Karen Hughes Lies to Us ... Again

It's astonishing to me what some people think other people will believe. Not because I don't think they'll believe it. The Tea Party "movement" is a prime example of being able to get people really fired up about something that doesn't exist. I mean, after all, I'm even impressed that there's a bunch of angry people complaining about how their taxes have gone up and are out of control (Taxed Enough Already, if you buy that) when 95% of them, assuming a representative sample of the tax base makes up the movement, are seeing a tax reduction under this crazy socialist re-distributor of wealth. The re-distribution is going your way, people. Quit complaining. Unless this is really about something else that they don't care to confess. Which it probably is. No, what gets me is how people can spew complete crap like that with a straight face. And get paid big bucks to do so.

Today's jaw-dropper came from Karen Hughes on NBC's "Meet the Press" this Sunday. (Watch it here. Read it here.) The roundtable was discussing how BO has done in his first year and Ms. Hughes, former aide to guess-who, had something really dumb to say. And this is after, by the way, defending Dick Cheney's inappropriate and hypocritical criticisms and calling for criminals to be unilaterally declared enemy combatants and stripped of their rights, which we won't get into.

Bob Woodward had just put the lie to the idea that Obama is some kind of European-style socialist. (Thanks for that, Bob, by the way.) I'll give you the full context.

MR. WOODWARD: But, you know, what's interesting from, who is Barack Obama as president? And, and, and there are people who tried--there was a column The Washington Post Friday in which Charles Krauthammer tried to essentially say he is a European-style socialist because of health care and he's trying to do these other things. Now, I'm trying to do a book on President Obama, and calling him a European socialist is just not even in the ballpark. It's like taking and calling President Bush, because he arranged and worked with Teddy Kennedy on No Child Left Behind, or a prescription drug plan for the elderly, calling George Bush a European socialist, which would be absurd.

MS. HUGHES: Well, I'm not in the name-calling game...

MR. WOODWARD: Barack Obama is not that.

MS. HUGHES: ...but, Bob, would you, would you admit that he has governed far to the left of the way he campaigned? He campaigned as a centrist and has not governed that way.

WHAT? To the left? Far to the left? What the hell are you smoking? You people were all complaining about how left-wing his campaign was. Now, when it's convenient to do so, you act like you all liked him way back when and he's so disappointed you by not being that person you met and fell in love with not so long ago. Come on.

I've noted many times that there is spin and then there is utter bullshit. This falls squarely on the bullshit side, particularly as she states it as if it's just common knowledge and poor Bob Woodward has to just come out and admit it.

Let's review.

Campaigner Obama pledges to end the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

President Obama has talked about pulling troops out of Iraq but hasn't done so. And he has severely escalated the war in Afghanistan.

MOVEMENT: To the right.

Campaigner Obama pledges to cut taxes for folks making under $250,000 per annum and raise them a little for folks making more.

President Obama does just this.

MOVEMENT: None.

Campaigner Obama pledges to shut down Gitmo within a year, end torture, release those held without charges and prosecute terrorists the old-fashioned way, through our highly useful legal system that we used to be so proud of.

President Obama has not yet shut down Gitmo. He has made the decision to prosecute some, but not all, suspected terrorists in the courts. Many more are still being held without charge or sent to military tribunals. And we'll just have to take his word that they aren't being tortured. Let's hope not.

MOVEMENT: To the right.

Campaigner Obama pledged to fight for universal health care.

President Obama not only didn't put universal health care forth as the starting point (with an expectation that compromise would be necessary) but he started with a simple public option, which was then jettisoned along with almost every thing else worthy of the word "reform". And the bill is still in danger of not passing. And he doesn't seem all that concerned about the situation.

MOVEMENT: To the right.

That's most of what anybody gives a crap about these days. He's moved the country slightly to the left. (It was already so far right under the Bushies that this is not even an accomplishment.) But to even make the suggestion that he's governed to the left, let alone the far left, of what he campaigned on is the most ridiculous nonsense one could possibly hope to spout. He's either done exactly what he said he would or he's gone to the right. If anyone can tell me one area where he's gone left of what he campaigned on, I'm all ears. But I'm not seeing it.

Good to see you, Karen. (Not.) You haven't changed a bit.

Michael Gerson: Comedian

I always find it hilarious that the right includes The Washington Post in its list of the pernicious "liberal media". This paper lets the following left-wing nutjobs write for it.

• Staunch Libertarian and Conservative Icon George F. Will
• Neoconservative War-monger Robert Kagan
• Neoconservative and Compulsively Wrong William Safire
• Big Flaming War-monger and Israel Apologist Charles Krauthammer
• G.W.Bush Speechwriter Michael Gerson

Not to mention regular old conservatives Kathleen Parker, Ruth Marcus and David Broder. They let liberals write there too. But the deviation from the center is nowhere near the same. Harold Meyerson is the only one that I would consider a true liberal. Maybe E.J. Dionne. But neither of them are anywhere near as far left as the average person on Air America, or even MSNBC, whereas people like Krauthammer, Kagan and Safire are as far right as you can go.

Will is smart. I like him, but I usually don't agree with him. Kagan and Safire are idiots who continue to act as apologists for the worst failures of the Bush administration and to pretend that hundreds of thousands of dead people and billions of dollars out the door is actually buying us democracy in the Middle East, regardless of what those pesky "facts" might be. Gerson, as noted above, was a Bush speechwriter. Do you need to know anything else?

His column today is a scream. It is positively Rovian in its hypocrisy. As you know, the Rove model is one of pure projection. Whatever is wrong with you, just assert that the other person is the one who has that problem. Then they'll have to fight that charge and it'll never stick to you.

Gerson laments the polarization of today's political culture. The main culprit?

[Wait for it.]

Barack Obama!

That's right. It wasn't Bush. It wasn't Cheney. It wasn't Tom Delay or Newt Gingrich or Karl Rove himself or any of the talking heads at Fox News or Rush Limbaugh. It was the president.

Here are some fine nuggets of joy from Mr. Gerson.

"Who has been the most polarizing new president of recent times? Richard Nixon? Ronald Reagan? George W. Bush? No, that honor belongs to Barack Obama."

Yes, the man with a 66% approval rating. Not the man who left office with a 28% approval rating. Gerson offers some statistics to back his claim up, but they demonstrate the way the culture has changed, not anything about the current president. Gerson as much as admits this, basically refuting his own point. Oh, but wait, here comes that projection I talked about.

"Obama has been a unifier, of sorts. He has united Democrats and united Republicans -- against each other."

Ha! Um, sorry. That happened a long time ago, and the list of culprits was mentioned a few paragraphs ago. It's the one that starts with Bush, although I think Rove gets the lion's share of the blame. The fact that the Permanent Republican Majority so quickly fizzled out is the main reason these caged rats are biting so ferociously. Their dreams have been shattered. And it's their own fault. They're desperately trying to blame someone else. They couldn't be wrong.

"[L]ast week's votes on the budget resolutions [were] a landmark of ineffective governance. Not a single Republican in the House or Senate supported the bill, largely because the Democratic majority forced its will. Republicans were flattened, not consulted."

I've already written about what a farce this concept is. I'll decline to comment further, other than to snort derisively. You can picture me snorting derisively, right?

"Obama's polarizing approach challenges and changes the core of his political identity."

His what? His polarizing approach? Excuse me, no. Projection again. Big time. Least polarizing approach in history, possibly.

"Polarization in American politics has its own disturbing momentum, aided by some strident Republican voices. But that does not require a president to make it worse. And it is a sad, unnecessary shame that Barack Obama, the candidate of unity, has so quickly become another source of division."

Ah, yes. Begin with a weak denunciation of some unnamed Republicans. Then blame it all on the guy who inherited the culture, is trying to change it and is being thwarted by those same Republicans. But don't just blame him for not changing it. Say he's actually made it worse.

If Michael Gerson has a mirror in his house, I doubt it gets much use.