George Will is an ass (& Harry Reid must be doing something right)

[moggie12]

Harry Reid must really be giving the Right Wing morons some heartburn. The latest Neanderthal to check in with a scurrilous attack on Reid is George Will, writing in Newsweek. Here's what the bow-tied bloviator of right wing garbage had to say about Harry Reid's loud opposition to Bush's Social Security plan:

"(Reid) seems determined to earn the description Teddy Roosevelt applied to President John Tyler -- "a politician of monumental littleness."

He's calling Reid "little"??!!! The only little thing I see is Will's mind!

This is the whole column and it's a total piece of garbage:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6919700/site/newsweek/

Please e-mail Newsweek and let them know name-calling has no place in their magazine. (Newsweek is the best of the mainstream magazines by far -- why they publish Will's column has always been beyond me...)

Here's the link: [e-mail]

Thank you if you can take the time to defend Reid against Will's ugly attack. In a bizarre way, it's good to see how much fire he's drawing from Bush supporters -- they're worried people are listening to him -- he must be doing something right.

[CWebster]

1. Got his marching orders to smear did he?

The attacks from the Right during the Rice hearings were unrelenting until Harry stepped in and called them on it with an impressive, but simple directness. He shamed those bullies and exposed their soft underbelly of vulnerability as blowhards. They will seek to trip him up and are calling out their media hounds.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. I hold in the highest regard anyone who can give George Will heartburn.

[arewenotdemo]

6. And I anyone that could give Will a heart

attack.

[babylonsister]

3. Thanks, moggie12. Done, though a lot of good it will do.

Mr, Will, if you have something of substance to say in regards to Mr. Reid, I might listen. But until then, what exactly is your point?
As an American, I am concerned that an incompetent administration wants to mess with a program that benefits the majority of Americans.
I do think this administration wants to line the pockets of Wall Street fat cats, "the haves and the have mores", and I think it would be playing roulette with our futures.
How about this? For all of you people who are financially fixed for life, give up your Social Security and return it into the general fund. That could go a long way towards fixing the problem. Until then, please don't mess with my future. And you can pass that along to all of your 'fat cat' friends.

[ohtransplant]

4. Here's mine.

Dear Editor,

George Will could do better than this. Where's the critical thinking? Where's the intellectual honesty? Fiscal responsibility? He conveniently failed to mention the $2 Billion start-up costs of the President's Social Security private accounts. Mr. Will even compares President Bush with Hamilton and Jefferson. It's a comparison that defies explanation.

Since when does name calling qualify as commentary? Maybe Mr Will needs only to look in the mirror for a view of "littleness"

[HootieMcBoob]

5. Do you mean $2 Trillion Dollars start-up costs?

you wrote billion. it's trillion right? or am I thinking of something else?

[moggie12]

8. Billion, trillion -- it's all the same to Bush

It's not like the man knows how many zero's come after a billion or a trillion. I bet the White House staff had to work with him for hours to get him to stop saying "bazillion" -- it's all funny-money to them anyway -- Dick Cheney said "deficits don't matter".

[ohtransplant]

10. Of course you're right.

You know what they say(paraphrasing), A billion here, a billion there. Before you know it, you're talking about real money.

:dunce:

[DemocratSinceBirth]

7. Will Fails To Mention...

The market was at the same place in 1946 as it was in 1929 and in the same place in 1982 as it was in 1966....

Those are two long periods where it didn't move at all....

[moggie12]

9. this is the e-mail I wrote

re: George Will’s February 14th column

It isn’t Harry Reid who is little

George Will flung some ugly words at Harry Reid, all in an attempt to disparage Reid’s opposition to President Bush’s Social Security reform proposal. Mr. Will ended up, however, inadvertently demonstrating his own "monumental littleness" as a political and economic commentator. I had to laugh when Will attacked Reid for using "hyperbole" in criticizing Bush’s plan: The Bush administration has used almost nothing but hyperbole to sell its agenda for four years, culminating in this latest attempt to convince hard-working Americans to jettison a retirement insurance program that is not “broken”, as the President would have us believe, but simply in need of adjustment. Will goes on to devote the balance of his column to attacking Reid’s statement that Bush’s plan amounts to playing “Social Security roulette”, falsely asserting that it is the Democrat’s aversion to investing in our equity markets that solely underlies their opposition to Bush’s plan. Please, Mr. Will, open your little mind: It is the reckless, assault upon the insurance aspect of Social Security that has great Democrats like Harry Reid up in arms. Under the current Social Security program, for example, the children of someone unlucky enough to die young receive a monthly benefit until they reach age 18. Under the Bush plan, children have to hope their parent is kind enough to wait to die until they accumulate substantial assets in their private account. In addition, they have to hope their parent is wise enough not to die during a “down period” in the markets. Harry Reid is defending an insurance program that protects Americans against the vagaries of life. Bush’s plan is indeed “roulette” and Reid is right to criticize it. Give ’em hell, Harry!!!


(I always get too wordy...)

[itzamirakul]

11. Letter to Newsweek - Done!

[Democrat 4 Ever]

12. Letter to Newsweek

Let us hope that one of our lettes gets published - but don't anyone hold their breath!

My Letter -

I read with interest George Will's latest attempt to shill for the Republican agenda by attacking Harry Reid. I can't believe that a news source such as Newsweek would let such a partisan hack for one political party grace their pages week after week. It is well known that George Will is one of the "esteemed" media sources that meets with Grover Norquist's group to get the GOP talking points for each week in order to skew news coverage using buzz words and misdirection to the American public. How Will then claims to have a moral high ground is beyond me. Will is in the same league as Jason Blair, Armstrong Williams and Jeff Gannon - none are bother by truthful reporting in an attempt to further an agenda that is full of lies and distortions.

In his reporting, Will has the propensity to attack people personally instead of what they say. "(Reid) seems determined to earn the description Teddy Roosevelt applied to President John Tyler -- "a politician of monumental littleness." That, in and of itself, is a monument to littleness to challenge an elected official's duty to demand examination of all policies put forth by an administration. I did not see Will so willing to sling the name calling and mud when the Republican congressman did everything possible from day one to stymie Clinton's administration for eight years. To Will - the GOP were heroes not "monumental littleness." Will is doing a disservice to your publication and your publication is doing a disservice to your readership by allowing these statements to be printed or at least unchallenged.

Sincerely,

[moggie12]

13. Newsweek actually publishes some great letters

These were two published in the same issue as Will's column appeared in -- they were written in reponse to Newsweek's Inaugural coverage.

"If the Bush girls were in the war, I suspect their father and his Inauguration would have been quite a bit more subdued. Instead, they celebrate in all their finery. My son spent yet another birthday on a freezing patrol in Iraq. They wear designer gowns. My son washes his uniform in a bucket. They run up a huge bill. My son was sent to war with body armor several sizes too small. Where is the sacrifice?"
Susan M. Dibblee
Naperville, Ill.

"I am disappointed that NEWSWEEK failed to publish even the smallest picture of the counter-Inaugural protests in its coverage of George W. Bush's second Inauguration. Doing so would have provided a more balanced visual representation to accompany Fareed Zakaria's thoughtful, nuanced article. Since the right to free speech and political protest is one of the pillars of the democracy that Bush is hellbent on spreading across the world, why not show what the exercise of that right looks like?"
Megan Lindley
Decatur, Ga.


P.S. Your letter was very good. It'll take two weeks for Newsweek to publish letters in response to this most recent issue -- I think I'll post the ones about Will's column on DU when I get that issue.

[moggie12]

14. Self-kicking - Hoping to get a few more good letters to Newsweek

They really do pubilish them you know.