I confess that I don't know a great deal about Mr. Wolffe's background - but when I have heard him speak on Countdown he exhibited what appeared to be that studied, calm, measured gift for understatement for which subjects of her most royal majesty the Queen of Engalnd are justly famous. Not last night.
What Mr. Wolffe had to say was, in my humble opinion, as withering and incisive and important an insight on Republicanism as we have seen in this cycle. Essentially, Mr. Wolffe, in reviewing Gov. Palin's "major policy address" regardiing special needs children revealed Ms. Palin as so stunningly, completely, utterly deficient in terms of understanding fundamental public policy and science as to have descended to a level beyond which there is no redemption.
The background below.
The Republicans sent Gov. Palin out to make an address - which they billed as a major policy address - regarding how government should respond to special needs children. In the course of the address Gov. Palin promised vast amounts of new government spending. Included was a promise to fund fully the amounts necessary to send special needs children to school, ""including sending children to private schools" to address their needs. So far, so good. Ahhh - but here is the rub - how to pay for it - especially given that Sen. McCain has promised to enact a spending "freeze."
Well, came the ever quick reply - let us just cut some of those earmarks. Gov. Palin then gave as the sole example cutting earmarks for research "about fruit flies." Ha ha - gotcha there, you betcha - those silly fruit flies - how wasteful can you get?
Except one little thing. Turns out that fruit fly research is actually central to scientific understanding of many diseases and models that provide the basis for medical treatments and cures - specifically including autism.
When Mr. Wolffe was asked about this stunning revelation of a total absence of basic understanding - he began by saying that he would try to make a measured and calm response and then proceeded, with equanaminity that gave his words greater gravity, to point out that Gov. Palin has revealed herself to be so fundamentally unqualified to hold office as to not merit further political discourse. [I have tried to find the exact quote - so if someone can find a transcript of last night's Countdown - I would appreciate it - here is the link to the Countdown web address: http://thenewshole.msnbc.msn.com/...
There is always a debate raging whether humans have made progress, whether the idea of Enlightenment took hold after the Renaissance. What Gov. Palin represents is a throwback to the days before Galileo - deliberately against knowledge, fundamentally opposed to an understanding of processes that make the world better, a kind of Luddite demagoguery that promises to govern America out of profound ignorance.
Republicans have descended into the realm of championing, celebrating, reveling in squalor, backwardsness and despair.
UPDATE: My deep gratitude to those more internets conversant than I who found the precise quote "mindless, ignorant, uninformed" and who posted the actual video. The tone of the comment is, to my mind, as important as the actual words.
UPDATE II: Here is a link to a great diary proffered last evening with a wonderful and accessible review of much of the science. http://www.dailykos.com/...The amount of really useful and valuable information on DKos is staggering.
UPDATE III: As an eagle eyed commenter noted, Mr. Wolffe, and I may have been a tad overinvested in some of the inferences available from the fruit fly remark. As noted here, http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/... it is possible to parse the Palin speech in such a way that she was offering the fruit fly example only with respect to $211,000 worth of grant to a USDA facility in Paris to study pest infestation of olive groves. Of course, if this is actually what she meant, then it is absurd on a couple of levels. First the amounts she noted as being avaialbe for offsets are trivial in comparison to the amounts of new spending proposed. Secondly, the reason the money went to Paris is because that is where the best location to study fruit fly infestations exist. So the basic point remains. Her remarks were "mindless, ignorant, uninformed......"
As a quick aside - thanks for all the comments. One learns an enormous amount by consulting this community. The flood of knowledge can often be chastening, but it is always enlightening.