Letters to the Editor
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"Water Wet"
You can use the above title next time Professor Reynolds unskillfully links to something he doesn't understate, disingenuously tacks on three words of original commentary, and then mewls like a hungry kitten when called out on it by others (since the cowardly turd doesn't have comments).
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uh...I don't think so.
actually, I think these right-wingers DO read the polls, and that's why they're promulgating a totally false view of the will of the "American Public.." to counteract the possible effect of these on the base..and other pundits, and politicians.
I think these guys have been reading the writing on the wall for awhile now, and they're simply doing what they've always done: lying to a constituency that apparently prefers to be lied to.
Far from being uninformed, I suspect they're thoroughly informed, and continue to lie, increasingly frantically, to mitigate the effect of the polls. They're like the little kid who covers his eyes and then says "you can't see me."
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Lazy? Self-absorbed? That is giving them the benefit of the doubt!
I think they are knowingly and willfully lying. I think they know what the truth is, but they hope that if they lie enough they will be able to convince a few people to swallow their lies.
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I'll say it again..
Let's see how much they say that Americans' dislike investigations once Clinton or Obama get into office. Anyone care to place any bets?
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upside down
what's particularly interesting is that the pundits had their perception of public opinion upside down with the Clinton investigations, too - the majority of the public, in that case, did NOT support the investigations, or think they were worth the time or money spent on them. yet the pundits and politicians continued to flog those issues to death, acting as if they public cared.
so when the public cares, pundits ignore that, say they don't, and do what they want.
but when the public does NOT care... pundits ignore THAT, say they do, and you guessed it, do what they want.
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Never attribute to malice that which can adequately be explained by stupidity.
The beltway chattering classes are still smarting from being so disastrously and embarrassingly wrong about Bill Clinton. Remember how he was supposed to resign in disgrace and slink out of town before the end of the week when the Monica story surfaced? Remember how the American public was supposed to be baying for his blood, storming the White House with pitchforks and demanding impeachment? Well, uh, they kinda got that one wrong, didn't they? And like generals who are still fighting the last war, they're still repeating the only lesson they managed to learn from the Clinton impeachment debacle: "Americans don't like investigations." The difference between investigation of a consensual, private sexual encounter and a gross betrayal of the public trust at the cost of thousands of lives and billions of dollars still goes sailing way, way WAY over their heads.
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How the Right Wing Can Always Correctly Know What Americans Want
The right wing is unfailingly able to describe, at any moment, without any evidence required, What Americans Want.
That's because anyone who wants something other than what right wingers want is Not American.
Q.E.D.
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But but but.....
David Broder once had coffee with a bunch of farmers in Des Moines!
I on the other hand conducted my own informal poll and can state decisively that white 49 year old bass players from the US Virgin Islands insist that the US Congress does nothing BUT investigate the Preisident.
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Those clever pundits
have their salaries paid by people who tell them what to say.
The editors, owners and corporations are paying these guys to put out a certain message. You get paid to do a job.
There is no real difference than when a lawyer represents someone he knows is quilty. He gets paid to do the job, too.
Those commentators are more believable, if they themselves believe, but they are also covering their own behinds. Not towing the party or corporate line leads to a one way trip to the food bank.
We shouldn't miss the forest for the trees. The elites and corporations (MIC) behind the scenes are the ones calling the tunes. Limbaugh, O'Reilly, and all the beltway media are just dancing more and more uncomfortably to music that does not make any sense.
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American
This is one critical reason why there is such a large and growing gap between the Beltway and the views of Americans.
As El Cid stated, they must feel that they are the "true Americans" and anyone who does not support them is against them, and is a commie/liberal/dirty hippie/terrorist/terror supporter/pawn of evil/fill in the epithet of your choice.
And only they understand these things, so we can go back to letting them run "our" country for "our" benefit, which puts us somewhere between oligarchy and dictatorship, I believe.
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The Signifigant Factor
Despite the overall poll numbers would be where is the middle ground that determines election winners falling on an issue like investigations? That 10 or 15 percent in between the automatic 40 some for each side.
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Of course the GOP/Media Complex pushes this myth
They'll do anything to cover up their conjoined-twin connection to the Republicans' corporate wing.
They want to pretend that the 1998 elections showed that "all impeachments are bad", when in fact what they really showed was that "parties that push FRIVOLOUS impeachments for purely partisan reasons will get their asses kicked." (Note that impeaching Nixon in 1974 didn't exactly hurt the Democrats that year -- or in 1976, for that matter. Yet the GOP/Media crowd has been pushing that myth big-time.)
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Uh huh
"YEAH, THAT'S THE TICKET: Why's Congress polling so badly? Because they haven't launched enough investigations. Uh huh."
- GR
Glenn Reynolds, the pundit with a brain the size of a walnut. The guy is totally unreadable. According to GR, the American people do not want investigations into the corruption occurring on every level of the administration, into how they were lied into war, how a high ranking administration official is now a convicted felon for bald faced lying to law enforcement, how politics is seamlessly mixed with administration of law, and how a bald faced liar continues as head of the Justice department. No, no, no, the American people much prefer congressional investigations that catch a guy messing around on his wife. Uh huh.