Hirsh
…is harsh.
…You’d think the Republicans would be the ones in need of professional help. This is a party burdened with a president so unpopular he barely has a base to stand on—Bush seems to be bypassing the lame-duck stage and heading straight for dead duck—a Vietnam-scale quagmire in Iraq and a post-Katrina rot of incompetence and corruption that is infecting the very foundations of the presidency and the GOP’s control of Congress. Not surprisingly, the Republicans are at each others’ throats over this loss of prestige and popularity. Neoconservatives and traditionalists are fighting bitterly over foreign policy. Moderates and conservatives are battling over immigration and deficits. And when the maverick John McCain declares his candidacy for 2008 sometime in the next year, the Republicans will be shrieking at each other in public over abortion and other social issues.
But at least the GOP is engaged in a war over real policy choices. It is an emotional debate, often a hysterical and ill-informed one, but it is a fight among adults who know what they believe in and who have the guts to battle for it. By contrast the Democrats, ostensibly the party poised to exploit this GOP civil war, don’t seem to remember what it is like to behave as adults. They resemble nothing so much as ill-adjusted adolescents, afraid of their own shadows, much less the presidency. What are they afraid of? Themselves, essentially: their past, their own left, the populist rhetoric of their leaders (Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Howard Dean, Al Gore), the left-wing loony stigma represented by “Fahrenheit 9/11” filmmaker Michael Moore (every Dem’s favorite bugaboo). Above all they fear seeming and looking soft. They are all afflicted with varying degrees of megalophobia, a fear of assuming power. Even Dr. Melfi of “The Sopranos” wouldn’t take this case.
I hope nobody is paying attention.
Media | tree hugging sister | 
June 1, 2006 10:29 am
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“a Vietnam-scale quagmire in Iraq”
That’s the most retarded line I’ve read all week.
“All week” schmaybe, but it’s certainly not the first time it’s been said. That’s the hoot of this thing ~ he’s over the top with GOP missteps/trouble (you certainly don’t hear any less/moderating of it at KOS, right?) and the Dems are STILL AFU.
Well, yeah, I haven’t checked Kos this week…
“Know thy enemy”, n’est pas? If you only read what you want to hear…::tweaktweak::
Hirsch is harsh, but he is spot on concerning the crap that the Dems have buried themselves in.
However, I take exception to his claim that “I hold no brief in this fight, being neither Democrat nor Republican.” That’s very clearly another load of crap…..and some fears of his shadow, methinks. Or just a huge load of self-denial, yet another problem with the DNC.
More than that, JeffS – isn’t he a US citizen? How can he NOT have a brief in this fight? Somehow this doesn’t affect the country and therefore his own life?
OH – wait, I forgot, he’s a Journalist and, as such, is above such things.
Exactly right, Nightfly. Hirsch attempts to decieve us, if he isn’t just into massive self-denial.