Questioning Patriotism?

The extent that some people take Media Matters, and its serial liar founder David Brock, seriously depends on how much they value the truth versus the opportunity to distort it in favor of the cheap shot at their ideological opponents. So when Media Matters fed the main stream media its phony attack on Rush Limbaugh’s truthful comment on a real phony soldier, Jesse MacBeth, it became quite clear that those on the left, and certain Democrats valued the latter. From Keith Olbermann to Harry Reid, Dick Durbin and John Kerry the whole spectrum of the left riled itself into a spittle-flecked uproar over what Limbaugh did NOT say. Absurdly, one senator, Ken Salazar (D-CO) ,wants to censure Limbaugh, forgetting the obvious fact that the Senate can only censure its members, not private citizens.

The real issue here is, as Jonah Goldberg notes, is that the “questioning our patriotism” pablum is a red herring used by left and Democrats to deflect from legitimate criticisms of their positions and statements. It is really quite dishonest coming from the folks who constantly whine about George W. Bush and the right wing stifling “dissent.”

liberals routinely and righteously condemn the “questioning” of anyone’s patriotism — until they have a chance to do it themselves. For example, in the debates over the formation of the Department of Homeland Security and the passage of Patriot Act, Democrats accused George Bush and the GOP leadership of questioning Democrats’ patriotism. But they never did any such thing. Rather, Democrats asserted that Republican criticism of their opposition was tantamount to questioning their patriotism…

John Kerry was the all-time champ of this sort of thing. He routinely insinuated that criticisms of his positions on national defense were tantamount to McCarthyism. Indeed, like Johnny Carson’s Carnac the Magnificent, Kerry could psychically predict the reaction before it happened. Addressing the Council on Foreign Relations, he prophesied, “I know what the Bush apologists will say to this — that it is unpatriotic to question, to criticize and to call for change.”…

Howard Dean, the nearly invisible chairman of the Democratic National Committee, used to get himself into those I’m-turning-into-the-Hulk rages over the merest hint that Republicans questioned the patriotism of Democrats. But he saw nothing wrong with righteously proclaiming that John Ashcroft “is no patriot. He’s a direct descendant of Joseph McCarthy.”…

Now, the fact that no serious person actually thinks Limbaugh really or intentionally called soldiers dissenting on the war “phony” doesn’t matter to the Democrats. Rather, they’re just gleeful to play the pot to Limbaugh’s kettle. Never mind that it’s unfair and dishonest, never mind that what they’re doing is far closer to the McCarthyism they routinely denounce, never mind that such Limbaugh-lynching Democratic senators as John Kerry and Dick Durbin have suggested, respectively, that American troops are “terrorizing kids” in Iraq and are akin to the torture masters of Nazi Germany or Pol Pot’s “mad regime.”

Then again, I should just keep quiet; someone might yank this out of context and accuse me of McCarthyism.