Tuesday, May 26, 2009

'In the Famous Words
of Rahm Emanuel . . .'

And you know what those two words are, don't you, Rod Dreher?
Lately, Dreher has endlessly whined about talk-radio personalities he considers uncouth lowbrows. In March, Dreher said that Limbaugh's speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference "made clear that the GOP and the conservative movement are stuck on stupid." In April, Dreher said Glenn Beck was "giving crackpots a bad name." Then Friday, Dreher called Mark Levin a "cretin," a "creep" and a "trashmouth." . . .
"Cretin"? A magna cum laude graduate of Temple University, Levin served in the Reagan administration, ultimately as chief of staff to Attorney General Ed Meese, before becoming president of the Landmark Legal Foundation. All of this Levin accomplished before beginning his successful radio career and, most recently, authoring the No. 1 bestseller Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto.
That Levin employs hyperbole and sarcasm on his show is only shocking to people who don't listen to talk radio. More importantly, Levin believes conservatives are in a fight they cannot afford to lose, against implacable adversaries determined to win at all costs. When a guy begins a fight by slamming a barstool into the back of your head, the Marquis of Queensberry rules do not apply. If you respond by ripping open his carotid artery with the jagged edge of a broken beer bottle, whose fault is that? ("He needed killing," as Texans like to say.) . . .
Please read the whole thing. Of course, Levin is fully capable of defending himself, and does so at length at Dan Riehl's blog, including back and forth in the comments with Conor Friedersdorf. This is all part of the same problem I've been talking about for months, so also see:

You will find unfavorable reference to me in a series on "Conservative Renewal" at The Ordinary Gentlemen. What manner of conservative is Freddie DeBoer? Beats me, other than to say he's the kind of conservative who doesn't like me -- a potentially formidable coalition there, I'm sure.

Unfortunately, there is so much competition for anti-Stacy market share that the numerous Gentlemen could manage only 45K visits in April, less than a third of what we racked up here with just me and Smitty.

I'm the pinata at this fiesta, so Clark Stooksbury gets in a whack, as does Friedersdorf. (What, Larison took a holiday?) The experience of being bear-baited like this, when I have so much to do that I can't even keep up with my e-mail, is one reason I'm sympathetic to Levin:
Levin, who served as Ed Meese's chief of staff, must defend in detail everything he says during 15 hours of weekly radio time against whatever specific criticism any blogger might make, or else be presumed indefensible.
It's absurd, you see. Friedersdorf lashes out and then, if Levin considers it unworthy of his labor to respond point-by-point, Friedersdorf shouts that Levin didn't address his "substantive criticisms." Like Zell Miller said to Chris Matthews, it makes a fellow nostalgic for the days of the code duello.

Tim Blair of the Telegraph is at least amused my enumeration of behaviors that distinguish one from the wusses of Beltway elite journalism. OK, Tim, you want more?
  • If you've ever paid your rent with proceeds from ticket-scalping;
  • If you've ever had a search warrant served at your home;
  • If your high school yearbook was signed by at least one person later sentenced to life without parole;
  • If you have at least one scar as the result of a motorcycle accident;
  • If you've ever been in a fight that ended when your sister-in-law pulled a pistol;
  • If you know all the words to at least one David Allen Coe song;
  • If you've ever eluded a pursuing police car;
  • If you've ever been on the front row at a ZZ Top concert;
  • If you've ever worked in a strip club;
  • If you got fired for "fraternization" . . .
Well, the list could be extended ad infinitum, I suppose, but my wife reads the blog. And I must point out that I used to be a Democrat, so that the charge of "conservative hypocrisy" doesn't apply. Of course, the main thing that separates me from the Beltway elite wusses is that none of them ever sported a Speedo in such fine style.

UPDATE: Thanks to Freddie DeBoer, Sully has now named me "the Malkinyest of Malkin Award winners." Hey, I'm just "a kid from the South Bronx," yo.

10 comments:

  1. The liberal/collectivist “Republicans” that are the darlings of the MSM seem to me to be at best morons and maybe imbeciles. The moves to the left engineered by Rove and Bush 4 years ago resulted in material losses for the GOP in *BOTH* houses of Congress. (I need to add that 22 of the men who replaced lefty/collectivist Republicans were Reagan men. 2 of whom should be known to all red blooded American men: Heath Schuler (former pro QB); and a man who has at least 2 things in common with me( 1. our genes came from the same cesspool and 2. We were both Fifth Marines in Nam – I beat jimmy to the fight a few ears.) former Reagan under Sec Nav Jimmy Webb.
    The move farther to the left in 06 and j07 did not regain the lost ground! Instead the GOP lost more seats in *BOTH* houses, *AGAIN*! The arithmetic is something I had mastered in the second grade; And no one ever called Jarheads geniuses. 2 straight elections the # of Republican in DC got smaller! Significantly smaller!
    The MSM hates Republicans. I told people ,many times 06 and 07 that they were fawning over Johnny not because they liked him – BUT BECAUSE HE WAS WEAK! They wanted him to be the GOP standard bearer because they knew he could not even beat Jimma Carter! The proof of their prescience was the 11/08 election! The MSM cottons to Dreher, Frum and their ilk because they want the GOP destroyed, not because they think these guys (who cannot do grammar school arithmetic) have any good ideas!
    I have been saying facetiously the last 3 years tham maybe the conservatives should infiltrate the Democratic Party and make it the new conservative party. Your Reference to Zell Miller makes my remarks less facetious and more real. That 22 Reagan men were elected to Congress in 06 as Democrats shows that the parties may in fact be switching. I really think both are moving to the left; neither is conservative; and more importantly the leaders of both do not in their hearts want to be conservative.
    Rod Stanton
    Cerritos, Cal

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  2. Frankly speaking we have the most uncivilized president in the history of our country in the White House.

    President Obama is uncivilized because he lies- regularly. He also slanders people- previous generations of Americans, AIG execs, Chrylser (and now GM) bondholders, Rush Limbaugh, the men and women at GITMO - there is zero evidence of torture ever having taken place there and the list who he slanders will only grow as long as he's in office because his own party has ZERO problem with it.

    President Obama is also vulgar. He fully supports abortion -even when the child is fully born and scissors are plunged into the back of its head and then the brain is sucked out until the skull collapses. Abortion-as in the procedure- is far more vulgar than any form of anti-abortion protest.

    It is also vulgar to have all the cocktail parties he has at the White House when 500,000+ Americans have lost jobs each month he's been in office. Not to mention how much of their investments have lost while he's been in office. It would be less vulgar when he goes out on a date with his wife to have them both order off the menu rather than have the chef grant their whims.

    And it is extremely vulgar to tell Americans they should drive fuel efficient cars to decrease their carbon footprint when his own is the size of Big Foot's.

    Mrs. Peperium

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  3. Oh, and here's President Obama incivility du jour -

    He's put forth a racist to be considered for a life appointment to the Supreme Court, Sotomayer (from the NYTimes):

    “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life,”

    Mrs. Peperium

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  4. i've taken dumps that have graduated magna cum laude from temple. it's pretty revealing that you think graduating from a third-rate state university "proves" anything about levin other than that he can read above a high school level

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  5. To paraphrase Ronaldus Maximus, Robert Stacey McCain, TAKE THAT [picture of you in a] SPEEDO DOWN! Or at least hide it under the mattress. If some poor smuck comes in here and that is the first thing that they learn about your World's Greatest Blog, I can guarandamntee you that they will flee, never to return.

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  6. Nice drive-by, "Anonymous." Spoken like a true cringing pussy. Or was that one of your precocious dumps typing?

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  7. This is all about Republicans Who Really Really Want to Matter seeking acceptance by Those Who Do. Frieda Drehersdorfer thinks she can earn an invitation to Davey Brooks's pajama party if only she could think of the perfect bitchy put-down about those so-not-cool kids acting like they don't care that they're not part of the popular set. Not like Frieda. Frieda cares, and she's going to show Davey that she belongs. Poor girl, she doesn't realize that nobody, Davey included, gives a damn what she thinks .

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  8. Hey anon, you think we could get our Great President's college transcripts sometime?

    Oh no, that wouldn't be prudent, no would it.

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  9. It tells you everything you need to know about the 'elete' GOP collectice-cons that Rod Dreher, if he is as certain of his superiority over Mark Levin as he professes, could prove it with one phone call to Mark's show. You think Levin would refuse to take it?

    Instead he prefers to pose and pontificate, rather than get down in the trenches and fight, even behind the safety of a telephone.

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