Hypocrisy Watch

Here is how it apparently works among the new wave of GOP debt-busters, with their supposedly fierce anti-earmark bona fides: If you do it, it's pork. If I do it, it's a project of vital importance.

Theocracy, Hypocrisy, Idiocy

Charles Pierce adequately sums up the hypocrisy of jumping all over Dwyane Wade for his (generally misrepresented) reference to 9/11 the other day. People invoke 9/11 constantly. It is usually unseemly. But when it fits a political agenda no one complains even though it is no more justifiable.

The most obnoxious example is this whole ginned up controversy over building a Mosque and cultural center a couple of blocks from Ground Zero. There is no legitimate case to be made for banning the construction except the very sort of theocratic religious intolerance that is supposed to make the bad guys the bad guys. So I suppose it's a real controversy borne of either crass political grandstanding or overt religious bigotry and perhaps a little of both.

Ending the Hypocrisy

Sigh. So when George W. Bush was president, it was un-American and undemocratic to filibuster judicial nominees. But now it is apparently ok for Republicans to entertain doing so against Obama's nominees or proposed bills.

I feel about the filibuster largely what I feel about the Electoral College. Both are in desperate need of reform, but no matter when you do it the motives will seem to stem from sheer politics. In the wake of 2000 reforming the Electoral College would have seemed like nothing more than a Democratic Party reaction to the 2000 election, rather than seeing the failures of the 2000 election as impetus for reform. Changing filibuster rules would almost certainly be even more problematic, though if a party got up to 65 or so votes in the Senate they could just pound it through, but then they would have enough votes to override filibusters, and would want to reserve that right for the future.

There is so much self-interest involved that hypocrisy almost inevitably follows. But there is almost nothing democratic and not much more that is republican (small d, small r) about allowing a minority to thwart the will of the elected majority out of sheer political obstructionism. I'd happily support needing a a super-majority on some issues, and on others, such as civil rights, the will of the majority certainly is secondary to Constitutional and other rights. But on their face the Electoral College and filibuster serve to protect the few from anything other than republican democracy. Let's try to get rid of these remnants of the 19th century. There are no slaveowners whose rights we have to be cowed into protecting lest they blow the whole project apart.

Preacher Problems Abound

Let's not forget, amidst the hubbub surrounding Jeremiah Wright, that John McCain actively sought and embraced the endorsement of John Hagee and Jerry Falwell. It would be nice if we could get past the various candidates' so-called "preacher problems" and return a modicum of substance into the discussion. But that is not in the interest of the media, and it is not, apparently, in the interest of Hillary Clinton, and it is not in the interest of the attack machine that seems to so control American political life. And to think, it will only get worse between now and November. [Sigh.]

Hypocrisy Watch: Crazy Religious Figure Edition

Is there a galling double-standard when it comes to the ravings of Jeremiah Wright and the usually even more insane, offensive and bothersome ravings of a vast swath of white religious figures on the right? Of course there is.

Popetastic

"Thank you your Holiness. Awesome speech." - George W. Bush to Pope Benedict XVI.

That's your president, Republicans.

I am going to start a fight with the next conservative who natters on to me about religion: "Thank you your Holiness. Awesome speech."

"Awesome"!?!?

The Never-Ending PED Controversy

There is so much hypocrisy, inconsistency, and overwrought fulmination over the supposed scourge of performance enhancing drugs in baseball that the critical mass of opinion has buried the ability of most observers to sit back and take a reasoned, rational look at the issue without the moralization snd mock outrage that characterizes the state of the debate. Malcolm Gladwell's recent postings on this issue at his blog are thus welcome. He has four salient posts, here, here, here, and here.

Dan Savage TKO's Mary Cheney

Over at The Stranger, a Seattle alternative newspaper, Dan Savage kicks the poo out of Mary Cheney's hypocrisy. Lessons: When you make yourself a public figure you don't get to pick and choose when and how you are public If your lifestyle is one that your very powerful family spends its public life excoriating in others, expect there to be blowback.

Dick Cheney has tried to claim some sort of filial immunity on the matter of his public-figure daughter's sexuality. And he has tried to paint Democrats who raise the issue -- and who support gay rights! -- as somehow crossing some line. It actually is an astounding level of chutzpah inasmuch as this latter tactic has actually worked -- remember the mock outrage on the part of conservatives, especially pundits, when Kerry raised Chaney's naked grandstanding in 2004.

Hypocrisy Watch

Anyone else remember the GOP outrage, to the point of wanting to change Senate and House rules, over Democratic filibusters threatened and real over the last few years? Yeah, me too. Well guess who engaged in a filibuster yesterday when Senate Democrats tried to pass a minimum wage bill free of tax breaks for big business that had been shoehorned into the bill by Republicans?

Ahhhh, hypocrisy, thy name is Republicanism.