Saturday, August 21, 2004
To my regret, I missed an important Washington Post editorial, Mr. Nader's Baiting, concerning some strikingly nasty remarks he's made about the US Congress being "puppets" of Israel. It would seem that Nader's been spending a little too much time with his new Buchananite supporters. The Post editorial tellingly juxtaposes Nader's own remarks against some from the neo-Nazi National Alliance website.
Nader's response today, which states "When Israelis joke about the United States being "the second state of Israel," it sounds like they are describing a puppeteer-puppet relationship." doesn't help things any for him. The joke is what you read into it. Israelis do find American enthusiasm for Israel rather anomalous amidst a world that seems to otherwise scorn them, but that hardly comes to an assertion of control. Only in the mind of those predisposed to read things that way, can the joke even come anywhere close to that. Only someone who cannot fathom that people like John Kerry can and do support Israel out of belief and principle would make such absurd statements.
Nader's response, oddly, musters little more than cursory outrage over the juxtaposition of quotes. Most people would be more irate about being cited next to white supremacists, but Nader seems to glide onward from an initial assertion. Why is this not more vexing to him?
It bears mentioning that, near the end of the 2000 cycle, it came out that Nader had written for the venomously racist rag American Mercury back in the 1960s. This kind of toxic rhetoric may not be at all new to him. And the company he keeps may be more unsavory than liberal supporters know.
Finally, it takes a real kind of arrogance to call anyone else a puppet when you're taking money under the table from the Bush machine. The kind that we expect from Saint Ralph.
Nader's response today, which states "When Israelis joke about the United States being "the second state of Israel," it sounds like they are describing a puppeteer-puppet relationship." doesn't help things any for him. The joke is what you read into it. Israelis do find American enthusiasm for Israel rather anomalous amidst a world that seems to otherwise scorn them, but that hardly comes to an assertion of control. Only in the mind of those predisposed to read things that way, can the joke even come anywhere close to that. Only someone who cannot fathom that people like John Kerry can and do support Israel out of belief and principle would make such absurd statements.
Nader's response, oddly, musters little more than cursory outrage over the juxtaposition of quotes. Most people would be more irate about being cited next to white supremacists, but Nader seems to glide onward from an initial assertion. Why is this not more vexing to him?
It bears mentioning that, near the end of the 2000 cycle, it came out that Nader had written for the venomously racist rag American Mercury back in the 1960s. This kind of toxic rhetoric may not be at all new to him. And the company he keeps may be more unsavory than liberal supporters know.
Finally, it takes a real kind of arrogance to call anyone else a puppet when you're taking money under the table from the Bush machine. The kind that we expect from Saint Ralph.
