Shame On You!

Top honors in this month’s celebrity underachieving contest are hardly newsworthy, but one is a newcomer to this blog.

I’ve changed the name of this particular segment at least two times, looking for just the right title. First I went with “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up,” which I thought was quite catchy until I realized that the winners were in fact guilty of making stuff up, so next I came up with a line from the movie Forrest Gump, “Stupid Is As Stupid Does.” Again, it had a ring to it, until I realized that stupid didn’t quite suffice. Many people can be stupid, without being hypocritical or posing a threat to our nation. And besides, I was overcome by a conviction that no matter how reprehensible their conduct might be, I could not resort to the same lowering and debasing tactics. Calling someone stupid may bring me some momentary relief, but in the long run it undermines my whole argument against their actions in the first place.

Until some all-encompassing slogan or banner comes to mind, “Shame On You” will have to do. Only three nominees this month, and believe me it was hard choosing. The envelope please?

Sarah Palin. She is quickly earning frequent flyer miles on this blog. At the rate she is going she will have enough to fly back and forth between Alaska and Washington D.C. at least a couple of times. It is difficult to decide which comments she makes on her facebook page that are the most egregious – there are so many from which to choose – but this last one, dare I say, takes the cake.

“Finally, President Obama delivered an offhand applause line tonight about the cost of the War on Terror. As we approach the anniversary of the September 11th attacks and honor those who died that day and those who have died since in the War on Terror, in order to secure our freedoms, we need to remember their sacrifices and not demonize them as having had too high a price tag.”

Whatever air Ms. Palin might be breathing, or substance she might be consuming, her incomprehensibility and ignorance is matched only by her insolence. What Palin was referring to is an excerpt from President Obama’s address to the joint session of Congress Wednesday night in which he said the following:

“Now, add it all up, and the plan I'm proposing will cost around $900 billion over 10 years -- less than we have spent on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and less than the tax cuts for the wealthiest few Americans that Congress passed at the beginning of the previous administration.”

Now while I realize that jumping from A to C is a prerogative of politicians and political pundits alike, jumping from real universe to alternate reality seems to be the prerogative of some incredibly unstable and unsavory individuals, among whom Ms. Palin has developed quite a following. These latest remarks are yet another attempt – and lame at that – to read into something that which isn’t there.

Accusing the President of demonizing the troops who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan is cheap politics and beneath even the likes of Palin. If it is politicizing the war on terror that Palin is concerned about, then she and the entire Republican Party should look in the mirror because they have been guilty as sin of doing it. The images at the Republican National Convention of the Twin Towers on fire during the 9/11 attacks were gutless attempts at invoking fear and intolerance for political gain. Shame on you, Ms. Palin for even suggesting such a disgusting thing about another individual when your own Party stinks of it. The same Party by the way that Rudy Giuliani, who mentioned 9/11 during his campaign more times than he mentioned verbs, continues to call his own. Give me a break, lady!

In deed, not only did she deliberately twist what the President said, when she did manage to quote him she failed to be thorough. Note the ... in the following passage, “make sure that no government bureaucrat .... gets between you and the health care you need.” What Palin left out - what the ... represents - is "insurance company bureaucrat." That Palin should deliberately omit that not too small reference is obvious. To include it would undermine the whole point of her argument and that of the astroturf protesters at town-hall meetings. The point is that there has been and continues to be bureaucrats standing between you and your doctor. They work for the insurance industry, and Palin and her ilk know that full well. Feigning ignorance is one thing; pretending to have the country's best interest when all you care about are the corporate lobbyists who line your pocketbook is quite another. Give us all a break, Ms. Palin and go away; far, far away. Where is there a moose when you need it most?

Our runner up, William Kristol, apparently got all the talking points down and even managed to expound on them. Take it away, Bill.

“Two of my favorite bloggers, Jim Ceaser of the University of Virginia, and Sarah Palin of the University of Real America” (you are joking are you not, Bill?), “were particularly struck by one line in President Obama’s speech last night. As was I.”

Kristol then goes on to quote Obama’s line about his healthcare plan costing less than both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, which is more than Palin did.

"What’s the implication? Apparently, that we shouldn’t have spent so much on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Fair enough, perhaps, with respect to the war in Iraq, which Obama opposed. On the other hand, Obama has supported the war in Afghanistan. Indeed, he’s criticized the Bush administration for under-resourcing that effort. ...”

“For the president, in a formal address to Congress, to suggest even in passing that these struggles are merely distasteful burdens rather than worthwhile missions, is appalling. Sarah Palin is right: Obama’s “offhand applause line” was an insult to those who have fought and sacrificed, and to those who are now fighting and sacrificing, on our behalf.”

Kristol has been an over the top apologist for Palin ever since she was picked by John McCain last year to be his vice presidential running mate, and there can be little doubt as to where his loyalties lie, right alongside his journalistic integrity, no doubt, but there is a line that even the most cynical and unabashed conservatives would scarcely consider crossing and both Palin and Kristol crossed it. Reducing yourself to the level of a Rush Limbaugh or a Glenn Beck may play well in those parts of the country where crazy still sells, but it besmirches the very ideals for which all writers, be they Right or Left, are supposed to aspire to. Shame on you, Mr. Kristol for lowering your already narrow viewpoint still further into the mud.

Paul Thorton of the L.A. Times said it best.

“The president was calling out as hypocrites Republicans who voted for President Bush's expensive tax cuts and supported two expensive (and off-budget) wars, but who now use deficits and excessive government spending to argue against healthcare reform."

"Obama could have further argued that extending healthcare coverage to all Americans is a more worthwhile endeavor than dispatching hundreds of thousands of American troops to another hemisphere to fight two wars. But Obama didn't say that, and he certainly didn't go far enough for Kristol and Palin to accuse a sitting American president of disrespecting the memory of those who died fighting wars on our behalf.”

But bringing up the rear, sometimes quite literally, is our dear old friend Sean Hannity. Apparently it has been a while since Sean visited his ear doctor because on his program Wednesday night he falsely claimed that President Obama said during his healthcare speech that insurance company executives are "bad people," and that Obama's remarks took him back because they were so harsh. In fact, as was made clear by the video Hannity himself showed, Obama said just the opposite -- that "insurance executives don't treat their customers badly because they're bad people; they do it because it's profitable."

HANNITY: One of the things, Frank, you have been very, very clear about -- and I think our audience has learned a lot from you as we've done our dial groups and our focus groups, etc. -- is this tendency to go negative. And he had a very different tone on Monday, but when he said tonight that insurance executives are bad people, it took me back because it was so harsh, and I think unfair, but it's part of their polling. Let's roll this tape, and I want to get your reaction to it.

OBAMA [video clip]: Without competition, the price of insurance goes up and quality goes down. And it makes it easier for insurance companies to treat their customers badly by cherry-picking the healthiest individuals and trying to drop the sickest, by overcharging small businesses who have no leverage, and by jacking up rates. Insurance executives don't do this because they're bad people; they do it because it's profitable.

HANNITY: What'd you think?

FRANK LUNTZ (GOP pollster): I think that he's trying to demonize a segment of American society, and through the work that I've done, he may be successful, Sean. Because the American people don't think too highly of insurance companies or the people who run it.

Now Luntz could have an entire segment of Shame on You all to himself. This was the guy who coined the phrase “Death Tax” when it had always been known as “Estate Tax.” As early as this past May, Luntz warned the GOP not to oppose healthcare reform directly, but instead mention things like "Washington takeover of healthcare" and "long waiting lines" for patients. He was one of several key figures in the drafting of the strategy for taking on Obama during the last few months. A despicable individual if ever there was one.

But the point here is that two supposed adults, both supposedly with functioning ears, heard the President’s words and both intentionally twisted and distorted them. The sad truth is that most of the audience probably didn’t catch it or wouldn't have minded very much even if they had. Well, we mind, and that’s the important thing. Shame on you, Mr. Hannity for flat out lying and manipulating your gullible fan base, if you can call it that.