My always-worth-reading New Ledger colleague, Christopher Badeaux, has the definitive and exhaustive profile of Andrew Sullivan’s work and the obsessions that have defined him as a writer and wasted so much of Sullivan’s prodigious writing talents. You’ll want to print this one out and digest it at leisure. Here’s the opening:
Witness the Jewish Conspiracy’s control over SPACE AND TIME itself!
Pejman Yousefzadeh is cruel, as befits someone as high up in the International Neo-Zionist Conspiracy as he. When confronted with Andrew Sullivan going into an ecstatic frenzy over what was more or less a pedestrian and prosaic statement by the President, it was not enough for him to merely mock the conspiracy theorist. No, Pejman had to go back in time, using strange and forbidden Neo-Zionist temporal secrets, and change the speech so that when Sullivan wrote*
Did you notice how many times he invoked the word “justice” in his message? That’s the word that will resonate most deeply with the Iranian resistance.
…Pejman could (devastatingly) reply “Once.” Personally, I would have just used my super-powerful Jew Beams to cloud Sullivan’s mind into thinking that singing “Henry The VIII, I Am
Andrew Sullivan: Dutifully Defending Marriage from Heterosexuals
Wisconsin University Law professor and blogger Ann Althouse is reportedly marrying a long-time commenter on her blog.
After four years of sparing in the comments section, exchanging several emails, and a few weekend rendezvous, Althouse announced her whirlwind romance in typical Althouse fashion, an emblematic photo essay.
While engagements are generally joyous occasions, not all of Althouse’s fellow bloggers are rejoicing in her impending nuptials.
Upon learning of the news of Althouse’s engagement, The Atlantic’s Andrew Sullivan ironically adopted the mantle of the marriage brigade, crassly writing, “Ten days of emailing … and she was ready.”
Sullivan, a gay man with a committed partner of 5 years, is one of the most outspoken advocates for marriage equality, a proponent of the notion that all people, irrespective of sexual orientation, are inherently equal. This concept of equality, then, should confer the rights of marriage, proponents of gay rights argue.
Not so, says Sullivan, at least when this concept of marriage equality is applied to what he ostensibly views as frivolous heterosexual unions. Sullivan’s shrewd opposition to Althouse’s marriage is merely a disingenuous excuse for gay rights activists to flex waning political muscle in the wake of Prop 8’s passage.
Ironically, Sullivan is guilty of the same crime of his most socially conservative opponent: He now considers it his responsibility to validate, and likewise invalidate, the unions of others.
It takes a real egotist to make the news of another’s engagement about one’s self. At this rate, Sullivan would wear a white dress to Althouse’s wedding.
Shame on you, Andrew. Your comical egotism aside, the spiteful rhetoric – “OMFG” – likely won’t build the coalition of support necessary for the federal government to recognize your cohabitant as your husband.
Of Stimulus Lessons And Judd Gregg’s Withdrawal
My thoughts over at the Arena. Concerning the Gregg issue, Andrew Sullivan–in his inimitable way–is claiming that the Gregg withdrawal is proof that the Republicans have “declared war” on Obama. Never mind the fact that other Cabinet nominees–at least, the ones that don’t have to withdraw from consideration because of obstacles like tax cheating–have been receiving overwhelming support from both parties in Senate confirmation votes. Never mind that Sullivan’s “proof” for his assertion includes spin from an anonymous Democratic Hill staffer, and self-selecting reader comments on a Manchester Union-Leader article. Never mind as well that accusations that the Gregg withdrawal has something to do with GOP malfeasance is undercut by this:
Gregg had kind words for the president, saying the administration is “doing an extraordinary job in trying to manage this financial crisis.” He acknowledged that his withdrawal now is “unfair in many ways,” but said that he could not be a “100 percent” team member.
“The president asked me to do it, and I said yes,” Gregg said. “That was my mistake, not his.”
Yeah, real declaration of war, that. I think that Gregg was right to withdraw, for the reasons I set out in my Arena post. But partisan sniping, this wasn’t.
Of course, don’t tell that to Sullivan, who will be more than glad to scapegoat anyone and everyone with an “R” next to his/her name for the vetting failures and staff blunders of the people working for his plaster-saint-for-the-moment.
Greenwald, Sullivan’s faux-outrage over rendition.
"'To cowardice,' he said, and flung the empty glass against the back wall of the fireplace with a savageness I had never seen in him before."
The quote is from Spider Robinson’s
And it is filth, because if you look at either pro-torture pro-Obama blogger, you’ll see that neither has done anything except pound on the table. And they won’t, either. Their outrage is rather finely tuned.
The Tale of the Administration That Apparently Thinks “Vetting” is What You Have Done to Dogs Every Six Months
Can we finally put a stop to the "Smoothest Transition in History!!11!1!" stuff already?
For all the stories that have come out in the last month about how President Obama has executed the smoothest administrative transition in memory, and how Obama has chosen to enforce the “strictest ethics rules ever applied” to the administration vetting and recruitment process, the facts sure do seem to point to an altogether different conclusion — especially in terms of cabinet nominees and senior staff.
Let’s take a quick look at a few members of the crack team Obama has tried to surround himself with since being elected President three months ago.
- Bill Richardson: Nominated to be Obama’s Secretary of Commerce; withdrew when it became public that he was “being investigated by a federal grand jury in his home state for…steering state bond business from the New Mexico Financial Authority toward…a significant campaign contributor.”
- Tim Geithner: Obama’s nominee for Treasury Secretary (and head of the IRS) failed to pay owed payroll taxes for several years, despite accepting reimbursement from the IMF for those taxes and signing certifications that he had paid them.
- Tom Daschle: Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services owed nearly $102,000 in taxes “on the car and driver a wealthy friend let him use from 2005 through 2007″ and neglected to “report $83,333 in consulting income in 2007.”
- Leon Panetta: The only experience Obama’s choice to be Director of Central Intelligence during the War on Terror and multiple international crises had with the CIA was fighting battles against the leadership and attempting to slash its budget while a staffer in the Clinton White House.
- William Lynn: Within hours of declaring his new no-lobbyists rule, Obama made an exception for Lynn, a lobbyist for the 3rd largest defense contractor in the nation and now an Obama nominee for Deputy Secretary of Defense
- Hillary Clinton: While a Senator, Obama’s nominee for Secretary of State “intervened at least six times in government issues directly affecting companies and others that later contributed to her husband’s foundation.
- Lobbyists of the World, Unite!: Despite repeatedly promising during his campaign that lobbyists would not be welcome in his administration, Obama bent his own new rules and hired over a dozen lobbyists to fill senior staff positions.
The absurd attacks by leftists (and by “conservative” poseurs) on John McCain for his choice of Sarah Palin as running mate, and the supposed incompetence of his vetting staff that selection displayed, look very hollow indeed when measured up against the apparent lack of any vetting whatsoever President Obama’s nominees for half a dozen cabinet positions (and countless more senior staff jobs).
Between the lack of vetting, the memory-holing of vital documents posted on WhiteHouse.gov during the Bush years (like, for example, the Status of Forces Agreement between the U.S. and Iraq, which is now only available via html cache), and Obama’s repeated violation of his own “ethics” rules for the purpose of filling his cabinet and senior staff rosters, the title “smoothest transition in history” appears to be almost exactly the opposite of what this incoming administration’s actions over the last few months deserve.
In fact, the only parts of this transition that have gone smoothly are the parts President Bush handled himself.
Now that should be a scary thought for all those liberals who proclaimed January 20, 2009 to be the day “competence” returned to the White House, shouldn’t it?
