Steven P. BarrettBORN-AGAIN PHARISEE PUNDITS IN THE PRESS: LORD SAVE US! Pt. 1
August 7th 2008 16:39
By Steven Barrett
So saith, Martin Olasky, former George W. Bush campaign advisor, inventor of “compassionate conservatism” and convert to Christianity.
In his column “An Anniversary to Forget” about former President Bill Clinton’s admission of his messing around with Monica Lewinsky, Martin Olasky goes overboard in his attempts to compare the second Bush era in a favorable light over the Clinton era by falling back on the New York Times’ two old slogans, “All The News That’s Fit To Print,” and “It does not soil the breakfast cloth.”
Olasky took some pains to bring up Republican sinners, such as Warren G. Harding and Richard Nixon. The first was a flaming profligate, and like Clinton, very popular with the country. But if being so sanctimonious is that vital to Olasky, why didn’t he take a crack at Calvin Coolidge for accepting Hardings’ invite to be his Veep? (I get it, God’s divine plan to bring in a Congregationalist of good Yankee stock who’d stay the hell out of Wall Street’s way and keep his yap shut during the Roaring Twenties.)
Being the good Republican, Olasky couldn’t resist taking a shot at FDR for his infidelity to Eleanor, something for which he paid dearly for the rest of his life, that portion, which by the way, was the most significant and successful portion for both himself and the nation to which he gave himself to. FDR was no saint and he’d be the first to admit it, but we don’t elect saints to the White House. We elect leaders. Herbert Hoover looked saintly compared to Roosevelt, but the nation was in the tank when FDR took over, and it was the world’s most powerful economic as well as military power when he died. Would the saintliness and goody-two shoes of the then-GOP saved us from collapse, Fascism, Communism, not to mention the freedom and lives of millions of non-Americans and the entire Jewish race?
Olasky did mention Richard Nixon and his faithfulness to his wife Patricia as an unreliable guarantor of a scandal-free administration. No kidding. (The same could also be said for Gerald Ford whose biggest scandal was the selling out of South Vietnam and the captive nations at Helsinki, but he also led a good married life. Don’t look for any reference to Ford in this puff piece for Bush. It’s not in there. Ah, but he did have a word about Carter, and coupled him with Nixon.
Even the most loyal moderate and conservative Democrats occupying lower level jobs in his “administration” would grouse at any attempt to portray Carter’s term as “sometimes incompetent.” They know better to know it was a lot more “incompetent“ at the top. Nearly thirty years later, as a former campaign volunteer for him in Central Florida, I’m amazed to learn how much more than “sometimes incompetent” they actually were. (This “I-word” is specifically bracketed with “-marks because I’m loath to throw that word “incompetent” around like a thin dime, having worked for a technocratic boss in another capacity also in FL back then, having seen its devastating psychological damage done to former fellow workers. The word “accountability” carries the same harsh judgmental tone as well. It sure reads and sounds “power packed,” -- doesn‘t it. These words surely belong to the Pharisees.)
Olasky saved most of his moralizing for the Democrats, yet he cleverly tried to wiggle out of trying to look too partisan by balancing President Kennedy’s fool-hardy extra-marital shennanigans, and the Bay of Pigs fiasco with his cool conduct during the Cuban Missile Crisis. (Hmmm, any credit for standing up to the Russians in Berlin at Checkpoint Charlie?) Though the Bay of Pigs was a fiasco that was hatched during the late days of the Eisenhower, after it failed, Kennedy took full responsibility for it and did what he could to get rid of Castro, which is more than could be said for subsequent administrations that followed him. But here’s where Olasky gets a little too smug:
“John F. Kennedy's success in keeping unreported his record-setting flow of young women into Senate bedchambers and then the White House probably led him to think he could get away with other quasi-secret activities, such as the Bay of Pigs and numerous Castro assassination plots. On the other hand, his James Bond-style emotional detachment allowed him to be a cool Cold War poker player. He went to the brink of nuclear war without being moved by a normal man's sensitivities—and God was merciful in keeping us from disaster.”
Perhaps the slain president’s former behavior led to him having to save us all from their possibly-related consequences during the nuclear showdown over Cuba. And while we should all thank God for His mercies, how about a little thanks to the two Kennedy brothers for demonstrating a lot more backbone and the skills of a “Cold War poker player” Jerry Ford obviously lacked in Vladivostok and Helsinki, not to mention Carter when he gave Brezhnev that famous kiss of peace. (Yes, THAT did bother me, but it was pointless to open up too much about. You should’ve seen the looks I got when I rolled my eyes at relying on his daughter Amy as his nuclear arms advisor during the night we watched the debate against a guy who was --- quiet now, psssssst Deeee-vorced.)
End of Pt. 1.
When I first created it, it looked like it'd been "chopped" at the bottom and perhaps I'm guilty to a degree since I've yet to figure out how to reduce the size of that awfully HUGE funny photo at the top. So, I'm putting the rest in a PART 2, (thus allowing me to be sneaky enough to get my three posts in for the day so I can go do some woodworking before the thunderstorms hit as well! Thanks for your patience!)
“I had hoped that President Bush would bat .300, which means failure seven out of 10 times in Washington's tough league: His average has probably been less than that. Misjudgments, missed opportunities, and acceptance of faulty intelligence reports in a world of deception are understandable but hazardous to a nation's health. Even so, that's not the same as soiling the Oval Office with lies and worse.”
So saith, Martin Olasky, former George W. Bush campaign advisor, inventor of “compassionate conservatism” and convert to Christianity.
In his column “An Anniversary to Forget” about former President Bill Clinton’s admission of his messing around with Monica Lewinsky, Martin Olasky goes overboard in his attempts to compare the second Bush era in a favorable light over the Clinton era by falling back on the New York Times’ two old slogans, “All The News That’s Fit To Print,” and “It does not soil the breakfast cloth.”
Olasky took some pains to bring up Republican sinners, such as Warren G. Harding and Richard Nixon. The first was a flaming profligate, and like Clinton, very popular with the country. But if being so sanctimonious is that vital to Olasky, why didn’t he take a crack at Calvin Coolidge for accepting Hardings’ invite to be his Veep? (I get it, God’s divine plan to bring in a Congregationalist of good Yankee stock who’d stay the hell out of Wall Street’s way and keep his yap shut during the Roaring Twenties.)
Being the good Republican, Olasky couldn’t resist taking a shot at FDR for his infidelity to Eleanor, something for which he paid dearly for the rest of his life, that portion, which by the way, was the most significant and successful portion for both himself and the nation to which he gave himself to. FDR was no saint and he’d be the first to admit it, but we don’t elect saints to the White House. We elect leaders. Herbert Hoover looked saintly compared to Roosevelt, but the nation was in the tank when FDR took over, and it was the world’s most powerful economic as well as military power when he died. Would the saintliness and goody-two shoes of the then-GOP saved us from collapse, Fascism, Communism, not to mention the freedom and lives of millions of non-Americans and the entire Jewish race?
Olasky did mention Richard Nixon and his faithfulness to his wife Patricia as an unreliable guarantor of a scandal-free administration. No kidding. (The same could also be said for Gerald Ford whose biggest scandal was the selling out of South Vietnam and the captive nations at Helsinki, but he also led a good married life. Don’t look for any reference to Ford in this puff piece for Bush. It’s not in there. Ah, but he did have a word about Carter, and coupled him with Nixon.
“Faithfulness to a wife is no guarantee of faithfulness to the country; look at Richard Nixon. Nor does faithfulness guarantee a strong presidency: Jimmy Carter's anti-adultery bent accurately forecast an administration that was also open and aboveboard—but sometimes incompetent.”
Even the most loyal moderate and conservative Democrats occupying lower level jobs in his “administration” would grouse at any attempt to portray Carter’s term as “sometimes incompetent.” They know better to know it was a lot more “incompetent“ at the top. Nearly thirty years later, as a former campaign volunteer for him in Central Florida, I’m amazed to learn how much more than “sometimes incompetent” they actually were. (This “I-word” is specifically bracketed with “-marks because I’m loath to throw that word “incompetent” around like a thin dime, having worked for a technocratic boss in another capacity also in FL back then, having seen its devastating psychological damage done to former fellow workers. The word “accountability” carries the same harsh judgmental tone as well. It sure reads and sounds “power packed,” -- doesn‘t it. These words surely belong to the Pharisees.)
Olasky saved most of his moralizing for the Democrats, yet he cleverly tried to wiggle out of trying to look too partisan by balancing President Kennedy’s fool-hardy extra-marital shennanigans, and the Bay of Pigs fiasco with his cool conduct during the Cuban Missile Crisis. (Hmmm, any credit for standing up to the Russians in Berlin at Checkpoint Charlie?) Though the Bay of Pigs was a fiasco that was hatched during the late days of the Eisenhower, after it failed, Kennedy took full responsibility for it and did what he could to get rid of Castro, which is more than could be said for subsequent administrations that followed him. But here’s where Olasky gets a little too smug:
“John F. Kennedy's success in keeping unreported his record-setting flow of young women into Senate bedchambers and then the White House probably led him to think he could get away with other quasi-secret activities, such as the Bay of Pigs and numerous Castro assassination plots. On the other hand, his James Bond-style emotional detachment allowed him to be a cool Cold War poker player. He went to the brink of nuclear war without being moved by a normal man's sensitivities—and God was merciful in keeping us from disaster.”
Perhaps the slain president’s former behavior led to him having to save us all from their possibly-related consequences during the nuclear showdown over Cuba. And while we should all thank God for His mercies, how about a little thanks to the two Kennedy brothers for demonstrating a lot more backbone and the skills of a “Cold War poker player” Jerry Ford obviously lacked in Vladivostok and Helsinki, not to mention Carter when he gave Brezhnev that famous kiss of peace. (Yes, THAT did bother me, but it was pointless to open up too much about. You should’ve seen the looks I got when I rolled my eyes at relying on his daughter Amy as his nuclear arms advisor during the night we watched the debate against a guy who was --- quiet now, psssssst Deeee-vorced.)
End of Pt. 1.
When I first created it, it looked like it'd been "chopped" at the bottom and perhaps I'm guilty to a degree since I've yet to figure out how to reduce the size of that awfully HUGE funny photo at the top. So, I'm putting the rest in a PART 2, (thus allowing me to be sneaky enough to get my three posts in for the day so I can go do some woodworking before the thunderstorms hit as well! Thanks for your patience!)
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