Since the war began, Ehud Olmert has done a masterful job of keeping his mouth shut. We are just a few weeks before the election, an election that happened as the result of Olmert’s multiple police investigations compounded by his grandiose ineptitude in the 2006 war. Somehow, the Kadima government was successful in impressing people — and pretty much making us forget who was in charge.
Until last night.
Unfathomably, inconceivably, Olmert opened his mouth, and said some remarkably stupid things. The entire idea of the U.S. abstaining in the vote in the UN Security Council calling for a cease fire, it turns out, was his. Here‘s YNet’s report on what Olmert says he said to the President of the United States:
“I said: ‘Get me President Bush on the phone,’” Olmert said in a speech in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon. “They said he was in the middle of giving a speech in Philadelphia. I said I didn’t care: ‘I need to talk to him now.’ He got off the podium and spoke to me.”
Olmert said he argued that the United States should not vote in favor, and the president then called Rice and told her not to do so. “She was left pretty embarrassed,” Olmert said.
But the quotes don’t do the gaffe justice. I saw it on the news last night. The body language, the cheesy little-boy grin: a truly remarkable display of old-style Israeli machoistic baloney. Predictably, the State Department is beside itself. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that Olmert’s remarks “are wholly inaccurate as to describing the situation, just 100%, totally, completely not true.” It’s not a risky bet to assume McCormack is right. The story is just implausible.
Whatever you say about the State Department, all in all the Bush Administration has remained remarkably consistent in its support of Israel — more so even than the Reagan Administration, which in its last years recognized the PLO. To give Bush and Secretary Rice this kind of last-minute kick in the pants was remarkably inelegant.
Israeli voters are unlikely to take this kindly. The biggest victim is Tzipi Livni, who has done everything she can to bury Olmert in order to maximize her party’s chances of re-election. Just in case we had forgotten why we’re having elections in the first place…
The White House is not trying to hurt Rush, they are trying to discredit and marginalize the GOP.
Targeting Limbaugh is a tactic right out of Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals.
Rhambo got it wrong. Rush is not the enemy. Their enemy are the people who rejected the assault of the Obama administration on their livelihood. Rush can battle his own fight.
Majority will take notice and reject this triangulation.
If the opposition doesn’t wise up (and rise up), Rush could easily become a wedge issue, dividing the party elite and Beltway insiders on the one hand from the real conservatives on the other (those who live in the heartland, really do cling to guns and religion, talk funny, love Rush and embarrass their “leaders” to pieces). It would be so stupid to fall for that, but we can all see that it’s already happening.
#4, you hit the nail on the head.
Too bad the “party elites” such as David Frum, Michael Steele, Ross Douthat, David Brooks, etc., have not figured that out. It further goes to show that wisdom is not necessarily learned, but must be experienced and witnessed.
I believe it was Reagan who said, “Republicans shouldn’t attack other Republicans.” He said that because the greatest enemy to either party is not the other party, but the members of the party itself.
If this White House is willing to target its attacks on a private individual such as Rush, who’s next? Why stop there? Better yet, why waste the time? Just have the Wicked Witch of Botox County write a law that takes him off the air. This administration isn’t too concerned about the Constitution, so they shouldn’t be afraid of trampling Rush’s rights.
I agree with the 3 points…but I think there may be another level in addition. When “localism” comes into town local activists will have rallies in opposition to Rush. One of there points will no doubt be that he is “unpatriotic” because he has wished Obama to “fail”.
Several of Alinsky’s rules are relevant:
Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. There’s no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions.
A good tactic is one your people enjoy. They’ll keep doing it without urging and come back to do more. They’ll even suggest better ones.
And of course #12: Pick the target and freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. Isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people, not institutions. People hurt faster than institutions
Any political movement loves this…activists can use ridicule to rally their troops, to give them energy and focus.
I’d like for conservatives to use ridicule more effectively…for example: wanting the US to have high unemployment, thinking that we can run the US on Windmills and solar panels.
RFK Jr said he’d like the coal plants to go to natural gas, but yet a House member said on Fox this AM he wanted us to end Fossil Fuels, so that shows inconsistency.
Does RFK jr. want off-shore drilling of natural gas? Does he support LNG terminals for imports.
These people are not bright…there is much to ridicule.
I think it’s brilliant of the Democrats to try to make Rush the symbol of the Republican Party. A bald, fat, cigar-smoking multi-millionaire, he’s the Daddy Warbucks for an age that doesn’t read but looks at pictures. What is it about the Stupid Party that it doesn’t get the modern manipulation of image and symbols?
It is ridiculous to let Rush’s showmanship and sharp tongue stomp him to the leadership of the Right. His deft reversal of the “phony soldier” attack is not a reason to make him Mr. Republican/Conservative. That episode testified to his susceptibility to being demonized. And that is because he is ultimately an unsympathetic character. He can be very funny, he is far from stupid, but he comes off as an unfair, supercilious bully, someone who cannot see a belt without hitting bellow it.
Halliburton suitcase ???
“I think it’s brilliant of the Democrats to try to make Rush the symbol of the Republican Party. A bald, fat, cigar-smoking multi-millionaire, he’s the Daddy Warbucks for an age that doesn’t read but looks at pictures. What is it about the Stupid Party that it doesn’t get the modern manipulation of image and symbols?”
Hey I see what you mean! Sort of like ridiculing Obammy’s big ears or mocking the way that he secretly smokes cigarettes away from the cameras. And how he used to snort coke and smoke a bong! Thanks for the tip.
A bald, fat, cigar-smoking multi-millionaire, he’s the Daddy Warbucks for an age that doesn’t read but looks at pictures.
Here we have the voice of moderation and diversity and tolerance all wrapped up in a nice little bigoted package. Why is the Left still so angry (and petty) when they are getting everything they wanted, and more?
Obammy’s big ears
He does look a lot like Alfred E. Neuman, doesn’t He? And He’s got that dopey gap-toothed grin down, too.
“He does look a lot like Alfred E. Neuman, doesn’t He? And He’s got that dopey gap-toothed grin down, too.”
Well, I hear that the ladies are all in a swoon over The One. You know, real babes like Joy Behar and Barbara Walters.
I support the 50% white part of Obama, but I oppose the 50% black part. And the ears.
Rush offering to debate Obama. Obama should debate this guy. Obviously, Rush can’t win to a Harvard graduate lawyer?
If he such an enemy, time to destroy the guy once and for all.