Letters to the Editor
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Sometimes liars make mistakes and tell the truth
"I wouldn't be surprised if I wasn't walking around in Africa or South America doing something that was like mission work," Dowd told the Times.
Read carefully and literally, this statement of Dowd's translates to the following: "I would be surprised if I were walking around in Africa or South America doing something that was like mission work."
In other words, such "mission work" is really the farthest thing from his mind, and this simple truth just leaked out of his careless mouth.
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From the Grave of Edward G. Robinson
To Matthew Dowd:
From: The Grave of Edward G. Robinson
"Where's your God now, Moses?"
Myah, Shee
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Too Bad Maureen isn't Matthew's Big Sister
Too bad Maureen isn't Matthew Dowd's big sister. She'd whip his narrow little butt.
Mr. Dowd was happy to be chief campaign strategist for Bush's re-election in 2004, but now, he's sickeningly and sloppily mea culpa-ing all over the place, like a dog who peed on your best carpet. Mr. Dowd now says "I do feel a calling of trying to re-establish a level of gentleness in the world." Oh pu---leeeze!! He now acts as if he has been humbled, perhaps most by his personal problems of late; loss of a child, divorce, and worries for a son in the military. I'm not sure who gets the wind-sock award of the year, David Brooks, Tom Friedman, or Mr. Dowd.
Um... it's a little late to jump ship. Rats like Dowd were on Bush's pirate ship in the first place, so it's only right they go down with it. Forgiveness is something one earns from--sometimes a lifetime--of redeeming work. You can't just say "Whoops! Guess I was wrong!! Sorry about that..." when scores of thousands of Iraqis and American soldiers lie dead--BECAUSE OF THIS ADMINISTRATION.
THEY cheerleaded the war because it felt good. These guys are a bunch of rotten, frustrated scoundrels who really felt good kickin' Iraqi ass. Termagant Ann Coulter simply says aloud what those weenies felt, and though I wish with every fiber of my being that she would shut up--at least she has the balls to articulate what those namby- pambies have been saying and doing in secret. She, at least, is an American Fascist outright, and doesn't hide behind obfuscating rhetoric. She is a rat who will die with the ship, while those guys, like the rich guy on the Titanic, will willingly throw women and children overboard to make room for themselves on the life raft.
American Fascists (Chris Hedges has written a brilliant book by that name) are losing their edge, because their Pinky and the Brain master plan isn't working anymore. If another 911 happens, possibly the Fascist Right (there are no moderate Republicans anymore) could wrest the tenuous control from the Democratic congress. But perhaps another 911 would force our country to make sober choices to ensure our survival, and that would mean the real grownups (rational men and women who have outgrown fairy tales) would have no choice but to fight harder than ever. Chris Hedges says we have an obligation to NOT tolerate the intolerant. I've thought about that, and he's right.
Matthew Dowd may NOW say that he now wishes for a kinder, gentler world. But post-coital snuggling is an act reserved for the deserving lovers of the world. No hugs for you Matt. Drown in your own tears, cowboy.
Lisa Ann Wright
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Mr. Dowd,
I am sorry that your son sold out to the current neo-nazi's who are running our country, who advanced the Patriot Act, that operate secret prisons, that conduct renditions of innocent people, that don't believe or honor the Geneva Conventions, that are the most corrupt cronyistic administration ever (much more so that Huey Long ever hoped to be), etc. I served in the military and find he is on par with Don Segretti, Jack Abramoff, Karl Rove, Lee Atwater and Rick (Man on dog) Santorum. Don Segretti coined the term "ratfucking" as his definition of campaign dirty tricks, and your son (amongst others) did that term proud. Your son embraced it and decided to work with individuals whom he knew were very unsavory, dishonest, amoral individuals who had committed numerous illegal acts. Now, he is not beyond redemption, but no one in their right mind would trust him again who was an actual honest politico as he put his lips on the tit of power, as they all do, and was intoxicating. How can anyone NOT KNOW how incredibly myopic and stupid Bush is, that he was a cocaine addict, that he is a dry drunk, that he is incurious, that he is borderline stupid, that he is intractable, that he was willing to commit high crimes and misdemeanors, that he achieved NOTHING in his life that was not a direct result of being his father's son. I made the mistake of voting for him in 2000, presuming Powell and Cheney would balance him. I was wrong. I voted Kerry in 2004. Matthew Dowd is your son, and I respect your position. He is also a man and knew what he was doing and with whom.
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dowd's sincerity
i understand that there are reasonable questions about dowd's sincerity here. however, is it really helpful to write an article that's a personal attack against him that presents the article's allegations of dowd's impropriety as absolute fact? i agree that there are some questionable items in dowd's agenda, but i think that nothing is helped by articles that assume he is insincere and present such assumptions as fact.
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on Sincerity and Compassion
Most of us are not in a position to know whether Dowd is sincere or not. It doesn't really matter, though, since his words (especially as they appear in the war apologists' NYTimes!) have little meaning for most of us. Rather, we all have reason to feel aggrieved by Dowd's actions. Not just once, but twice, he helped to elect GWB. By the 2nd election, if not the 1st, he could not have been unaware of the import of his efforts, except by willful ignorance. Appropriate enough in the Bush White House, we have come to learn.
That doesn't mean there isn't room for compassion for Dowd's personal travails. Losing a child is a tragedy for any family, and it's very common for the surviving parents to divorce. Mine did. Eventually. Most couples I've known who've lost a child, in fact, have ended up in divorce. And siblings just suffer in silence. (That's what makes the Edwardses story so compelling for me. They truly transcended something that would be unspeakable in most families.)
It is a mistake, though, to link Matt Dowd's personal tragedies and his so-called epiphany. One does not necessarily follow the other. However, if by his future actions, not just PR-spinning words, he demonstrates sincerity and true remorse by trying to make amends, he may be judged less harshly. In the meantime, I cannot judge harshly those who judge him harshly. The litany of suffering under this president should have remained unimaginable... It was, at one time.
Having said all of that, I do feel compassion for parents who lose their children to fates other than death. I'll probably catch a lot of grief here, but I can't help but feel some compassion for George Bush, the elder. The grief he must feel at the havoc his son has wreaked in the world, smashing to smithereens any bits of good that were part of the Bush family legacy.
Likewise, ME Dowd may be deserving of some compassion. One aches to try and imagine having a grownup child who has built such a questionable legacy. Just because he "fell in love" with some charisma. Somewhere along the line, grown up children must become responsible for themselves. But how can a parent now wonder: what if?