Bush 41: Incivil Politics ‘Just Not Right’
President George H.W. Bush says presidents are "entitled to civil treatment and intellectual honesty when it comes to critics" and that harsh criticism "should not be par for the course. To the degree it turns off one student or one person from serving that's bad." Now, I fully agree that the 24/7/365 political combat that is the byproduct of cable news ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 17, 2009 08:14
Debating Afghanistan
An interesting sidebar to the debate sparked by the leak of General McChrystal's Afghanistan strategy review is the question of how such debates should take place to begin with. Peter Feaver complains that the president has been rushed by leaks. Pat Lang is irked by the fact that the likely leaker wore a military uniform, possibly even a general's stars. Meanwhile, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 21, 2009 15:36
Heckling the President
In his Daily Beast debut, Alex Massie rises in defense of Joe Wilson's outburst. No, not so much whether Obama was lying in this particular instance but rather the very notion that it's "inappropriate" to heckle the president. The whole piece is worth a read but here's a taste: Trivial though it may seem, this brouhaha highlights a great flaw ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 11, 2009 08:36
Shouting ‘Liar’ in a Crowded Congress
The big news surrounding President Obama's latest heathcare speech is that South Carolina Republican Rep. Joe Wilson shouted "You lie!" in response to the claim that illegal immigrants would not be covered under universal coverage: AP ("Obama heckled by GOP during speech to Congress"): The nastiness of August reached from the nation's town halls into the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday as President ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 10, 2009 08:02
Bill Clinton Interrupted at Netroots Nation
Lane Hudson felt justified in interupting former President Bill Clinton's remarks at Netroots Nation to scream questions about Don't Ask, Don't Tell and Defense of Marriage Act on the grounds that there was no Q&A session scheduled and he was therefore "being held as a captive audience." Julian Sanchez, also in attendance and quite sympathetic to Hudson's views on both ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 14, 2009 11:47
Conscience of the Conservatives
Mark Tapcott hath a point: [I]n a Beltway Confidential post Tuesday, I asked what is the difference between folks on the Right calling the eight Republican House members who voted for Obama-Waxman-Markey the "cap-and-traitors," and the infamous "General Betrayus" ad bought by the Left's Moveon.org in The New York Times. In no time at all, comments variously described your humble servant as ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 2, 2009 11:30
Quote of the Day – Civility Edition
"If the trans community really does want to help educate, inform and guide public policy, as they should, a little less fury, derision and anger might help." - Andrew Sullivan He's responding to a rather harsh email correcting him on the facts on the effects of male-to-female gender reassignment surgery on athletic performance but, really, it could apply equally well to ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 26, 2009 14:17
Internet Ruining Civil Society!
John Hawkins explains "How the Internet Damages Our Culture," arguing "American society as a whole, and politics in particular, has become considerably ruder, cruder, and more paranoid than it used to be." Stacy McCain counters that the Internet is just going where television has already taken us. I challenge the premise. There's no doubt that our popular discourse is cruder in some ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 9, 2009 09:03
Enforcing Civility in Blog Comments
Alan Jacobs: "Nothing could better justify Ross’s decision to start moderating comments on his blog than the comments on the announcement itself." For those who don't click links, Ross Douthat has announced that, "From now on, one of the Atlantic's crack interns will be going through the comment threads at the end of every business day, deleting any comments that ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 17, 2008 06:45
Obama’s Baby Mama
Today's Manufactured Outrage of the Day* is that, on a mid-day Fox News program featuring Megyn Kelly and Michelle Malkin debating the impact of Michelle Obama on the race, the production assistant in charge of writing chyrons dubbed the would-be first Lady "Obama's Baby Mama." Apparently, this is a racial slur which suggests that she and Obama aren't ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 12, 2008 07:37
Obama’s Speech: Poisoning the Well
One of the major strains of reaction to Barack Obama's "More Perfect Union" speech is that those who are not persuaded by it are therefore racist or at least unreasoning fools. Poisoning the well in this manner may be an effective rhetorical device but it undercuts the very message of the speech, which is that race remains a very ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 19, 2008 10:21
Confederate Flag Flies in South Carolina Primary
The Civil War might have ended 143 years ago but the Confederate battle flag refuses to die as a political issue. The Republican presidential candidates on Thursday moved to appeal to different types of conservative voters before the South Carolina primary, with Mike Huckabee using colorful language to declare the Confederate flag a states’ rights issue and Senator John McCain ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on January 18, 2008 11:34
McCain Wants Respectful Fight with Clinton
John McCain is trying to simultaneously position himself as the GOP's best hope to beat Hillary Clinton while avoiding a mud-slinging battle. In a speech here that his campaign described as the kind of pointed but respectful approach he will take for the rest of the campaign, Mr. McCain sought to tap into the anti-Clinton sentiment seen to be driving many ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 19, 2007 12:34
Civility, Hypocrisy, and the Rules of Political Debate
Glenn Greenwald argues that many of those now condemning MoveOn.org and/or demanding that Democrats condemn MoveOn.org for suggesting General David Petraeus would "betray us" are hypocrites, since many have used inflammatory rhetoric themselves. He's surely right in many particulars. Those on the Ann Coulter wing of the Right, who routinely throw around words like "traitors" and "treason" to describe mainstream ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 12, 2007 15:49
Why Third Parties Fail
Britt Peterson's profile of Unity08's dream of a bipartisan presidential ticket demonstrates why third parties have such an uphill fight in America. Not only is the deck stacked against them institutionally -- Ross Perot, easily the most successful modern example won "19 percent of the popular vote but not a single electoral vote" -- but there simply isn't much ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 24, 2007 13:14
