from my blog, Basie!
Self-inflicted politics by Keith Olbermann
"I'm saying that he had a plan that included not only being a war hero, but getting an early out." [said Larry Thurlow]
There wasn't much time to reflect --Countdown was to start about 20 minutes later-- but the question formed quickly in my mind. "An `early out'? What the hell does he mean by that?"
The answer magically appeared moments later: "The Swift Boat Veterans For Truth" are going to steer the Kerry-Shot-Himself flotsam into the mainstream media.
Thus Keith Olbermann began his entry tonight in Hardblogger, the "blog" from MSNBC (it's more of just an opinion site, but I'll call it a blog if they want me to).
Many complain that MSNBC is actually MSGOP (or a wannabe Faux News), but I think I've seen a dramatic shift in the network as of late. I began seeing the shift around the time of the Democratic National Convention (I wrote then that "maybe this positive coverage by MSNBC will be short-lived, solely a consequence of the fact that the Democratic National Convention is being staged this week); my father believes that the change has come more recently, specifically when the Bush campaign began using a clip from a Kerry interview on Hardball out of context.
Whenever this all began, I think it's clear that the mainstream media is just about getting fed up with the quasi-lies that the right has been attempting to push on the American people over the last few years (and this past week, specifically). Tonight, Chris Matthews blasted Michelle Malkin, who was attempting to insinuate (in a backhanded way) that John Kerry intentionally wounded himself to get his Purple Hearts (he later wrote of the encounter, "we'll keep covering the political issues and will stand up against any attempt to broadcast misinformation"). Olbermann was equally incensed by the Malkin exchange and the Larry Thurlow interview earlier on Hardball.
Michelle Malkin, the unfortunate and overmatched author of a self-loathing book that attempts to justify our World War II internment and robbery of Americans of Japanese heritage, became the harbinger of the next mucky smell of low tide. She raised the story-- heretofore consigned largely to Robert Novak and everybody to his right-- in that delightful, Teflon way of modern politics: `I'm not saying that John Kerry shot himself. But in the Swift Boat Veterans' book, they ask whether or not his wounds were self-inflicted.'
If Ms. Malkin isn't seen on television, or moving on her own power, in the next few days, it's understandable. My colleague Mr. Matthews forced her to hang herself out to dry ten or eleven times (never prouder of you, Chris). He may have directed the momentum, but her wounds were ultimately, uh, self-inflicted.
As Chris rightly pointed out, nobody has produced an iota of evidence that John Kerry's wounds were anything other than the result of combat. Even in the book, the references to it are speculative and without provenance. Ms. Malkin wouldn't even go so far as to attribute the suspicion to herself. It was in the book.
Late Thursday, the Swift Boat gang announced a second commercial to premiere in the morning, and to this writing, nobody's been tipped about what it contains. Yet the Thurlow comment ("he had a plan") and Malkin's humiliating performance reek of a trial balloon. The story of the wounds will appear somewhere-- probably soon.
As Matt Stoler writes over at MyDD.com and Olbermann explains, tonight could have been just a trial balloon for some terrible ad that will come out tomorrow. I guess we'll have to wait until then to see.
Keith conludes extremely well by succinctly explaining the Republicans' tactics. His snarky wit is quite refreshing, if you ask me.
This is about the politics of the Smear Thrice Removed. I'm not saying this, but questions have been raised by others.
It is a perfected version of what many of President Bush's opponents have tried in the murky depths of his reservist days. It is execrable no matter who presents it, no matter which party benefits from it.
We will hear from the very jaded that it is nothing new. It was Winston Churchill, 70 years ago, who so succinctly, and so English-ly, noted "Politics are foul." But with instant communications, the internet explosion, and the 527 Groups, they are foul at warp-speed. The blur between an accusation with at least a thimble of evidence upon which it can rest, and the whole cloth fabrication, is so rapid as to appear as a solid line.
It is remarkable to think that we are living in the same country where a vast majority of the population never knew that Franklin Roosevelt was in a wheelchair, and where four different Republican presidential challengers, successively more and more distant of electoral chance and more and more desperate to close the widening gap, actually believed it inappropriate and unfair, just to mention it.
And that one was true.
Could Mr. Roosevelt's limitations have been self-inflicted? Maybe some historian is asking that question. Because certainly I'm not.
I suggest you read the whole piece as it is even more thorough than the long excerpt provided.
check out my political blog, Basie!