Sunday Stupidity: The Takes One to Know One Edition

I'm a subscriber to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and although it's a pretty good newspaper, it leans pretty conservative. Credit where credit's due: the editorial staff is usually pretty balanced with its opinions. However, the right-wing loons seem to come out of the woodwork on Sundays with letters to the editor filled with dumb opinion and asinine commentary on current news item.

In response to that, I'd like to start what will hopefully become a regular feature on this blog: the Sunday Stupidity, in which we examine the cream of the crap and address the letters, columnists and naysayers I have to endue in my local paper.

Today we're featuring two luminaries of conservative opinion: George Will and Victor Davis Shithead Hanson.

Now, I must be honest: George Will can occasionally be a pretty good columnist. But as my Dad has pointed out: he often gets so enthralled with his own erudition and sophistication that he becomes insufferable. This is one of those times.

Link: Obama The Adolescent

In the above column - posted for your reading displeasure - Will sneers about Obama arguing like an "adolescent" because the president dared to use the term "stinkburger" to describe Rep. Paul Ryan's recent budget "plan".

To be fair, it could be argued that Obama shouldn't have said that. Perhaps presidents should be slightly above the name-calling.

On the other hand, for Will to accuse the president (and his supporters) of being "adolescent" is nothing short of hilarious considering the Republican party's recent history. This is a party whose leaders have practically called Obama every name in the book; who show the president so much disrespect that they can't resist shouting out "you lie!" during the State of the Union; who have pouted, folded their arms across their chests and refused to do any work because they didn't get their way in previous general elections; and who have wasted time trying to repeal "Obamacare" over fifty times.

But please, George Will -  tell me how Obama is the one acting like an "adolescent".

Not only that, but for conservatives to pretend that their oh-so-delicate sensibilities were offended because Obama (gasp!) said "stinkburger" is absolutely ridiculous. Cheney tells people to "go f- [themselves]" on the floor of Congress, but it's supposedly a Major Scandal when Biden says "big f-ing deal" or Obama says "stinkburger".

Please.

Next on the list is Victor Davis Hanson, whose columns regularly read like a crotchety old man's laundry list of Things I Think Are Wrong With The World. In his latest column, Hanson argues that Harry Reid is a "corrupt bully":

Link: Harry Reid, Corrupt Bully

Some of what Hanson says about Reid, if true, could count as scandalous. An example is Reid supposedly using campaign funds to buy jewelry for donors. Of course I don't support the misuse of funds specifically earmarked for campaigns to reward donors and friends!

What really gets me from this column, however, is this passage:

Reid is back in the news for denigrating the peaceful supporters of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, a popular critic of the Bureau of Land Management policy, as “domestic terrorists.”

McCarthy in the 1950s became infamous for smearing his opponents with lurid allegations that he could not prove, while questioning their patriotism. Reid has brought back to the Senate that exact same McCarthy style of six decades ago — and trumped it.

Let's talk about Cliven Bundy's "peaceful supporters", shall we? Are these the same "peaceful supporters" who arrived to point guns at federal officials for trying to do their jobs? Or perhaps these "peaceful supporters" are the ones who planned to use their wives and children as human shields if the Bundy standoff devolved into a shooting match.

Yes, they certainly sound peaceful to me...

Not only that, but accusing Harry Reid of being another Joe McCarthy is ridiculous on its face. McCarthy was an attention-whoring Senator who threw out Communist accusations like some people throw candy to children. He is almost universally reviled nowadays (except by far right-wingers who think he's a poor, misunderstood soul) as a dirty-dealing, red-baiting jerkoff who is recognied as being a face of one of this country's darkest and most paranoid eras.

I don't necessarily stand by everything Reid has said during his tenure, but to call him another McCarthy is a stretch. Simply calling people names is not "McCarthyism" - it's ruining livelihoods with unfounded hearsay in an attempt to garner attention for oneself. Neither Petraeus nor any of the other people mentioned as being Reid's victims ever lost their careers and good reputations because of anything Reid said about them.

To claim otherwise is to completely miss the point of the McCarthy era and to disrespect those who did lose their livelihoods.