Most significantly, none of this stopped the GOP in 2004 from making John Kerry's alleged hostility to his own church a centerpiece of its campaign, including the disgustingly exploitive argument in the middle of an election that he should be denied communion.

In 1960, Republicans criticized a Democratic presidential nominee from Massachusetts with the initials JFK - who happened to be Catholic - because he might be too willing to take orders from the Pope.

In 2004, Republicans criticized a Democratic presidential nominee from Massachusetts with the initials JFK - who happened to be Catholic - because he might be too unwilling to take orders from the Pope.

just sayin'...

"OK, I was lying all those times before, but this time you can trust me, for sure!"

I guess he thinks we're all idiots... or Republicans. (Is that redundant?)

Jesus Christ, being lectured by Doughy Pantload about how to be a tough guy is more than I can take. Has he ever been in a bar fight? Has he ever had the occasion to knock the stuffing out of anyone, or at least attempt to?

All Jonah knows about violence is what he's seen in films, read in books, watched on TV. Of course he glorifies it, it helps him overcompensate for the fact that he's a first-class wuss.

As usual, Orwell said it best on these matters:

All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.

‘Sometimes it is a comfort to me to think that the aeroplane is altering the conditions of war. Perhaps when the next great war comes we may see that sight unprecedented in all history, a jingo with a bullet hole in him.’

doesn't this whole episode sound familiar?

it's the same attitude as the Cheney foreign policy: 'we only talk to people whom we like! You have to do as we say before we'll talk to you!' Which is the kind of utter idiocy which led to Bush making the same deal Clinton was about to make with North Korea, only six years and several NK nukes later.

it's the same attitude as the neo-con attitude towards reality and inconvenient facts: ignore them and it's as if they don't exist at all.

as was pointed out by a previous commenter, with opposition to the war running at 70% or so, shouldn't the administration/military be singing their message to someone other than just the increasingly smaller-by-the-day choir???

Jan 20 2009 can't come soon enough; we are ruled by the willfully ignorant.

J-Pod actually wrote a book entitled, Bush Country: How George W. Bush Became the First Great Leader of the 21st Century???

That is something that not even The Onion would accept in a 'fake' news story... too ridiculous to be believable. I mean, the 21st century is only a few years old - there's not exactly much to compare him to, is there???

sure knew how to deal with useless aristocrats possessing an abundance of hubris and a wholly undeserved sense of entitlement.

I understand your point but my point is still valid. If my Phoenix Suns win their first two games, I could say, "the Suns are the first great team of the season!" but it wouldn't really be saying much, would it?

tearing apart the Publisher's Weekly blurb:

Podhoretz claims that the president is, in fact, an intelligent, savvy, principled and honest leader

I do not think these words mean what JPod thinks they mean.

who responded to the September 11 tragedy with inspiring courage and determination.

if by 'courage' and 'determination', he means, 'paralyzed with fear' and 'standing on rubble shouting empty threats with a bullhorn', then I couldn't agree with him more. Isn't it great that Bush smoked out Osama bin Laden within six months of 9/11?

Bush's presidency will be remembered as "one of the most consequential... in the nation's history."

Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot were all rather consequential for their respective nations' histories as well.

Podhoretz even claims that Bush is "the best presidential speaker" since Franklin Roosevelt.

Yeah, no one remembers any of JFK's speeches, or Bill Clinton's speeches, or Ronald Reagan's speeches! In fact, Bush is the greatest presidential speaker of the 21st century!

Moreover, he says, the intensity of the Bush-bashing cannot be attributed to "mere partisan rancor," but is the result of Bush's defiant and infuriating success as president.

yeah, that's what most losers say. "They hated me because I made them look bad!"

Podhoretz's book is polemical, written for a specific niche: conservative political junkies who relish cutthroat partisan politics. Considered in this light, the book is well done: provocative, witty, in-your-face and honest.

translation: "Podhoretz' book is polemical, written for a specific niche: conservatives brainwashed into the Cult of W. Considered in this light, the book is well done. Considered in any other light, the book is an unconscionable waste of paper, ink, and the fuel it took to transport the copies to the bookstore."

If the Suns win their first two games, that's not enough to significantly distinguish them from their contemporaries.

yeah, um, wasn't that my point in the first place? That the 21st century is so young that we really can't say who is the first great leader with much certainty?

Why, yes, that was my point. Thanks for playing!

OK it's not exactly nepotism, but Tucker Carlson's stepmom is an heir/the heir to the Swanson foods fortune. You know, those TV dinners you probably ate as a kid if you're 40 or over.

Just another wingnut who got wealthy the old-fashioned way: he inherited it!

UPDATE III: Now, we're awaiting only the Glenn Reynolds link (and the Howard Kurtz follow-up article) and the circle jerk will be complete.