Taranto, Predictably, Targets Post-Katrina Response by "Angry Left"

[JABBS]

OpinionJournal.com editor James Taranto has this shtick.

He talks about the "angry left." Rarely is there a Taranto column, or a Taranto radio or television appearance, in which he doesn't slip in that phrase several times.

In Taranto's world, the "angry left" is not just Michael Moore, Daily Kos or Randi Rhodes. It's anyone who criticizes President Bush or his policies. No matter how legitimate the claim, if someone on the left side of the aisle dares dissent, they're "angry."

It's a variation of an empty conservative spin line, offered over and over, that liberals and Democrats "hate Bush." When you start at that point, a conservative pundit doesn't have to go far before making the claim that liberals and Democrats are rooting for Bush to fail, which in turn implies that liberals and Democrats hate America.

You might remember during the presidential election campaign that some right-wing pundits were saying that liberals and Democrats were rooting for the insurgents to keep pushing up the U.S. death toll in Iraq. Some right-wing pundits tossed red meat to conservatives, saying that liberals and Democrats cheered when former President Reagan died.

It's insulting when right-wing pundits lie like this, making gross stereotypical myths solely for the purpose of connecting with -- for lack of a better term -- the "angry right." But let's not kid ourselves -- this empty conservative spin resonates with voters. Go take a look around the right-wing blogosphere, and you'll find a seemingly endless number of posts repeating these vulgarities about the "angry left."

It also gets these pundits more radio and television gigs. It increases the number of newspapers reading their columns. Screw the truth.

***

Taranto was at it again on the Sept. 16 edition of Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes. (Rich Lowry was sitting in for Sean Hannity):

LOWRY: What's been amazing about this debate over the last couple of weeks is conservatives used to joke, you know, Bush haters are going to blame Bush for the weather, and the next thing, you know, and they've actually been doing it the last couple of weeks. And it's not as though conservatives, you know, jumped all over Bill Clinton and blamed him for the deaths in the heat wave in Chicago . It just seems as though this president is in a uniquely poisonous, partisan environment.

TARANTO: Well, I don't know about uniquely. I mean, the -- there was a pretty poisonous partisan environment with FDR was president, when Lincoln was president. You know, we go through these periods in American history. I will say I think that the behavior of the angry left when the hurricane first struck, and they saw an opportunity to beat up on Bush, it was really shameful. I mean, to some people in this country, Hurricane Katrina was this month's Cindy Sheehan, it was this month's excuse to pound President Bush. I argued --

But, as JABBS readers know, it's empty conservative spin to suggest that the "angry left" alone was upset with the federal response to Hurricane Katrina.

There was no shortage of Republicans criticizing the response. And, as we all know, President Bush himself offered a mea culpa, and vowed to investigate his administration's shortcomings in handling the crisis.

But those are actual facts. And for people like Taranto, it's so much easier to just offer empty conservative spin. Toss some red meat to a conservative audience, and hope it resonates the next time that audience heads to the polls. Make some gross stereotypical claims, and hope it lands a few more radio and television gigs.

***

This article first appeared at Journalists Against Bush's B.S.

[jasmeel]

1. Fuck him! Yeah-I'm angry-people died! Embrace your anger

lefties!! It's the path to action!!

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Wait until Saturday and then he can see some angry lefties. LOTS of them

[noonwitch]

3. Anger about Katrina is not just coming from the left

There are moderates who are angry about the FEMA response (or lack thereof) and conservatives, too. If the anger was only from the left, Bush would not have asked for Brownie's resignation.