Stand Up, Joe Klein, So We Can Kick Your A**

Times columnist and sensitive liberal Joe Klein actually said this about Charles Krauthammer:

"He became Ground Zero among the neo-cons, but he's vastly smarter than most of them," said Time's Joe Klein, an admirer and critic who praised Krauthammer's "writing skills and polemical skills" as "so far above almost anybody writing columns today."

"There's something tragic about him too," Klein said, referring to Krauthammer's confinement to a wheelchair, the result of a diving accident during his first year of medical school. "His work would have a lot more nuance if he were able to see the situations he's writing about."

Hire the handicapped, then keep them in their place.  Well, Klein's work would have a lot more nuance if his head weren't so far up Obama's... ahh, let's just say Klein is covering the story of Obama's hair from the inside.  And speaking of Obama, birds of a feather.

Well, that is enough from me - let me wave in Jon Chait to argue the merits of what he famously described as "ass welt journalism":

Conveniently enough, I've developed a theory justifying my opposition to convention reporting. Here it is: Reporting as a whole, while obviously necessary, is overrated. The mania over attending news-free conventions merely epitomizes a mentality that values going places and talking to people above all else. This prevalent ethos was expressed in the ur-journalism movie All The President's Men. Protesting the assignment of the Watergate story to young city-desk reporters, a Washington Post editor notes, "I have some experienced guys sitting around," prompting a devastating rebuke from his fellow editor: "You said it--sitting around."

But what's so bad about sitting around? You can learn a lot sitting behind a desk, mining the papers for interesting factual nuggets, reading political commentary from every perspective, poring through books and reports, and using the Nexis database to compile enormous stacks of newspaper stories. Most journalists scorn this kind of research because they're obsessed with uncovering new facts, not synthesizing them.

...  Part of the problem is that journalism terminology glorifies "shoe-leather reporting," whereby you pound the pavement so often you wear out the soles of your shoes. Yet there's no widely used term of approbation for the other kind of reporting. For this very reason, my New Republic colleague Franklin Foer and I decided a few years ago to coin a phrase: ass-welt reporting. It means you've sat in your chair for so long reading books and documents that you've worn a welt the shape of your backside into your chair. I'm not saying that every news story could be reported without leaving one's desk. (Bernstein: "Woodward, look! I found a clip from 1971 in which President Nixon tells the Omaha World-Herald he plans to order his goons to break into Democratic headquarters in the Watergate Hotel!" Woodward: "I'll cancel that meeting with Deep Throat.") I'm simply saying that, sometimes, laziness can be the better part of valor.

"Laziness"?  Grrr.

GOOD POINT:  One can only imagine how great a President FDR would have been if he had managed a bit more nuance. 

John Podhoretz waxes eloquent.  Jules Crittenden waxes Wroth.

GRACELESS AND GUTLESS:  Joe Klein responds:

The usual neoconservative malingerers have been hammering me about a quote I gave to Politico, regarding Charles Krauthammer's limitations as a columnist.

Klein does not actually excerpt his own offensive quote; his link is to the first page of the Politico article, but he does not appear until the second page.  Courage!

Obviously, I didn't mean to imply second-class status for disabled people. On the contrary, the distance and perspective that comes with physical deficits often leads to enhanced insight and abilities. The greatest President of the past 150 140 years--(Thanks, commenter flownover!)-- sat in a wheelchair. 

Regardless of what he meant to imply, we can all read what he said.  Klein offers this ironic gem, without irony:

So it is possible to write brilliant, nuanced commentary—on the war in Iraq, for example—without visiting there.

Klein had better think so - his candidate formulated an entire peace plan for Iraq and Afghanistan prior to his first visit.  That said, this next bit may explain Obama's retreat from his "Retreat At Any Cost" approach that won raves during the Democratic nominating process:

But it sure does help to understand a complicated situation in an unfamiliar culture if you can see it for yourself. Indeed, I believe the leavening effects of direct experience are especially valuable for those who are blinkered by ideology and debilitated by extreme views.

"Debilitated"?  I suppose it is better than "crippled by extreme views", but not much.

Let's include the timeless "I'm sorry if you were upset" apology:

 Still, it seems clear that my remark could be construed by some as insensitive—and if I have caused any discomfort to any disabled person, I apologize sincerely.

Construed by "some"?  And is it only disabled persons that have legitimate grounds for offense?  Just for starters, what about people with a disabled friend, relative, or colleague?  What about people who have worked hard for the equal treatment of the handicapped - have they no right to an apology?

What a classless buffoon.  TIME ought to sentence him to covering Joe Biden.

Comments

[Sue]

His diving accident made him go blind?

[clarice]

In a better world that would be the last thing carried by Klein who is right about one thig:Krauthammer is head and shoulders above all the MSM columnists.

What an outrageous remark!

Krauthammer's injury is BTW slowly killing him so it is tragic not only because he's lost the ability to walk.

[Jane]

How "Special Olympics" of him.

[narciso]

It must some kind of parasite, brain slug from Ceti Alpha V maybe, that gives all these people this extraordinarily bad judgement, not to mention this lack of tact,seemingly always in service of the One.
it seems to infect almost every aspect of their decision making. When he was on that other panel show on public television, the one with James Kirkpatrick, that is run at odd hours, he was always insightful,even when one disagreed with his opinion, that can't be said of many.

[Extraneus]

What's the big deal about mocking the handicapped? Lefties regularly and crudely mock women, too, when the women are like Sarah Palin or Carrie Prejean. Blacks are ok to racially stereotype, when they're fried-egg eating Clarence Thomases. Fat people and substance abusers are always fun targets, when they're talking about Rush Limbaugh. Religious Christians, Mormons, or Jews are pretty fair game for crude jokes, too. (Strangely not Muslims.) Gays are perfectly fine to mock, when they're Mark Foley or Larry Craig.

Nothing special about this.

[Rick Ballard]

Isn't it actually an encomium upon Krauthammer's ability, judgment and character? I don't always agree with Krauthammer but anyone who can drive one of Ogabe's bootlicking journolice to this level of pathetic floundering gets a big attaboy from me.

Klein might consider sticking more to his assigned task as fawning fashion critic of the emperor's wardrobe. That or he could take a stab at a 1,000 words on how the missing arms of the Venus de Milo wound up on a crooked ward heeler's daughter.

[PaulL]

Krauthammer somehow equates Obama and the country:

"What I want to say is -- I don't want to repeat his name - I don't want Obama to fail," he said, referring to radio host Rush Limbaugh. "I want our country to succeed. And when I criticize him, it's because I think his ideas are misguided."

[Neo]

Charles Krauthammer is in a wheelchair ? I never knew or detected a hint.

It would take a self-loathing idiot like Joe Klein to point that out.

[boris]

Lefties regularly and crudely mock anybody they want because they're the tolerance and sensitivity cops. Nobody blinks an eye when a traffic cop breaks the speed limit. It's like that.

[bad]

Sorry for filling the other thread with my Klein outrage when there is a perfectly good one for trashing his sorry ass.

I hope Klein gets ripped apart. Unfortunately, he's more likely to become a part of the "Special Olympics" administration.

[narciso]

Speaking of r.c.i,that can only explain Michael Lerner, tendentous fraud that he has proven to be, not getting the point.

[Eugene_tighe]

Joe Klein...what a bag of wind...I never knew that Charles Krauthammer was in a wheelchair...

Klein, you're a maroon!

[madawaskan]

Is Klein stilling Biden's material?

Say it ain't so Joe.

[madawaskan]

Damnit!

My eyes are crossing-

Make that-

Is Klein *stealing* Biden's material.

Here's the damn thing this won't get covered by the MSM and what will be particularly illustrative is even though Krauthammer is one of the Republican's best and brightest writers the vast majority of America will respond to this with-

"Who is Krauthammer?"

A damn shame too but that's the reality.

[Captain Hate]

narciso makes a good point; what is it about covering/worshipping Bammers that turns ordinarily semi-reasonable people into blithering idiots who let loose with streams of howlers of appalling taste? Are they trying to stay one step ahead of Barry Dunham?

Klein needs to be smacked hard in recognition of what a sniveling court-jester toady he's become.

[Jane]

Extraneous,

I'm stealing your rant.

(I hope that's okay)

[MayBee]

This is, in my opinion, the downside of groups like Journolist. The "journalists" there get so used to communicating in really vile terms about their colleagues and the people they cover, they lose sight of the fact that it isn't ok.

As Tim Gunn would say, they've gotten to used to the stink in the monkey house.

[clarice]

Jane--You want this:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/revolution.html

[bad]

Funny, google doesn't uncover any Joe Klein articles about FDR lacking nuance because he couldn't see from his wheelchair.

Perhaps he's still "writing" it.....

In the meantime, Peter Wehner at THE CORNER has some lovely thoughts about Klein:

We already knew, thanks to his role in Primary Colors, that Joe Klein was a liar; he is now becoming quite unhinged.

Those who know Charles Krauthammer recognize that he is an utterly delightful figure, a man of limitless intellectual curiosity and knowledge, and easily among the most impressive individuals I have ever met (John Podhoretz apparently feels the same way). Krauthammer has qualities, personal and professional, that Joe Klein will never come close to attaining. And Joe Klein — whom I have also met and actually knew fairly well, as he once considered me a good friend — is filled with hatred and bitterness because of it.

Klein, an unhinged liar..... I can live with that.

LUN

[Sue]

I had an ongoing online discussion with an Aussie psychiatrist about Krauthammer last year. I can't remember the exact issue, but it was medical in nature. He (my good Aussie friend) was touting his doctorate and how he was required to have his theories tested, yadayada...and Krauthammer had written against whatever was being discussed. My Aussie friend assured me that Krauthammer was a political hack who had "made" it in the journalist world. I asked him if he was unaware of Krauthammer, M.D. and he of course wasn't aware that Charles Krauthammer is a medical doctor. Sort of shut him up, which made me happy. I have a special place in my heart for Krauthammer for being able to shut up my verbose Aussie friend.

[Extraneus]

Ha. Go get 'em, Jane! You can buy me a $.05 rum drink at Hit's bar sometime.

But please hold the o.

[Rick Ballard]

OT - MayBee - I checked a little more on that LA Supervisor's assertion re balanced budget. That "little" false assumption that property tax revenues would drop 1% when they will drop 3.3% adds up to a $230 million hole. And that still doesn't account for the wild optimism concerning containing costs in health care. The supervisor was lying through his rotting teeth fibbing a bit.

[bad]

John Podhoretz at COMMENTARTY has some thoughts on the subect, as well.

[b]The self-infatuation this quote reveals about Klein’s own celebration of his own passport stamps—the words of a lesser author and thinker about one who so surpasses him in clarity and insight that a wiser Klein would have been better off just admitting that he can’t hold a candle to Krauthammer and let it go at that—is striking enough. But let’s face it. This is simply disgusting, no matter how you slice it.[/b]

Podhoretz also says lovely things about Krauthammer.

LUN

[bad]

The comments from around the blogoshere reveal that many who admire and read Krauthammer were unaware of his disability; a huge testimony to the strength, resilience and "no excuses" attitude of Charles Krauthammer.

[Gabriel Sutherland]

Where's Dean Kaman when you need him?

I propose Dean loan one of his nifty wheelchairs to Mr. Krauthammer so he can roll up the wheels and ask Joe Klein what the weather is like in hell.

[Rick Ballard]

I see that Typhuspad has disabled HTML today, put a strike through "lying through his rotting teeth". You can append it to the Ogabe green shoot babble in the LUN without the strike though. We're past the midpoint of Q2 and the decline tax revenue from withholding is much worse (as in twice as bad) as it was in Q1.

I think I'll go out and breathe a little free air for a while. We're not going to be able to do that much longer so I want to take advantage of the opportunity.

[bad]

Betsy's Page:

"How particularly nasty to say that he would be a better thinker of he weren't paralyzed. Can you imagine if a conservative said that about a disabled liberal? Is he saying that all people confined to wheelchairs have narrow, unenlightened views? Usually liberals want to say that the obstacles that someone has personally overcome broadens their views. How many times have we read that FDR's polio made him a more sensitive and caring leader? I guess he was also lacking the nuance that Joe Klein admires."

Klein is definitely getting his ass kicked in the blogosphere.

LUN

[Jane]

Clarice,

I do want that, thank you.

Extraneus,

Thank you too and sorry about the "o".

Sue, I'm pretty sure Krauthammer is not just a doctor but a psychiatrist, so he and your friend have a lot in common.

[rse]

Klein hates that Krauthammer's analysis is incisive and pithy. It makes for good, memorable sound bites as history starts to show how misguided BO's policies are.

I'm still working on getting my kids not to interrupt when I'm on the phone. They've managed to learn though not to try to speak if CK's making a point on TV.

He is a great role model for young people of how to express and support your ideas well and humorously.

[clarice]

Hersh gets caught out today, too. LUN

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/05/hersh_gets_hershed.html

[Aubrey]

It's easy to understand why Klein thinks Krauthammer can't see because he's in a wheelchair. After all, Klein can't see when he's seated.

[matt]

I think we are seeing the Left take all leave of reality and their senses. Chait basically admits to ignoring the facts when he so chooses to make his stories more relevant,a la H. Thompon except that Thompson admitted he was higher than a kite.

Klein is obviously in a severe reality disconnect with envy issues.

The nastiness is appalling.

[MayBee]

Thanks, Rick. Perhaps when you're surrounded by CA and the City of LA, a $230 million budget deficit looks fiscally sound.

[narciso]

Yet another example, if needs must be said, Newsweek
comparing Bush to 'He who should not be named" Lord Voldemort, and it's not in a movie review

[Mike Huggins]

Joe Klein is perfectly named, if you "verstehen."

Remember his "Swampland" column in Time awhile back about Chas Freeman, the Saudi-lover who was picked by Obama to be his chairman of the National Intelligence Council? (Since the tags aren't working, here's the old-fashioned URL: http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/03/10/assassination/)

"He (Freeman) was the victim of a mob, not a lobby. The mob was composed primarily of Jewish neoconservatives--abetted by less than courageous public servants..."

"Barack Obama should take note. The thugs have taken out Chas Freeman."

Of course, this was the Charles Freeman who said this in 2006 (h/t Hot Air):"We have paid heavily and often in treasure for our unflinching support and unstinting subsidies of Israel’s approach to managing its relations with the Arabs. Five years ago, we began to pay with the blood of our citizens here at home."

[matt]

So now we know what the Journo-List talking point for the day was. The plan to tear down any opposing voices by any means necessary smacks of Naziism.

[Fresh Air]

Sue--

He's not just an M.D. IIRC, he was named chief of the Department of Psychiatry at Mass General at the age of 29. He also has a Pulitzer, though I think it was from before he left the dark side.

[clarice]

Ich verstehen--He is a SMALL man.

[MayBee]

JPod writes:
" He won’t like me saying it, but Charles Krauthammer, who is more than a friendly acquaintance, is far from a tragic figure. He is a miraculous figure. He has, through a combination of raw will and a sagacious mind and a rigorous temperament that, were it possible, he should leave to science so that it can be studied and bottled and sold, lived a life both triumphantly important and triumphantly ordinary. (Although his wife, Robbie, is far from ordinary. For one thing, she is from Tasmania. For another, she is an artist of great skill. For a third, she has the dirtiest and liveliest mouth in either her forsaken hemisphere or her present one.) "
==================

Is this not a paragraph everyone would love to have written about them?

[Neo]

If I still had a subscription to Time, I would write to cancel it while demand Klein's job.
Unfortunately (or fortunately for me), I gave that up years ago.

[Jack is Back!]

I have noticed that the little elf of the reality-based community, semanticieo, has not felt adequate enough to comment on this thread. Since it is formed around another typical liberal commentary of belittling someone with the handicap of logical and intellectual political conservatism it would fit his eye perfectly. Of maybe he is in his hovel reading the ADA to see how he can qualify for a parking spot at his local Sam's Club.

[Porchlight]

[i]Joe Klein is perfectly named, if you "verstehen."[/i]

Joke Line?

[SWarren]

Krautheimer is a quadraplegic. If you notice when he is on a panel, he never moves his arms. The left hates him not only for his generally conservative views but unlike Reeves and Michael J. Fox, he opposes embryonic stem cell research.

[Jane]

My guess is he opposes federal funding for same not the actual research. Is that true SWarren?

[Original MikeS]

Though I was offended by Klein's comments, I simply don't feel mean enough today to give an accurate description of the man..., except to say that he does seem to be lacking something.

What Klein is lacking is more than just a sense of how others see him, but he also seems to lack a sense of propriety, of kindness, of honesty, and those other good graces that are so apparent in the character of Krauthammer.

[Old Lurker]

"He is a great role model for young people of how to express and support your ideas well and humorously."

He is also the poster boy for rising above a bum rap from life, and achieving the top of not one but two professions.

That RSE saw no need to mention his "handicap", and an earlier poster did not even know about it, speaks to the character of this man.

[Old Lurker]

You heard it here first, yesterday. The credit collar tightens around the serfs' necks.

From Bloomberg:

"American Express Co. Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Chenault said U.S. legislation to curb credit- card fees may reduce lending to “consumers who need it” and will hurt competitors more than his company.

The impact of the measure, passed by the Senate yesterday, will be “more negative than positive” for American Express, the largest U.S. credit-card issuer by purchases, because it may crimp the New York-based company’s ability to set prices according to risk, Chenault said today during a conference call.

“My concern is about credit being available, particularly to consumers who need it,” Chenault said."

[Harrison]

I just read about this on another blog. I find it repulsive. Maybe Krauthammer is such a great thinker because he can't take up jogging and has to devote his time to more serious efforts?

[narciso]

Leave it to Spencer Ackerman, not to get it, than I felt that way when he was promoting the "WMD was a lie" and the
"Iraqi Civil War" quagmire line, long before I knew he was a Journolister.

[Thomas Collins]

Putting both Klein and Krauthammer in the columnist category is the equivalent of putting both Richard Simmons and Jim Thorpe in the athlete category. Krauthammer is a columnist; Klein is a joke who happens to e-scribble on occasion.

Actually, I am probably being unfair to Richard Simmons, who is way more of an athlete in comparison with Jim Thorpe than Klein is a columnist in comparison with Krauthammer.

[Fresh Air]

OL--

Amex would be hurt the most, since most of their customers pay off their bills on time and aren't interested in the monthly revolving line of credit if it involves interest. Then again, given interest rates right now, it probably makes sense to use cash exclusively if you have it.

[SWarren]

Jane,
"My guess is he opposes federal funding for same not the actual research. Is that true SWarren?"

I didn't phrase that right. He doesn't oppose federal funding, but agrees with the policy of President Bush restricting federal funding for embryonic stem cell research to cells from that line of embryos that had already been destroyed.
He wrote a wonderful article a few months ago. I'll see if I can find it.

[PeterUK]

But look at all that nervous energy Joe Klein expends waving his arms about,Krauthammer can save that for his brain.

[Danube of Thought]

According to my darling bride, a former RN, Krauthammer is required to use some sort of artificial breathing device, which sometimes seems to have a slight effect on his speech.

I think he is truly one of the most remarkable men I know of today. Whenever he writes or speaks, he puts all of his colleague of all political persuasion in the deep, deep shade.

My hope is that this grtuitious, mindless slur sticks with Klein for the rest of his life.

And brother, wouldn't Steven Hawking have been something if he could just have got out there and explored the universe a bit?

[clarice]

As his spine compresses, breathing becomes ever harder for him and this I'm told will continue until breathing becomes impossible.

Good point on Hawking--I g hope TM spots it and adds it to the post.

I want to challenge that Little Man Joe to a duel, I'm so angry.

[SWarren]

Found the Krauthammer article from WaPo.
Krauthammer was invited by Obama to the WH ceremony lifting the restrictions on funding of embryonic research. He politely refused to attend but describes his outrage while watching it on TV.
"President Obama and Stem Cells--Science Fiction"
LUN

[laura]

I notice the breathing every time I see him on TV. He has to actually think to breathe in a way. What a gift Krauthammer has to live.

[glasater]

Porchlight~

I believe the german reference to Joe Klein is that one could interpret his last name to representing something small--whether it is his brain or some other organ he contains.

[Jane]

I want to challenge that Little Man Joe to a duel, I'm so angry.

Me too Clarice, and I'm not exactly sure why since I have absolutely no doubt that Krauthammer can and will handle it in his own spectacular and graceful way.

But I'll tell you one thing. I will never ever think of Joe Klein without thinking about this incident.

[Porchlight]

I remember that article, SWarren - thanks for linking it again. I loved that he stuck up for Bush on the embryonic stem cell issue.

[Porchlight]

LOL, glasater, thanks - I realized the reference to his surname after Clarice's reply. But I still think he's a joke, too. :)

[narciso]

I hadn't really noticed Chait'scontribution,
of course, if the rest of the media, knew that the brave civil servant was an assistant deputy FBI director, who had a grudge against Nixon.

[Original MikeS]

I want to challenge that Little Man Joe to a duel, I'm so angry.

It seems to me that a duel with one of the Ladies of JOM would be a high honor paid to a scum bag. Mr. Klien's only business on a field of honor ought to be to remove evidence of canine presence before the Gentlemen and Gentle Ladies arrive.

[fdcol63]

Klein & the MSM = Obama's Bidet

[PeterUK]

"I want to challenge that Little Man Joe to a duel, I'm so angry."

OK,but one hand tied behind your back.Do you want him stood on a box?

[clarice]

After reading this stuff, I went out and swam 60 laps and I'm still as angry as I was before. Let me at that little you know what.

[maryrose]

On Fox news when Charles appears as one of the panelists my family cheers because we know will hear the truth and witness an excellent mind at work.
As to Klein, anyone initially billing himself as Anonymous lacks character and the courage of his convictions. Clarice's comment sums him up nicely or as my dad would say he wouldn't be worthy as a patch on old underwear.

[SWarren]

Clarice,

Your piece at AT today is astounding.
How different things would have been if not for the Armitage vendetta.
Downright evil!!

[clarice]

You mean Herb Meyer's,SWarren..It is astounding and it is true, I think.

(I just noticed that Charlie Crist, supported by the NRSC , said yesterday he would act like Specter if elected to the Senate.

Great.

[Extraneus]

Cheney gets results.

http://blog.american.com/?p=924

[Neo]

I knew this was coming ...

In a case of belated "I told you so", former Gov. Gray Davis sounded vindicated.

“We all want a free lunch, but unfortunately that doesn’t exist,” said former Gov. Gray Davis, whose 2003 recall stemmed largely from a budget crisis brought on by the dot-com bust. For decades, Davis said, Californians have been “papering over this fundamental reality that the state has been living beyond its means.”

[Charlie (Colorado)]

The folks at "All the Right Thoughts" are doing the investigation on correlation between GOP contributions and losing your Chrysler franchise.

Speaking of cultures of corruption and such.

LUN if that link doesn't work.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Here's the problem report I just left with Typepad:

On the Just One Minute blog, HTML in comments is failing. It is *intermittently* being lost from comments, sometime coming back when the page is refreshed, sometimes not. This has now been a problem for weeks.

This, along with the enforced paging behavior of comments, is making Typepad very difficult for commenters.

I had been considering typepad to host a site, but if this is the level of service that can be expected, it's not very encouraging, either for me or as a service to recommend to my clients.

[cathyf]

The problem with complaining to six apart about typepad is that they are too stupid to get the point of the complaint. I suspect that what we have now is already a reaction to complaints -- somebody complained that any open tag is impossible to close once the /div goes by. But the idjits interpreted it as a complaint that html works.

Actually, I would much rather that they fix the tag closing problem before taking away pagination. At least this way when the page increments any unclosed tags get closed!

[Geezer]

"I want to challenge that Little Man Joe to a duel, I'm so angry."

I believe you could kick the carp out of Little Joey one handed, leaving the other to handle Schmucky.

Suit up in the Silver Thong. We got your back.

[SWarren]

Clarice,

I was referring to YOUR article on Armitage and the death of Liberty TV. I see that you posted it 5/17. Just came across it today.
Excellently done.

[Mike Huggins]

Porchlight: See Clarice's comment, from the original German.

[fdcol63]

" ... Suit up in the Silver Thong. We got your back. ..."

ROFLMAO

[narciso]

Where did you see that Clarice, I was
already in favor of Rubio, but this confirms
what I thought before.

[Mike Huggins]

Porchlight: Oops, my bad for not scrolling down - you got it long ago.

[HumboldtBlue]

Krauthammer is just another in a long line of cowards, who, from the safety of their snug little homes, and in the case of this piece of human feces, his wheelchair, calls for the deaths of his fellow human beings because ... well, just because he's a coward.

Much like Bush and Cheney and their war crimes, cowards like Krauthammer and those who attempt to defend his simple-minded, intellectually-crippled and morally bankrupt ideas, he deserves whatever mockery and insult that is flung his way.

Not only do I share glee in his crippled little ass not being able to walk, I hold him and his ilk in contempt. Fuck the little warmonger.

[bad]

Joe Asshole Klein:

"The usual neoconservative malingerers have been hammering me about a quote I gave to Politico, regarding Charles Krauthammer's limitations as a columnist.

Obviously, I didn't mean to imply second-class status for disabled people. On the contrary, the distance and perspective that comes with physical deficits often leads to enhanced insight and abilities. The greatest President of the past 150 140 years--(Thanks, commenter flownover!)-- sat in a wheelchair.

So it is possible to write brilliant, nuanced commentary—on the war in Iraq, for example—without visiting there. But it sure does help to understand a complicated situation in an unfamiliar culture if you can see it for yourself. Indeed, I believe the leavening effects of direct experience are especially valuable for those who are blinkered by ideology and debilitated by extreme views.

And while Krauthammer's skills are impressive, his commentary has been dangerously bellicose, arrogant and wrong. Given his influence with the Bush Administration, his unflinching support for American unilateralism--his invention of the notion of a unipolar world--did extensive damage to our nation's security and reputation overseas, and caused the unnecessary loss of life.

Still, it seems clear that my remark could be construed by some as insensitive—and if I have caused any discomfort to any disabled person, I apologize sincerely. In the end, Krauthammer's deficit is not a matter of body, but of judgment."

I've posted his entire statement here so no one needs to click on the idiot. He is now even more of a jerk than he was previously.

[PeterUK]

"Krauthammer is just another in a long line of cowards, who, from the safety of their snug little homes, and in the case of this piece of human feces, his wheelchair, calls for the deaths of his fellow human beings because ... well, just because he's a coward."

Well HumboldtBlue,here's hoping you break your spine when you give yourself a blow job.
..and Hummy,live a long time.

[MayBee]

Joe Klein:
" But it sure does help to understand a complicated situation in an unfamiliar culture if you can see it for yourself. Indeed, I believe the leavening effects of direct experience are especially valuable for those who are blinkered by ideology and debilitated by extreme views."

That's true. However, even people with direct experience come away with very different impressions and ideas of what to do. Joe Klein certainly has no more experience in the area than Donald Rumsfeld, yet they hold completely opposite opinions.

And I don't remember Joe Klein reprimanding State Senator Obama for making a speech AGAINST an Iraq war because he'd never been. I don't recall Joe Klein chiding candidate Obama for having been only once to the war zones and yet advocating a very bloody policy (withdrawal).

[J2]

The worst thing Klein said was that Krauthammer was "tragic". He is not tragic; some people might say he is triumphant.

[MayBee]

"his wheelchair, calls for the deaths of his fellow human beings because ... well, just because he's a coward."
=========

Aren't fewer people dying due to violence in Iraq now than at any time in the past 30 years or so?

[Extraneus]

Heh. Good one, MayBee.

Apparently it's not the violence they mind; it's the freedom.

[clarice]

Being a lefty means never having to say you are sorry--even when you have behaved outrageously.

[clarice]

Thanks, SWarren. Armitage was incontravertably nailed on that matter and yet Bush looked the other way--and for being a gentleman was rewarded with Plame.

That's my take on the Powell-Armitage song and dance team.

[clarice]

arciso it was in an email from Red State which may have more on their site.

[bad]

TM has greatly enhanced his original post. I hope Insty links.

[Extraneus]

He could have stayed above the fray and hired some street-fighters to deal with the lefty riff-raff -- after all, it's not like he had to personally kill all the baddies our military had to deal with -- but I guess he was too much of a gentleman to do that to fellow Americans. Too bad about that. I think that'll be the main blight on his legacy, when historians try to figure out how we lost our way and allowed the world to descend into what it's likely to descend into over the next few years.

[dude08]

Joke Line is an idiot – it took the wingnut contingent that long to figure this out? Welcome aboard – where have you been all my life?

As for Krauthammer, he is as dumb as a post. Makes Klein look like Einstein. Here is the good doctor’s prognostication, circa December 2006:

“When just a week ago Barack Obama showed a bit of ankle and declared the mere possibility of his running for the presidency, the chattering classes swooned. Now that every columnist in the country has given him advice, here’s mine: He should run in ’08. He will lose in ’08.”

Gosh, if he gave me a week to live, I would breathe a sigh of relief. What a maroon.

And the basis for the prognosis?

“Nonetheless, he will not win. The reason is 9/11. The country will simply not elect a novice in wartime.”

So let’s get this straight – Obama vaulted to the head of the pack on the Donkey side because he opposed the biggest foreign policy blunder in American history, aka, the Big Government Social Reorganization Experiment in Mesopotamia, something which the good doctor supported. And then, lo and behold, he got elected POTUS.

And the good doctor told him he was going to lose because he is a “novice” on foreign policy. Noun, verb, 9/11.

Disabled people can be idiots too.

[narciso]

So, what's your excuse,Dude,

[Mike Huggins]

scurry... scurry... scurry...

[rse]

CK's "mistake" was assuming the tragedy of 9/11 would ensure the media properly vetted major presidential candidates.

Turned out not to be true. That's not his mistake.

[clarice]

TM"TIME ought to sentence him to covering Joe Biden."

I second that..

[glenda]

First, bravo to our host, TM, for this thread. A great validation, that this blog is where truth and honest discourse is paramount. TM--honored to read you!

And, Clarice--I'll would be honored to be your second at the duel. They've got to be some more we can line up!! Klein threw this out there to feed his frenzied ilk...he is disgraceful. Why would anyone give this racist thug a platform..?? I'm taking bets no MSM will call him out like our JOM'rs!
Let's all write/call Time/Warner...never mind...anti-semitism rages there!

[PeterUK]

"So let’s get this straight – Obama vaulted to the head of the pack on the Donkey side because he opposed the biggest foreign policy blunder in American history".

In fact Dud08,Obama got elected in the wake of the biggest financial disaster in modern times,exacerbated by bankers who supported Obama. Dozy Pelosi deliberately screwed up a rescue package simply for partisan gain.
Then there was the mysterious letter from Chuck Schumer which set the ball rolling.
But enough,nobody was thinking about Iraq when they voted for Obama.

[Boatbuilder]

Dude--looks like Krauthammer precisely pegged both Obama and the MSM (and Iraq, but that's another debate). He overestimated the fortitude and underestimated the gullibility of the American electorate. I suppose that in your book that makes him an idiot (and me as well).

Somehow I find your alleged opposition to "the Big Government Social Reorganization Experiment in Mesopotamia" just a tiny bit hard to credit. Are you really against "Big Government?" Do you really think Krauthammer is an idiot? Do you give him no credit for his incisive criticisms of Obama's "Big Government Social Experment?

Are you TCO?