like Cohen--who were tricked at first and now are embarrassed by their initial stances--feel justified to attack others for their positions on the war. People like Richard Cohen are just as responsible for this war as anyone else; many mainstream citizens look to op-ed writers like Cohen to help them form their opinions, and Cohen really let everyone down.

What's equally appalling is that Cohen insists that, though he supported the war, he never bought the administration's hype: "Not a single [Democratic senator], for instance, could possibly have believed the entirety of the administration's case or not have suspected that the reasons for war were being hyped." In any did, "they have no business running for president."

So, Mr. Cohen, you didn't buy into the president's hype? Let's go back to February 6, 2003, when Cohen responded to Colin Powell's infamous speech to the U.N. Security Council. Assessing Powell's speech, Cohen concluded, in short, that everything he said was true. Cohen started his column: “It is time once again to quote my favorite philosopher -- Tevye, the lead character from ‘Fiddler on the Roof.’ It was his habit to weigh his options by saying, ‘On the one hand,’ and then, ‘On the other hand,’ until he confronted a situation where there was no other hand. This is where Colin Powell brought us all yesterday.” The column continue ed: “Only a fool—or possibly a Frenchman—could conclude” that Iraq has no weapons.

bllllaaaaahahahaahahaaaaaahahahah. That was the sound of me vomiting.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

blech is right. andrew sullivan (http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/) - concerned, self-congratulatory andrew sullivan - is the one who most unnerves me with his constant scolding after months of intense and just as as scolding hawkishness. i remember he even delighted in playing a recording of a radio interview in which an iraqi immigrant in the u.s. screams at an american anti-war activist and calls her a ridiculous, uninformed person. like our president, this guy seems to get high off of his own enthusiasm, influence and "authority" - never mind the people it hurts.