Kurtz: "Fratricidal Battle" over Miers Continues

[JABBS]

Howard Kurtz, in his "Media Notes" column in today's Washington Post, offers this humorous and perhaps enlightening anecdote regarding a tussle between National Review columnist and former Bush speechwriter David Frum, and "Fox News All-Stars" Brit Hume and Fred Barnes.

The battle is over -- what else -- the fight among conservatives over Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers. Kurtz writes:

Former Republican Party chairman Ed Gillespie says he's detected a whiff of sexism in the opposition to Miers. Fox News anchor Brit Hume has noted that many critics of the Southern Methodist University graduate went to elite Eastern schools.

This prompted Frum -- a proud graduate of Yale and Harvard Law -- to fire back at "Brit Hume's and Fred Barnes' embarrassing repetition of Ed Gillespie's talking points: 'Brawwwwwk-sexism; brawwwwwwk-elitism; brawwwwwwwwk-Harvard; brawwwwwwwwwk; brawwwwwkk; brawwwwwk.'"

Barnes, the (Weekly) Standard's executive editor, says that he thinks Frum's opposition is legitimate but that it is unfair to challenge the motives of those who disagree. "The notion that Brit and I are merely tools of Ed Gillespie or the White House is insulting and wrong," says Barnes, adding that he hadn't talked to Gillespie all week. "That's the kind of thing liberals do."

Hume says it was obvious that his jibe "was considerably tongue-in-cheek, and some of the responses have been notably humorless. Lighten up a little bit!"

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Isn't it funny how some people can dish it out, but they can't take it?

I mean, do we really need to produce a list of all the times that Barnes has questioned the motives of a Democrat? For example, how many times has he questioned the motives of Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY). "Sen. Clinton's moves should be seen in light of a 2008 campaign," he wrote in a Wall Street Journal article -- before the 2004 presidential campaign!

And then there's Hume's comment that he was just kidding. Seems that whenever some conservatives get in trouble, they respond with that bit of spin.

When former Bush Education Secretary Rod Paige called the National Education Association a "terrorist organization" last year, people took him seriously. A day later, he told the Associated Press: "I was making what I now know was a bad joke; it was a poor choice of words."

On his radio show, Michael Savage sounds serious enough when he calls Muslims "bomb-tossers," but in interviews after the fact suggests this is an example of his "wit." Rush Limbaugh labels women's rights activists "feminazis," then says female listeners shouldn't take him so seriously.

E-mailers can stick a happy face or an "LOL" at the end of a joke. Television journalists -- even "All-Stars," LOL -- don't have that lucury, especially the ones who decide, after the fact, that they were just kidding.

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This item first appeared at Journalists Against Bush's B.S.

[Xipe Totec]

1. Fratricidal? I object to the use of the term!

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