Innoculation

[Ivory_Tower]

I was thinking about the Republican practice of "innoculation" today -- you know, the technique of accusing your opponent of the very thing that you are doing. This (1) deflects attention away from you and (2) if you are caught you can say your opponent did the same thing, neutralizing your opponent's defenders.

Think of Gingrich's affair during the lead-in to the Clinton impeachment. Or almost anything out of this White House. Right-wing writers accusing gays of "intolerance", charges of "class warfare" levied against progressives, and so on.

Of course, it doesn't always work perfectly (Gingrich resigned, after all, but he still got his impeachment).

Then I started thinking about this whole Wilson affair. People around here are talking about traitors and treasonous acts, and I was trying to figure out why the right-wing hadn't tried to innoculate themselves on this one.

Then I remembered this:

"Treason", by Ann Coulter.

(Yeah, it's probably just a coincidence, but the timing of it just got to me.)

So is it possible could we predict the NEXT crime committed by this group simply by discovering the title of the next heavily promoted right-wing book?

[ewagner]

1. I'd love to hear, no, check that,

No I don't want to listen to Ann Coulter's take on this because I just can't stand to listen to her drivel.

But I wouldn't mind if someone with a stronger stomach listened and then related it so I could rail about her hypocrisy! Compared to the things she labed as treason on the liberal side of the agenda, this takes the cake. Ann should be calling for the "outing" of whoever leaked the info and personally volunteering to be a one-man (er, ah "woman", er, ah ...lets try "person") firing squad. Of course she won't. But it will be an incredible exercise in mental gymnastics to see how she blames this on liberals.