ם Ashcroft Hatred; Senatorial Discourtesy Links to Bush Hatred? Jay Nordlinger at NRO wrote a good article in 2002 on Ashcroft hatred. Like Bush hatred, it is unhinged from reality, full of apparently sincere fear, objectively false statements, and visceral repugnance. Is piety the key to why both are hated and feared by liberals? Actions and rhetoric are certainly not enough to explain it. Here is a sample from Nordlinger's article, which also illustrates how Senatorial courtesy has now disappeared:
His confirmation hearings were a nasty affair, chaired by Sen. Patrick Leahy at his nastiest. Good ol' John --whom all the senators had known and, from all outward appearances, liked -- was suddenly a racist, a segregationist, and a menace. Even Ashcroft's handlers (no babes in the wood) were shocked by the ferocity of the assault. Sen. Barbara Boxer said the Ashcroft nomination was "driving a stake into the heart of large numbers of Americans." Ted Kennedy screamed that it was treason to suggest, as Ashcroft had, that the Bill of Rights was meant, in part, as a check against tyranny. Rep. Maxine Waters said: "I know a racist when I see one. Sen. Ashcroft acts like a racist, walks like a racist, talks like a racist."This is also an illustration of how apt liberals are to call people racists. The analogy is to a conservative calling someone a communist. How often do conservatives do that? Never, I think, since about 1955-- at least if we include only elected officials, and exclude the John Birch Society, which persisted till, perhaps, 1965. This says something about the relatively truthfulness and civility of liberals versus conservatives. To be sure, Maxine Waters is extreme even for a liberal, but I don't suppose liberals were ready to condemn her charges and say that while they opposed John Ashcroft, it was way out of line to call him a racist. At the same time, liberal mythology has it, rightly, that a conservative who carelessly called a liberal senator a communist in 1953 is rightly to be condemned. I say "mythology" because I'm not sure any conservatives actually did that--- the Senate did act with courtesy back then, and I don't think even Joe McCarthy called any of his colleagues communists-- his attacks were on minor functionaries in the executive branch.
[ http://php.indiana.edu/~erasmuse/w/04.02.04a.htm . Erasmusen@yahoo.com. ]
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