Maureen Dowd Rips Shrub A New One

[ruggerson]

Ya gotta love her, even tho she tries at times to be too evenhanded.

From Sunday's column:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/26/opinion/26dowd.html

<snip>

It's heartwarming, really.

President Bush has his own Mini-Me now, someone to echo his every word and mimic his every action.

For so long, Mr. Bush has put up with caricatures of a wee W. sitting in the vice president's lap, Charlie McCarthy style, as big Dick Cheney calls the shots. But now the president has his own puppet to play with.

All last week in New York and Washington, Prime Minister Ayad Allawi of Iraq parroted Mr. Bush's absurd claims that the fighting in Iraq was an essential part of the U.S. battle against terrorists that started on 9/11, that the neocons' utopian dream of turning Iraq into a modern democracy was going swimmingly, and that the worse things got over there, the better they really were.

It's the media's fault, the two men warble in a duet so perfectly harmonized you wonder if Karen Hughes wrote Mr. Allawi's speech, for not showing the millions of people in Iraq who are not being beheaded, kidnapped, suicide-bombed or caught in the cross-fire every day; and it's John Kerry's fault for abetting the Iraqi insurgents by expressing his doubts about our plan there, as he once did about Vietnam.

[DemFromMem]

1. Why is rest of media afraid?

Allawi, in every historical sense, is a puppet. An occupying country handpicking a leader - what else would you call him? Yet most of the media really did not call Bush on this when he dumped on Kerry for being critical. Way to go Maureen!

[Stephanie]

2. She alludes to PNAC too

Just as Mr. Cheney, Rummy and the neocons turned W. into a host body for their old schemes to knock off Saddam, transform the military and set up a pre-emption doctrine to strike at allies and foes that threatened American hyperpower supremacy, so now W. has turned Mr. Allawi into a host body for the Panglossian palaver that he believes will get him re-elected. Every time the administration takes a step it says will reduce the violence, the violence increases.

Mr. Bush doesn't seem to care that by using Mr. Allawi as a puppet in his campaign, he decreases the prime minister's chances of debunking the belief in Iraq that he is a Bush puppet - which is the only way he can gain any credibility to stabilize his devastated country and be elected himself.

[shindig]

3. Exactly,

but the CBS top of the hour news with Harley Carnes just played the Allawi story up to be a KERRY controversy. He echoed the republican spin that Kerry's comments, implying strongly that Allawi is a puppet diminishes the, um, "mission's" success. Then he said that Biden came on somewhere today to "correct" Kerry and insure everyone that Allawi is "the man.!" Kerry=bad; Allawi, Bush, Biden=good.

Now I thought that CBS was supposed to be on our side. The Rather mistake PROVES THAT, they say.

Harley Carnes report on his 2pm est top of the hour CBS News show supports just the opposite claim. Everyone knows that Allawi is a puppet, including, most importantly, the Iraqi people and, of course, the insurgents. But in Harley Carnes Bush-loving world shedding light on things creates a negative John Kerry controversy.

As the last post states, there is a good argument that the Allawi visit only enhances the puppet problem. But that would be telling the truth, like Kerry did. Mainstream media would rather diss Kerry and call it a controversy for telling the truth. They like the lies better. A lot of people do. That's why the election is so close.

[peacetalksforall]

4. It's an innate capability of humans that they know

when someone is untruthful, but we don't always call the liar on it for a variety of reasons.

When someone refuses to acknowledge untruthfulness in spoken or unspoken form, we're dealing with raw prejudice or a deficiency in development.

When it's political over an extended period of time or the lie isn't a surprise because of association or some similar factor, it's a matter of spending the energy.

The truth about their support for Chalabi was explosed. The truth came out and now even when his replacement is a cousin and part of the pack, they expect us to have deep respect for the new guys' words.

It's also a matter of toleration for b.s. plus the matter of spending the energy and being patient until the next exposure.

In the meantime, this administration and PNAC will continue to operate on the basis that we are all stupid.

[shindig]

6. And Bernard Goldberg thinks we're stupid too...

He goes on TV to tell us that CBS reports in a way that helps Kerry, even though CBS, just like everything else mainstream, reports in a way that helps Bush, not Kerry. Again, I say, that's the reason why the election is so close, despite Bush's miserable failure status.

Just imagine Clinton with a record like Bush's. He'd be a dead-man-walking, not running close for re-election.

[Eric J in MN]

5. Thank goodness at least she's telling the truth, while the rest of

the media praises Allawi as a legitmate Prime Minister.

[shindig]

7. Maureen is some piece of work,

that's for sure. As Bartcop says, she hates everybody. I think she dislikes the Bush administration even more than she disliked Al gore though. That's a good thing!

[Gold Metal Flake]

8. The Mini-Me suggestion came out on Maher.

Seems so perfectly visual. Can someone photoshop an image of * & Allawi as Dr. Evil and Mini-Me?

[Eric J in MN]

9. Did Maher say "mini-me" first or Maureen Dowd? nt

nt

[Gold Metal Flake]

10. MoDo did. n/m

n/m

[George W. Dunce]

11. What is with her

hideous clothing? Between what she wore on Imus a few weeks back and what she was wearing on Real Time last week, she needs some help.

[DURHAM D]

12. She never looks directly at anyone. I think she is scary.

[Gold Metal Flake]

14. The look is kinda young, ain't it?

The hair flipping is kinda wild. I mean, I was worried she might leave a whip mark on the side of Larry's face. She's got this loud look, low talk thing. Eh, my self esteem is not great either.

[Cha]

13. Our DUer , Atman, called bush and allawi at their joint

press conference.. "The Awoli and Allawi Show"!:7

[Tsiyu]

15. The Lady Kills 'Em!

May more brave souls step forward.