Kurtz: For liberals it's payback time

[Rose Siding]

That's not a tiny glimmer the national dialogue correcting itself that you see, that's a school yard brawl.

Says Howie

The Pundit War, Three Years Later

By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 20, 2006; 8:21 AM

For some liberal pundits, it's payback time.

For some conservative commentators, it's time for uncomfortable explanations.

Yeah, that's all it is, you putz. Payback.
That is, of course if you disregard the HUNDRED THOUSAND DEAD PEOPLE.

Or our newly reinforced image as clowns around the world Or the tragic results of domestic neglect like rising poverty Or old people stranded on rooftops Or dazzling RX prices Or no energy policy blah blah blah

For the rest of us, it's the best show in town.

Woo hoo, party time! And who wants to actually examine our own complicity anyway duh?

It was probably inevitable, once the Iraq war started to go badly -- though how badly remains a matter of political dispute -- that those who opposed it from the start would begin kicking sand in the face of those who backed it from the start. Had the war been a smashing success, accusing fingers would undoubtedly be pointing in the opposite direction.

He means like during the Mission Accomplished Era, when conservative pundits branded all the sane people as traitors. All those times when he said, you know, nothing at all.

Some of those on the right now say they were wrong, or that they miscalculated, or that the Bush administration has bungled what remains a noble effort. Others insist the war is not going all that badly, given the difficulty of bringing democracy to Iraq, and that history's verdict is not yet in.

They said/they said still lives! Extra points! for use at the first possible opportunity.

But this is no high-minded debate about military strategy and ancient religious hatreds. It is an old-fashioned smackdown by those who detest George W. Bush against those who once defended him.

So for GOD'S sake, whatever you do, Do Not attribute those whose judgement was sound, whose assessment was solid, whose reasoning was Reality Based and has been time proven, with ANY wisdom What.So.Ever.

It's a cat fight, I tell ya. A bloody CATFIGHT. That's ALL!
la la la la la la la la

http://www.inspirationline.com.nyud.net:8090/images/cold_cat.jpg

[tatertop]

1. Like the pukes love to say: that is past and it's time to move on

[LisaLynne]

2. What an idiot.

Yeah, it's not that we were right and those who supported Bush were horribly wrong and complicit in the needless deaths of thousands and thousands. Naw, it's just a little old grudge, that's all.

And how exactly would the war have been a success to the point that those against it would have been wrong? It couldn't have been because those of us who opposed the war from day one knew that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. So, there was NO WAY to prove us wrong, even if there had been those promised flower parades in the streets. We still had sent the army into a country that had not attacked us first.

Some people don't get it. I just wonder if it's willful deception on their part of if they're really that stupid.

[grytpype]

3. Kurtz is a shit, no doubt about it.

This is what the Bush defenders are reduced to, crying about the unfairness and meanness of the people who were 100% about everything. Picking on poor retarded Duhbya. Shame on you.

[Armstead]

4. He's the epitomie of the problem with media

A smug elite guy who's in over his head. he should go back to writing about what sitcoms he likes, like the good little lapdog he is.

And if it IS payack time, I say -- Good. After all the dimissiveness of snarks like Howie when they were pumping up the war nd dismissing critics as "fringe loonies" we deserve a litle payback now that we have been proven right.

[Rose Siding]

16. "Why don't the damn Democrats give the president his day?"

This page has a good collection of some of that-

snip>
"Why don't the damn Democrats give the president his day? He won today. He did well today."
(MSNBC's Chris Matthews, 4/9/03)


"What's he going to talk about a year from now, the fact that the war went too well and it's over? I mean, don't these things sort of lose their--Isn't there a fresh date on some of these debate points?"
(MSNBC's Chris Matthews, speaking about Howard Dean--4/9/03)


"If image is everything, how can the Democratic presidential hopefuls compete with a president fresh from a war victory?"
(CNN's Judy Woodruff, 5/5/03)


"It is amazing how thorough the victory in Iraq really was in the broadest context..... And the silence, I think, is that it's clear that nobody can do anything about it. There isn't anybody who can stop him. The Democrats can't oppose--cannot oppose him politically."
(Washington Post reporter Jeff Birnbaum-- Fox News Channel, 5/2/03)


Nagging the "Naysayers"

"Now that the war in Iraq is all but over, should the people in Hollywood who opposed the president admit they were wrong?"
(Fox News Channel's Alan Colmes, 4/25/03)


"I doubt that the journalists at the New York Times and NPR or at ABC or at CNN are going to ever admit just how wrong their negative pronouncements were over the past four weeks."
(MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, 4/9/03)
....
"Even in the flush of triumph, doubts will be raised. Where are the supplies of germs and poison gas and plans for nukes to justify pre-emption? (Freed scientists will lead us to caches no inspectors could find.) What about remaining danger from Baathist torturers and war criminals forming pockets of resistance and plotting vengeance? (Their death wish is our command.)"
(New York Times' William Safire, 4/10/03)

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2842

[Old and In the Way]

5. Even if the war had been a "success", it would have been wrong.

If it had been a "success", we'd be using this as a springboard to invade other countries. We'd be in Syria now now.

[DeepModem Mom]

6. K&R!

[Pithy Cherub]

7. Kurtz, the uber media whore is complaining because

The media's narrative is being destroyed. Most of the pajama media clings to the incredibly stupid conventional wisdoms until denial is no longer able to float. How about all the protests that went uncovered and the sentiment of the world when it mattered before the war. the media has blood on its hands along with those who supported this stupid Iraq War. We are watching Kurtz's attempt to become the new media referee as the ignoble press and the war supporters craft new conventional wisdom. :puke:

[RandomKoolzip]

8. I love how the MSM thinks it's "irrational" to dislike Bush.

As if he never did anything wrong! We hate him because he did bad things, you fucknuts. The left didn't just wake up one day and decide to hate the guy for no reason at all; there's a cause an effect realtionship there that the MSM refuses to see.

[hfojvt]

11. that is not entirely true

I started hating him in May of 2000 I believe. Maybe even earlier. At that time, outside of Texas, he had not done that many bad things - just lied about his tax cuts, and been a dirty campaigner. So, much of my hatred was prophetic, I knew he was going to be a horrible President.
I underestimated it by about 10,000% precisely how bad he was going to be, however, this is from my LTTE in the Mason City Globe Gazette in October of 2000. "I have mostly spoken against Bush instead of for Gore, but it is usually easier to be sure of what you do not want. A Bush presidency quite frankly scares me,..."
But really I have no interest in any kind of payback, or rubbing anybody's nose in "I told you so's". Making things right is far more important. First steps would be for the Republican lap dogs of the press to be replaced with real journalists and writers, and for Republican BFEE enablers in Congress to be replaced with real public servants.

[bryant69]

9. That's crap.

Annoying Crap too

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Bake]

10. Damn right; it's way past time for payback.

But payback ONLY because we were right in the first damn place, and got called traitors for it.

Screw 'em.

Bake

[stevietheman]

12. No doubt: Bushbots are trying to "bargain" their way out of this mess.

I myself have been approached by Bushbots in online circles about wanting to "reasonably discuss" the Iraq matter all of a sudden, as if there's any middle ground.

What I told them is "no compromise--the Iraq war was 100% wrong from the very beginning".

My advice to all: Don't give Bushbots one effing inch.

[JNelson6563]

13. Good ol' Howie the Whore

Like Old Faithful he is, spouting shit wtihout fail.

No surprise here.

[Bozita]

14. Howie's wife is Sherri Annis, GOP spokeswhore - link

scroll to the bottom:

http://www.buzzflash.com/dailybuzz/05/09/bdb05162.html

In an attempt to cast doubt FOR the Bush administration.  Here’s some more yada, yada, yada, from Howard Kurtz: “KURTZ:…… no one that I could find did a story about FEMA in the past, Michael Brown's lack of experience….” Obviously he wasn’t looking! “FEMA’s bungling during Katrina came as no surprise to the Sun Sentinel, says Editor and Sr. Vice President Earl Mauker.  We actually called for Michael Brown’s resignation a year ago.  The Tribune Co.- owned Fort Lauderdale paper has been on FEMA's case since last year….!” By the by, one thing Howie always fails to do in the true spirit of disclosure---his wife Sherri Annis is a paid Repuglican strategist, whose livelihood depends not on the truth, but rather on getting the public to believe what she wants them to believe!

[gratuitous]

15. "Had the war been a smashing success"

Uh Mistah Kurtz? The invasion of Iraq had about a chance in a billion quadrillion of being any kind of success, let alone "smashing." It’s preposterous to think of all this death, destruction and waste as little more than a political game as Kurtz seems to think of it. Not for him any wasted energy or thought on the luckless unfortunates living underneath the bombs of Shock and Awe, or the victims of torture, or the near absolute zero chance that the invasion of Iraq would work itself out in even the vaguest similarities to the pleasing fantasy spun out by the corrupt and incompetent Bush administration.

No, Kurtz is preoccupied with how this all plays out as politics: who’s up, who’s down. Half a trillions dollars squandered? Who cares? It’s not like any government program that Kurtz depends on is going to go wanting, and he got a lot of extra cash in his pocket from all those tax cuts! Thousands and thousands of people dead or maimed courtesy of the American wehrmacht? Nobody Kurtz knew, so what’s the diff? American honor and prestige all over the world now just a sick joke? Uh, Telluride and Aspen are still in the U.S., right? So no skin off Kurtz’ nose! And anybody that does give a tin shit about any of this is just a disgruntled whiner, but it makes good theater for Kurtz.

What an immature, candy-ass, head-in-the-sand ignoramus.