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Begala on Broder

This post by Paul Begala on David Broder is good and important:

Broder, of course, is a gasbag. The Hindenburg of pundits.

. . . Mr. Broder has been foaming at the mouth these days. A man generally given to soporific prose, Broder has been downright venomous lately. And what has put the Benzedrine in Mr. Broder's Ovaltine? Not the fact that President Bush continues to lie about "progress" in the war in Iraq. Or that Dick Cheney continues to lie about pre-invasion links between al Qaeda and Iraq. Or that the Bush Administration has neglected our wounded warriors, ignored the victims of Katrina, potentially obstructed justice by firing US Attorneys who were pursuing GOP wrongdoing. Not even that the Bush Administration lied to the families of Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch, cynically using their blood to distract from their own incompetence and dishonesty.

More...

No, none of this raises Dean Broder's hackles.

He reserves his vitriol for Harry Reid.

Why Reid? Because Reid has been one of the few politicians with the courage to speak the plain, unvarnished truth to power, and the hallmark of Mr. Broder's career has been to suck up to power. Reid calls Bush a liar. Broder can't handle the truth.

Begala speaks the truth on the new shrill vitriolic Broder and the why. Good piece. But it is more. It is important because here is a Beltway Dem calling out the Dean of the Beltway Media. Have Dems finally learned not to take the crap from these people anymore? Let Begala show the way.

Obama take note. Winning the Broder Primary is a negative now, not a positive. Act accordingly.

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    Waiting for the anti-Carville folks to check in (none / 0) (#1)
    by oculus on Thu Apr 26, 2007 at 12:48:03 PM EST
    here!

    that's nice and all (none / 0) (#2)
    by cpinva on Thu Apr 26, 2007 at 01:05:43 PM EST
    but the critical issue is whether or not mr. broder's colleagues will call him out. i'm betting they won't. after all, they just love those nice, fat shrimp on the buffet table.

    not to mention, they all hang out together at their lovely nantucket summer "cottages". they all know the rules: you speak the truth, you don't get invited to the best parties.

    Other than Krugman (5.00 / 1) (#4)
    by Big Tent Democrat on Thu Apr 26, 2007 at 01:15:27 PM EST
    they will not but you are wrong on the significance of Democrats branding Broder a bush shill.

    It is extremely important.

    Parent

    I dunno, Tent (none / 0) (#5)
    by Dadler on Thu Apr 26, 2007 at 01:45:39 PM EST
    9.9 out of 10 Americans wouldn't even know who Broder is, or what he writes, or his history.  

    So while inner-beltway significance might be high, actual American citizen significance is less than low, it's nonexistent.  Only when DEM POLITICIANS come out strong and hard and IMAGINATIVELY and consistently, and IN THEIR OWN VOICES unmediated by spin doctors and message strokers, will any real inroads be made.  Winning the White House back is vital, winning more of the House and Senate is, but it means nothing if the party, as reflections of its constituents (of its constituents de-facto apathy), lacks the creativity to address problems for real.

    I mean, hell, no Democrat could even muster an imaginative response to Iran's holocause denying president during the Holocaust Denial Conference he hosted.  I was waiting for one of them to say, "You know what I find interesting?  How all over Iran you see these pictures of the same old white bearded guy, the Ayatolloah Something, and how revered he is, when we all know there isn't anything approaching any concrete proof he even existed."  

    We're a boilerplate world, baby.

    Parent

    You miss the point (5.00 / 2) (#6)
    by Big Tent Democrat on Thu Apr 26, 2007 at 02:01:51 PM EST
    If they will take on Broder, they will take on the Media and not take their crap.

    You write

    Only when DEM POLITICIANS come out strong and hard and IMAGINATIVELY and consistently, and IN THEIR OWN VOICES unmediated by spin doctors and message strokers, will any real inroads be made.

    This is part of that. Do you really fail to see that?  

    Parent

    I don't fail to see it (none / 0) (#7)
    by Dadler on Thu Apr 26, 2007 at 04:20:07 PM EST
    I just don't think this one instance of relatively minor spine translates into your wider stampede on media bullspin.  The pols have their own spin doctors, who are just as bad.  For sh*t's sake, don't you understand your own country soup to nuts?  A fairly narrow range of personality gets elected president here, or to any office almost.  Period.  Hello?  Are these working?  F*cking Pakistan had an elected female president two decades ago, we're barely entertaining the wild idea.  Do you get the rather obvious statement this makes about the American electorate?  The culture?  The times?  To quote from BARTON FINK, and I paraphrase, "Jack can't read, you gotta tell it to him."  Such are we.

    When a pol has the imagination to go AROUND this entire and deadly middling process of the bullspin mainstream media, when they have the creative chops to speak DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE in the language of unadorned and often ugly truth, doing so in a manner that speaks, for better or worse, to the actual CULTURE we share as Americans -- the free American culture of plenty, entertainment, leisure, wealth and violence -- then I think real change is coming.  Until then, sadly, I see a train than never ends.  The cars will look different now and then, but it just keeps rolling, not a caboose in sight, ever.

    I'm pissy today, in other words.

    Have your goddamned Gators won any other NCAA titles this week?  Badminton?  Synchronized Swimming?  Beer-bonging?  Sorry for the bad proofreading, gotta run.
     

    Parent

    Dear God What Is The World Coming To (none / 0) (#3)
    by MO Blue on Thu Apr 26, 2007 at 01:10:45 PM EST
    Are Beltway Dems actually going to start talking and acting and supporting Dems?