How Gullible Are The Kossacks?

Let me offer a Golden Rule of Rhetoric - if you need to doctor a quote to make your argument, you're losing.  (My fifth-grader has his own Golden Rule - never use a big word when a diminutive word will suffice - but I digress).

The Mighty Kos presents an absurd choice - Is House leader Rahm Emanuel racist or scared for backing "enforcement only" immigration reform  - and offers, amongst other evidence, a WaPo account of the lessons learned in the recent election by Virginia Republicans.  Here is the snippet as Creatively Excerpted by Kos:

The one point on which [Virginia Republican] moderates and conservatives seem to agree is that their party overplayed the illegal immigration issue. "They went for a magic bullet with immigration, and it didn't work," says a conservative strategist who doesn't want his name used because his clients don't agree that immigration is a losing issue. Prince William County board Chairman Corey Stewart, the strategist says, "won last year as the anti-tax and anti-growth candidate, and he ended up in the same place this year. He pushed hard on immigration, but it didn't move his numbers" in his reelection victory Tuesday.

Moderates say harsh rhetoric on immigration repelled independent voters. Northern Virginians "know this crackdown on illegal immigration was posturing," Potts says.

Strong words from Mr. Potts!  But almost inexplicably, the Great and Powerful Kos left out the next sentence.  Let's allow Mr. Potts to complete his thought:

Moderates say harsh rhetoric on immigration repelled independent voters. Northern Virginians "know this crackdown on illegal immigration was posturing," Potts says. "The only entity in the world that could solve that problem is the federal government."

Let me see - per Potts, voters rejected the phony posturing of a county board chairman running on a tough-on-immigration reform since they all know it is a federal problem; therefore, per Kos, the issue is dead at the federal level.  Please.  Maybe Kos can give Gov. Spitzer the all-clear on his driver's license plan.

Well - Rahm Emmanuel wasn't so stupid in 2006 when he helped the Democrats reclaim the House.  Maybe he is not so stupid now.

As to the gullibility of the Kossacks - in 493 comments no one has provided the completed Potts quote.

And Hot Air asks the key question about their political judgment:

Do the Kossacks really think calling the vast majority of Americans “racists” is a winning strategy?

Reluctant though I am to answer a rhetorical question, I will suggest that maybe the Kossacks got bored with calling America homophobes.

H/T Glenn.

Comments

[Clarice]

The sinestrosphere bloggers look like a replay of "The Magician's Apprentice".

[PaulL]

Clarice,

What is the status of Libby's appeal? Is he actually proceeding with it or is he just writing off the conviction since he is keeping his freedom?

Your fan,
Paul

[Clarice]

His brief is due Decmeber 11. I'll be traveling that day. Sunny Day will try to grab it.

[PaulL]

Thanks, Clarice.

Tom, if someone dared to contradict His Highness the Markos, he'd be banned from that site. I was banished some years ago within a few minutes, and was quite civil in my posts. Actually, as someone pointed out, my not saying f*** in every sentence was probably the tip-off that I was a conservative.

[Rick Ballard]

"How Gullible Are The Kossacks?"

I'm going to have to contact Senator Lamont's staff on this one. They have all the numbers. President Dean's people use to keep them handy but I understand that they've been transferred to the National Archives for safe keeping until the Dean Presidential Library is complete.

[richard mcenroe]

Shoot, they listened to Diane Watson in Los Angeles last October when she promised them that Pelosi was "working very quietly and very effectively behind the scenes" to ensure an impeachment. Howzat working out for them?

[section9]

Are you kidding, McEnroe? Why, impeachment's right around the corner?

My God, did you see those clowns today? Karl Rove baited the moustrap with a morsel of mouldering cheese and thd dumb b*stards (can't actually cuss on the McGuire forum, ya' know...) went for it like rats in a behavior mod experiment.

Rove really baited them. He said they weren't engaged in "reasonable argument" they were engaged in "release". Ye Gods, they went nuts, and fulfilled everything he said about 'em. They wanted him frog marched so bad...

[M. Simon]

Victory Has 1,000 Fathers. There will be quite a few Democrats among them.

[Norm Leahy]

Anyone quoting "Rusty" Potts as an authority on any topic is too sad to be laughable.

His war against the GOP, of which he still calls himself a member, has been almost as epic as his running battles with conservatives.

Maybe he's still smarting from their attempt to strip him of his committee assignments after he ran as an independent for governor in 2005. Perhaps he's still upset that he was almost keel-hauled by a conservative in the 2003 primary. More likely, he's chapped because he would have been defeated rather handily if he had decided to seek another term this year.

But he's always given good quote.

[Clarice]

M. Simon--thanks--I was working on something like your last blog and you did it so well, I can just relax for the rest of the weekend..

[BumperStickerist]

Per Kos:
The Latino vote is volatile. It swings.

The Lamblogga - The Forbidden Blog.

-----------------

Kos, being Latino, accords himself the capacity to be highly race conscious without being, you know, racist.

I, as a white dude, am presumabably not afforded the same luxury.

[MayBee]

Ooh- I haven't looked at the Kos thread yet. Have any of the commenters brought up Rahm's bachelorhood-and-ballet dancing yet? They usually do, but they aren't gay bashing or anything.

[Jodi]

Tom, you are as sharp as a razor as usual.

[paul]

"in 493 comments no one has provided the completed Potts quote."

Why question one's own belief? Especially if their beliefs are believed to be inherently just, based soley on the premise that they oppose those who are unjust?

The grey between religious right and the religious left is indistinguishable, but it is shifting. (35% of democratic voters in 2004 believed the gov was responsible for 9/11. 33% of Bush supporters in 2004 were from the rr)

08 is going to be decided by independent voters...robertson makes a move towards moderation with guiliani, reid is having conference calls with kos.

[Fred Gregory]

Your fifth- grader probably also knows an elegant variation when he/she sees one.

[Rainlillie]

Yeah, all you rethugs and bushbots are the racist homophobes. Even your cute little word "kossacks" shows your diminished mental capacity.
Only a few more months until the end of the republiKKKan party, the country thankfully will be under the direction of the Democrats.

[kim]

Writhe on Kos Dancer.
=====================

[MikeNC]

"Yeah, all you rethugs and bushbots are the racist homophobes. Even your cute little word "kossacks" shows your diminished mental capacity."

Anyone else notice the hypocrisy in this? Just move a couple of words around and presto you have this.

Yeah, all you kossacks are the racist homophobes. Even your cute little words "rethugs and bushbots" shows your diminished mental capacity.

Amazing.

[Topsecretk9]

"rethugs" is one of my personal favorites.

Obfuscate used every other word is amusing too.