Lanny the Fool

Oh my, my, my!

At this late stage in his life Lanny Davis has finally discovered that the political Left can be a source of hatred, rage, and bigotry every bit as virulent as anything that has issued from the Right. Well, better late than never…, I guess.

Actually, his article [here] represents something of a cliché – the political operative who is unable to outgrow his childhood fantasies. Informed at an early age by his father that Republicans and Joe McCarthy were the root of all evil – nasty haters the lot of them – Mr. Davis has carried this naïve silliness well into his adult life and throughout a long career of public service. Now he is “shocked…, shocked!” to discover that Democrats are nasty haters, too.

Here’s a clue Lanny – they always have been.

Doesn’t he remember the vicious attacks on LBJ by the anti-war Left? Doesn’t he remember the Nixon haters of the Watergate era? Doesn’t he remember the horrid slanders against Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, the Bushes? Hasn’t he ever heard the sort of repugnant remarks issuing from the podium at numerous academic gatherings? Hasn’t he heard of Margaret Cho, Al Franken, Michael Moore or any of the Left-wing ranters on Air America? Of course not! They weren’t attacking his guys.

But now it is Joe Lieberman who is in the cross-hairs of the lefty loons – and Joe is Lanny’s kind of guy. Now it is his ox that is being gored. And now he suddenly discovers the limitless pool of venom that is the political Left.

Welcome to the real world Lanny. Bigotry and hate were never the exclusive property of Right Wingers, no matter what your daddy said.

What has impressed me time and again in recent years has been the almost boundless capacity for self-delusion exhibited by high ranking people from the Clinton administration. At first I thought it was nothing more than Clintonian cynicism – propagating self-serving lies. Perhaps these were just the kind of stories Clintonistas told themselves to justify the vicious campaigns of personal destruction they launched against Bill and Hill's critics.

But increasingly I have begun to feel that these people actually believe the idiocies they mouth – and that, dear reader, is a very, very scary thing to contemplate. That such self-deluded fools as Lanny Davis could attain high rank in our government is more than worrisome.