Gore criticized Bush after the obligatory couple of years had passed. Cheney started immediately, and THAT breaks all tradition and precedent.

To accuse Gore (who was a model of civility, even if it was to barbarous thugs) of behaving like Cheney (who led those selfsame barbarous thugs) is akin to accusing Mother Theresa of behaving like Lucretia Borgia.

Now: Stop trolling and hit the books. In this economy, uneducated and willfully ignorant aren’t going to get you very far.

Persons with glass jackboots oughtn’t goosestep.

Oh, and Al Gore had a field day criticizing George Bush in a number of speeches. The memory of some is highly selective. I have to give Gore credit though – he waited seven months after the invasion of Iraq to start.

Accusing the president of giving aid and comfort to the enemy is such a disgusting charge, such a deeply divisive, unAmerican tactic, it would be excoriated if it came from some far right blogger.

Oh my fucking god. The Hack is Back.

The notion that Sully wrote that with a straight face is completely incompatible with the notion that he’s “changed” or is “on our side” or does not “have his head squarely up his ass”.

Concern troll is concerned!

It’s Cole who has the love-hate thing going. Half of his posts about Sully are: what a smart guy. The other half: what a jerk.

I think that’s just JC’s personality type: very strong for some things until he changes his mind and then very strong against some things… until he switches back.

I am not ambivalent; for me there is no love. I dislike and disrespect Sully. I never visit his website and loath his ideas. He’s an “Roe v Wade” hating, asshole Catholic who cheerleaded for Bush until it was no longer plausible. He’s also a self-absorbed gay man who was happy to advertise for unsafe sex….and unaware that others would find out about his willingness to bareback.

Shun him.

That would be fine if this were a popularity contest. But we’re trying to govern the country, not drive GOP numbers into the ground.

No election for another year. Will this BS continue until then?

Obviously this person does not know his RR history.

One of RR’s favorite sayings concerned his so-called “11th commandment”: Never speak ill of fellow Republicans. So I don’t think he would have drummed them out. In fact I don’t think he would have spoken ill of them.

What you quoted sounds like Lake Wobegon exceptionalism. Every country is exceptional just like everyone in LW is above average.

This is what Obama said about American Exceptionalism:

Quite right. In fact, in April, the president was specifically asked about whether he subscribes “to the school of ‘American exceptionalism’ that sees America as uniquely qualified to lead the world.” Obama offered what struck me as the perfect response: “I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism. I’m enormously proud of my country and its role and history in the world…. I see no contradiction between believing that America has a continued extraordinary role in leading the world towards peace and prosperity and recognizing that that leadership is incumbent, depends on, our ability to create partnerships because we create partnerships because we can’t solve these problems alone.”

There is no separation between the wingnut blogs and the Republican leadership. They are just different wings of the same bullshit factory.

Um, yes, this what their own people were saying years ago. We basically published a WashingtonMonthly article to that effect several years ago.

Does the phrase “Dynamite in the Distance” ring a bell?

This is their modus operandi. Has been for a long time. Manipulation, pure and simple. All firmly grounded in principle: I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.

Ends justify means. Love it, or leave it.

All due respect, John, but I believe you are misreading Sully. Or, rather, missing the abstract point of what he is trying to say. I think what he meant to say was that the statement was so absurd that it would be (sarcastically, of course) unacceptable even for a right-wing blogger – the creme de la creme of saying unacceptable things – to say it, much less a former Veep.

That is, it was a bit of hyperbole or sarcasm, not a statement to be taken as quantifiable. I read it as being akin to saying “that guy hates jews more than Hitler.” Or “that statement regarding Obama would be rude even if a KLANSMAN said it.” If you read that, you wouldn’t reply with specific evidence that Hitler actually hated jews far more than “that guy,” or with evidence that the Klansmen actually said things more racist than “that statement.”

I may be wrong, but that’s how I read it.